During the Red Terror in the town of Chembar (today known as Belinsky) 48 inhabitants of the town and surrounding villages were shot without trial on 25 September 1918. The execution and burial took place in a ravine on the town’s western outskirts. Subsequently animal bones from an abattoir were offloaded here; later a pond was created on the site.
On 30 October 2012, thanks to the town’s inhabitants and staff from the museum at the critic Belinsky’s estate, a memorial bearing the names of those shot was set up on the town’s central square. The list of victims was also published by the Penza Memorial Society.
A Book of Remembrance for those shot in the Penza Region or sent to the camps has not been published.
Memorial’s database (2025) names 9,854 victims in the Penza Region. See Duvanny Ravine.
It does not list any who were shot or held in the camps. Drawing on other sources, it names those deported from the Region.
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
30 October
|
Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression
|
Belinsky district administration
|
Representatives of the district administration, relatives of the victims, schoolchildren and clergy
|
Annual event
|
|
nk
|
Commemorative Services
|
nk
|
nk
|
From time to time
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
have not survived
|
not determined
|
not delineated
|
[ original texts and hyperlinks ]
S.V. Zelyov, The Surskaya Golgotha. The Penza Diocese in the years of persecution (1917-1941), Penza, 2007
“List of hostages shot in Belinsky, 1918”, website of the Penza Memorial Society and the Penza Region History Museum
*
Reply from the Penza Region Administration (№ 2-23-1582, 15 April 2014) to a formal enquiry by RIC Memorial (St Petersburg)
