Moscow — An annual ceremony to commemorate victims of repression under Stalin proceeded Monday after Moscow city officials backed down from a decision to bar it from its traditional site, a memorial near the headquarters of the former KGB.

Throughout the day, activists and descendants of victims gathered at the Solovetsky Stone memorial, which was brought from the former Solovki prison camp, a notorious destination for political prisoners in the 1920s and 1930s.

Bundled against the cold, they stood in line for hours to approach a rostrum and read out the names, ages, professions and dates of death of victims ranging from Soviet bureaucrats to factory workers to peasants to priests.

“This day is a reminder of tragic pages in the history of the country, when numerous people were patently falsely accused of crimes, shot to death or sent to corrective labor camps or into exile,” said Yelena Zhemkova, executive director of International Memorial, the human rights organization that created the event, in opening remarks.