In Norilsk, at the foot of Schmidt's Mountain (named after the 19th century geologist), there is a cemetery for the victims of the Norillag, a complex of gulags created and managed by the NKVD. These camps housed prisoners and exiles of various nationalities, including Lithuanians, Latvians and Poles. The cemetery does not exist today, having been razed to the ground. It is known that the deceased Lagers were buried in various places in and around Norilsk - not only in the aforementioned cemetery, but sometimes at the workplace where they died.
In the 1990s, a commemoration appeared in the non-existent cemetery - former prisoners from Lithuania and Latvia erected two wooden crosses, and on the initiative of the Russian association Memorial, an Orthodox chapel was set up and a grave topped by a wooden Orthodox cross was piled up, in which the remains washed away by water flowing down from the top of the mountain were deposited. In 1993, it was planned to erect a memorial to the Poles buried here, but the idea was not realised. In 1996, Barbara and Jerzy Bijak from Warsaw erected a memorial to the victims of the Norilsk gulags with their own money. The design of the memorial was made by Stanisław Gierada. The monument was consecrated on 28.07.1996 by the pastor of the Krasnoyarsk parish, in the presence of the Orthodox clergyman of Norilsk. The monument has a dynamic form - there are railway tracks rising to the sky to a height of 12 m, small crosses and railway sleepers are attached to them with chains, small plaques with the established data of the victims are placed on the sleepers. The inscription reads: "And if I forget them, you God in heaven forget me. / To the memory of all the Poles who remained in this land. May they rest in peace. Compatriots." In 2001, the commemoration was completed - 6 plaques with 92 names of Polish prisoners of war were placed on one of its sides.

Compiled by T. Zachara / MKiDN, VI 2025

Teresa Zachara (MKiDN)