The Great Terror of the late thirties is perhaps the most terrible and shameful page in the history of the Soviet Union, and of Russia as a whole. Fanatical extermination of their own people for the sake of "ephemeral security of the country" and "fulfillment of standards" demonstrated the brutal nature of thousands of executioners. The sword of Damocles of repression fell even on the innocent heads of children and people with disabilities (let's put it politically correctly). One of the most absurd cases that the NKVD instituted against Soviet citizens was the trial against 55 deaf and dumb people from the Leningrad regional drama club. Yes, it actually is not surprising, they are so suspiciously silent and make strange signs with their hands, they are planning a terrorist attack against Comrade Stalin …
In the 1930s, there were about 6 thousand deaf and dumb people in Leningrad. Among the disabled, work was going on to combat illiteracy.
In such a simple way, disabled people raised funds for the organization of the Scientific Institute for ENT diseases, and later they raised funds for the creation of tanks and aircraft for military needs.
Production of the Leningrad drama circle for the deaf and dumb.
Despite the completely harmless activities, members of the NKVD Len. oblasts considered that the deaf and dumb:
The bosses realized that this business could not be slightly promoted and curry favor. Several NKVDs descended directly into the premises of the Leningrad drama club, when the deaf and dumb were rehearsing for the 20th anniversary of October the play "How the Steel Was Tempered" (of course, it was more of a pantomime). Several theatrical rapiers were found in the office of the head of the theater, Tager-Carrielli. Well, in fact, he was immediately credited with illegal possession of weapons. The deaf and dumb were arrested and taken to Liteiny. There were interrogations and searches of apartments.
Group photo of the participants of the theater of the deaf and dumb, in the center of the upper row, with his back to the mirror, the leader Tager-Carrielli.
Portraits of Hitler were a standard investment in packs of German cigarettes, but this allowed the deaf-mute Blum to be declared a secret resident of the Gestapo, and all his comrades were declared members of a "terrorist organization" created by the German.
Promotional video:
Members of the "Terrorist Organization" were interrogated for 8-10 hours with the help of female sign language interpreters. The deaf and dumb were beaten, mocked in every possible way, since many did not want to sign the already fabricated confessions and protocols.
V. Redzko.
Among the group of deaf-and-dumb detainees were teachers, an architect, athletes, leaders of production, Nikolai Deibner - the organizer of the Petersburg Union of the Deaf-and-Dumb, founded in 1903, one of the best artists-ichthyologists V. Redzko.
But the millstones of repression in 1939 reached the manufacturers themselves in the case of the "terrorist organization of the deaf and dumb" who were convicted and sent to the camps. And the survivors, by that time only 18 deaf and dumb, were released, the shot were not returned from the other world.
The question arises, what kind of animals do you need to be in order to exterminate both disabled people and children (from 15 years old they could be involved in the 58th article)? It is one thing to hate Stalin and his clique, but these thousands of NKVD members made their own decisions, demonstrating all the baseness that human geeks are capable of, and there were thousands of them. In all likelihood, the slavish consciousness, lack of education and elementary morality, a sense of permissiveness, hatred of one's own people and a drop of power turned thousands of idiots into thousands of executioners. Eternal memory to the victims of repression!
