Deputies of the Tomsk City Duma revoked decisions adopted in 2011 and 2016 that had provided for monuments to repressed Latvians and Lithuanians in Memory Square. The measure was approved at the council meeting the day before, according to TV2.
The outlet reported that the issue was not included in the original agenda. It was added later on the basis of a letter from Mayor Dmitry Makhinya. Deputies did not discuss the matter: the decision was passed unanimously and without questions.
Memorials removed
On April 19, workers in Tomsk’s Memory Square dismantled the Stone of Grief and other memorial stones installed in honor of repressed Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians, and Kalmyks. That day, police described the work as “anti-landslide” measures.
Later, city officials wrote on social media that access to the area had been restricted because of a risk that a garage might collapse. That post was subsequently deleted.
On the eve of the vote, the Tomsk administration acknowledged that no signs of landslide activity had been identified on the slope near the Memory Square for victims of political repression.
As Agentstvo had previously noted, the dismantling became the first known case of an entire memorial complex dedicated to victims of Soviet repression being removed.