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Two marches staged in memory of Stalin terror victims in Minsk

Two marches were staged by opposition parties in Minsk on November 2 to mark Remembrance of Ancestors Day (Dzyady) and commemorate Stalin terror victims, BelaPAN said.

Up to 400 people took part in a march to Kurapaty, a Stalin-era massacre site near the Minsk Beltway, organized by the Conservative Christian Party (CCP), while some 500 participated in a march to the same place staged by the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF).

The marches, both authorized by the Minsk city authorities, took different routes and culminated in separate rallies in Kurapaty.

CCP activists, members of the unregistered Freedom Party, Belarusian Christian Democracy party and Young Belarus association gathered at around 10:30 a.m. in front of the Luch swatch factory and reached Kurapaty at 2 p.m.

Speaking at a rally that crowned the event, CCP Secretary Valery Buyval described this year’s Dzyady as “a landmark date for the Belarusians.” “Twenty years ago the Belarusians declared that they are a nation,” he said, referring to the first-ever Kurapaty march that was brutally dispersed by police in 1988.

“Thousands of people turned out for the first rally 20 years ago. The regime hurled all effort into quashing it but, nevertheless, this was the Belarusians’ big moral victory,” he said.

The other march kicked off at noon at the Uskhodniya cemetery on the northeastern edge of Minsk, where the crowd had laid flowers at the graves of famous writers Uladzimir Karatkevich and Vasil Bykaw, poet and BPF co-founder Pimen Panchanka and historian Mikhas Tkachow before setting out for Kurapaty. The crowd, including BPF Chairman Lyavon Barshchewski and Deputy Chairmen Vintsuk Vyachorka and Viktar Ivashkevich, arrived at Kurapaty at about 2:30 p.m., swelling to about a thousand by that time.

Addressing the demonstrators at a 10-minute rally, Mr. Barshchewski urged them to lay flowers at all memorial signs in Kurapaty “because the killed rest under each of them.”

The politician noted that most people executed during Stalinist purges in Minsk between 1937 and 1940 had been buried at the site. “The infamous execution lists dated September 15, 1937 that contained the names of 103 prominent representatives of the Belarusian intelligentsia, including 36 writers and journalists, that were to be killed in the Belarusian capital were signed by Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov,” he said.

“We find ourselves in a situation where they attempt to erase the people’s memory, which is evidenced by endless vandal attacks in the national necropolis and attempts at destroying it. However, we cannot let this happen as an attempt to destroy our memory is tantamount to the death of our future,” Mr. Barshchewski said.

The gathering also heard a speech by opposition youth leader Zmitser Dashkevich, who said that remembering Kurapaty victims was key to “the country’s national revival.”

The crowd laid flowers and lit candles at memorial signs before dispersing.

Police did not interfere in either of the events.