Kommunarka shooting ground, Execution site in Sosenskoye Settlement, Russia
Kommunarka is a former execution ground with mass graves in Sosenskoye, on the southern edge of Moscow. The wooded grounds enclose several burial zones marked by low crosses and commemorative plaques bearing inscriptions.
The site was the private estate of Genrikh Yagoda, former NKVD chief, until 1937. After his arrest, the secret police used the same estate to carry out executions and bury victims on the grounds between 1937 and 1941.
Visitors encounter a memorial wall listing over six thousand names, including ordinary citizens and high-ranking officials of the Stalin regime. This roll call reveals how arbitrary persecution could be when even secret police staff later lay buried in the grounds they once oversaw.
The grounds are now under Russian Orthodox Church management after transfer from the Federal Security Service in 1999, and remain open to the public for remembrance visits. Visitors should follow the sequence of markers and crosses to locate the different burial areas within the woods.
Archaeological excavations provided precise records of 4,527 victims, making this one of the most thoroughly documented Soviet execution sites. The research allowed individual identification and reconstruction of final days for many of those buried here.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
