"Golgofa of Ukraine": The Bykivnya Tragedy

State Enterprise "Ukrainian Studio of Television Films "Ukrtelefilm", 1990.

The documentary TV film "Golgofa of Ukraine", created with the participation of the "Memorial" society, is dedicated to covering the crimes of the Soviet regime in the 1930s in the Bykivnya Forest.

On the video: fragments of interviews and meetings in 1990 — relatives of the repressed tell their family stories, show photographs, documents, read official certificates about the executions; the memorial in Bykivnya, various plans; read documents about the execution of relatives in the Bykivnya Forest; prayer service for the murdered, people pray; witness Mykola Sobkevych tells about the hidden interrogation rooms of the NKVD in Kyiv, where people were tortured.

Comments: head of the "Memorial" society commission in Bykivnya, deputy of the Brovary City Council Mykola Lysenko; witnesses Myroslav Pawlikovsky, Petro Kukovenko, Mykola Sobkevych, Hryhoriy Savysko, Vira Nikitina; People's Deputy of Ukraine Mykhailo Horyn; Deputy Consul General of the Republic of Poland in Warsaw Jacek Wilchur; People's Deputy of Ukraine Les Taniuk; co-chairman of the "Memorial" society Vladlen Kuznetsov; People's Deputy of Ukraine Ivan Drach; priest of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Father Petro.

Director — Rodion Yefimenko.

Reference: The Bykivnya tragedy is one of the greatest crimes of the Stalinist regime in Ukraine. In 1937–1941, the NKVD special site in the Bykivnya forest secretly buried those executed in Kyiv prisons. In 1990, thanks to the initiative of "Memorial", the Soviet authorities officially recognized these crimes for the first time. Today, the National Historical and Memorial Reserve "Bykivnyanski mohyly" is the main place of remembrance of political repression. In 2001–2012, Ukrainian and Polish memorials were created, and since 2022, the creation of the National War Memorial Cemetery is underway.