Kurapaty

Kurapaty is an area near the Belarusian capital Minsk that served as an execution site for the Soviet Interior Ministry NKVD during the Stalinist purges. According to various estimates, up to 250,000 people were killed here and buried in mass graves.

In Soviet propaganda, Kurapaty was portrayed as a site of Nazi crimes. Kurapaty is a turning point in recent Belarusian history. 

When the discovery of mass graves on the northwestern edge of the Belarusian capital Minsk1 became known in 1988, an outcry went through society. How could it happen that tens of thousands of Belarusians were murdered under Stalin? Why was there so much silence about the issue for so long? Dealing with the consequences of Chernobyl two years earlier had led to a major breach of trust in Soviet society towards the Soviet leadership. With Kurapaty, the anger – this time of the Belarusians – towards the leaders of the Soviet Union was once again released. Kurapaty initiated discussions about questions of history, identity, culture and responsibility and changed Belarus permanently,2 even if the state of Alexander Lukashenko to this day resists bringing justice to the victims of Stalinism and instead cultivates Soviet myths. A real fight for the memory of Kurapaty has broken out. 

Three articles to break the silence, in honor of the victims of this crime against humanity

  1. We can start to understand this with the original article that made the discovery of the mass graves known at the time – Kurapaty – Pathway of Death. 
  2. An article by the historian Igor Kuznetsov explains which findings have come to light to this day and which questions have never been clarified.
  3. The essay by author Adam Swirgul tells how Kurapaty shaped his generation.

The Road to Kurapaty

The first documentary film about Kurapaty was made in 1990, Daroha na Kurapaty (The Road to Kurapaty). The film by director Michail Ždanoŭski and screenwriter Aljaksandr Lukašuk was awarded the highest state prize in 1994. However, it is unknown to the general public because its broadcast on state television was previously prohibited.

The Road to Kurapaty (1990) – Documentary film by Michail Ždanoŭsk
Daroha na Kurapaty (The Road to Kurapaty) – Film by Michail Ždanoŭsk

Documentary – The Road to Kurapaty
Studio “Letopis” – 1990.
The director is Mikhail Zhdanovsky.
Picture – Siarhei Petrovsky.
Zyanon Pazniak – a Belarusian nationalist politician, one of the founders of the BNF and the leader of the Conservative Christian Party – BNF took part in the creation of the tape. He was a candidate for the presidency of Belarus from the BPF in the 1994 elections.
Zyanon Stanislavovich Pazniak has been living in the USA since 1996.

The Road to Kurapaty
Kuropaty is a forest massif that is adjacent to Minsk (Belarus) from the north. Starting from 1988, mass burials of people executed by the NKVD (Bel. NKVD) in 1937-1941 were discovered in this massif. The exact number of victims has not been determined: documents from the archive of the KGB of Belarus concerning the Kurapats are not available to researchers.
Kuropaty is the most famous place of mass executions carried out by the NKVD in the territory of Minsk and near the city.
The professor of Wrocław University, Zdzisław Winnicki, claims that the number of victims in Kurapaty is 250,000. British historian Norman Davies notes that there may be even more victims.
Kuropaty, as evidence of crimes against humanity committed by the communist regime in Belarus, is subject to attempts of destruction by the authorities, desecration by attacks of communist-minded vandals.
Memory and history are again banned in Belarus.

This film was never shown on central television, and with the Communist takeover on July 20, 1994, the documentary The Road to Kurapaty is considered banned.
These are all fragments of this film that have been collected.
Although this film told about genocide and repression in Belarus, it is known to other peoples who were under the occupation of communist Russia.
This film is a definitive collection of evidence of the Red Terror on the planet. Every story in this film is similar to the story of my German family who lived in the Wolgadeutsche Republic. My Ukrainian friend also recognized the history of the genocide of his family from Ukraine in this film.

Wolgadeutsche “Autonome Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik der Wolgadeutschen” – As a result of the total genocide of the German people since August 28, 1941, it no longer exists.

Genocide in Belarus, “red terror” against Belarusians by the Russian terrorist regime.
Belarus is currently under Russian military occupation as a result of the 2020 plan prepared and implemented by Russia to take over Ukraine.

Ukraine – Genocide by the Russian terrorist regime – the war has intensified since 2014. Since February 24, 2022, as a result of the large-scale military invasion of the terrorist Russia in Ukraine – new victims of the “red terror”, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, children, women, old people have been killed, war crimes are committed daily.

The Russians committed genocide against our peoples, who even today do not stop in their desire to destroy the whole world out of envy that we are not them.

Genocide is the intentional total or partial destruction of a people.

The details of the description are confirmed by sources:

  1. Hero city Minsk
    Minsk is the capital of Belarus and a metropolis that is home to a fifth of the Belarusian population. 
    Around nine million people live across the country. 
    First mentioned in 1067, Minsk looks back on over a thousand years of history, during which the city was under changing influences. 
    In the Middle Ages it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in modern times it was part of the Russian Empire. 
    70 years of the Soviet Union continue to shape Minsk today. 
    The city exhibits both socialist traditions and European cultural patterns, while large postmodern palaces form the trappings of the ruling authoritarianism under Alexander Lukashenko. ↩︎
  2. Pioneer of independence – BNF
    The Belarusian rulers have now banned all opposition parties. 
    These include the Belarusian Popular Front (BNF), one of the country’s oldest parties, which has played an important role in the country’s history. The Belarusian medium Zerkalo wrote down the history of the movement and party.  ↩︎