Commemorating political repression, Songhinhairhan district, Ulaanbaatar.

The monument marking the grave (and execution site) of twelve high-ranking officials killed after the first major show trial in October, 1937. The monument is in a valley in the mountains west of central Ulaanbaatar. The route there is unmarked, and the monument is largely unvisited. Government officials visit in on September 10, but when I visited it in early December, 1999, the snow, which had been there for at least a month, was still undisturbed. Even the historian who took us there had to stop and ask for directions.

The memorial is engraved with the names of those who were killed, but these can't be seen in the photo because of the sun and the time of day when we visited.