Construction of a road near the Russian Far Eastern town of Vladivostok has ground to a halt after a mass grave was found in its path, the head of a local construction company said.
Viktor Grebnev said the first bones were found in late fall 2009. There is already a memorial to the victims of Stalin's repression not far from the site.
"Construction at the site has stopped. The uncovered remains have been transferred to special containers. Now we are waiting for the earth to thaw so the remaining fragments can be carefully removed from the ground," he said.
According to eyewitnesses, bones and skulls can still be seen on the surface of the earth at the construction site.
"There are barracks where political prisoners were held several kilometers away from the site," local historian Viktor Shalai said, adding that the uncovered bodies could have starved or been worked to death.
A spokesman from the construction company said the company was leaving the site for experts to investigate.
"Judging by photographs from the construction site near the memorial [...] a mass grave of executed people has been uncovered. It's hard to judge the scale of the grave from the photographs. Experts must carry out a thorough, competent and, most importantly, ethical investigation."
During the Stalinist purges millions of people were executed on fake charges of espionage, sabotage, anti-Soviet propaganda or died of starvation, disease or exposure in Gulag labor camps in Siberia and the Far East. According to official statistics, 52 million were convicted on political charges during Stalin's regime.
VLADIVOSTOK, April 12 (RIA Novosti)
