Butovo, one of the many Russian “Golgothas" (Overview)

Seventy years ago, an edict issued by the Supreme councils of the Communist Party led by Stalin, in the USSR, led to one of the bloodiest “purges” of the time which lasted for almost two years. This campaign went down in history as “The Great Terror” but among the people it is more simply known as “The Thirtyseven”. That year became the symbol of the system of mass killings organised and carried out by the central power. During the two year period 1937-1938 more than 1.7 million people were arrested on political charges. If the victims of deportation and subjects considered to be “dangerous social elements” are added, the sum total supersedes 2 million. The sentences were of an incredible cruelty: more than 700 thousand were put to death.

In particular, repression targeted representatives of the new soviet elite: political, military, economic. The elimination of well known and loyal names increased the sense of terror and mass psychosis.

Among the victims of the bloody two years were also many faithful belonging to various religions; their place of execution became the Butovo shooting range in the suburbs of the Russian capital. The Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Alexi II, has described Butovo, as one of the many Russian “Golgothas". It was here that a Church was erected in 1998 dedicated to the “New Russian Martyrs”. Beside it a series of memorial plaques with the names of the victims, followers of many different religions. Among Butovo’s victims, above all Russian Orthodox, there is also the Metropolitan of Leningrad Serafim and Kronid, the last prior of the Holy Trinity in Sergiev Posad Monastery – the most important Russian Orthodox monastery. But numerous Catholics also feature on the list, such as the priests Mikhail Tsakul’, Julian Tsimashkevich, losif Katajev, Iosif BelogoIovyj, Konstantin Budkevich e Sigizmund Krzhizhanovskij and the religious sister Marija Komarovskaja.

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