Monument to Red Army Soldiers and Red Partisans (Taman)

The Monument to Red Army Soldiers and Red Partisans is a Civil War mass grave on the high shore of Taman Bay, at the eastern edge of the stanitsa of Taman in the Temryuk District of Krasnodar Krai. It holds people shot by the Whites between 1917 and 1920.

History

The site is linked to the Civil War on the Taman Peninsula. According to local sources, the White forces executed dozens of people on this shore: Red Army soldiers, red partisans and others who refused to accept White rule. The dead were buried in a common grave above the bay, and a monument was later placed over it.

The number of victims and their names are not given in the available descriptions. The dates on the monument cover the whole war in the Kuban, from 1917 to 1920, so the grave probably commemorates several killings of those years rather than a single day.

What to see

The monument is low and modest. It is topped with a red five-pointed star, and a plaque reads in gold letters: "To the Red Army soldiers and red partisans shot during the Civil War of 1917–1920."

A Garden of Memory has been planted next to the mass grave in Taman: trees with broad umbrella-shaped crowns and weeping branches.

The monument stands right above the water, on the steep shore of Taman Bay, away from the centre of the stanitsa.

Getting there

The memorial stands at the entrance to Taman from the Sennoy–Taman road. The landmark is a large worship cross at the entrance to the stanitsa: the monument to the red partisans is a little to the side of it, closer to the shore of the bay. It is easiest to come by car or walk from the eastern edge of the stanitsa.

Good to know

The mass grave remains a place of remembrance, so quiet behaviour is appropriate.

A visit is easy to combine with other sights of Taman: the Lermontov House Museum and the excavations of ancient Hermonassa on the shore of the same bay.