Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Patriarch Kirill attend a ceremony to unveil the country's first national memorial to victims of Soviet-era political repressions on October 30.
BBC: Wall of Grief: Putin opens first Soviet victims memorial
President Vladimir Putin has unveiled Russia's first monument to people killed in political repression under Communist dictator Joseph Stalin.
At least 750,000 people were executed and millions deported or imprisoned under Stalin's rule from the 1920s to the 1950s in the Soviet Union.
Mr Putin said seeing the era clearly would help "prevent it being repeated."
But critics accused him of continuing political repression and "crushing civil freedoms".
Wall of Grief: Russia remembers victims of Soviet repression
A group of dissidents from the Soviet era wrote to a news website that they considered the event to be "untimely and cynical".
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WNU Editor: This monument should have been unveiled on or near Red Square. Maybe the next one.
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Wall of Grief: Russia remembers victims of Soviet repression -- BBC