◾ Vladimir Putin at the opening of the "Wall of Sorrow" monument in Moscow, October 30, 2017: "In the history of our country, as in everything else, there are many difficult and contradictory stages. They argue about them, discuss them and offer different approaches to explain certain events. This is a natural process of studying history and searching for the truth. But when we talk about the oppression, death and suffering of millions of people, it is enough to visit the Butovo training ground and other mass graves of the victims of oppression, of which there are many in Russia, to understand that there can be no justification for these crimes." Today is the day of remembrance for the victims of political repression. Only in the years 1936-1938. The authorities of the Soviet Union convicted one million six hundred nineteen thousand Soviet citizens for "counter-revolutionary crimes", of which six hundred eighty two thousand were shot. 65% of the convicts were residents of the RSFSR. The statistics do not take into account the victims of "war communism", expropriation, collectivization and other "excesses" of the communist experiment. Eternal memory.

◾ Vladimir Putin at the opening of the "Wall of Sorrow" monument in Moscow, October 30, 2017: "In the history of our country, as in everything else, there are many difficult and contradictory stages. They argue about them, discuss them and offer different approaches to explain certain events. This is a natural process of studying history and searching for the truth. But when we talk about the oppression, death and suffering of millions of people, it is enough to visit the Butovo training ground and other mass graves of the victims of oppression, of which there are many in Russia, to understand that there can be no justification for these crimes." Today is the day of remembrance for the victims of political repression. Only in the years 1936-1938. The authorities of the Soviet Union convicted one million six hundred nineteen thousand Soviet citizens for "counter-revolutionary crimes", of which six hundred eighty two thousand were shot. 65% of the convicts were residents of the RSFSR. The statistics do not take into account the victims of "war communism", expropriation, collectivization and other "excesses" of the communist experiment. Eternal memory.