NKVD prisoner massacre in Tartu
| NKVD prisoner massacre in Tartu | |
|---|---|
| Part of the NKVD prisoner massacres and the first Soviet occupation of the Baltic states | |
 Corpses of the massacre's victims | |
| Location |  Tartu, Estonia |
| Date | July 9, 1941 (EET) |
| Target | Estonian prisoners |
Attack type | Massacre, war crime |
| Deaths | 193 |
| Perpetrators |  NKVD |
On July 9, 1941, 193 detainees were shot in Tartu prison and the Gray House courtyard[1][2] by the Soviet NKVD; their bodies were dumped in makeshift graves and in the prison well.[3]
Events
[edit]In July 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Estonia in coordination with Nazi Germany under the terms of the Secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Soon after the occupation began, a campaign of terror was unleashed against the Estonian civilian population. The NKVD arrested, tortured, and executed hundreds of civilians. NKVD prisoner massacres were taking place in all three occupied Baltic states.
In the final days of June 1941, the NKVD held 619 prisoners in Tartu Prison. Although prisoners were being deported to prison camps in Russia, due to the ongoing arrests on the streets of Tartu by the evening of 8 July, 223 prisoners remained in the prison.[4]
With the front closing in Tartu. The Tartu County Committee of the Communist (bolshevik) Party of Estonia, held a meeting where at the request of Alfred Pressman, head of the Tartu branch of the NKVD, and with the consent of Pavel Afanasyev, deputy head of the Tartu branch, and Abronov, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Estonia, the decision was made to execute the prisoners. The execution order was issued by Afanasyev on 8 July 1941, and the killings were carried out on 8 and 9 July.[5]
Most of the victims were murdered in the prison’s sauna, which opened onto the sauna courtyard, known as St. Anthony's Courtyard. Prisoners were typically shot in the head at close range, often in the forehead, using Nagant revolvers.
The bodies were buried in the sauna courtyard, where two large 2.5 meters deep pits had been dug. One pit contained the remains of 18 men and one woman. Another, near the gate to the sauna yard, held bodies of 74 men and 19 women. A third pit, located in the center of the yard, were the bodies of 80 more men. The graves were concealed with soil, logs, sheet metal, boards, and laths.
In total, 193 people were executed: 173 men and 20 women. The victims included workers, craftsmen, students, officials, intellectuals, and peasants from Tartu and the surrounding areas.[6] The victims included among others: Jüri Parijõgi – novelist and director of the Tartu Teachers’ Seminary, Aksel-Erich Vooremaa – priest of the Tartu Maarja congregation and assistant dean of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church Tartu deanery, August Usai – director of the Petseri Gymnasium and member of the 5th Riigikogu, Ida Suvero – actress at the Vanemuine Theater, Eduard Nurk – athlete specializing in the 400 metres distance.
An additional six victims were found in the garden and basement of the Tartu NKVD department building.[6]
Between 25 March and early May 1942, the remains were exhumed and reburied in a mass grave at Tartu Pauluse cemetery. At the 60th anniversary of the massacre, in 2001, a monument was erected on the mass grave of the victims. The monument is designed in the colors of the Estonian flag - a white marble Ionic column, a black granite base, and a border of blue ceramic tiles. The names of the identified murdered are carved into the granite base of the monument.[4]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Alexander Statiev (2010). The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands. Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0521768337. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
- ^ M. Laar (1992). War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944-1956. Howells House. ISBN 0929590082. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
- ^ Museum of KGB Cells
- ^ a b "TÄNA AJALOOS ⟩ Tartu vanglas hukati 193 inimest". Teadus (in Estonian). 8 July 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
- ^ "Kultuur ja Elu - kultuuriajakiri". kultuur.elu.ee. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
- ^ a b "70 AASTAT SÕJA LÕPUST: Aasta pärast mahalaskmist maeti Tartus ligi 200 massimõrva ohvrit". delfi.ee (in Estonian). Ekspress media. Retrieved 9 July 2025.