Kommunarka shooting ground

Kommunarka is a former NKVD execution site on the southern edge of Moscow in Novomoskovsky district. On this roughly 20-hectare property, originally the dacha of NKVD chief Yagoda, at least 6,609 people were shot and buried in mass graves between 1937 and 1941; many were members of the Soviet party and military elite who fell victim to Stalin's Great Terror. The site's purpose remained a state secret until 1991. The Russian Orthodox Church now cares for the grounds, and Memorial reconstructed the names of those killed. Visitors find a plain wooden chapel, long lists of names on boards and a meditative forest path. The silence makes the site feel heavier.