Bishop Zosima of Yakutsk and Lensk blesses a monument to the victims of political repression

Bishop Zosima of Yakutsk and Lensk blessed a monument to the victims of the 1937-1957 political repression, on September 19, 2005, at the Zyryanka village near Verkhnevilujsk. The monument has been erected on people’s donations and at the initiative of the diocese of Yakutsk and Lensk and Verkhnevilujsk Mayor V. Sergeyev.

Bishop Zosima said during the opening ceremony, ‘The Zyryanka settlement was built through the efforts of hundreds of exiled people and many of them remained to lie in the Kolyma soil forever. A guarantee of the spiritual rebirth of a people lies in their ability top remember. Today we have restored historical justice towards these people’.

The monument represents a metallic cross crowned with a crown of thorns made of barbed wire. The stones laid in the foundation of the monument were collected in places where labour camps used to be located all along the Kolyma River.

After the blessing of the cross, Bishop Zosima and Mayor Sergeyev agreed to build a church dedicated to Russia’s New Martyrs and Confessors.

From the Yakutsk diocese website