Butovo firing range
Facts and practical information
The Butovo firing range in Russia, now known as the Butovo Polygon, is a site steeped in somber history. It is not a place of scenic views or architectural wonders but rather a cemetery and a solemn reminder of past atrocities. During the years of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge from 1937 to 1938, the Butovo firing range was used as an execution ground for political prisoners, intellectuals, and various individuals deemed as enemies of the state.
Over the span of those two years, it is estimated that more than 20,000 people were executed at this location. The victims were shot by NKVD, the Soviet secret police, and buried in mass graves. The range became one of the most tragic symbols of political oppression in the Soviet Union.
Posthumously, many of the executed were rehabilitated, and in the 1990s, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized over 1,000 of these victims as new martyrs. The site has since been transformed into a memorial complex dedicated to their memory. A church, the Church of the Resurrection of Christ and the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, now stands on the grounds, serving as a place of reflection and remembrance for the atrocities that occurred there.
Moscow City