The Secrets of Tatarka: Remembering Victims of Communist Terror
In the southern outskirts of Odessa, near the 6th kilometer of the Ovidiopol road, lies one of the most terrifying secrets of the 20th century – the NKVD special object "Tatarka," a site of mass graves for victims of communist terror. This is reported by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory in Odessa.
In the 1930s and 1940s, punitive units of the NKVD operated here. People were brought here after night arrests, shot, and buried without a cross, without a name, and without the right to memory.
"This is Ukraine's Bykivnia in Odessa – a death site that Moscow tried to erase from memory," experts state.
In 2007, over 1,000 bodies of victims from the mass shootings of 1937-1938 were discovered here for the first time.
In 2021, during research by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory and volunteer historians, 29 grave sites with human remains were found. The total number of buried individuals is estimated to be between several thousand and 8,000.
"Among the dead are peasants, teachers, military personnel, priests, Poles, Bulgarians, Jews, Ukrainians… All those who opposed Soviet power with their intellect, faith, or simply freedom of thought. The 'Tatarka' case is not unique. Similar tragedies occurred in Bykivnia near Kyiv, in Vinnytsia, and in Kharkiv. However, the Odessa burial site is one of the largest in southern Ukraine. Here, where once the trade routes passed, lie the nameless martyrs of the Ukrainian people," scholars write.
Archaeologists, historians, and forensic experts are already calling for large-scale DNA identification and the creation of a memorial. They insist that this is not just excavation – it is a return of names.
"Each bone found is evidence of a crime that Moscow has concealed for decades. Odessa must remember. It is a city that witnessed the darkest pages of totalitarianism. Here, Ukrainians were killed for their language, faith, and for refusing to be slaves of the empire. And today, as Russia again brings terror to Ukraine, we must loudly declare: 'We know our executioners. And we know our martyrs.' Memory is our weapon against oblivion.
We cannot bring back life, but we can restore dignity.
These sites must become national memorials, places of historical education and commemoration – not only for Ukraine but for the world," historians are convinced.
