The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Russia (numbers may be approximate). For massacres that occurred in the Soviet Union, see List of massacres in the Soviet Union:
Pre-Soviet and Soviet Russia NameDateLocationDeathsDescriptionSiege of RyazanDecember 1237RyazanNearly the entire population of Ryazan murderedMongols massacred almost the whole population of Ryazan.Sary-Aka's embassy massacre31 March 1375Nizhny NovgorodunknownSary-Aka along with the rest of his embassy were massacred by the Russians.Siege of KazanSeptember–October 1552Kazan, Khanate of KazanUpwards of 65,000Last battle of the Russo-Kazan Wars where the forces of Tsar Ivan IV (The Terrible) besieged the city of Kazan and killed the city's population once taken. Massacre of Novgorod1570Novgorod2,000-15,000Attack launched by Tsar Ivan IV (The Terrible)'s oprichniki on the city of Novgorod, Russia.Fire of Moscow (1571)May 1571Moscow, Russia10,000-120,000Massacre conducted by Crimean, Nogai and Circassian forces. Copper RiotAugust 4, 1662Moscow, RussiaAround 1,000Muscovites riot and demand that Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich hand over a group of "traitors" thought responsible for economic hardship in the city. Troops under the command of the Tsar put down the riot.Karamirzey MassacreApril 17, 1825Circassia1.700+The destruction of the Circassian village of Karamirzey by the Imperial Russian Army during the Russo-Circassian War. The Russian forces carried out looting, and arson.Bezdna unrestApril 1861Biznä, Kazan Governorate50+Russian troops under the orders of Tsar Alexander II put down a peasant rebellion led by Anton Petrov. The rebels were protesting the details of the Emancipation reform of 1861.Circassian genocide1800s–1870sCircassia1,500,000-2,000,000The Russian Empire ethnically cleansed the Circassian people. The survivors were exiled to the Ottoman Empire. The Circassian genocide is denied by the Russian government.Uprising of Polish political exiles in SiberiaJune 24–28, 1866On the Circumbaikal Highway, south of Lake Baikal300Uprising by Polish Sybiracy in Siberia put down by Russian troops. Leaders of the uprising are all killed.Bloody SundayJanuary 22, 1905Saint Petersburg143–234Protesters led by Russian Orthodox priest George Gapon were fired upon by the Leib Guard as they marched on the Winter Palace to petition Tsar Nicholas II.Lena massacreApril 17, 1912northeast of Bodaybo150–270Shooting of goldfield workers on strike in Siberia.White Terror1917–1923Nationwide20,000-300,000Red Terror1918–19Nationwide50,000-600,000In Crimea alone, 50,000 White PoWs and civilians were executed in 1920. 800,000 Red Army desertees were arrested and many were killed with their families.Tambov Rebellion19 August 1920 – June 1921Tambov Governorate15,000+ (figure of deaths due to execution only)Total of 240,000Sennikov, B.V. (2004). Tambov rebellion and liquidation of peasants in Russia. Moscow: . In Russian. rebels and civilians killed by communist forces.Katyn massacreApril–May 1940Katyn, Tver10,702 Polish military officers and intelligentsia POWs10,702 of the 22,000 victims of the Soviet-perpetrated massacre were murdered in Tver and Katyn.Medvedev Forest massacre11 September 1941Medvedev Forest, near Oryol157Soviet massacre of political prisonersRostov-on-Dov massacre1942–1943Zmievskaya Balka, Rostov-on-Don27,000 Jews and other Soviet CiviliansOrganized by Nazi forces; part of the Holocaust in Russia2 September 1942Nizhny Chir, Stalingrad Oblast47Killing of 47 children with intellectual disabilities organized by Nazi forces30 October 1943, Leningrad Oblast66 Soviet civilians were shot and burned alive by the German Army.27 November 1943, Pskov Oblast280Soviet civilians were burned alive by the German Army.Novocherkassk massacre2 June 1962Novocherkassk26 (officially)Soviet massacre of rallying unarmed civilians.
