In the area of the Rada colony station near Tambov there is a gulag cemetery where the prisoners of the NKVD-MVD camp No. 188 were buried. It was situated in the wasteland of the forest, set aside by the Tambov City Council to bury the dead prisoners of war. The necropolis is located in the area of the 37th forest quarter, about 3.5 km south-west of the Rada colony station near Tambov and about 2 km south of the intersection of the Southeastern Railway Line and the forest road. This cemetery was established in September 1943 and functioned until 31.08.1945. At least 2,831 people of various nationalities (Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Dutch, Luxembourgers, Czechs, Yugoslavs, Austrians, Romanians, Hungarians, Poles, Danes and Norwegians) who died in Gulag No. 188 and in its affiliated special hospital No. 5951 were buried there. The deceased prisoners of war were buried in mass graves. There are 55 such graves in the cemetery, which occupies a 300 x 300 m square. The names of 7 Poles buried here are known, they are: Karol Barkowski, Franciszek Biwałoc, Karol Bublicki, Bronisław Chajnc, Karol Drowa, Antoni Sinarski and Józef Szantknich. The records of Gulag No. 188 do not retain any data on those who died between September 1943 and April 1944, so the number of those buried may be higher. There is no information in the documentation about the fate of the cemetery immediately after its official closure - it is not known when exactly this happened. From the report of a survey of the cemetery carried out on 20.04.1967 in connection with the search for the graves of the French who died in the gulags, it appears that the necropolis was in poor condition, but the contours of the graves and grave markers had been preserved, so that the cemetery was suitable for restoration.
In autumn 1997, restoration work and construction of a memorial to the victims of totalitarianism of various nationalities began at the cemetery. The cemetery was restored by the Association "War Memorials" and the People's Association for the Care of German War Graves in Kassel. On 8.08.1998 a ceremony was held to unveil the restored cemetery.
Right next to it is a second cemetery where 103 people who died in the special hospital No. 5951 were buried. The documents of this cemetery do not contain information about Polish burials.

Compiled by T. Zachara / MKiDN, VIII 2025