Monument to Victims of Political Repressions, Memorial monument on Voskresenskaya Embankment, Russia.

The Monument to Victims of Political Repressions consists of two bronze sphinxes on granite pedestals along the Neva River in Saint Petersburg. Each sphinx displays a young face on one side and skeletal features on the other, contrasting life and death.

The memorial opened on 28 April 1995 at the initiative of sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin and the city authorities. It stands on the Voskresenskaya Embankment opposite Kresty Prison, where many political prisoners were held, and near the KGB's Bolshoy Dom on Liteyny Prospekt. Since 1988, flowers have been laid on the water between the prison and the Bolshoy Dom on the first Saturday of June.

The granite plinths carry plaques with texts by writers and dissidents about Soviet repressions. The monument's original name was "Metaphysical Sphinxes". Since 1988, on the first Saturday of June, flowers are laid on the water between the Bolshoy Dom and Kresty, recalling prisoners' blood said to have flowed into the Neva.

The memorial stands on Voskresenskaya Embankment at the descent to the Neva, directly across the river from the Kresty prison building. The nearest metro is Chernyshevskaya; from there walk along Prospekt Chernyshevskogo to the embankment. The granite cross between the sphinxes faces the water, so approach from the embankment side to read the plaques around the plinths.

The granite cross between the sphinxes is fitted with a crown of thorns made of barbed wire, a detail many visitors miss. Its form echoes an early Christian cross with a prison window cut into the stone.