Militant extremists staged provocation on Remembrance Day for victims of the Great Terror in Sandarmokh

The Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Great Terror is annually held on August 5 in Sandarmokh, the forest area in Karelia. Thousands of people killed by Stalin's NKVD are buried in the area. 

This year's commemoration did not proceed without trouble. 

A significant number of people had traveled to the memorial site to pay their respect. Among them were representatives of the Finnish Embassy in Moscow, including Ambassador Marja Liivala. 

They were met by militant activists from the ultraright group Russkaya Obshchina (Russian Community).

Many of the militants had their faces covered by balaclavas. They verbally attacked the foreign diplomats, accusing them of being 'fascists.' 

The provocateurs also told the guests at the commemoration that they were 'collaborators' and that they should "go to Donbass."

At one point, several of the militants began to chant the patriotic song Katyusha.

A person who was present at the site has sent the Barents Observer photo and video footage.

The provocations were carefully planned by Russkaya Obshchina and its partners. The extremist group has close links to powerful people in the Putin regime. Lately, it has become more active and visible in the Russian public space, including in north Russian regions like Murmansk.

Representatives of the Finnish Embassy in Moscow, along with diplomats from the other Nordic countries, regularly attend commemoration events like the one in Sandarmokh.  

The day before the commemoration event in Sandarmokh, a memorial event for victims of political repression took place at the Krasny Bor memorial cemetery near Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia. Activists read out the names of the terror victims. An 80-year-old veteran of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Tatyana Savinkina, who had been involved in the rehabilitation of the repressed for many years, attended the event, reported SOTAvision. In December 2024, Savinkina was convicted for "discrediting the army."

Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Sandarmokh has repeatedly become a site for provocations. In 2022, pro-government activists stuck the symbol of the Russian invasion - the letter Z - on the cars of people who came to the site, placed leaflets with insults directed at the Ukrainian president, and attempted to distribute books by the well-known Karelian Stalinist Alexander Stepanov. In 2024, a group of Cossacks and unknown individuals arrived at the site, hiding their faces under balaclavas. They set up speakers between the pines, from which military songs played. Ukrainians holding a memorial service at their cross of sorrow were shouted at with “Glory to Russia,” and near the Holocaust monument, provocateurs shouted “Jews sponsored Hitler.”