“In this grave we found corpses
with, variously, entrails ripped out, no limbs remaining (as
though the bodies had literally been chopped up), eyes
gouged out, and heads and necks and faces and trunks
all studded with stab wounds. Again, we found a body
which had had a pointed stake driven through its chest,
whilst in several cases the tongue was missing. And placed
together in one corner of the grave we found a medley
of detached arms and legs, as well as, near the garden
fence, some corpses which bore no sign at all of death
by violence. It was only a few days later that, on these
unmarked bodies being subjected to post-mortem examination tion, our doctor discovered their mouths and throats and
lungs to be ehoked with earth. Clearly the unfortunate
wretehes had been buried alive, and drawn the earth into
their respiratory organs through their desperate efforts to
breathe. And it was persons of all ages and of both sexes -
old, and middle-aged, and women and children that we
found in the grave”
-THE RED TERROR IN RUSSIA
BY
SERGEY PETROVICH MELGOUNOV (1925)