Toksovo, Leningrad Province, Russia, May 6, 2025
Photo: eparchiya-viborg.ru
The Koirankangas tract of land located on the Rzhev firing range near St. Petersburg, Russia, served as a site of mass executions during the Stalinist repressions. According to eyewitness accounts, executions began there as early as 1918 and continued until the early 1950s, with estimates suggesting approximately 30,000 people were buried there, including political prisoners, military officers, clergy, and nobles.
Since 2010, annual memorial services have been held at the site, where researchers have discovered mass graves.
And on Bright Saturday, April 26, a new memorial cross was installed at the execution site in memory of the victims, with the blessing of His Grace Barnabas of Vyborg, reports the Vyborg Diocese.
Until recently, all these victims were nameless—no documents about the executions at the Rzhev range could be found in the archives. This year, for the first time, many names of those who perished were read out at the cross in Koirankangas, identified by Anatoly Yakovlevich Razumov, head of the Returned Names center at the Russian National Library, during archival research.
Through the care of the Vyborg Diocese Commission for honoring the memory of New Martyrs and victims of repression, thematic collections of informational materials were prepared and given as gifts to event participants. After prayers in memory of the deceased, flowers brought by members of the Russian community who participated in the installation of the cross were laid.
Bp. Barnabas plans to personally consecrate the cross installed at this place of sorrow and remembrance.
“We mustn’t forget those who perished; it’s our duty to remember them!”
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