1941 Incident in a Soviet prison
On July 9, 1941, 193 detainees were shot in Tartu prison and the Gray House courtyard by the Soviet NKVD; their bodies were dumped in makeshift graves and in the prison well.
History.
The victims of the communist repressions of summer 1941 were detained in Tartu prison. During the last days of June 1941, there were 619 prisoners. As the German army approached, steps were taken to empty the prison, but arrests continued, and on 8 July 1941 the prison still held 223 detainees. So at a meeting of the Estonian Communist Party's Tartu-region committee on the demand of local security leader Alfred Pressman (1894–1973) and with the consent of Estonian NKVD Tartu district leader Pavel Afanasjev (1903–1941) and Communist Party secretary Abronov, a decision was reached to execute the prisoners.
Executioners.
Of the six murderers, four were ethnic Estonians, and one was a Peipsi-area Russian. The most notable among them was the local Komsomol activist and later Thaw era deputy minister of interior of the Estonian SSR, Edmund Näär (1920–1973).
References.
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