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Secondary sourceArtifact1937-1941

Kommunarka shooting ground

1937-1941

A former NKVD execution site and mass grave near Moscow where Kun was shot and buried in 1938 during the Great Purge.

This is the site where Kun was shot and buried in 1938, marking the end of his life in the Great Purge.

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A green-painted wooden gate and fence set between two brick pillars with small caps, opening onto a gravel road through a birch and pine forest. Inside, a wooden cross stands near a small memorial with flowers and a wreath.
Poligon Kommunarka, former NKVD execution site near Moscow. Photograph of the entrance gate.

About this source

What it is

Kommunarka is a former dacha of the secret police chief Genrikh Yagoda, used as an execution site and mass grave from 1937 to 1941. Executions there were carried out by the NKVD, mainly on sentences from the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. Kun was among the prominent Party leaders buried there. The site is shown in a photograph of a green wooden gate and fence opening onto a forest road, with a wooden cross and a small memorial with flowers.

Why it matters

Kommunarka marks the end of Kun's life in the Great Purge. Researchers have identified 4,527 people buried there from the 1990s, and an archaeological survey indicated about 6,600 bodies. The site was used for many prominent Bolsheviks, including Bukharin and Rykov. Its later history shows how the Soviet state concealed these killings for decades before the memorial opened in 2018.

Look closer

  • Why did the NKVD use the word 'firing range' for places like this, and what does that euphemism hide?
  • How did the land's later owners shape what the public was allowed to know about the site?
  • Whose names are included on the memorial, and who was left out of it?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Béla Kun on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Front page of the first issue of the Hungarian newspaper Vörös Ujság, dated Budapest, 1918 December 7, with the masthead 'VÖRÖS ÚJSÁG' and subtitle 'KOMMUNISTA LAP', and a lead editorial titled 'Osztályharcot!' in several columns of Hungarian text.Newspaper article

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Vörös Újság: First Editorial

Béla Kun · 7 December 1918

Spine and cover of a bound book with a dark green spine and grey-brown boards. Gold lettering on the spine reads 'TREATY OF PEACE... HUNGARY' and 'Cmd. 896'. A white library barcode label reads 'DOCS. COLL. CU-1' and 'D001182819'. A Google digitized watermark appears at the lower right.Document

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Treaty of Trianon

4 June 1920

Black and white photograph of a man in a dark suit and vest speaking to a dense crowd of men in hats in front of a building; other men sit on a rooftop and balcony at left and right.Photograph

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Béla Kun, Leader of the 1919 Hungarian Revolution

1919

Photograph of a yellowed Nazi propaganda pamphlet titled 'Die Totengräber Russlands' with a headline 'Nicht wegwerfen!' and 'Weitergeben!'. It has rows of ink caricatures of men's faces with text captions naming Soviet communist leaders, and the slogan 'Vor dem bolschewistischen Chaos bewahrt uns nur Adolf Hitler!' at the bottom. A handwritten note 'März 1937' is at the top left.Photograph

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Die Totengräber Russlands

March 1937

Sepia photograph of a dense crowd of men in hats and coats gathered in a city square in front of a stone building with arched windows. Lamp post and banners rise above them; a large statue on a pedestal stands at right, and a man on the far right holds a flag.Photograph

Primary source

Sándor Garbai and Béla Kun, Leaders of the Hungarian Soviet Republic

1919

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