Post-Soviet Russia
NameDateLocationDeathsDescription1992 Tatarstan shootingApril 29, 1992Kazan, Tatarstan9Andrey Shpagonov killed nine people and wounded another while trying to steal firearms during a robbery. He was sentenced to death and executed in 1995.Vyaznikovsky Colony riotJuly 6–7, 1993Vyaznikovsky District, Vladimir Oblast5Inmates rioted at a maximum security prison outside Moscow, the toll was five dead and 44 wounded1993 Russian constitutional crisisSeptember 21 – October 4, 1993Moscow147437 woundedShali cluster bomb attackJanuary 3, 1995Shali, Chechnya55–100Russian fighter jets dropped cluster munitions on the town of Shali. Targets included a school; cemetery, hospital, fuel station and a collective farm.Samashki massacreApril 7–8, 1995Samashki, Chechnya250+The massacre of 100–300 civilians in the village of Samashki by Russian paramilitary troops.Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis14–19 June 1995Budyonnovsk, Stavropol Krai166Some 200 armed men under the command of Chechen warlords Shamil Basayev, Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev and Aslambek Ismailov occupied key areas of the city of Budyonnovsk. They took hostages and demanded the end of the First Chechen War.Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisisJanuary 9–18, 1996Kizlyar and Pervomayskoye-Sovetskoye, Dagestan26+ Forces led by warlord Salman Raduyev crossed over from Chechnya and took thousands of hostages in Kizlyar. Most were released but at least 26 were killed and some 200 fighters on both sides died during the battle that followed.Shatoy ambushApril 16, 1996Yarysh-mardy, Chechnya100–226Chechen rebels led by Ibn al-Khattab ambushed and massacres a battalion of Russian soldiersKotlyakovskoya Cemetery bombingNovember 10, 1996Moscow14A bomb exploded at a cemetery during a funeral for the president of the Soviet-Afghan war veterans group who had been murdered. The group had ties to organized crime. The assailants were two former members of the group who had formed a splinter group.1996 Kaspiysk bombingNovember 16, 1996Kaspiysk, Dagestan68Chechen terrorists bombed an apartment building killing 68 people including 21 children.Killing of Red Cross workers at Novye AtagiDecember 17, 1996Novye Atagi, Chechnya7Unidentified men stormed a Red Cross facility in the village of Novye Atagi. All 7 killed came from outside Russia and Chechnya.1998 abduction of foreign engineers in ChechnyaOctober 3 – December 8, 1998Grozny, Ichkeria4About 20 Chechen separatists kidnapped four engineers, three British and one New Zealander. The bodies of the engineers were found on 8 December1999 Vladikavkaz bombingMarch 19, 1999Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia–Alania52Four young Chechen men of the Chechen Repiublic of Ichkeria detonated a bomb in a crowded market, killing 52 people. They also committed two other bombings of a Russian military housing complex and a train station and also kidnapped four Russian soldiers later in 1999.Russian apartment bombingsSeptember 4–16, 1999Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk293A number of bombs go off in high rise apartment buildings in three Russian cities. Another bomb was defused in Ryazan. The Russian government blamed the breakaway Republic of Chechnya but a number of conspiracies abound.Tukhchar massacreSeptember 5, 1999Tukhchar, Novolaksky District, Dagestan6Mass execution of POWs by Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, One tape created in September 1999 showed six Russian servicemen, one as young as 19, being executed by Chechen militantsElistanzhi cluster bomb attackOctober 7, 1999Elistanzhi, Chechnya34Two Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-24 use cluster munitions on the remote mountain village of Elistanzhi. The local school is destroyed with 9 children inside.Mikenskaya shootingOctober 8, 1999Mikenskaya, Naursky District, Ichkeria34+Ahmed Ibragimov shot 34 Russian inhabitants and wounded more than 20 othersGrozny ballistic missile attackOctober 21, 1999Grozny, Chechnya118100 plus people die in indiscriminate bombing on the Chechen capital of Grozny by the Strategic Missile Troops.Baku–Rostov highway bombingOctober 29, 1999Shaami Yurt, Chechnya25Low flying Russian Air Force helicopters perform repeated attack runs on a large numbers refugees trying to enter Ingushetia.1999 Grozny refugee convoy shootingDecember 3, 1999Goity, ChechnyaAround 40OMON officers use automatic rifles on a convoy of refugees at a federal roadblock on the road to Ingushetia.Alkhan-Yurt massacreDecember, 1999Alkhan-Yurt, Chechnya17–41Over two weeks drunken Russian troops under the command of General Vladimir Shamanov went on the rampage after taking the town from the forces of Akhmed Zakayev.Staropromyslovski massacreDecember 1999 – January 2000Grozny, Chechnya38–56Summary executions of at least 38 confirmed civilians by Russian federal soldiers in Grozny, Chechnya.Bombing of Katyr-YurtFebruary 4, 2000Katyr-Yurt, Chechnya170–363Indiscriminate bombing by the Russian Air Force of the village of Katyr-Yurt and a refugee convoy under white flags.Novye Aldi massacreFebruary 5, 2000Groznensky District, Chechnya60–82The killings, including executions, of 60 to 82 local civilians by special police unit, OMON, and rapes of at least six women along with arson and robbery in Grozny, Chechnya.Komsomolskoye massacreMarch 20, 2000Komsomolskoye, Chechnya72Chechen combantants who surrendered after the Battle of Komsomolskoye on the public promise of amnesty are killed and "disappeared" shortly after.June 2000 Chechnya suicide bombingsJune 6, 2000Chechnya, North Caucasian Federal District2 — Russia claimed