Memorial with names of Ukrainian Gulag prisoners dismantled in Vorkuta

The commemorative sign to victims of political repression had been installed in October 2010 at the memorial cemetery in the settlement of Yur-Shor. It was funded by businesses and private individuals from the Komi Republic. The plaque bore 33 surnames, with the Ukrainian coat of arms placed above them, as many of the prisoners were Ukrainians.

In June, participants in what Russia names "special military operation" began raising objections to the memorial, a cross marked with the Ukrainian emblem. The calls for its removal were prompted by the names of Ukrainian prisoners who had been sentenced by the Soviet system to lengthy terms for alleged ties to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists—groups that fought against Soviet rule for Ukrainian independence. According to the human rights group Memorial, many of those listed were, in all likelihood, only 12–15 years old in 1944–1945.

The initiative group of critics was led by Grigory Dyshlyk, a Vorkuta city councillor and former participant in the war against Ukraine. In an interview, he said that among those buried were “collaborators with fascists” and “traitors”, arguing that “such a monument should not stand in a city of labour glory”.

“Many people write that Vorkuta was built by prisoners,” Dyshlyk acknowledged. “That’s correct—it was built by prisoners. But there are political cases that I do not include, and there are cases involving crimes against the Soviet people and crimes during the Great Patriotic War: murders of civilians, participation in underground organisations, and the creation of fascist cells. That is my position and the position of our comrades.”

The Vorkuta administration ultimately agreed to the demands of the military group. Officials—some of whom had taken part in erecting the monument 16 years earlier—revisited archival documents and concluded that the decision had been mistaken. On 15 June, the memorial was dismantled.

Sergey Krivenko, board member of the International Association of Memorial, said this response was predictable.

“Ukrainian citizens who took up arms against Soviet rule were regarded by the Soviet authorities as bandits. They were therefore convicted under relevant articles of the criminal code—for terrorism and extremism,” he said. “There were also large numbers of so-called ‘accomplices of terrorists’—family members and anyone who assisted them in any way. They, too, were sent to the camps. What we are seeing now in Russia is a repetition of the Soviet narrative: these people are treated as criminals rather than as fighters for freedom and independence.”

Krivenko added that Russian authorities are specifically targeting “national” memorials dedicated to Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians and other national groups.

“In Katyn, Polish monuments were recently removed; in Sandarmokh, Polish memorials were also taken down; in Tomsk, again Polish memorials were removed,” he said. “Problems always arise with citizens of countries with which Russia is either in conflict or at war. This shows that it is political—a form of rewriting history.”

He also noted that the memory of the repressed in general is uncomfortable for the Russian authorities, pointing to the installation of Stalin monuments as an example. However, he argued that this memory is now deeply rooted in society and cannot easily be erased.

According to Memorial, more than one million prisoners passed through the Vorkuta corrective labour camp system, which operated from the mid-1930s until the early 1960s. Between 100,000 and 200,000 of them died. As a result, historians argue that Vorkuta as a whole can be seen as a monument to the Gulag system.