Levashovo Empty Place

Levashovo Clearing in St. Petersburg is a memorial cemetery where 46,771 people are buried, of whom 40,485 were executed by firing squad following political sentences from the summer of 1937 to 1954. At the center of the memorial are an Orthodox and a Catholic cross, consecrated on April 19 and solemnly opened on October 30, 1993, forming a symbolic Golgotha. The first memorial events with photographs of the murdered and ribbons were held here on October 21, 1989, and April 14, 1990, and memorial services were conducted by Priest Alexander Ranee. The status of a memorial cemetery was officially assigned to this place by the decision of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad Soviet No. 544 on July 18, 1989.