Explore the Inscriptions and location of this artwork.
The monument also conveys its meaning through the inscriptions on the pedestal.Its north face reads, "To the inmates of the Gulag" [Узникам ГУЛАГа]; the  west face reads, "To those who fight for freedom" [Борцам за свободу]; and the east face reads "To the Victims of Communist Terror" [Жертвам коммунистического террора]. The south face carries words from Anna Akhmatova's long poem Requiem: "I would like to recall them all by name". The monument does not list any names, because not all the victims are yet known. Yuly Rybakov, one of the designers, consider the western insscription the most important because it commemorates not only the victims, but also all who have fought against the repressive system. The lines on the east face explicitly name those responsible for the terror, a rare thing among similar monuments in Russia. The direct mention of communism as the reason for this catastrophe, believes historian Alexander Etkind, makes the monument of universal significance. The text on the Solovki Stone says nothing about its background. Its authors believe this should stir the interest of passers-by and make them curious to find out more.The monument is dedicated to all who were "shot, arrested, exiled, banned, broken by the Communist regime—whose graves are lost and fate unknown". The Memorial Society in St Petersburg, which initiated and sponsored the monument's creation, offered the following description of its significance:"This monument is a gift to the city on its 300th Anniversary from former political prisoners, who treasure freedom and human dignity more than personal safety and well-being. The Solovetsky Stone in Troitskaya Square is the symbol of free social thoughts, political and civic liberties. This monument pays tribute to all the victims of purposeless terror, it commemorates our fellow citizens, who suffered from political repression. It honors those who fought for human dignity among triumphant cruelty and didn't succumb to evil, preserving inner personal freedom and remained human in an inhuman world. This monument shows how a strong individual can overcome the totalitarian regime; it rejects violence and xenophobia. We live in an unstable country, which cannot guard our rights and freedom. So let this stone serve our freedom."			
			
		
		
			
			
		
		
			
			
		
		
			
			
		
The location of the Solovki Stone is itself significant. 
The "Former Political Convicts" Residential Home (FPCRH) standing in front of the monument was built by the Soviet government in the early 1930s. It was intended for the revolutionaries and political activists, persecuted by the State police in Imperial Russia. Ironically, many inhabitants of the FPCRH fell victims of the  Great Terror in 1937–1938. During the 1917 October Revolution the buildings of the Museum of Political History of Russia (St. Petersburg) to the north of Troitskaya square housed the Bolshevik authorities, who later headed the coup d'etat and initiated State Terror. On the Field of Mars across the Neva there is a memorial necropolis, dedicated to the revolutionaries of 1917. This proximity is a vivid illustration, historian Zuzanna Bogumil believes, of the way in which "the revolution devours its children". Across the Neva to the east is the Bolshoy Dom. The headquarters of the NKVD was built in the 1930s: today it houses its successor, the FSB. To the west, Troitskaya Square adjoins the Peter and Paul Fortress where, since Tsarist times, the Trubetskoy Bastion has been used as a political prison. After the revolution, the Soviet government incarcerated political prisoners here, and it would later become the first location of the Great Terror. A mass grave was discovered beneath the Golovkin Bastion of the fortress in 2007. It contained the bodies of victims of the Red Terror, perhaps even four of the Grand Dukes of Russia. In 2003 the Holy Trinity Chapel was built northeast of the Solovki Stone, and marks the location of the Old Trinity Cathedral. The Cathedral was demolished in 1933 during the antireligious campaign of the Soviet Government.The Trinity [Troitskaya] Square, furthermore, is the oldest administrative centre of St. Petersburg. Peter the Great, Zuzanna Bogumil reminds us, established the city and commanded that it develop, no matter what the human cost. Therefore, the Solovki Stone also epitomises the problem throughout Russian history of the inhuman treatment people have received.
Solovetsky Stone Anna Akhmatova's Russian Museum of Political History of Russia Gulag Alexander Etkind Old Trinity Cathedral October Revolution mass grave FSB right Great Terror Peter the Great Anna Akhmatova Memorial political repression Museum of Political History of Russia (St. Petersburg) xenophobia Neva Field of Mars  Great Terror Museum of Political History Bolshoy Dom Peter and Paul Fortress Cathedral Trinity Chapel revolutionaries antireligious campaign State police NKVD Yuly Rybakov