In Memory of Millions of Innocent Victims…

Monuments to the mournful epochs in Russia’s life will appear in Moscow
An open competition for building the best memorial dedicated to the memory of the victims of the recent theatre hostage-taking has been announced. A smaller monument is also suggested to appear near the theatre building in Moscow, where lots of people fell victims of Chechen terrorists.

The Moscow municipal commission for monumental art unanimously voted for the construction of such a monument. The commission recently passed one more decision at its session that a monument to the victims of political repressions should be set up in Moscow; it is likely to be placed on Lubyanskaya Square in front of the FSB building, where the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky used to stand. The initiative of the monument’s construction was voiced by Russia’s party Yablako. The idea was suggested immediately after Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said it was expedient to put the monument to Dzerzhinsky back on the Square. The municipal commission for monumental art supported Yablako’s idea to build a monument to victims of political repressions in Moscow.

The commission issued its recommendations on the open contest for making the monument; it is mentioned that Lubyanskaya Square may be among those territories suggested for construction of the monument. However, chairman of the commission Sergey Petrov said at the discussion that “we should try to make no special stress on the territory in front of the former KGB building”, as the situation in the country isn’t stabilized yet. He added: “The Solovetsky Stone set up on Lubyanskaya Square is quite enough to memorize the tragic repressions. It makes no sense to build a similar monument nearby.”

Yablako leader Grigory Yavlinsky also took part in the session of the municipal commission for monumental art; he mentioned that the party didn’t insist that the monument to victims of political repressions should be set up on Lubyanskaya Square only. “Our idea is that a monument must be built so that feelings of all people couldn’t be insulted at that. that is why the problem can be considered in a wide context. This could be a small pavilion with displays to help people find their relatives in the lists of victims of political repressions.”

The Yablako leader says this shouldn’t be an expensive project. “This is to be a monument to honor not only victims of the political terror in the Soviet era, but over the whole 20th century.”

Let’s hope that those will be talented sculptors and architects who win the open contest in order to memorize victims of political repressions and terror in a worthy manner.

Yelena Kiseleva PRAVDA.Ru

Photo: Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: https://www.pravda.ru/news/culture/7170-pamjat/

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