Kurapaty (
Belarusian: , IPA:
[kuraˈpatɨ]) is a wooded area on the outskirts of
Minsk,
Belarus, in which a vast number of people were executed between 1937 and 1941 during the
Great Purge by the
Soviet secret police, the
NKVD.
The exact count of victims is uncertain,
NKVD archives are classified in Belarus.
[1] According to various sources the number of people who perished in Kurapaty is estimated to be the following: up to 7,000 people (according to attorney general of Belarus Bozhelko),
[2] at least 30,000 people (according to attorney general of BSSR Tarnaŭski), up to 100,000 people (according to “Belarus” reference book),
[1][3] from 102,000 to 250,000 people (according to the article by
Zianon Pazniak in “Litaratura i mastactva” newspaper),
[4][5] 250,000 people (according to Polish historian and professor of
University of Wrocław Zdzisław Julian Winnicki),
[6] and more (according to the British historian
Norman Davies).
[7]
In 2004 Kurapaty were included in the register of the
Cultural Properties of Belarus as a first-category
cultural heritage.
[8]
