Monument to Ukrainian victims of Stalin regime erected in Karelia

MOSCOW - A monument to commemorate Ukrainian victims of the Soviet regime has been completed and erected in the Russian town of Sandarmokh in the Karelia region, according to Larysa Skrypnykova, leader of the Kalyna Association of Ukrainian Culture.

Ms. Skrypnykova, an activist of the Ukrainian diaspora in the far northern Karelia region of the Russian Federation, thanked all Ukrainians who donated funds for the monument's creation. She added that the funds comprise only personal donations from Ukrainians from the United States, Canada, Ukraine and Karelia. "We are tremendously thankful to all Ukrainians, and express personal gratitude to Mrs. Nadia Svitlychna and Mr. Bohdan Fedorak," her statement said.

The idea to erect the monument had been discussed for years. Some of the first donations came in March 2004 from then Parliament member and today Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko and Veniamin Trokhymenko, son of the Ukrainian linguist Mykola Trokhymenko, who was one of Sandarmokh's victims.

Ukrainian sculptors Mykola Malyshko and Nazar Bilyk worked for months on the design of the monument, which is in the shape of a cross and is titled "To the Executed Sons of Ukraine." The Ukrainian diaspora in Karelia invites guests to attend the official unveiling ceremony in Sandar-mokh on August 5. (For further information send inquiries via e-mail to [email protected].)

Tens of thousands of Russians, Belarusians, Armenians, Karelians, Germans, Poles, Finns and Ukrainians - all victims of Stalin's repressions - perished in the Karelia region in 1937-1938. In Sandarmokh, located in Karelia's Medviezhegorsk area, on one day alone, November 3, 1938, some 139 Ukrainians were executed.

(For an account of a visit to Sandarmokh by Ms. Svitlychna, see The Ukrainian Weekly issue of December 14, 2003, which may be viewed online at www.ukrweekly.com.)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 19, 2005, No. 25, Vol. LXXIII

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