The unprecedented case of removing wooden crosses that were set by public activists in Kurapaty, a Stalin-era mass executions site near Minsk, hit the headlines of a number of Foreign press on Thursday.
On April 4, bulldozers and other building machinery were driven to Kurapaty Forest near Minsk, where the NKVD, Stalin’s secret police executed and buried up to 250,000 persons in the 1930-40s. About 70 wooden crosses were rooted out; over a dozen activists and politicians defending Kurapaty were detained.
Hundreds of crosses were installed by Belarusian activists who felt it their duty to pay the tribute to the memory of the executed. It was not until 2018 that the authorities directed their attention to Kurapaty: an official memorial to the victims was erected at the order of the Federation of the Trade Unions. Back in 1989, the BSSR Council of Ministers signed a decree to perpetuate the memory of the victims in Kurapaty. In 1993, the memorial was granted the status of historical and cultural value of international importance. However, after Alyaksandr Lukashenka came to power, the Kurapaty topic was silenced. Incidentally, over his 25-year rule, the head of the country has never visited the place.
It should be noted that Lukashenka slammed ‘ demonstrating with crosses’ in Kurapaty during The Big Conversation With President on March, 1. However, he also promised that there would never be sort of Stalinism in Belarus, even ‘under the dictatorship of Lukashenka’.
According to Alyaksandr Miranovich, a local official head of Baraulyany forestry, the removal is nothing but ‘site improvement’. Apparently, the so-called ‘improvement’ has tarnished the image of the Belarusian authorities.
The protests against dismantling the crosses continue. Activists are trying to prevent workers from digging as the area is to be fenced off.
