Azerbaijan, Baku, May 31 / Trend E. Ostapenko /
Kazakhstan marks the Memory Day of Victims of Political Repression on May 31. Their number in the former Soviet Union amounted to about 4 million people.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev addressed the participants of the events in the country on the occasion of a memorable day.
"The memory of the millions of people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds, those who got into the totalitarian system, innocently convicted for dissent, those who died in the Gulag dungeons and ruthlessly driven away from their native land was always and will be sacred for us, citizens of a free, independent Kazakhstan," the president's statement posted on the official website of Ak-Orda said.
The Memory Day of Victims of Political Repression has been marked in Kazakhstan since 1997 according to the presidential decree.
"We conduct the large-scale work in the name of justice in Kazakhstan," he said. "About 14 "Books of sorrow" were published over the years of independence. The names of almost 146,500 innocent compatriots were included in these books. In accordance with the legislation, more than 340,000 illegally repressed citizens were rehabilitated."
Hundreds of thousands of innocent people were deported to Kazakhstan in 1920-1950s. According to the experts, about 3.77 million people became the victims of Stalinist repression in the Soviet Union.
"Dozens of memorials were erected in the burial places of the victims of totalitarianism," he said. "There are memorial complexes on the territory of the former Gulag camps. Today, their number has increased by a new Museum of Memory of Victims of Political Repression, established on the area of the notorious Karlag."
"All this helps us realize the harsh lessons of the past and commits to do everything to prevent the recurrence of such tragedies in modern and future history of mankind," the statement says.
The social events will be held on the occasion of the memorable day in Kazakhstan. The events include the wreath-laying ceremony at the museum and memorial complex of the victims of political repression and totalitarianism "Algeria", opening of the plaque from the Azerbaijani Embassy, as well as the scientific-practical conference on "Political repression in Kazakhstan in 1920-1930 of XX century: History and destiny."