"A traditional mourning march was held in the town of Cherven, the Minsk region, on June 27 [1999] to commemorate hundreds of Lithuanians, Poles, and Belarusians who had been executed by the NKVD (the Soviet police) there 58 years before. The Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) was among the organizers of this year's march. A large delegation, which consisted of members of the Lithuanian Seimas, survivors of Soviet prisons and relatives of victims of Stalinist terror, arrived from Lithuania on three buses. Ioanna Januszczak, a survivor of the Cherven massacre, came from Poland to participate in this year's commemorative event. Not long ago she published a book titled Path of Death: Minsk -- Cherven. June 24-27, 1941."
"Well-known Belarusian artist and BPF member Mikola Kupava, Ioanna Januszczak, and Lithuanian parliamentarians Jozas Oliakas and Kazis Bobialis were among the speakers at rallies held at each of the four memorials on June 26. The speakers condemned any manifestation of totalitarianism and dictatorship in the contemporary world."
"According to Ms. Januszczak, immediately after the Nazis launched an offensive against the USSR, some 5,000 people from prisons in Minsk, Vileika, Kaunas, and other cities were crowded together and began being driven to the east. In Cherven, the women and most of those who had served terms for criminal offenses were separated from the crowd and the others, political prisoners, were executed by NKVD firing squads 2-3 kilometers from the town. Those who remained alive after the firing were killed by shovels, testifies Ms. Januszczak. Only a few people survived."
"The first memorial to the victims of the massacre appeared at Cherven in 1991. Since then, annual commemorative events has been organized there on June 26. A new monument, Mourning Angel, was unveiled this year [1999]. The statue had been made of wood by Cherven-based artist Gennady Matusevich."
That Web site notes that Cherven was known as Igumen until 1920.