Mask of grief
The Mask of Mourning ( Russian Маска скорби ) is a 15-meter-high monument in Magadan on Russia's Pacific coast , dedicated to the victims of the Stalinist purges in the Soviet Union who were held in the camps on the Kolyma , a notorious Gulag camp complex .
The sculpture was erected on June 12, 1996 on a mountainside north of the city. In the same year the creator of the statue Ernst Neiswestny (1925-2016), whose parents fell victim to the Stalinist purges of the 1930s, was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation .
The sculpture, cast from concrete , represents a mask, from whose left eye tears flow in the form of smaller masks. The right eye is designed as a barred window. On the back there is a crucified male figure and a bronze statue depicting a grieving young woman.
The monument contains a replica of a typical prison cell from the Stalin era . There is a storm bell at one point on the monument. In front of the mask are eleven concrete blocks that bear the names of the toughest Kolyma camps . Symbols of different faiths are carved on boulders along a staircase.
The mask of mourning was part of a larger project by Neizwestny: a triangle of remembrance was to be created in the cities of Magadan, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk . At first it seemed as if all the sub-projects would be disrupted. However, the work in Yekaterinburg was completed with a considerable delay and was unveiled on November 21, 2017.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Natal'ja Konradova: Search for the form. Gulag monuments in Russia. In: Osteuropa , H. 6-2007, S. 421-430, here S. 423.
- ↑ New monument to Stalin's victims unveiled after 27-year wait . In: The Calvert Journal . ( calvertjournal.com [accessed November 22, 2017]).
Coordinates: 59 ° 35 ′ 30.6 " N , 150 ° 48 ′ 43.7" E