September
11, 2009
Washington D.C.: Burial of the remains of victims of the "Red
Terror"
Seventy-eight
years ago, in October 1931 the Soviet Union launched its first
"great construction project of the century" – the building
of White Sea-Baltic Canal (Belomorkanal). Construction was done
cheaply and quickly. Already
in April 1933, Stalin and his henchmen were enjoying a festive cruise
along the new waterway.
Record time and the low cost of this ambitious project were paid at
the cost of immense suffering and blood - According to various sources
as a result of overwork, abuse, hunger and cold anywhere from 100 to
200 thousand people - prisoners of the Gulag - perished.
This is a well-known story, although in present-day Russia, more and
more people are trying to deny or justify it. The Communist Party was
never brought to justice and because of this the ghost of Communism
continues to torment the country to this day.
In the center of its capital stands the mausoleum with the
corpse of the originator of this terror against mankind.
The corpses of other villains, including Stalin, are also
buried in the center of Russia, along the Kremlin wall.
At the same time countless tortured, murdered innocent victims are
spread all over the country in unmarked graves…
There once lived a wonderful man by the name of Michael Yanovich
Makarenko. He was born in the year of the start of the construction of
Belomorkanal. He was an orphan, was “adopted” by Russian soldiers
and eventually became a political prisoner. In 1977, after serving an
eight-year term in the Gulag, he was sent into 5 years of exile, from
which he fled. He was put
on the most-wanted list and at the same time organized the removal of
a small number of remains of deceased prisoners from the Belomorkanal
district. In a private apartment Moscow Makarenko held a symbolic
funeral for all the victims of terror. Separate funeral rites were
conducted by Orthodox priests, Jewish and Muslim clerics. Using the
fact that in the Alexander Garden at the Kremlin in Moscow was
undergoing renovation, Michael Yanovich buried a portion of the
remains under the Kremlin wall. This happened in 1978 and the event
was captured on tape (now on VHS).
Another part of the remains of Michael Makarenko was able to smuggle
to the West when he was expelled by the authorities.
Michael devoted the rest of his life to the establishment of the
Victims of Communism Memorial in the capital of the United States. He
wanted to bury the remains of the victims of terror at the Memorial
site. Unfortunately, Michael Makarenko didn’t live long enough to
realize his dream.
Dmitry Goldgaber, a longtime friend of Mikhail Makarenko purchased a
site at Rock Creek Cemetery to bury the remains at a site next to the
grave of Mikhail Makarenko.
On the morning of September 9, 2009 it rained in Washington, but by
midday the clouds disappeared and the blue sky shone a warm autumn
sun.
That day at St. John the Baptist Cathedral a short memorial service
was served for the victims of communist terror. The service was
conducted by Fr. Victor Potapov. He did not mention names in the
funeral prayers, because the names are known only to God. The people
present were few, although the church seemed crowded. Maybe it was
just my imagination, but it seemed that the souls of the tortured and
unburied were present with us during the service. Along with the
flames of the candles our prayers rose to the Lord for the repose of
those who perished in countless sufferings in the GULAG of our poor
Russia.
After the requiem remains of the martyrs were taken to the cemetery.
Gregory Burnside, Grisha, faithful companion and assistant to Michael
Makarenko, without whom today's event could not have taken place,
carried the small children-size coffin with the remains into the
Orthodox Iveron Icon chapel, where Fr. Victor again read a memorial
prayer.
... Under the bright blue sky, we took turns throwing handfuls of
bright orange-red earth on small small, almost toy coffin. There in
the ground lay the remains of martyrs, crushed by historical
injustice….
The
coffin containing the remains of the martyred was covered with
irregular patterns of orange-red earth. The cemetery workers asked us
to move away and started pouring earth into the grave from the back of
a small truck. We withdrew and waited to put flowers on the grave. One
woman I met for the first time came because her grandfather was one of
the prisoners of Belomorkanal. She brought a bouquet of luxurious red
roses. Michael Yanovich Makarenko’s daughter Lisa and her husband,
who arrived from Russia, also brought flowers for Michael Yanovich and
for the victims of Communism to whom he dedicated his life.
I thought about the millions murdered and one of my uncles, Alexander
P. Witte. He also was a prisoner on the White Sea Canal, but survived.
Maybe he knew or met someone whose remains we now buried. He survived
the White Sea Canal, but, like millions of others, was arrested again.
The Memorial Society in Russia discovered that this occurred on
October
23, 1937, and on January 31, 1938 he was executed on charges of
"espionage". He is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in
the Perm region. O, how many such unmarked and unknown graves there
are in the vast expanses of Russia! But now in Washington there is a
grave awaiting its marker which we shall make a reality with a
memorial for all to cherish in the memory of these heroes, these
innocents.
Here one can come and remember these sufferers, who they were and what
they might have become. And as I did on this day, I realized how
miniscule are our everyday "problems" in comparison with the
grief experienced by millions of those who suffered at the hands of
the godless authorities.
May Christ, our immortal King and our God, give them rest and make
their memory eternal.
Vera Genisaretskaya
Photo-report
