Activists hold vigil near KGB HQ in Minsk
Photo: Euroradio
Some 20 Belarusian activists came to the KGB HQ in Minsk on the evening of October 29 to commemorate the victims of the the Great Terror campaign in late 1930s. They placed candles on the threshold and held the portraits of Belarusian literary men killed 80 years ago on the night of October 30, 1937.
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More than 130 Belarusian poets, writers, scientists and public figures were executed by shooting in the NKVD prison on that night. Todar Lyashtorny, Mihas Zaretski, Moisha Kulbak, Ales Dudar, Izi Haryk, Anatol Volny, Mihas Charot, Yuli Taubin and Platon Halavach were among the executed. Supposedly, their bodies were transported to Kurapaty by trucks. The Executed Poets’ Night was the key moment of Stalin’s repressions. Many thousands of innocent Belarusians were killed in that time. |
It was not the first commemoration event organized near KGB organized by opposition politian Mikalai Statkevich. This year, there were much less participants.
A lot of policemen in plain clothes attended the Memory Line on October 29, 2017. The police and special services did not interfere.
Two people in orange overalls took the burning candles away from the threshold after the action participants left.
