A memorial event known as The Night Of Executed Poets took place in Kurapaty, a Stalin-era mass execution site near Minsk, on October 29, the unofficial day of remembrance of the Soviet repression in Belarus.
On the night of 29-30 October 1937, Stalin’s secret police (NKVD) killed more than 130 representatives of Belarusian national elite in the present-day KGB prison. Belarusian poets, writers, scientists were killed one by one. Twelve years ago, historians appealed to the leadership of Belarus to make it the day of remembrance of victims of political repressions, but the then KGB chairman turned the appeal down.
Several hundred people gathered in Kurapaty on Thursday. A number of participants were reading out the poems of Belarusian poets, including those of the murdered in the 1930s as well as those of the present-day detainees; musicians were performing songs.
This year’s Night of Executed Poets has been held amid the post-election protests that broke out in the country on August 9; the major demands are Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s resignation, holding a free and fair election, releasing political prisoners, putting an end to police violence as well as state-run TV stations’ providing people with unbiased and reliable information.
Since August 9, Belarusian authorities have opened about 500 criminal cases against the protesters; the number of political prisoners exceeded 100.
https://redakcja.belsat.cloud/en/news/more-than-20-wounded-in-minsk-hospitals-after-protests-on-october-25/
ІІ belsat.eu
