The monument consists of a large boulder brought from the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, where the Solovki prison camp opened in 1923.

[11][12][13] As an artefact from "that very place", keeping in touch with "the spirit of our ancestors", the Solovki Stone symbolizes a pre-Christian idea of continuity and the hereditivity of existence.

[14][15][NB 2] In its designers conception, the stone's rough aesthetics endow it with a "backbone of personality that endures despite confronting faceless evil".

[23] The direct mention of communism as the reason for this catastrophe, believes historian Alexander Etkind, makes the monument of universal significance.

This monument pays tribute to all the victims of purposeless terror, it commemorates our fellow citizens, who suffered from political repression.

During the 1917 October Revolution the buildings of the Museum of Political History of Russia (St. Petersburg) to the north of Troitskaya square housed the Bolshevik authorities, who later headed the coup d'etat and initiated State Terror.

[15][NB 3] To the west, Troitskaya Square adjoins the Peter and Paul Fortress where, since Tsarist times, the Trubetskoy Bastion has been used as a political prison.

[31] In the 1980s, during perestroika, the policy of democratization and a relaxation of censorship finally allowed open discussions of the previously forbidden topic of State Terror.

[33][34][35] In June 1989 the Leningrad branch of the Memorial society called on citizens to create a monument in honour of the victims of political repression.

[35] On 27 March 1990, the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Congress of People's Deputies announced "an open competition on the best concept, location and design offer of a monument in honour of the victims of Stalin's terror".

Instead of the desired monument (which would require serious investments of time and money) a small, temporary sign would be created as a placeholder, the society announced.

This time it considered the demand to widen the monument's message to "condemn all violence and illegality, neglection of political and any other intolerance" without reference to specific historical events.

[37][40] The panel of judges was headed by two persons directly affected by the Red Terror: artist Andrei Mylnikov, whose father was executed in 1918, and art expert Dmitry Likhachov, a survivor of the Solovki camp.

On 3 June 1991, the jury discussed them and selected the proposal of Dmitry Bogomolov which depicted a bronze human figure, crushed and crucified between four rocks.

[38][44][45] In 1996, the municipal authorities announced that they would build a memorial monument based on the ideas of Edward Zaretsky,[46] a Leningrad-based sculptor and a member of local Jewish community.

Zaretsky founded the Tsayar artistic association and went on to create such monuments as that to "Jews who fell victim to political repression" (1997) at the Levashovo Memorial Cemetery.

[47][48] In 1998, Memorial's co-founder Veniamin Joffe publicly criticized the city administration for ignoring the future monument's location during the reburial ceremony of the remains of the last Romanovs, even though the procession passed through Troitskaya Square.

The absolute political terror which arose throughout all our Soviet history resulted in the deaths of people of various confessions: Orthodox Christians, Muslims, practising Jews, Baptists, and even atheists.

[12][51] Petersburg's Solovki Stone was designed by artists Yuly Rybakov and Yevgeny Ukhnalyov (the latter devised Russia's national coat of arms).

NGOs such as Memorial and Civil Control [grazhdanskaya kontrol], and the Union of Right Forces political party, made substantial contributions.

[52][23][31][49] During their expedition to Solovki to select a suitable boulder Rybakov, Ukhnalyov and Flige found a massive granite slab near the former Savvatyev Skethe (hermitage).

Transporting the hefty 10,400 kilograms [22,900 lb] boulder to St. Petersburg was a challenge but they were assisted by local fishermen and industrial workers and by the staff of the Solovki museum.

Every year on 5 September a ceremony remembering and mourning the loss of victims of "Political Repression and the Red Terror" in Soviet Russia takes place near the Solovki Stone.

[42][53] The Solovki Stone has also become a focus for public gatherings variously devoted to the victims of political terror, memorable dates in Russia's history, human rights initiatives and against violence and xenophobia.

The first Saturday in June is a Day in Remembrance of the Victims of the Petrograd and Leningrad Prisons; it takes place near the Solovki Stone,[64] followed in early August by gatherings to mark the beginning of the Great Terror.

[65] On 17 December, the anniversary of the enactment of Stalin's punitive 1933 law against gay people, LGBT activists lay floral tributes on the pedestal of the monument.

There are usually protests each year on 20 December, the "Day of Secret Police Workers" [День работника органов безопасности Российской Федерации].