 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Kurapaty (Belarusian:Курапаты,IPA:[kuraˈpatɨ]) is a wooded area on the outskirts ofMinsk,Belarus, where a vast number of people were executed between 1937 and 1941 during theGreat Purge by theSovietsecret police, theNKVD and in particular, during theSoviet repressions in Belarus.[1]
The exact count of victims is uncertain, asNKVD archives are classified in Belarus.[2] According to NKVD archives, up to 35,000 were shot in Byelorussia (Belarus) under Stalin, the vast majority of them during the Great Purge.[3] According to various sources, the number of people who perished in Kurapaty is estimated to be at least 30,000 (according to the Attorney General ofBSSR Tarnaŭski), up to 7,000 people (according to attorney general of Belarus Bozhelko), up to 100,000 people (according to "Belarus" reference book),[2][4] from 102,000 to 250,000 people (according to the article byZianon Pazniak in the "Litaratura i Mastactva" newspaper),[5][6] 250,000 people (according to Polish historian and professor ofUniversity of WrocławZdzisław Julian Winnicki [pl]),[7] and more (according to the British historianNorman Davies).[8]
In 2004, Kurapatymass graves were included in the register of theCultural Properties of Belarus as a first-categorycultural heritage.[9]
The discovery by historianZianon Paźniak andexhumation of the remains in 1988 gave added momentum to the pro-democracy and pro-independence movement in Belarus in the last years of the Soviet Union before it wasdissolved. There have been investigations by both the Soviet, and Belarusian governments, which have been conclusive as to the perpetrators were Soviet NKVD. This is based on former NKVD members' confessions and the eyewitness testimonies of 55 villagers, from villages such asCna,Cna-Yodkava,Drazdova,Padbaloccie and others, who gave evidence that NKVD brought people in trucks and executed them during 1937–1941.[citation needed]
President of the United StatesBill Clinton visited Kurapaty forest in 1994, when he came toBelarus with a "thank you" visit after Belarus agreed to transfer their post-Sovietnuclear weapons toRussia. Clinton gifted a small granite monument "To Belarusians from the American people", perhaps the first post-Soviet cultural artifact from the U.S. on the Belarusian soil. The monument was damaged three times by unidentified vandals, but subsequently restored.[10]
In 2001, when the Kurapaty site was threatened by a planned widening of theMinsk Ring Road, youth from theBelarusian Popular Front,Zubr, and smaller organizations occupied the site and sat out a bitter winter in tents, trying to halt the road construction, however with no success.
On October 29, 2004, theJewish community of Belarus installed a monument in memory of the Jews and other nationals who were murdered in Kurapaty forest. The brown granite stone has two inscriptions, inYiddish and inBelarusian: "To our fellow-believers—Jews, Christians and the Muslims—the victims ofStalinism from theBelarusian Jews."
Each year in November, onDziady (the All Saints or the day when Belarusians commemorate their deceased forefathers), hundreds of people visit this site of crimes of Sovietpolitical repression.
 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(April 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
53°57.93′N27°36.68′E / 53.96550°N 27.61133°E /53.96550; 27.61133
