In 1887, revolutionary Alexander Ulyanov was sentenced to death for attempting to assassinate Alexander III. His mother, Maria Alexandrovna, appealed to the tsar for mercy. She was supported by the renowned lawyer Nikolai Stepanovich Tagantsev, who made efforts to obtain permission for a meeting between mother and son. As a result of this meeting, Ulyanov wrote a petition to the emperor, asking to replace the death penalty with another punishment for the sake of his mother and younger siblings, for whom she was their only support.

Almost 30 years later, fate brought Nikolai Tagantsev together with the brother of the executed, Vladimir Ulyanov-Lenin. Tagantsev, a professor and author of numerous books, viewed the October Revolution as the end of the rule of law and did not hide his views. However, tragedy struck his son, who was arrested for participating in a group aiming to overthrow the dictatorship of the proletariat and spent several months in prison.

During this period, the 78-year-old Tagantsev wrote a letter to Lenin, asking for leniency for his son, referencing his acquaintance with Lenin's parents and the help he had provided in the past. Usually, Lenin did not respond to such requests, but in this case, he instructed his secretary Fotieva to inform that the charges against Tagantsev's son were so serious that his release was impossible.

On August 29, 1921, at night in a grove near the Bernhardovka station, Chekists shot 94 people, including Tagantsev's son. The prisoners were forced to dig a mass grave, then ordered to undress, herded into the pit, and shot. According to local residents, the ground at the execution site moved the entire next day, and moans of still-living people could be heard from beneath it. However, it was impossible to approach the mass grave due to guards.