Location: Sandarmoh, Russia

The Sandarmoh Memorial Cemetery was established 1997.
Over 9000 people were shot and buried here during Stalin's great purge. Starting in 2016, Russian propaganda tried to pin these killings on Finnish troops during WW II, claiming they were Soviet POW's shot by the Finns. This was soon proven wrong.
The approximity to Finland and the large number of Finnish speaking Karelians made this an area where many Finnish communists as well as Finns from USA and Canada settled. This explains the large amount of ethnic Finnish victims. More than 58 nationalities are among the victims, including Russians, Ukrainans, Polish and Germans.
The pictured memorial stone by sculptor Grigory Saltup was unveiled 1998. It has been subject of vandalism as the copper letters were stolen 1999 and the bas-relief was destroyed 2006.
Sources
- Historic information blog by Andrew Heininen accessed 10 Aug 2019 - Wayback machine
- Wikipedia
- List of 963 Finns executed in Sandarmoh compiled by Irina Takala from the work by Eila Lahti-Argutina: Olimme joukko vieras vaan - venäjänsuomalaiset vainonuhrit Neuvostoliitossa 1930-luvun alusta 1950-luvun alkuun. Turku, Siirtolaisuusinstituutti, 2001.
- Life Moving Forward: Soviet Karellia in the Letters & Memoirs of Finnish North Americans by Samira S. Saramo. A Dissertation submitted to the faculty of graduate studies in partial fulfuilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosohy. Graduate Program in History, York University, Toronto, Canada. September 2014. https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10315/29866/Saramo_Samira_S_2014_PhD.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y
- The Barents Observer Political repressions, “They shot them in the head and threw them into dug-out pits”: The tragic story of American Finns who perished during Stalin's purges, and how history repeats itself in Russia today. Text: Elizaveta Vereykina on October 30, 2023
See also: List in Russian with over 14000 victims of the purge
- How should I categorize this mass grave site? Aug 10, 2019.
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