NKVD prisoner massacre in Tartu

1941 Incident in a Soviet prison

NKVD prisoner massacre in Tartu
Part of the NKVD prisoner massacres and the first Soviet occupation of the Baltic states
Corpses of the massacre's victims
Location	Tartu, Estonia
Date	July 9, 1941 (EET)
Target	Estonian prisoners
Attack type	Massacre, war crime
Deaths	193
Perpetrators	NKVD

On July 9, 1941, 193 detainees were shot in Tartu prison and the Gray House courtyard^[1]^[2] by the Soviet NKVD; their bodies were dumped in makeshift graves and in the prison well.^[3]

History

The victims of the communist repressions of summer 1941 were detained in Tartu prison. During the last days of June 1941, there were 619 prisoners. As the German army approached, steps were taken to empty the prison, but arrests continued, and on 8 July 1941 the prison still held 223 detainees. So at a meeting of the Estonian Communist Party's Tartu-region committee on the demand of local security leader Alfred Pressman (1894–1973) and with the consent of Estonian NKVD Tartu district leader Pavel Afanasjev (1903–1941) and Communist Party secretary Abronov, a decision was reached to execute the prisoners.^[4]

Executioners

Of the six murderers, four were ethnic Estonians, and one was a Peipsi-area Russian. The most notable among them was the local Komsomol activist and later Thaw era deputy minister of interior of the Estonian SSR, Edmund Näär (1920–1973).

References

^ Alexander Statiev (2010). The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands. Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN 978-0521768337. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
^ M. Laar (1992). War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944-1956. Howells House. ISBN 0929590082. Retrieved January 3, 2024.
^ Museum of KGB Cells
^ Antoniuse Õue verine punaminevik