Soviet tankers learned to drive on the bones of the dead

Noviy Vestnik ^ | June 2nd, 2004 | Serygey Tereshchenko

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Last Monday two new memorials appeared simulaneously at the Spasskiy cemetary. One was placed by the Karaganda (Kazakhstan) city government, the other by the government of Lithuania.

Our people put up a marker at Spasskiy to remember all who faced repression on Kazakhstan's soil. The authors of this work were Murat Kalkabaev and Vladimir Trotsenko, who worked on the project and argued for space at the cemetary for a year and a half. Finally it was decided that the marker would not be placed alongside the other memorials, but a bit to the front. Such a composition resulted in a better visual impression than just a straight line of stone markers. So that the memorial complex gave a more unified appearance, Trotsenko decided to take down the iron fence around the cemetary. Well-known architect Aleksandr Titarev, however, was decidedly against such a move.

"It was I, in my day, who thought up the cemetary complex at Spassky," he reported to members of the architectural council at the time. "I know the place very well. The iron fence shouldn't be taken down from the cemetary under any circumstances. Otherwise people will set horses and sheep out to graze among the graves."

But Vladimir Trotsenko knew how to insist on his way, and the fence was taken down. True, it was not removed everywhere - only from the sides of the main entrance. After all the organizational problems were solved, the sign itself was made in about two days in a local metal-working factory.

The memorial to the Lithuanias who died at the Spasskiy concentraton camp was a bit simpler. A place for a memorial stone had been decided upon long ago. While the marker was sculpted by an artist in Lithuania, Karaganda had only to help with the installation. For the memorial's opening ceremony an entire delegation from Lithuania arrived. Heading it was Lithuanian secretary of labor and social services, Violeta Muruskayte, and Lithuanian Ambassador Romualdas Visokavichus. During the ceremony, it was stated that it was Lithuania that had brought the entire Spasskiy memorial complex into existance.

"From 1953 to 1954, I did a term in the camps here," recalled former steppe camp prisoner Antanos Seykalis. "In those days Lithuania was actively resisting the Soviet occupation, and in practically every school there was an underground organization. Ours was discovered... and so I showed up in Kazakhstan. Even now I cannot forget the horrors of day to day life in the camps. The prison uprising in Kengira, near Zhezkazgan. How they brutally put it down with the help of tanks. So many died back then. In 1990, I - with the help of comrades from the public organization of former political prisoners - once again came to Karaganda. We wanted to see in what condition was the prison cemetary in Spasskiy. And in horror we discovered that there wasn't a cemetary! On it's place was a tank training ground. Soviet tankers learned to drive on the bones of the dead! Under the guise of tourists, we went into this field and placed the first Catholic cross. After a few years they told me that the Kazakhstani government had closed the tank training area and built in its place a memorial complex."

Alongside the Lithuanians' memorial stone in Spasskiy today are markers dedicated to Germans, French, Italians, Japanese, Finns, Poles, Rumanians, Ukrainians, and Armenians. Soon Russia will dedicate a marker, though the Russian memorial will not be in the collective row, but a bit to the side.

Serygey Tereshchenko

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Redheaded 'steppe'-child bump.