Last Saturday Norilsk commemorated the victims of political repressions.
Twenty years before, in April 1990, our town carried out the very first week of commemoration with regard to victims of political repressions. Thanks to the unselfish efforts of ist initiators – mebers of the „Memorial“- organization, some very active museum staff members, as well as all their benevolent helpers, they also managed to put up the first penitent cross in the very same year, bury the mortal remains of former prisoners on the cemetery at the foot of Mount Schmidt and build a bell tower.
Since then people from all parts of the world have been flocking to the „Norilsk golgatha“ memorial place. During these years representatives of different peoples have got built up signs of commemoration in this place – memorial stones and memorials (eight in all). On the 30th of October, the Day in commemoration of the victims of political repressions, they say their prayers and bow to the deceased - regardless of which confession or nationality they are. And this has now become an affair of the heart for different generations of people living in Norilsk.
Next year, in February, the Social Association for the Protection of victims
of political repressions celebrates its twentieth anniversary – twenty years of
activities in Norilsk. Nowadays the association unites about 300 people under
its roof, among them children of former exiles, special resettlers and prisoners
of the NorilLag. An association of the same kind in Dudinka unites 250
suffereres from Stalinist repressions. The people in Norilsk and Dudinka became
close friends, and they particularly forgather on any of the mournvoll days of
commemoration. Their plans and intentions are supported by the town
administration and the Norilsk Combine. This year was a very eventful one for
the members of the association – they made excursions of commemoration to the
Solowki-Islands, to Lake Lama, which once played such an unfortunate role.
Moreover the people of Norilsk welcomed a delegation from Latvia; its members
are trying their best to come to the Far North, where their fellow-countrymen
were forced to lead a mournful life, as often as possible.
On the eve of Commemoration Day the Museum of the history of exploitation and
development of the Norilsk industrial area opened the exhibition „Traces of the
GULAG“. This was an exhibition of photographic materials, pictures taken by
Aleksander Kharitonov, taken during an expedition into the Taimyr Region, where
a great number of such „traces“ can still be found, as well as rarities from the
State archive and the Museum inventory. Among the very first visitors and those
comiserating there were member sof rhe „ManSound“ group; they had arrived from
Kiev to join our „Sanguine Sound“festival. The musicians, who also visited the „Norilsk
Golgatha Memorial Place“, were so deeply impressed from what they saw there,
that the decided to dedicate, apart from the planned programme, their very first
concert to the Ukrainian victims of the NorilLag, hence commemorating them by
their music and putting up a very special “memorial” to them.
One interesting fact is that the Ukrainians, with who the people of Norilsk
undertook the journey to the Solovki Islands in summer, were very keen to know,
whether there is a memorial stone in the place of the „Norilsk Golgatha“ for
those Ukrainians, as well, who suffered from repressions. Sooner or later there
will be a memorial stone to their commemoration, and probably a number of
memorial tablets, too. Ths is demanded by our conscience, an it is our duty to
commemorate all those who suffered without being guilty at all. If only our
remembrance would be carried along by a sense of responsibility, never stopping
to do ist honest and straightforward job.
Irina Serezhina
Photos: Vladimir MAKUSHKIN
„Truth in the Polar Region“, 02.11.2010