Belarus demolishes crowdfunded crosses at mass grave site People react after authorities in Belarus demolished crosses at a site where thousands were shot during Soviet-era repressions. Kuropaty, a wooded area outside Minsk, is known as a site where the Soviet secret police shot and buried victims of political repressions in the 1930s and 40s. No official memorial marks the site, and 70 large crosses which were erected in the area after a crowdfunded campaign were razed. IMAGES of the area where the crosses were razed and SOUNDBITES from activists