2019-11-01
Levashov wasteland - a monument to repressed Baptists
There is a terrible place in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, a place where the entire land is thoroughly saturated with blood ... Bloody battles did not take place here, soldiers did not die here protecting their homeland ...
Tens of thousands of bodies of citizens of St.Petersburg, who were shot in the dungeons of the NKVD in the 1930s were brought here. Representatives of various professions, social groups, nationalities, religions were condemned and deprived of the most valuable thing - life and found peace in the land of the "Levashov Wasteland."
To become a victim of the repressive Soviet machine, it was enough to directly or indirectly be accused of one of these terrible abbreviations:
ASA - anti-Soviet agitation, ASE - anti-Soviet element, VAD - praise of American democracy, SVE - socially harmful element, TH - terroristic intentions, YOU - building anti-Soviet relations, KPM - Counter-revolutionary thinking, RVN - a relative of the enemy of the people, FAT - the wife of the traitor, etc…
Among those repressed and martyred during these years, there were many believers, including Baptists. Moreover, unlike other cases, believers were offered renunciation in exchange for saving their lives. Cases of renunciation are not known.
In September 2019, on the initiative of the unification of the UECB Churches in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, the first monument to the Baptists, victims of repression, was erected in Russia.
On October 25-26, 2019, many of the participants in the conference “Church Affecting Society” visited the Levashov Memorial Cemetery. Pastor and poet Alexander Goryanin, whose relatives were repressed and buried in this land, read verses specially written for the opening of the monument. Then the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee” was sung, during which it was difficult to hold back tears. The sad meeting ended with fervent prayer!
These dramatic excursions left no one indifferent, forcing everyone to think about the most important thing: Dying for Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice and demonstration of faith. Such terrible events should not be forgotten, and the names of the martyred brothers and sisters in Christ should be deeply imprinted in the hearts of present and future generations of Christians.
