Graves and Cemeteries of Russian and Soviet soldiers in Poland

GRAVES AND CEMETERIES OF RUSSIAN AND SOVIET SOLDIERS FROM THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES IN POLAND SELECTED EXAMPLES

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GRAVES AND CEMETERIES OF RUSSIAN AND SOVIET SOLDIERS FROM THE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES IN POLAND SELECTED EXAMPLES

Drafting Anna Koszowy Anna Wicka Tadeusz KrzÄ…stek Editing Adam Siwek On the basis of material from The Council For The Protection Of Struggle And Martyrdom Sites Centre for East European Studies, University of Warsaw WARSAW 2016

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Album commissioned and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

Ministry of Foreign A airs Republic of Poland

On the cover: Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Bydgoszcz, ul. Artyleryjska (Kuyavia-Pomerania Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites. © Centre for East European Studies UW © Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

Editing and revision: Jan Malicki, Michał Piekarski, Tadeusz Krząstek Cover design and working design: Jan Jerzy Malicki, Jan Malicki Translation: Bolesław Jaworski

Centre for East European Studies, University of Warsaw Pałac Potockich, Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28 00-927 Warsaw

ISBN: 978-83-61325-50-5 Printing and binding: Duo Studio, Warsaw

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TABLE OF CONTENT Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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The 19th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The First World War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Polish-Soviet War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The Second World War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Graves of Soldiers of the Northern Group Of Forces and Members of their Families (1945-1991) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Russian War Graves and Cemeteries Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

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INTRODUCTION

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here are over 12,000 cemeteries, sections and war graves from various periods of history located on the territory of Poland, starting with the graves of soldiers who were killed during the Swedish deluge in the 17th century, and including graves of participants of the Bar Confederation (1768-1772), the Kościuszko Uprising (1794), Napoleonic Wars (1807-1813), the November Uprising (1830-1831), the Spring of Nations (1848), the January Uprising (1863-1864), the First World War (1914-1920), the Greater Poland Uprising (1918-1919), the Silesian Uprisings (1919-1921), the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921), the Second World War (1939-1945), as well as from the Stalinist period, until 1956. Among them are the graves of Polish, Austrian, German, Russian, Hungarian, Italian, Serbian, Romanian, French, British, Belgian, Luxembourgian, Dutch, Czech, Slovakian, Belarusian (Belorussian Volunteer Army) and Ukrainian (UNR) soldiers, as well as citizens of countries of the former USSR from various periods of conflict. Of course, the graves of civilian war victims and victims of totalitarian repression in Poland, not to mention various other nationalities, including Jews, are also brought into consideration. In all, it is estimated that around 20 million soldiers are buried on Polish territory. All types of burial sites – from independent cemeteries to individual graves – are deemed war grave sites.

The status of war graves is regulated by the prescriptions of the War Graves and Cemeteries Act (Ustawy o grobach i cmetarzach wojennych) from 28 March 1933, and the Act’s implementation order from the Minister of the Interior from 23 October 1936.

It is also based on the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, signed in Geneva on 12 August 1949. As defined by the aforementioned Act, war graves are, in accordance with Art. 1, the “graves of military personnel, fallen or killed in action, irrespective of nationality”, as well as “the graves of prisoner of war and interned persons”.

Graves and cemeteries are under the protection of the Polish state and its representatives, such as voivodes. Voivodes, as representatives of the government administration, are responsible for war grave matters on the territory of their respective voivodeships on the basis of the Act. A voivevode’s responsibilities include matters connected to records, repairs and the upkeep of war graves and cemeteries. Direct care and supervision over the state of war graves is carried out by entities of local government (city and gmina). For, in accordance with the previously mentioned Act, war graves and cemeteries are to be cared for and treated with the solemnity and respect they deserve, without regard to the nationality or faith of those buried in them.

Resources from the Polish state budget pay the cost of maintaining these graves and cemeteries.

Simultaneously, overall supervision over war graves and cemeteries, “based on checks and control of the activities of subordinate entities with regard to legality and carrying out administrative decisions in this scope”, is the domain of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Until 2016, the Council for the Protection of National Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, as a subordinate institution to the Ministry of Cul-

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ture and National Heritage, acted in the Minister’s name. This function is now carried out by the Department of National Heritage attached to the Ministry. The Council’s responsibilities, in accordance with the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites Act (Ustawa o Radzie Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa) of 21 January 1988, included: guardianship of martyrdom and struggle sites, as well as continuously commemorating historical dates, events and figures connected to these sites, not to mention evaluating the state of care for sites and permanent objects of national remembrance – monuments, grave markers, war sections and war graves, as well providing opinions on historical and artistic proposals for the permanent remembrance of historical sites and events. In the matter of war graves, the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites closely cooperated with voivodes.

As an entity representing the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites was also responsible for contacts with foreign institutions concerned with the issue of war graves. The Council cooperated with representative entities of countries whose soldiers are buried on the territory of Poland – Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Georgia, Great Britain, Serbia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Romania, the Netherlands, as well as, recently, the United States of America.

