In December 2009, during the construction of an access road along the Kronverkskaya channel of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the remains of people who had once been shot were unexpectedly discovered. The road equipment was stopped immediately. Further, archaeologists worked in the burial.
Red terror
In December 1917, the newly created Cheka settled in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In 1918, it housed at least 500 prisoners. There they were also shot by the verdicts of the revolutionary tribunal. The lists of those executed were immediately published in the Petrograd newspapers. The bodies were not handed over to their relatives and they were not even told where their loved ones were buried.
The Red Terror was officially declared by the Bolshevik Council of People's Commissars in early September 1918. In fact, it began eight months earlier, with the shooting on January 5 of a workers' demonstration in defense of the Constituent Assembly. All these, in fact, extrajudicial, executions were dictated by "historical expediency" and the need to defend the gains of the revolution.
What was discovered
But back to the burial found in our time.
Archaeologist Vladimir Kildyushevsky recalls:
- We worked at this place from 22 to 26 December. A grave pit was discovered. Its depth from the modern surface is very small - 1.5-1.6 meters. Dimensions - 2.2 x 1.6 meters. And in this pit lay the remains of 16 people, thrown at random, with clothes, with things, but without shoes. Apparently, they took off their shoes during the execution. Well, little outerwear. That is, these are mainly underwear, underwear, trousers, scraps of a tunic … But the grave was not plundered, which is surprising. There were a sufficient number of items of gold and silver.
Some of the turtles had bullets. Among the buried was one middle-aged woman.
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Six months later
Excavations resumed in the summer of 2010. An area of 1000 square meters between the Golovkin bastion and the Kronverkskaya channel was investigated, new burial pits with skeletons in them were found. The total number of those shot was 106 people. Archaeologists have found caps, fragments of the uniform of officers of the tsarist army, sailor ribbons, buttons, pectoral crosses, images. There were no documents or any notes. The victims' documents were apparently taken away, and the papers with the records, if any, have decayed over the years.
One skeleton was found to be without a leg. These remains were identified. In "Petrogradskaya Pravda" dated December 20, 1918, a list of those executed on December 13 was published. These people were accused of organizing the dispatch of officers to Murmansk to counter the Red Army. The list included Major General of the Fleet, the hero of the Russo-Japanese War, Alexander Nikolaevich Rykov, who lost his leg in the defense of Port Arthur.
Through the efforts of the staff of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, it was possible to find the descendants of the hero. His photographs were found, a genetic examination was carried out, which proved that this is indeed the same person. His remains were buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in the family crypt. But such a case of identification is still the only one.
In another grave, the remains of elderly civilians were found. They found hats, pince-nez, civilian clothes next to them. Most likely, these people were shot as hostages, without any charges being presented.
On January 29, 1919, the great dukes of the Romanovs - Georgy and Nikolai Mikhailovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich and Pavel Alexandrovich, were brought to the prison of the Trubetskoy bastion. On the night of the 30s, they were shot. Their remains have yet to be found. The only fault of these people was that they belonged to the royal dynasty. I will add that Nikolai Mikhailovich was a major historian, the author of works on the era of Alexander I, the Napoleonic wars. The Academy of Sciences and Maxim Gorky turned to Lenin with an appeal to save the life of Nikolai Mikhailovich, who was the first of the Romanovs to welcome the February Revolution. These appeals turned out to be useless …
The executions were apparently carried out in a cubbyhole between the fence and the left front of the Golovkin bastion, away from prying eyes and ears. Many of those who were doing this, deep down in their hearts, understood that they were doing a black, criminal deed.
What to do next
The territory where the graves were found was then on the outskirts of the Mint. It was fenced off with a blank fence, there was no road leading to it. There is still at least 1700 square meters of this site to be surveyed. There, most likely, new unnamed mass graves will be discovered. Perhaps it will be possible to find those executed in the case of the Petrograd military organization V. N. Tagantsev, including the remains of the poet Nikolai Gumilyov.
In 2009-2010, excavations were carried out at the expense of the City History Museum. To continue them, significant funds are needed, and the museum cannot afford it. The help of the federal center is needed.
There is one more problem, legal. It is necessary to establish the names of at least some of those executed, to bury them in a Christian way. However, according to the law, examinations to establish identity are possible only after the initiation of a criminal case. And the prosecutor's office in January 2010 refused to do this with the motivation - "in the absence of signs of a crime." Museum Director A. N. Kolyakin and deputy of the Legislative Assembly B. L. Vishnevsky are trying to overcome this obstacle.
“I believe,” Vishnevsky writes to the Investigative Committee, “that today it is impossible to deny the presence of these“signs”- the remains found bear traces of bullet wounds and testify that the victims were killed by shots in the back of the head. Numerous memoirs of contemporaries and the results of scientific research testify to the mass executions on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress”.
On April 25 this year, a special meeting was held in Smolny.
“We are dealing with a unique case,” said Vice Governor V. N. Kicheji. - One gets the impression that the museum, faced with a colossal problem - the discovery of a historical necropolis, was left alone with it. These works should end with the solemn burial of the remains. The place of mass burial of victims of repression and the ritual should be discussed separately, since there was no such precedent in the history of modern Russia. I will add that at least a memorial sign should be erected on this mournful place. Of course, a way out will be found. But time is running out. Soon these places will be covered with asphalt. Finally, we must close the terrible page in our history. This is our duty, the duty of the living to the dead …
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №26. Author: Vasily Mitsurov
