function

diocesan priest

creed

Latin (Roman Catholic) Church RCmore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2014.09.21]

diocese / province

Lutsk‐Zhytomyr diocese (aeque principaliter)more on
www.catholic-hierarchy.org
[access: 2021.12.19]

date and place
of death

24.09.1937

ITL UkhtPechLagGuLAG slave labour camp network
today: Izhemsky reg., Komi rep., Russia

alt. dates and places
of death

24.07.1937

details of death

cause of death

extermination

perpetrators

Russians

sites and events

11.08.1937 Russian genocideClick to display the description, Great Purge 1937Click to display the description, ITL UkhtPechLagClick to display the description, UchtaClick to display the description, GulagClick to display the description, Trial of 14.05.1936Click to display the description, Kiev (Lyukyanivska)Click to display the description, Zhytomyr (prison)Click to display the description

date and place
of birth

20.06.1891

Kamyanets‐Podilskyitoday: Kamyanets‐Podilskyi urban hrom., Kamyanets‐Podilskyi rai., Proskuriv/Khmelnytskyi obl., Ukraine
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2021.09.17]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

1915

positions held

others related
in death

BRAWERClick to display biography Stanislav, JACHNIEWICZClick to display biography Stanislav, SZCZEPANIUKClick to display biography Nicholas, WELIKClick to display biography Paul

sites and events
descriptions

11.08.1937 Russian genocide: On 11.08.1937 Russian leader Stalin decided and NKVD head, Nicholas Jeżow, signed a «Polish operation» executive order no 00485. 139,835 Poles living in Russia were thus sentenced summarily to death. According to the records of the „Memorial” International Association for Historical, Educational, Charitable and Defense of Human Rights (Rus. Международное историко‐просветительское, правозащитное и благотворительное общество „Мемориал”), specialising with historical research and promoting knowledge about the victims of Russian repressions — 111,091 were murdered. 28,744 were sentenced to deportation to concentration camps in Gulag. Altogether however more than 100,000 Poles were deported, mainly to Kazakhstan, Siberia, Kharkov and Dniepropetrovsk. According to some historians, the number of victims should be multiplied by at least two, because not only the named persons were murdered, but entire Polish families (the mere suspicion of Polish nationality was sufficient). Taking into account the fact that the given number does not include the genocide in eastern Russia (Siberia), the number of victims may be as high as 500,000 Poles. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2016.03.14])

Great Purge 1937: „Great Terror” (also «Great Purge», also called „Yezhovshchyna” after the name of the then head of the NKVD) — a Russian state action of political terror, planned and directed against millions of innocent victims — national minorities, wealthier peasants (kulaks), people considered opponents political, army officers, the greatest intensity of which took place from 09.1936 to 08.1938. It reached its peak starting in the summer of 1937, when Art. 58‐14 of the Penal Code about „counter‐revolutionary sabotage” was passed , which became the basis for the „legalization” of murders, and on 02.07.1937 when the highest authorities of Russia, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, issued a decree on the initiation of action against the kulaks. Next a number of executive orders of the NKVD followed, including No. 00439 of 25.07.1937, starting the liquidation of 25,000‐42,000 Germans living in Russia (mainly the so‐called Volga Germans); No. 00447 of 30.07.1937, beginning the liquidation of „anti‐Russian elements”, and No. 00485[2] of 11.08.1937, ordering the murder of 139,835 people of Polish nationality (the latter was the largest operation of this type — encompassed 12.5% of all those murdered during the «Great Purge», while Poles constituted 0.4% of the population). In the summer of 1937 Polish Catholic priests held in Solovetsky Islands, Anzer Island and ITL BelbaltLag were locked in prison cells (some in Sankt Petersburg). Next in a few kangaroo, murderous Russian trials (on 09.10.1937, 25.11.1937, among others) run by so‐called «NKVD Troika» all were sentenced to death. They were subsequently executed by a single shot to the back of the head. The murders took place either in Sankt Petersburg prison or directly in places of mass murder, e.g. Sandarmokh or Levashov Wilderness, where their bodies were dumped into the ditches. Other priests were arrested in the places they still ministered in and next murdered in local NKVD headquarters (e.g. in Minsk in Belarus), after equally genocidal trials run by aforementioned «NKVD Troika» kangaroo courts.

