Butovo Firing Range or Butovo Shooting Range , ( Russian : Бутовский полигон ) is a former private estate near the village of Drozhzhino ( Russian : Дрожжино ) in Leninsky District of Moscow Oblast , near Yuzhnoye Butovo District of Moscow that was seized by the Soviets after the 1917 revolution and thereafter used by secret police as an agricultural colony , shooting range , and from 1938 to 1953 , as a site for executions and mass graves of persons deemed " enemies of the people . " The exact number of victims executed remains unknown , as only fragmentary data has been declassified by NKVD 's successor services . However , between 1937 and 1938 , the height of Josef Stalin 's Great Terror , 20,761 prisoners were transported to the site and executed , typically by gunshot to the back of the head . Notable victims included Béla Kun , Gustav Klutsis , Seraphim Chichagov , as well as over 1000 members of the Russian Orthodox clergy . The Russian Orthodox Church took over the ownership of the lot in 1995 and erected a large Russian Revival memorial church . The mass grave may be visited daily
Great Terror
Great Purge
Butovo firing range