Moloch of Totalitarianism

The "Moloch of Totalitarianism" monument at the entrance to the memorial at Levashovo wasteland is a metal sculpture of a monster grabbing and devouring a human. The architect of the monument was Alexey Lelyakov, and according to some testimonies, the figure was originally intended for a city in Central Asia, but was installed in St. Petersburg at the initiative of Mayor Sobchak. Due to the absence of an explanatory inscription, the composition remains unclear to an uninformed viewer, which drew criticism from some former political prisoners and human rights activists. At the monument's opening in 1996, V. V. Ioffe urged to turn one's back on Moloch and go to the graves of the victims, bringing them flowers as a sign of remembrance.