The powder magazine of the Bastion of St. Vladimir is a historical object and the oldest building in Tiraspol. The building is in fact the only thing left of the fortress, built at the end of the 18th century to protect the southwestern borders of the Russian Empire. It has housed a museum since 2014, the exposition of which tells about the past of Tiraspol and the fortress that laid the foundation for the history of the city as a combat unit of the Russian army. There is one more page of the history of the region, written at the walls of the powder magazine, a tragic one. Mass executions were carried out on the territory of the Tiraspol fortress in the 30s of the last century. The archives speak of thousands of victims. Excavations have been conducted here since the 90s. More than two thousand remains were reburied at the end of the last century. The search work was intensified and continues to this day in 2017. The remains of 1179 people were exhumed during 2017-2019. This year, four execution pits have been discovered, and the remains of hundreds of those killed have been recovered. The remains are reburied in mass graves after conducting research work, the purpose of which is to find out the identity of the deceased and the circumstances of their death. The implementation of this mission was undertaken by Pridnestrovian archaeologists, historians, members of the "Heirs of Victories" movement. Assistance is provided by employees of the internal affairs bodies.
Another funeral ceremony was held on the territory of the Memorial Complex near the walls of the Tiraspol Fortress today, on the eve of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression. This time 462 people were laid to rest. The event was held in compliance with secular and religious canons. A minute of silence was announced in memory of the victims of political repression. The funeral litia was served by representatives of various confessions - clergymen of the Tiraspol-Dubossary diocese, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and the rabbi of the Jewish community. Flowers were laid at the mass grave.
The PMR President Vadim Krasnoselsky took part in the mourning event. Addressing those who came to see off on their last journey the people who had finally died, whose lives were cut short by a bullet of terrorist executioners, the President called the events of the 1930s of the twentieth century a history of the great terror against the Soviet people.
“The terror of the 1930s seized the entire territory of the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands of people were subjected to repression, persecution and execution. The population of the Moldavian SSR, the city of Tiraspol in particular, did not escape this tragic fate. There was an NKVD prison on the site of the temple, at the walls of which we gathered, people from all over the Moldavian SSR were brought here. Here they were quickly "sentenced", transferred to a powder magazine and executed on the spot. Right there, next to the powder magazine. Thousands of innocently convicted, innocently murdered people lie here as a result of these monstrous actions. What kind of people? As the results of the search work show, these are intellectuals, and the military, and peasants, and employees - all who fell under the flywheel of repression. What should we, contemporaries, do? Pass by, embarrassed, turning away, not noticing? Maybe someone does that. But this is not human, this is not Christian, this is wrong. We must try to show this tragic story, but just not engage in one thing - speculation on this topic. We are talking only about the memory of those people who left us. We are driven by the idea of memory and respect for our history”, Vadim Krasnoselsky emphasized.
The President addressed his gratitude to everyone who took part in this significant and difficult, both physically and mentally, work. The President expressed his condolences to the relatives and friends of those who became victims of the political regime of the middle of the last century. Memorial candles were lit in the church in memory of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church who died.