ITL UkhtPechLag: Russian Rus. Исправи́тельно‐Трудово́й Ла́герь (Eng. Corrective Labor Camp) ITL Rus. Ухто‐Ижемский (Eng. Ukht‐Izhemskiy) — concentration and slave forced labor camp (within the Gulag complex) — headquartered in Chibyu (today: Ukhta) in Izhma river region, in Komi Republic. Founded on 06.06.1931. Prisoners slaved at the search for and extraction of crude oil and coal, radium, natural gas, asphaltite (high concentration of radium was detected in the camp, the highest in the world in water layers), in the construction of gas plants, access roads (e.g. Chibyu‐Krutaya), railway lines (e.g. Chibyu‐Ust‐Vym‐Kotlas, Vorkuta‐Ust‐Usa‐Kozhva), river barge construction, forest clearing and timber harvesting, etc. At its peak — till the death on 05.03.1953 of Russian socialist leader, Joseph Stalin — c. 5,000 prisoners were held there: e.g. 13,400 (12.1932); 23,840 (01.01.1934); 20,730 (01.01.1935); 21,750 (01.01.1936); 31,035 (01.01.1937); 54,792 (01.01.1938). Ceased to exist on 10.05.1938 when the camp was divided into four camp complexes: ITL UkhtIzhemLag (50,000 km2), ITL VorkutLag, ITL SevZhelDorLag and ITL UstVymLag. (more on: old.memo.ruClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08])

Uchta: Local capital of a series of Russian concentration camps and forced labour camps — among others in diamond mines and at oil production — part of GULAG penal system, in the Komi republic (beyond Arctic Circle) — such as Uchpechłag, ITL VorkutLag, Inta, Uchwymlag, ITL UkhtIzhemLag, Sieżeldor forced labour camps. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2013.08.17])

Gulag: The acronym Gulag comes from the Rus. Главное управление исправительно‐трудовых лагерей и колоний (Eng. Main Board of Correctional Labor Camps). The network of Russian concentration camps for slave labor was formally established by the decision of the highest Russian authorities on 27.06.1929. Control was taken over by the OGPU, the predecessor of the genocidal NKVD (from 1934) and the MGB (from 1946). Individual gulags (camps) were often established in remote, sparsely populated areas, where industrial or transport facilities important for the Russian state were built. They were modeled on the first „great construction of communism”, the White Sea‐Baltic Canal (1931‐1932), and Naftali Frenkel, of Jewish origin, is considered the creator of the system of using forced slave labor within the Gulag. He went down in history as the author of the principle „We have to squeeze everything out of the prisoner in the first three months — then nothing is there for us”. He was to be the creator, according to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, of the so‐called „Boiler system”, i.e. the dependence of food rations on working out a certain percentage of the norm. The term ZEK — prisoner — i.e. Rus. заключенный‐каналоармец (Eng. canal soldier) — was coined in the ITL BelBaltLag managed by him, and was adopted to mean a prisoner in Russian slave labor camps. Up to 12 mln prisoners were held in Gulag camps at one time, i.e. c. 5% of Russia's population. In his book „The Gulag Archipelago”, Solzhenitsyn estimated that c. 60 mln people were killed in the Gulag until 1956. Formally dissolved on 20.01.1960. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2024.04.08])

Trial of 14.05.1936: Trial of 19 Catholics, including four women and eight Catholic priests: Fr Stanislav Brawer, Fr. Stanislav Jachniewicz, Fr Roman Jankowski, Fr Sigismund Klemczyński, Fr Joseph Koziński, Fr Alois Schönfeld, Fr Peter Welik and Greek‐Catholic Fr Nicholas Szczepaniuk, the last Catholic pastors ministering in Zhytomyr vicinity, held in Kiev. They were accused of „counter‐revolutionary activities”, „remaining in touch with counter‐revolutionary representative of foreign centers”, „usage of Polish national banners during religious festivities” and „membership of fascist counter‐revolutionary roman‐catholic and greek‐catholic priests’ organization in the Western Ukraine”. The genocidal Russian summary court, so‐called «NKVD Troika», sent most for many years to Russian concentration camps Gulag. (more on: history.org.uaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02])

Kiev (Lyukyanivska): Russian political prison in Kiev, in the first half of 20th century run by the genocidal NKVD, informally referred to as prison No 1, formally as Investigative Prison No 13 (SIZO#13). It was founded in the early 19th century. In the 20th century, during the Soviet times, the prison church was transformed into another block of cells. During the reign of J. Stalin in Russia, more than 25,000 prisoners passed through it. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.09.21])

Zhytomyr (prison): Russian investigative prison known for cruel interrogation methods used by the Russians. Execution site as well.

sources

personal:
archive.todayClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20], biographies.library.nd.eduClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20], ru.openlist.wikiClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02]
bibliographical:
„Fate of the Catholic clergy in USSR 1917‐1939. Martyrology”, Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin
„Parish priest of Lutsk–Żhytomyr 1801‐1920 and Kamyanets–Podilskyi 1869‐1919 dioceses”, Fr Waldemar Witold Żurek SDB, Lublin 2023
original images:
www.russiacristiana.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20], ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02]