The Fire Squad Wall of the Church

the Internet

[Haiku Guy]

The Wikipedia entry for the Smolensk Cemetery is interesting. But it does not include this particular detail.

[T-Bone Texan]

It's just that the church has about tripled in size in the last few years. It used to be a more intimate environment. Now it's hundred of people I've never seen before.

I get the feeling the younger ones are doing it as some type of fad or trendy behavior.

[Kolokotronis]

Вечная память

[annalex]

The head post was somewhat cryptic, I apologize. On the other hand, some images came to symbolize the horrors of the 20th century, are well known and instantly recognized. But there is no such symbol for the Red Terror. Yet, people walk around and, suddenly, see bullet marks.

I subsequently provided some Wikipedia articles in #11 and #12.

You also asked if those people were killed "by virtue of them being Christians, or on identity politics?"

The Soviets, or, more accurately the Reds (the "Soviet" label started to be assumed by them in about 1922 when the Soviet Union was formed), recognized, correctly, that any religion would be an enemy of the new Socialist state. Since the Russian Empire was, at its core, Russian and Orthodox Christian, the terror was directed primarily at the Russian Orthodox Church. But the Reds made no distinction between particular forms of Christianity or ethnicity, they simply shot (or tortured to death) those who opposed the looting of the churches, or preached against them.

[stockpirate]

Shortly after the wall came down I visited East Berlin, you could see bullet holes along the walls in old buildings some probably dating back to WWII.

[annalex]

The multiplicity of the bullet marks indicates that the wall was used many times and that the executions were done one by one. The victims were put roughly in the same spot, but they took different positions there, so the shots went accordingly. The executioners and their technique also varied, this is why we see body shots and head shots.

We don’t know whether some structure, or, otherwise, a depression was there in the earth. The construction junk lying there is an indication that there was a trough. This might explain the two areas that were hit hard rather than one as well.

[annalex]

Yes. St. Petersburg has marks from the war as well, as it was under bombardment and siege. The damage is from shelling, not infantry fire.

These are on the northern wall and concentrated in one general spot, so it cannot be explained by enemy fire.

[OldCorps]

Holy New Martyrs of Russia Pray for Us!

[fwdude]

I realize that the “identity politics” label can be misused, and there is a lot of overlap. I’m thinking more on the lines of the Northern Irish, where Prots and Catholics had been at each other’s throats, literally. I don’t consider that persecution for religious beliefs.

Thanks for the clarifications.

[annalex]

It is sometimes noted that the ethnics on the periphery of the Russian Empire, — Latvians and Jews for example, had a reason to resent the Russians as an ethnos oppressing them, and so they participated in the terror in great numbers.

However, the Red Revolution would not have succeeded without participation of the bulk of the Russian ethnics, who took the Revolution as the opportunity to pillage from the rich.

The Red Terror was, I am sure, not without ethnic or even confessional overtones. But at its core it was ideological hatred of theistic worldview of any kind, and the desire to eradicate any kind of religious belief.

It is no different ideologically from the militant atheists of today, except they haven’t trooped up the firing squads yet.

[stockpirate]

The wall in the picture definitely was used for executions. My guess is many knelt down in prayer and were shot in the head.