function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Mogilev archdiocese
more on: en.wikipedia.org [access: 2013.06.23]
Zhytomyr diocese
more on: www.catholic-hierarchy.org [access: 2021.09.20]

academic distinctions

Theology MA

date and place of death

27.08.1937

Minsk
Minsk city reg., Belarus

details of death

Arrested by the Russians on 13.02.1937 in Smolany n. Orsha in Belarus. Held in Minsk prison. Tortured. Accused of espionage and membership of clandestine Polish Military Organisation POW (a clandestine Polish organization in Russia active during World War I in 1914‑8). On 25.08.1937 tried in Minsk by a genocidal Special Council NKVD kangaroo court (known as „Troika NKVD”) — as part of a string of trials of c. 113 Poles — and sentenced to death. Murdered in a mass execution of at least 7 Catholic priests.

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Russians

date and place of birth

1873

Starokostiantyniv
Starokonstantynów rai., Proskuriv/Khmelnytskyi obl., Ukraine

presbyter (holy orders)/
ordination

1902

positions held

administrator {parish: Smolany}
c. 1935 — administrator {parish: Witebsk, St Barbara}
from 1922 — administrator {parish: Dzyhivka, Holy Spirit; dean.: Yampil'}
c. 1920 — prefect {Skvyra}
c. 1918 — administrator {parish: Brusyliv, Holy Spirit; dean.: Radomyshl'}
student {Sankt Petersburg, philosophy and theology, Imperial Roman Catholic Spiritual Academy (1842‑1918)}
till 1902 — student {Zhytomyr, philosophy and theology, Theological Seminary}

others related in death

ANDREKUS Constantine, AWGŁO Peter, BOROWIK John, FILIPP Adolph, JACZEJKO Anthony, JANUKOWICZ Peter, JAROSZEWICZ Stanislaus, KASZCZYC Adolph, KAZIUNAS Paul, PRYTUŁŁO Alexander

murder sites
camps (+ prisoner no)

Judicial murders 1937 Minsk: In 1937 and 1938, during so‑called „Polish operation” — Russian genocide of Polish citizens in Russia — In Minsk, more precisely: in Belarus, a number of trials of Poles, accused of membership of Polish Military Organisation POW (a clandestine Polish organization in Russia active during I World War in 1914‑8) and espionage for Poland. Altogether from 08.1937 till 09.1938 in Belarus 23,429 people, including 21,407 Poles, were arrested. Russian genocidal „Troika NKVD” kangaroo courts had mainly one sentence in their books: death by execution (in Ukraine alone during whole „ Polish operation” 61.77% of sentences were death sentences). Among others on 25.08.1937 in Minsk at least 7 Polish priests were sentenced to death: Fr Constantine Andrekus, Fr Peter Awgło, Fr John Borowikiem, Fr Peter Janukowicz, Fr Anthony Jaczejko, Fr. Alexander Prytułło and Fr Stanislaus Rajko. On 20.10.1937 in Vitebsk Fr. Adolph Fillip was tried. On 22.10.1937 Fr Paul Kaziunas was sentenced. On the same day in Orsha Russians sentenced to death Fr Adolph Kaszczyc. And finally on 03.01.1938 Fr Stanislaus Jaroszewicz was tried. All were murdered in Russian prisons. (more on: pamiec.pl [access: 2019.02.02])

11.08.1937 Russian genocide: On 11.08.1937 Russian leader Stalin decided and NKWD head, Nicholas Jeżow, signed a „Polish operation” executive order no 00485. 139,835 Poles living in Russia were thus sentenced summarily to death. 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. (more on: en.wikipedia.org [access: 2016.03.14])

Great Purge 1937: In the summer of 1937 Polish Catholic priests held in Solovetsky Islands, Anzer Island and 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 „Troika NKVD” 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 „Troika NKVD” kangaroo courts.

Minsk: Russian prison. In 1937 site of mass murders perpetrated by the Russians during a „Great Purge”. After Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and start of the II World War place of incarceration of many Poles, In 06.1941, under attack by Germans, Russians murdered there a group of Polish prisoner kept in Central and co‑called American prisons in Mińsk. The rest were driven towards Czerwień in a „death march” (10,000‑20,000 prisoners perished), into Russia. (more on: pl.wikipedia.org [access: 2013.08.17])

sources

personal:
biographies.library.nd.edu [access: 2014.12.20], katolicy1844.republika.pl [access: 2021.09.20], pl.radiovaticana.va [access: 2015.04.18], archive.today [access: 2014.05.09], christking.info [access: 2018.09.02], www.ofiaryterroru.pl [access: 2019.02.02]
bibliograhical:
„Fate of the Catholic clergy in USSR 1917‑39. Martyrology”, Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin
original images:
ipn.gov.pl [access: 2019.02.02]