The outlet reported that law enforcement and municipal services have completely dismantled the Square of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression, erected in 1992.

The demolition work included its key monument, the "Stone of Sorrow," dedicated to the victims of Bolshevik terror, torn down, along with several other national memorials, sparking a wave of outrage among the few remaining activists.

Belarusian independent TV Belsat reported the demolition also saw the removal of a memorial stone to deported Estonians, and similar stones commemorating national minorities who suffered in the Soviet deportations, including Latvians, Lithuanians and Poles.

Russia. Another monument to victims of political repression has disappeared, including Polish people.

In Tomsk, a monument to victims of political repression has been dismantled at Memorial Square.

Workers removed the main monument and other memorial stones erected in honor of… pic.twitter.com/pDY6PyPY4s

— Belsat in English (@Belsat_Eng) April 19, 2026

While ua.news reported the true goal of the campaign is clearly to erase historical memory of the crimes of the Soviet regime, which in many ways echo the actions of the current Kremlin, the official explanations are ever-changing and absurd.

Initially, Tomsk City Hall stated that the square was closed due to the risk of a nearby private garage "collapsing," later replacing this statement with a version citing "measures against landslides." Tomsk is located on the mostly low-lying Western Siberian plain.

Local activists emphasized the garage is located 50 meters from the monuments and could in no way pose a threat to the memorial, while Ksenia Fadeeva, who previously headed up dissident Alexei Navalny's campaign office in the city, suggested that the authorities deleted the first post after realizing the asininity of the garage explanation.

In any case, work began on Sunday morning, when the square was reportedly cordoned off with a fence; heavy machinery soon moved in to carry out the destruction work. Eyewitnesses said this involved the complete demolition of the entire site, not mere cosmetic repairs or restoration.

Witnesses said Russian security forces were also on site, barring entry to the area, demanding the passport details of anyone approaching the park, and banning photography. They also demanded that people delete photos from their devices.

Tomsk's Memorial Square was opened on October 25, 1992, at the initiative of the city authorities and the local memorial society.

Deportations from Estonia to Siberia and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union were carried out by the occupying Soviet regime and happened in two main waves.

The first was in June 1941, followed by another in March 1949, which combined saw tens of thousands of people displaced, on top of the tens of thousands more who had been displaced by fleeing to the west.

Deportations involving smaller numbers of people continued right through to the death of Stalin.

Several camps in the Gulag system were situated in the vicinity of Tomsk.

Foreign minister: Deliberate attempt to erase historical memory

Estonia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna (Eesti 200) said the action was "unacceptable and impermissible." 

"This is a deliberate attempt to erase history and silence the memory of millions who suffered. But memory cannot be erased. Such actions are a direct affront to Estonians who fell victim to Soviet terror there," he said in a statement.

The minister highlighted that the site was dedicated to Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Polish victims of Stalinist repression who were killed in Tomsk by the NKVD during the years of Soviet terror.

He continued: "Distorting history and destroying memorial sites does not erase the past. Such an act clearly demonstrates the Russian ruling elite's disregard for human dignity and the truth. Estonia demands that these memorial sites be restored and that Russia put an end to the deliberate destruction of historical memory."

Russia's closure of the Soviet repression victims' memorial site in Tomsk, and the removal of the "Grieving Stone," is a deliberate attempt to erase history and silence millions of victims of repression.
Memory cannot be destroyed.
This act insults Estonians and all who… pic.twitter.com/f0JqOUJ3f6

— Margus Tsahkna (@Tsahkna) April 21, 2026

This article was updated to add comments from Margus Tsahkna.

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