Moscow Diary: Victims of terror

The BBC's James Rodgers considers the tragedy of Stalin's reign of terror and a contemporary murder investigation that has gripped the nation. But he also takes time out to enjoy the Moscow summer. His diary is published fortnightly.

The Butovo ceremony was largely a Russian Orthodox event

The daily death tolls are displayed on a notice board.

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had declared war on opponents to his regime. At Butovo, the firing squads gunned down Stalin's enemies - real and imagined.

On 8 August, 1937, it was 91 people. On some days, the 24-hour tally ran well into three figures.

It seems so matter-of-fact - the sort of figures statisticians might pore over to seek out social trends.

It is pretty clear what happened in Butovo. What is still hard to fathom, 70 years after the first victims died, is why.

In Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace, Napoleon's troops occupy Moscow. The hero, Pierre, has been arrested as an arsonist. He stands in a line of prisoners waiting their turn to take a bullet.

Pierre's life is spared at the last minute. The youngster in front of him is the last to die.

Tolstoy describes him as "a thin, sallow-faced lad of 18, in a loose coat".

The drama - or something close to it - must have been played out at Butovo.

We have to teach our young to remember what it was like, how priests and ordinary people suffered for us Zinaida, at Butovo ceremony

Brief details of some of the victims' brief lives were displayed last week. The posters were put up as part a ceremony to remember those killed there. A 12.5m-high (41 ft) wooden cross formed the centrepiece of the new memorial.

Misha Shamonin stares out from his prison mugshot. He is wrapped in a greatcoat that is too big for him. It is an eerie echo of the lad in the "loose coat" - except that Misha was only 13.

K I Rakultsev - the only name he is given - clings to a pair of crutches. They are even in the prison photo. Presumably he could not walk without them.

The caption explains that he was one of some 1,500 people with disabilities shot during a "clean-up" of the prison system.

There were perhaps 400 people at the ceremony. Many of them seemed to be there principally to celebrate the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church, and to remember the clergy among the victims.

The bright sunlight could not drive away the shadow of evil which hangs over Butovo.

Zinaida - on her way to prayers for the dead - seemed to sense that.

"We have to teach our young to remember what it was like, how priests and ordinary people suffered for us," she told me. "The earth is soaked with blood here and we should not forget that."

The small numbers who actually turned out suggested that many people had already forgotten - either that, or they just chose to ignore what had happened at Butovo and elsewhere across the Soviet Union.

As the anniversary of Stalin's "Great Purge" passes, few people seem to be asking why hundreds of thousands of their compatriots were shot - not by an invading army, but by their fellow citizens.

He stands accused of 49 murders, and three attempted murders.

Alexander Pichushkin has confessed to dozens of murders

Russian media say that Mr Pichushkin confessed to more than 60 murders, but that prosecutors did not have enough evidence to charge him with them all.

Jury selection is due to begin next month. The reporting of the case suggests that the press have already found Mr Pichushkin guilty.

The story has brought back memories of Andrei Chikatilo, who became known as the "Rostov Ripper". He was found guilty of 52 murders, committed between 1978 and 1990.

Andrei Chikatilo was convicted after the end of the USSR, but before post-Soviet Russia had adopted a moratorium on the death penalty. He was executed in February 1994.

It is almost a secret. Many people who have never visited Russia seem to imagine that it is cold all year round. It is not. The summer here can be absolutely perfect.

Summer evenings in Moscow make winter a distant memory

Moscow - like many capitals - sometimes feels overcrowded, and too hectic.

But a warm summer day shows it in its best light. Calm seems to descend with the sunshine.

On Sunday afternoon I watched chess players in a park. I am trying to learn the game. There is no better place than Russia.

Most of them were pensioners. They played against the clock, with a speed and vigour that belied their years.

They made their moves with the energy of Cossack dancers. Extravagant hand gestures accompanied the taking of an opponent's piece.

The warm weather seemed to have made them even more passionate about their play.

Your comments:

What Westerners think of us isn't as important as what we think about ourselves. Alex was Russian. We Russians don't judge each other as harshly as the West judges us. Why they don't take the time to understand our culture when we live among them for so long? I don't know. But Alex's death proved that people love a scandal. As a Russian American I think that it's time others stopped looking crosswise at Russia and started looking at the fact that there's nothing to look crosswise at us about.
Catherine, USA

Many thanks to James Rodgers for his ability to write well balanced articles. I have just returned from the UK visiting my dear English and Scottish friends. I found the food could be simply excellent in Britain and Brits are not as reserved as some believe. One should continue to destroy myths.
Andrei Shmakov, Novosibirsk, Russia

Forgotten or Ignored? "He who ignores history is condemned to relive it"
Ron Pascoe, Chilliwack, BC Canada

Thank you for the article, and keep it up. In Europe, Holocaust deniers are jailed. In Russia, deniers of Stalin's holocaust are everywhere. In the 1990s Russians seemed ready to come to grips with the horrors of the Soviet past. But under Putin these evils are whitewashed in a campaign to restore Russian pride. In Soviet times, Stalin was seen as a saint - that time may return. We should all be very concerned if a nation as large and powerful as Russia does not exercise this demon from her past.
Mark Nelson, Tallinn, Estonia

"In Soviet times, Stalin was seen as a saint" chippukah! C'mon Mark, quit distilling propagandist rubbish. There's a whole range of views among Muscovites et al on just how big a tyrant he was and the implication he's somehow revered by one-and-all is just plain wrong.

Like any developing country, Russians are looking forward, not backward. The overwhelming majority of people here are working their backsides off to build a better life for themselves, their families. Rightly or wrongly, the crimes of Stalin and his cohorts don't rate as highly in the public consciousness as other difficulties living in this society presents.

It really irks me how all too often our actions and achievements are undermined by cynical chaps like yourself, all too eager to point the finger and remind us what a horrible place we lived in so many years ago. Put a smile on your face and quit criticizing people.
Woop, Moscow, Russia

I agree with Mr Rogers. Moscow is an absolutely gorgeous place in the summer. Upon my return home in May, all of my relatives were under the impression that it was still cold in Russia. True it was snowing on May 3 in Moscow, but the last two weeks of May were truly spectacular. My fellow international students and I would commute 90 minutes to Izmaylovski Park on Moscow's eastern edge, to spend hours laying around in the sun, drinking wine, and swimming. It's amazing how little people in the West know about Russia. Just two days ago an intelligent, educated woman asked me if Russia was still Communist! Of course most Westerners are still also unlucky enough to believe that Russian food is bad too.
Stuart Evans, Indianapolis, USA

Although being the largest country in the world I think that Russia is also the most misunderstood. When meeting new people and establishing that I originally come from Siberia I am met with a surprising look followed by "you must be warm here". Not at all. I always have to put people straight about the short, but very hot summers we get in the middle of a huge land mass. I remember huge water tankers being driven around during the hot periods spraying roads to prevent too much dust being kicked up. People seem to make the most of it before the long cold winters set in.
Anton Kotov Conlon, Guernsey, Channel Islands

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