In Medny, where Polish prisoners of war and repressed citizens of the USSR are buried, they are preparing to open an exhibition with a bust of Joseph Stalin. In addition, sculptures of Lenin, Dzerzhinsky, Voroshilov and other party leaders are installed in the complex.

The director of the Mednoye memorial, Alexander Chunosov, wrote on his page on the social network VKontakte: “The Mednoye memorial complex will be a unique place where you can simultaneously see sculptures and busts of Lenin, Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, Sverdlov, Kirov, Kalinin, Voroshilov.” Now his account is closed and recording is not available.

Later, in an interview with the publication Podem, Chunosov noted that the busts are a reflection of that era.

“First comes Kirov, with whose murder mass repressions began. Then Stalin, then everyone else. This is the same era. Did they not have anything to do with the repressions? <…> Everything is logical, everything is clear. <…> If our memorial complex is dedicated to the time of mass repressions, did people repress themselves?” сказал Chunosov.

Editor project “Immortal barracks” Andrei Shalaev told NeMoskva that in Russia the memory of the repressed is gradually “undergoing an ideological rethink.”

— The Mednoye landfill is a burial place for thousands of victims of state terror. Its history is connected not only with the execution of Polish prisoners of war in 1940, but also with the murder of thousands of citizens of the Soviet Union. To hide evidence of the murders, the state issued land plots for dachas to NKVD employees. Only in 2000 the truth was revealed and a memorial complex was created.

Today its history, like the history of other similar places, is undergoing an ideological rethinking. This is the systematic destruction of human memory. In “Medny” all the executed Poles are named, but instead of compiling lists of all the other executed, the director of this memorial is, in fact, engaged in hiding information about this crime.

Photo: A. Chunosova and A. Shalaeva