The Butovskii Shooting Range

The territory of Butovo was ceded in 1934 to the OGPU-NKVD, and in 1936–1937 it was transformed into a killing field. On August 8, 1937, mass executions and burials began there. In contrast to the Kommunarka killing field, where prominent people were executed in larger numbers, non-party members, ordinary workers, peasants, clergymen, and employees of Soviet institutions were sent to Butovo. It was often the case that prisoners from the Taganskaya, Butyrskaya, and Sretenskaya prisons were sent there to be executed. It is also known that 69 juveniles were killed in the so-called Butovskii Polygon. The youngest of them was Misha Shamonin, who was only thirteen years old at the time of his execution.