Loshytsky Yar

In 1920, the land and palace of the former Loshitsa estate of the Lubansky family were nationalized by Soviet authorities. Later, part of the grounds was transferred to an agricultural institute, while the northern section, where the nobility's residence stood, remained under the control of the security services.

It was in the 1920s that this became a training base for Soviet diversion teams and intelligence operatives destined for underground anti-Polish activity. Diversion groups were transferred across the Soviet-Polish border, which ran near Minsk, to the territory of Western Belarus. Later the base was disbanded. In the early 1930s, the manor building housed the Minsk school of the Communist Party of Western Belarus.

The first documented executions in Loshitsa occurred in 1919, recorded by the Polish-American Commission investigating Bolshevik crimes. Over the following years, murders continued in the Loshitsa (or 'Black') gully — near the bend of the Chervensky Trakt, where the junction of Mayakovsky and Chyzhevskikh streets now stands.

During the German occupation, the manor was taken over by the Minsk district commissioner. At that time an unknown number of Jews and partisans were shot and buried at Loshitsa, though they were buried in a different location.

In 1988, when excavations of mass graves began at Kurapaty, archaeologist and future politician Zianon Pazniak set out to find other similar sites. He found witnesses to the shootings at Loshitsa. Elderly residents recounted that people were brought in trucks at dawn, executed by NKVD operatives, and sometimes by local 'volunteers' and Komsomol members.

In one of his articles, Pazniak described the events that took place at Loshitsa as follows: 'People were brought in 'khapu' vans and sometimes in cargo trucks, bound and under guard. Usually they arrived early in the morning (around 5-6 AM) on several vehicles and were shot immediately. Some Loshitsa guards told me in the 1980s that they witnessed both the transport and the executions. The condemned were poorly dressed, ordinary people. Individual cases were also documented in which local Komsomol members, NKVD operatives, and Loshitsa thugs participated in shooting "enemies of the people" here in the Loshitsa gully. They volunteered to shoot, and were paid 50 kopecks per shot (apparently that was the rate).'

According to accounts, people were executed almost daily in the Loshitsa gully in 1937. The number killed there is unknown. Zianon Pazniak estimates it at around 7,000-10,000.

When Pazniak returned after the Kurapaty excavations to begin digging at the Black gully, he found the terrain completely altered. Local authorities had filled the area with soil to build a garage cooperative there. An attempt to excavate the added soil and reach possible graves failed. Later city authorities tried to destroy the gully entirely by laying a road through it, but public pressure prevented this.

In 1995, with the efforts of the Belarusian People's Front and the 'Martyrolog of Belarus' association, a memorial wooden cross 5 meters high with the inscription 'To the Victims of Bolshevik Terror' was erected in the Black gully area. It was designed by artist Mykola Kupava. For many years memorial services were held there on Dzyady (Commemoration Day). However, in November 2024 it became known that the memorial cross disappeared from the gully.

Another cross bearing the inscription 'To Those Tortured for Belarus' stood for a long time on the ruins of a chapel in Loshitsa Park itself, near the main alley.

It is worth noting that in 2018, in Loshitsa Park, on the centenary of Belarusian criminal investigation, a memorial marker and alley were erected. They were created in memory of the first Soviet security operatives and mockery of their victims.