The Russians experienced many shocks. Among them, terrible and incomprehensible to many people remain total repression for political and religious reasons in the territory of the Soviet Union in the twentieth century.
Lubyanka is a mournful place where innocent people were tortured and sentenced to death. Full echelons of the repressed were sent to camps and prisons on the Solovetsky Islands. These lands for the vast number of Soviet people became the last refuge. And it is the Solovetsky stone that is rightfully considered a memorial that does not allow millions of ruined lives to be forgotten.
In memory of the tortured and executed
For a long time, it was not customary to discuss and mention these shameful times for Russia. But pain and suspense make many think and remember those terrible years. The main associates to perpetuate the difficult events taking place on the Solovetsky Islands in camps (ELEPHAN) and prisons (STON) for special purposes, became members of the public organization Memorial. This society was created by academician and human rights activist Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich.
Social activists and relatives of the repressed appealed to the authorities of the capital with a request to allocate a site in Moscow for the installation of a memorial commemorating the victims of political repression. This memorable place was Lubyanka Square, where the Solovetsky Stone was located.
Monument History
It was possible during the perestroika years to stir the public and talk about perpetuating the memory of people who were victims of political repression. And this happened in 1990. After agreeing with the Moscow government and allocating funds to them, the foundation was laid for the installation of the monument, which later became the Solovetsky stone.
The granite block was chosen by Mikhail Butorin, a historian and journalist, and Gennady Lyashenko, the chief architect of Arkhangelsk, before being sent, she was in the village of Solovetsky, in the Tamarin pier.
The cargo ship "Sosnowiec" boulder was transported to Arkhangelsk, from where it was delivered to Moscow by rail. Designer V. E. Corsi and artist-architect S. I. Smirnov also took part in the creation of the memorial monument.
The Solovetsky stone was installed on the Lubyanka in 1990, on October 30. The chosen place is very significant for many Russians. After all, it was here that the "formidable" buildings were located, first the NKVD, then the KGB. Here, with the hands of ruthless employees, documents were signed for the mass arrests of people and sentences for the execution or exile of those accused of treason and the undermining of the communist system.
Since 2008, the Solovetsky Stone has been a tourist attraction in Moscow. It is located in the Moscow square at the Polytechnic Museum. Earlier, a monument to the “iron” Felix Dzerzhinsky towered opposite him. But it was dismantled during the putsch events in August 1991.
Memorable day
A monument was unveiled at a crowd of thousands of Muscovites and guests of the capital. Among them were former political prisoners of the Solovetsky camps: Oleg Volkov, Sergey Kovalev and Anatoly Zhigulin.
Back in 1974 (October 30), the first Political Prisoner Day was celebrated by lighting many candles in memory of thousands of innocent victims, and a joint hunger strike was announced. The initiators were Kronid Lubarsky and many prisoners of the camps of Perm and Mordovia.
Since 1990, October 30 is considered the official day of political prisoners in the USSR. Later it was renamed and began to be celebrated as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression.
