Today there are cities in which there are huge graves of victims of political repression, while the largest are located in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In the land of Tula such a place became famous Tesnitsky forest.

In 1989, a voluntary Tula "Memorial" has decided to take on the responsibility for disclosure graves of those killed in the period between 1937 and 1938. In mid-1991, it was found that close to the highway, in the woods Tesnitskom, thousands of corpses were found executed. It is known that here in the reign of the Soviet regime were the camps. Immediately began excavations; It found dozens of pits that are completely filled with the bones and the remains of dead things. Public Prosecutor's Office conducted the examination as a result it was found out that these burials are 1937-1938 years. The number of executions has come to around 2, 5 thousand, although this was the approximate number.

The organization "Memorial" held with the support of the re-burial of the regional administration, and not far from the new graves were laid stone (limestone), which became the basis for soon will be a monument - it was August 26, 1994. In early 2011, instead of a piece of limestone was installed a large granite stone, located on a pedestal, on all sides topped with slabs of marble.

In summer 2001, the territory of woods Tesnitskogo held inception Orthodox church New Martyrs and Confessors Russian. In December of the same year the dome with a cross was hoisted into place. Active participation in the process of construction works took Samoshin AA - Deputy of the State Duma. All work was carried out on cash regional enterprises with financial support Ivantsova ME and some others.

The church was built of brick. Winter of 2002 there was a solemn ceremony of consecration of the church. September 16, 2009, Metropolitan Alexy Belevsky and Tula held here the service, and then consecrated the location of the future monument to those killed as a result of political repression.

In 1999, Tula organization "Memorial" published more than five hundred copies of the first volume of the book in memory of the victims of political repression on the territory of Tula region in the period between 1917 and 1987. The basis of the volumes have been put Lists 2, 5000 shot, which were provided by the organization with the support of the regional department of the Federal Security Service.

On the perimeter around the stone today there are several small and large crosses, which were erected in the memory of light buried in these places priests. There is a burial abbot of Optina, Archimandrite Isaac, who was shot in the winter of 1938. Today Isaac canonized as Tula Pylaev Bishop Onesimus, Pribytkov Nikita - Belevsky Bishop Ignatius Sadkovskaya - Skopinsky bishop and a large number of nuns Belevsky monastery.

Obelisks, stone crosses that were put relatives on the perimeter mass grave found during excavations of the three holes, completely filled bones of the victims, are only a small component of this huge cemetery, which keeps the remains of many of our ancestors. On the territory of the church found their peace of thousands of civilians were shot and brought to the land of dead prisoners. Most likely to take a long time until the space is not expanded, because it indicated memorable characters, similar to those available in many places, not only Russia but also Ukraine. Each year, many people come here to honor the memory of innocent victims.