Tomsk Deputy Mayor Vladimir Radul said the dismantling of monuments to victims of repression was caused by cracks in the paving and in a building located next to the square. РИА Томск reported this.
According to him, a survey of the site will be carried out there “in the near future,” after which the square will be restored. He did not specify exact deadlines.
Today, the Kalmykia Ministry of Culture, responding to an appeal from a Tomsk activist, said that the dismantled monuments to repression victims could be moved from central Tomsk. The ministry said that in that case, the new location would be agreed upon with community representatives. The appeal to the Kalmykia authorities was sent because one of the demolished memorial stones was dedicated to repressed Kalmyks.
On April 19, the Stone of Sorrow and other memorial stones installed in memory of repressed Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians, and Kalmyks were dismantled in Tomsk’s Memorial Square. City Hall said the square had been fenced off after a local resident reported a “risk of a garage collapse,” but that post was later deleted. Security forces forbade local residents from photographing the site.
The Yabloko party, as well as the authorities of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, protested the decision and laid flowers at the destroyed memorial.
Memorial Square was opened in 1992 on the initiative of the city and Memorial, which was recently declared an “extremist organization.” The square itself is not just a park but the territory of a former NKVD prison, where search work uncovered pits characteristic of mass graves.