Stalin victims’ memorials

This item appears on page 63 of the October 2016 issue.

Placed on buildings throughout Russia, there are bare metal plaques commemorating victims of Josef Stalin’s purges. Under the project name Posledny Adres (Last Address), each plaque records (in Russian Cyrillic) the name, date of birth, occupation, date of arrest and date of execution of a person who lived in that building. Some buildings bear multiple plaques.

The plaques were installed by volunteers, with assistance from Memorial (memo.ru/eng), a Russian organization dedicated to preserving the memories of victims of Soviet persecution.

As of press time, more than 1,000 plaques have been placed, mostly in Moscow. For a map of locations, visit www.poslednyadres.ru (in Russian only).