The Russians shelled the Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism

Julia Gush

In 2022, during the fighting for Kharkiv, the Russian military shelled the Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism in Lisopark. The destruction was first discovered by the chairman of the board of the information center “Maidan Monitoring” on March 23. According to her, there was no fresh shelling. The expert suggests that this could have happened before March 4, when it snowed in Kharkiv. During the attack, part of the slabs with the names of the dead were broken. In one burial, a shell from “Smerch”, which contained cassette elements, was stuck. According to the Polish Press Agency, no other object was damaged in the vicinity of the memorial that day. Respectively, it indicates a purposeful attack on the cemetery.

In 1940, 3809 Polish officers and 500 peaceful Polish citizens were shot at this place. The remains of 2,746 citizens of the former USSR, who became victims of the NKVD in 1937-1938, are also buried in Lisopark. The memorial to the victims of totalitarianism was opened on June 17, 2000 as a testimony of the crimes of the Soviet regime. Stone slabs with the names of Ukrainian and Polish soldiers shot in 1938-1940 were installed there. Also on the territory of the memorial there is a monument in the form of the Virtuti Militari Cross – Poland’s highest military award. It is awarded for courage in the face of the enemy.

Memorial to the victims of totalitarianism. Video by Natalia Zubar. March 23, 2022.

The publication was financed by the Internews Network and the NGO “INSTITUTE OF MASS INFORMATION” within the framework of the “Media Program in Ukraine” project