The Chervyen massacre ( Belarusian: Чэрвеньская разня; ; ) was one of the NKVD prisoner massacres. More than 1,000 political prisoners from

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

were executed by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

near Chervyen (present-day

) on 25–27 June 1941.

Background

At the outbreak of the

German invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along a ...

on 22 June 1941, the

and

NKGB The People's Commissariat for State Security () or NKGB, was the name of the Soviet secret police, intelligence and counter-intelligence force that existed from 3 February 1941 to 20 July 1941, and again from 1943 to 1946, before being rename ...

hastily organized the evacuation of numerous political prisoners into the interior of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In many instances, instead of evacuating, the NKVD carried out mass executions. Some of the evacuated prisoners, including about a hundred Lithuanians from Kaunas Prison, were gathered at Pishchalauski Castle in

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

which already housed a number of Polish prisoners, members of the

Union of Armed Struggle The Union of Armed StruggleThus rendered in Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', vol. II, p. 464. (; ZWZ), also translated as the Union for Armed Struggle, Association of Armed Struggle, and Association for Armed Struggle ...

Massacre

On 24 June, 15 Lithuanians who had received death sentences before the evacuation were executed (among them was , Lithuanian Minister of the Interior in 1929–1934). On 25 June, about 2,000 prisoners were marched on foot by troops from the 42nd NKVD brigade to Chervyen. Along the way, about 500 prisoners were executed for failing to keep up. A Soviet report claimed that 209 prisoners were shot due to confusion and a German air attack. On 26 June, the remaining prisoners were placed in the Chervyen prison. A few criminal prisoners were released when they volunteered for the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. On 27 June, Belarusian NKVD received a telegram from , head of the NKVD prison department in Moscow, ordering to leave 400 prisoners in Chervyen and execute the rest. Since prisoner files were destroyed by German bombardment in Minsk, the guards made their selection of 400–750 prisoners almost randomly. On the night from 26 to 27 June, the selected prisoners were marched from Chervyen towards

Babruysk Babruysk (, ) or Bobruysk (, ; , ) is a city in Mogilev Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Babruysk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is situated on the Berezina, Berezina River. Bab ...

. Initially, the NKVD soldiers shot those prisoners that lagged behind. Then, by a forest about from Chervyen, NKVD organized the mass execution. Of Lithuanian prisoners, about 40 survived. In total, about 200 prisoners escaped.

Commemoration

The first commemoration of the massacre occurred in July 1990 when Lithuanian activists erected a

wayside shrine A wayside shrine is a religious image, usually in some sort of small shelter, placed by a road or pathway, sometimes in a settlement or at a crossroads, but often in the middle of an empty stretch of country road, or at the top of a hill or mount ...

and Belarusians a memorial cross.

Memoirs by survivors

Lithuanian memoirs

* * * (originally published in 1942, second edition in 1944, republished in 1952 and 2003; Italian translation published in 1948 and 1968) * (originally published in 1957 in magazine '' Karys'')

Polish memoir

References

{{coord, 53, 41, 16, N, 28, 28, 20, E, display=title, region:BY_type:landmark NKVD prisoner massacres Massacres in Belarus 1941 in Belarus June 1941 in Europe Soviet massacres of Poles in World War II World War II crimes in Belarus Lithuanian people executed by the Soviet Union Polish people executed by the Soviet Union Belarusian people executed by the Soviet Union