From: Euromaiden Press – Good morning World! Good morning Ukraine!
Today is the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression in Ukraine. It is not an official holiday, but a day of remembrance and prayer, when wreaths are placed at memorial places and religious services are held at churches and special venues all across Ukraine.
On Memorial Day for the Victims of Political Repression, Ukrainians commemorate the men and women murdered by the totalitarian soviet regime.
One of the most tragic memorial sites is located near the former village of Bykivnia, on the outskirts of Kyiv. It is known as the National Historical Memorial Complex Bykivnia Graves, one of the many unmarked mass grave sites where the NKVD (soviet secret police) disposed of thousands of executed “enemies of the state”.
Thousands of Ukrainian intellectuals – writers Mykhailo Semenko, Maik Yohansen, Veronika Chernyakhivska, artists Mykhailo Boychuk, Mykola Kasperovych, academicians Fedir Kozubovsky, Petro Suprunenko, Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Vasyl Lypkivsky, priest-chaplain Andriy Bandera (father of Stepan Bandera, and many other victims of Stalin’s Great terror were killed here.
Items belongings to Polish officers were also found here. It was discovered they belonged to 1940 Katyn massacre victims, when 21.000 Polish officers were executed by NKVD.
It was not until the 1990s that the authorities of independent Ukraine confirmed the burial of thousands of victims. On April 30, 1994, a large memorial to the victims of communism was opened in Bykivnia. Around the same time archaeological works started, with both Ukrainian and Polish scientists taking part. On May 17, 2006, President Viktor Yushchenko inaugurated the National Historical Memorial Complex Bykivnia Graves. He was the first Ukrainian president to take part in the annual Day of Remembrance ceremony on May 21 to honor the victims of the communist regime.
The exact number of dead buried in Bykivnia is unknown. It is estimated between 100,000-200,000.
http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/05/18/mass-graves-exemplify-communist-terror-poroshenko/
Voice of Ukraine 