Kurapaty is a wooded area on the outskirts of Minsk, Belarus, in which a vast number of people were executed between 1937 and 1941 during the Great Purge by the Soviet secret police, NKVD.
The exact count of victims is uncertain, NKVD archives are classified in Belarus. According to various sources the number of people who perished in Kurapaty is estimated to be the following. There are different versions and estimates.
Kurapaty is the most famous place of mass executions conducted by NKVD on the territory of Minsk
Since 1993, Kurapaty has been included in The State Register of Historical and Cultural Values of the Republic of Belarus as the burial place of victims of political repressions of the 1930- 1940ss.
Kurapaty has the status of the historical and cultural heritage of the first category, which according to the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage” corresponds to the category of “the most unique values, spiritual, aesthetic and documentary values that are of international interest".
«Kurapaty The Road of Death»
In 1988 the news blew up Soviet Belarus: a mass grave of people was found near Minsk. In the article "Kurapaty is the road of death", which was not published in the largest Belarusian newspaper ‘Litaratura i Mastactva’ (Literature and Art), researchers Zianon Pazniak i Yauhen Shmyhaleu informed the public that in the prewar years in the forest near the village of Zialeny Luh, Minsk, NKVD had shot people.
Based on the materials collected by archaeologists, the Belarusian prosecutor's office initiated an investigation. During the partial exhumation, the remains of hundreds of people and many belongings of the victims were found. In addition, cartridges from the weapons, used by the executioners, were identified. The Prosecutor General's Office of the BSSR initiated an investigation into this case. At the same time, the investigators came to the conclusion that the NKVD officers carried out executions in the forest area of Kuropaty. However, due to the fact that the persons participated in this crime have died, the criminal case was terminated.
The accusation of the crime of the Chekists aroused indignation from communist and veteran organizations. A version appeared that people in Kurapaty were killed by Nazis. This idea was actively supported by the "public commission". In 1993, disgruntled comrades sent a proposal to the Supreme Council of Belarus to review the results of the investigation. The prosecutors worked out the "German trace" and proved that in the archives of Germany and Israel there are no references to mass executions in the area of Zialeny Luh. Moreover, German researchers have indicated that the crime script from Kuropaty is different from what Nazi war criminals left. The new investigation in 1998 again failed to confirm the involvement of the Germans in the executions in Kurapaty. At the same time, during the excavations, the largest burial was found, and among artefacts archeologists got a prison receipt of the year 1940 about the seizure of valuables from prisoners. This document testified that the executions in Kurapaty were carried out before Germany attacked the USSR.
Over time, a memorial was added to the burial place of the victims of Stalin's crimes. Over the past few decades, several thousand crosses have been installed in Kurapaty - on the alley, along the main trails, on the grave pits, around the tract.
Source: kyky.org wikipedia.org
