Cause of Death: Execution by Shooting

Cause of Death: Execution by Shooting

This is the death certificate of my great-grandfather —

Oleksandr Ivanovych Gass.

The document states:

29 September 1938.

Place of death — Kharkiv.

Cause of death — execution by shooting.

The certificate was issued on 15 June 1994 by the Kharkiv City Civil Registry Office.

There are 56 years between the date of death and the date of issuance.

For decades, the family had no official confirmation of the circumstances of his death.

There was no civil record.

No legally recorded cause of death.

In the 1990s, after the archives of the repressed were opened, it became possible to obtain documents that had long remained inaccessible.

It was during that period that this certificate was issued.

In the line “Cause of Death,” there is one word — “execution.”

This document does not restore a life.

It does not erase years of silence.

It does not undo the fear the family endured.

But it establishes a fact.

And records it officially.

I publish this certificate as part of our family archive.

As documentary evidence of the events of 1938.

As a reminder that history consists of specific names and specific dates.