function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Mogilev archdiocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.06.23]
Minsk diocesemore on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2013.05.19]

date and place
of death

06.10.1937

Sankt Petersburgtoday: Saint Petersburg city, Russia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.07.31]

alt. dates and places
of death

Levashovoincluding: Levashovo Wilderness
today: neighborhood in Vyborgsky District in Sankt Peterburg, Saint Petersburg city, Russia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.06.29]

details of death

cause of death

mass murder

perpetrators

Russians

sites and events

Levashov WildernessClick to display the description, 11.08.1937 Russian genocideClick to display the description, Great Purge 1937Click to display the description, Sankt Petersburg (Kresty)Click to display the description

date and place
of birth

13.03.1885

Kisylevitchitoday: part of Babruysk, Babruysk dist., Mogilev reg., Belarus
more on
pl.wikipedia.org
[access: 2020.07.31]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

1909

positions held

others related
in death

HAŃSKIClick to display biography Stanislav, MADERAClick to display biography Peter, MIODUSZEWSKIClick to display biography Joseph, OPOLSKIClick to display biography Ignatius, SZYMAŃSKIClick to display biography Vaclav, SZYSZKO–BOHUSZClick to display biography Richard, TUROWSKIClick to display biography Maximilian

sites and events
descriptions

Levashov Wilderness: Russian execution site ‐ c. 20 km from Sankt Petersburg. C. 47,000 victims were murdered there in 1937‐1954, including more than 5,000 Poles. In 1937‐1938 Russians murdered more than 100,000 Poles altogether („Polish holocaust”). (more on: www.zplspb.ruClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.11.14])

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.

Sankt Petersburg (Kresty): Russian prison in Sankt Petersburg where many Polish priests were kept captive. Many of them were also murdered there. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20])

sources

personal:
pl.radiovaticana.vaClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2015.04.18], archive.todayClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09], parafialugarosja.blogspot.comClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20]
bibliographical:
„Fate of the Catholic clergy in USSR 1917‐1939. Martyrology”, Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin
original images:
www.gazetapetersburska.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09], ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02]