Victims of Communist Repressions Remembered in Prayer at Bykivnia Graves

On May 19, on the day of remembrance of political repressions in Ukraine, which is marked on the third Sunday of May, with the blessing of Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), Secretary of the Kyiv Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, Protopriest Viktor Ivashchuk, conducted a memorial litia for the repose of the victims of the Holodomor and repressions under the Communist regime at the Bykivnia Graves National Reserve in Kyiv Region, the website of UOC-MP reported.

In the Bykivnia forest in 1936-1941, the NKVD organized a mass burial of people executed by the repressive bodies. The first victims, who were mostly transported from Lukianivska Prison, were buried here in the late 1920s. Officially, the development of a special zone for secret burials began only in 1936. According to experts, at least 130,000-150,000 people were buried in Bykivnia.