The monument to the victims of political repression, erected in 1995 on the Robespierre embankment opposite the Kresty prison, interprets repression as an integral feature of totalitarian regimes. This is recalled by the quotes on the pedestals: poems by Gumilev, Akhmatova, Andreyev, Zabolotsky, Brodsky, texts by Solzhenitsyn, Likhachev, Galanskov, Bukovsky, a facsimile by Wallenberg. The monument is based on sculptures of sphinxes created in 1994 by Mikhail Shemyakin. Their faces are cut into "living" and "dead" halves (the latter facing the Kresty). The sphinxes are installed on pedestals, between which is a stylized composition called "Prison Window".

The height of the sphinxes is 1.40 m, the height of the plinth is 0.17 m, the height of the pedestals is 1.60 m.