Backyard bones of Stalin victims leads government to do nothing

A few months ago, Kvasha decided to extend his house. When he started digging the foundations, he made a gruesome discovery. He found bones: skulls, arms, legs, ribcages. He kept digging up more. There are now more than 10 sacks of them in his garden — the remains of more than 60 people. "First I dug up one skull, then another, then it just didn't stop," he said.

In far-off Blagoveshchensk, Vitaly Kvasha says that, although he informed the authorities, they're reluctant to deal with this evidence of the country's history. He has repeatedly asked the municipality not to leave him to deal with the grisly find all on his own. "For a whole year I kept asking the authorities for help," he explains. "They said they didn't have either the money or the personnel. The only thing they did promise me was that they would come and pick up the remains. But I would have to dig them out myself."

Meanwhile, a private funeral parlor has helped to ensure that at least a few of the victims have found a final resting place — in the local cemetery. But Kvasha laments the fact that their graves are marked only by a small metal plate with a number engraved on it. They have been denied their names, and their dignity.

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-victims-of-stalin-era-purges-unearthed-in-siberia/a-51058957