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Address Lubyanka Square, Moskva, Russia, 109012 Hours Open today · Open 24 hoursSundayOpen 24 hoursMondayOpen 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSaturdayOpen 24 hoursSuggest an edit Similar Lubyanka Square, Pamyatnik zhertvam politiches, Lubyanka Building, Musée de l'histoire du Goulag, Polytechnic Museum | ||
The Solovetsky Stone is a monument located in Lubyanka Square in Moscow, across from KGB headquarters. The monument consists of a large stone brought from the Solovetsky Islands, the location of Solovki prison camp, part of the Soviet Gulag system. According to the Russian NGO Memorial, the monument was erected on 30 October 1990 to commemorate a 1974 initiative by political prisoners to establish a "Day of Political Prisoners in the USSR." In 1991, the Supreme Soviet of Russia officially established 30 October as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repressions.
Another Solovetsky Stone was erected in the public garden on Troitskaya Square in Saint Petersburg in 2002. It was designed by Yevgeny Ukhnalyov and is officially known as the Memorial to the Victim of Political Repressions in Petrograd - Leningrad. The monument is a 10-tonne granite boulder taken 50 meters from the place of mass executions of the prisoners of the Solovki prison camp. The rock is set on a polished granite base with inscriptions "To prisoners of GULAG", "To victims of Communist Terror", "To Freedom Fighters" and a line from the "Requiem" poem of Anna Akhmatova: "I wish to call all of them by name, but ..." (Хотелось бы всех поименно назвать...) The monument was unveiled on 4 September 2002 in preparation for celebrations of 300 years of Saint Petersburg. According to Solvki Encyclopedia Ukhnalyov and the architect of the memorial, State Duma deputy Yuly Rybakov, paid all the expenses personally including the transportation of the 10,400 kg boulder from the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea. The Saint Petersburg city administration would not help finance the memorial despite significant budget allocated to celebrate the tercentenary of the city.