July 1, 2010

Letter from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation addressed a letter to the Wallenberg Foundation regarding the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, following a letter to the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev. The translation into English is posted below along with the original in Russian.

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation
The Department of Registry and Archive Documents
18.06.2010 No.10/C-713
Dear Mr. Tenembaum!

Your address to the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev dated 2 April 2010 was dealt with at the Department of Registry and Archive Documents of FSB, on the instruction of the FSB leaders.

We can inform you that the search of the materials concerning the place of burial of R. Wallengerg was carried out in 1991-2001 during the work of the Joint Russian-Swedish Commission which was researching the documents in the FSB Central Archives related to R. Wallenberg. However no documents related to the place of burial had been found. Moreover, there are practically no documents relating to Langfelder. That is why the circumstances of the death and places of burial of Wallenberg and Langfelder remained among unanswered questions in the Commission’s report.

The publications on the history of mass terror in the USSR, on the basis of analysis of various archive documents, made a conclusion that as a rule, the bodies of those who had been executed and died in Moscow prisons were cremated and buried at the Donskoy cemetery in Moscow. A memorial complex has been erected there to commemorate the victims of the political terror of the Soviet era. A grey plaque is set on the path leading to the memorial with the following sign:” A Common Grave of the ashes 1945-1989”. Some researchers suggest with a large measure of certainty that the remains of Wallenberg and Langfelder are also buried there.

It is virtually impossible to find the documents now which would shed the light to the circumstances of the death and the place of burial of both Wallenberg’s and Langfelder’s remains.

However the Russian side, in cooperation with the representatives of the Swedish government, is prepared to provide the necessary assistance to the researchers who continue the search of the evidence which would shed light to the fate of the Swedish diplomat.

With Respect

B.S. Khristophorov
Head of the Department

Original Russian version