Mask of Sorrow

Sakha Republic & Magadan Region


Ernst Neizvestny's famous Mask of Sorrow, erected in 1996, is the stark and brutalist concrete rendering of the suffering of the tens of thousands of political prisoners who passed through Kolyma's camps between the early 1930s and the late 1950s. Behind the giant mask made up of dozens of tiny faces kneels a weeping figure beneath a headless person on the cross. It's a deeply moving place, with good views across the town.

A taxi here costs around R200 from the town centre.


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