From 1946 to 1953, the central hospital for the Northeast camps (Sevvostlag) was located in Debin, Yagodinsky district. A separate camp was attached to the hospital, providing workers for the hospital, the maternity centre and other services. Prisoners were buried on the outskirts of the settlement on the slope of a hill. The total number buried there is unknown.
In 1990, stakes with numbers of the graves survived. In 1991 a memorial “Sign of Sorrow” was erected. The plaque bears the text:
“On this hill were buried, with no names only numbers; this grey granite stone is a sign of sorrow. It is our duty to recognise your honest path. The people will restore your memory.”
In 2003, a commemorative cross was erected nearby.
Memorial’s online database (2025) names 11,427 victims in the Magadan Region (BR 7,546) See Maldyak 49-04.
Using all its sources the database lists 1,833 who were sent to Sevvostlag. It names 349 who died in captivity and 20 who were shot in the camp system.
Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
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nk
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Commemorative Services
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nk
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nk
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From time to time
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State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
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11 rows of burials, rising in steps, one after another, can be traced on the hill
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About 0.5 hectare
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Partially delineated
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[ Original texts & hyperlinks ]
Materials of the Kolyma expedition (2011) – archive of the Memorial Research & Information Centre (St Petersburg)
“Debin settlement. Central Sevvostlag hospital cemetery”, Virtual Museum of the Gulag [retrieved, 28 May 2022; no longer accessible, August 2025]