The War Graves and Cemeteries Act from 28 March 1933, obligates the Polish state to protect and care for war graves, including the graves of soldiers killed in action on the territory of Poland, without regard to nationality, faith or military formations. An additional safeguard for the matter of Russian soldier graves is the Agreement by the governments of Poland and Russia, on maintenance and care of burial places of victims of war and repressions (Umowa między Rządem Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej a Rządem Federacji Rosyjskiej o grobach i miejscach pamięci ofiar wojen i represji), signed on February 22, 1994. As defined by this Agreement, both sides are required to maintain remembrance and burial sites, ensuring the protection of graves, gravestones, monuments and other objects of remembrance, as well as preserving them in their proper order and keeping records.

Numerous graves of Russian soldiers are located on the territory of Poland from various periods of history, from the first half of the 19th century to the post-Second World War period. They include graves starting from the Napoleonic Wars (18071813), and include the November Uprising (1830-1831), the January Uprising (18631864), the First World War (1914-1920), the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921) and the Second World War, as well as civilian graves of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families (post-War period).

In accordance with verification carried out by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites in 2013-2014, in cooperation with particular Voivoideship Offices, in Poland there are: • 11 sites from the Napoleonic Wars period; • 1 site from the November Uprising; • 1 sites from the January Uprising; • 1129 sites from the First World War; • 17 sites from the Polish-Soviet War; • 718 sites from the Second World War; • 4 sites of soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and their family members.

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In individual voivodeships, the situation presents itself as follows: 19th Century

First World War

Polish-Soviet War

Second World War

Lower Silesia

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2

0

31

Kuyavia-Pomerania

0

10

1

72

Lublin

0

132

4

94

Lubus

1

1

0

15

Łódź

1

71

1

28

Lesser Poland

0

272

3

54

Masovia

3

81

3

52

Opole

1

20

0

7

Subcarpathia

0

131

0

74

Podlasie

0

90

2

91

Pomerania

1

5

1

37

Silesia

2

12

0

43

Holy Cross

0

48

0

32

Warmia-Masuria

0

246

0

20

Greater Poland

0

7

2

43

Voivodeship

West Pomerania

0

1

0

25

Total

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1129

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718

The above data indicates that there are more war grave sites from the period of the First World War, in which Russian soldiers were buried as well, than other periods. The condition of sites which contain the graves of Russian and Red Army soldiers varies according to the voivodeship, the materials used and their size. State administrative organs and local authorities, where possible, look after the current upkeep of cemeteries from both the First and Second World Wars, and also carry out essential repairs. Small sites (individual graves, mass graves and sections) are generally well maintained and in good condition. On the other hand, large cemetery establishments, especially from the Second World War, are unfortunately suffering gradual erosion, due to the passage of time and atmospheric factors, whose destructive effect is strengthened by the low quality of production of cemetery installations in the 1950s. Maintaining many-hectare, monumental establishments containing various architectural elements, consumes vast amounts of public funds. Unfortunately, prisoner of war cemeteries find themselves in the worst state. During the period of communist government, both the Russian and Polish sides did not pay particular importance to this group of sites. These cemeteries are usually situated in forests and cover large areas on which many prisoner are buried (from a few thousand to tens of thousands) – hence the problem of maintaining them, especially the struggle to keep ever-growing vegetation under control. Current budget capabilities only allow for the realisation of extemporaneous repair works. However, it is necessary to undertake actions aimed at reforming the concept of organising and maintaining large, Red Army war cemeteries in the next few years.

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For the purpose of aiding the budgets of voivodes, each year the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites would grant voivodes additional financial funds for carrying out repairs at war grave sites. These funds were also granted to cemetery and grave sites of Russian soldiers who died during the First World War, as well as the Polish-Soviet War and Second World War. In all, in the years 2001-2015, additional funds were granted for the repair of 339 sites of this type in the amount of 13,539,069 zlotys: • During this period in Lower Silesia Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 24 sites in the amount of 1,350,550 zlotys; • During this period in Kuyavia–Pomerania Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 24 sites in the amount of 434,800 zlotys; • During this period in Lublin Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 11 sites in the amount of 196,000 zlotys; • During this period in Lubus Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 9 sites in the amount of 1,093,800 zlotys; • During this period in Łódź Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 12 sites in the amount of 348,000 zlotys; • During this period in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 55 sites in the amount of 1,947,000 zlotys; • During this period in Masovia Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 13 sites in the amount of 292,000 zlotys; • During this period in Opole Voivodeship repairs encompassed 6 sites in the amount of 940,000 zlotys; • During this period, in Subcarpathia Voivodeship repairs encompassed 45 sites in the amount of 1,222,000 zlotys; • During this period un Podlasie Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 30 sites in the amount of 609,000 zlotys; • During this period in Pomerania Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 11 sites in the amount of 779,000 zlotys; • During this period in Silesia Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 14 sites in the amount of 511,000 zlotys; • During this period in Holy Cross Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 17 sites in the amount of 556,000 zlotys; • During this period, in Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 51 sites in the amount of 1,293,000 zlotys; • During this period in Greater Poland Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 5 sites in the amount of 492,000 zlotys; • During this period in West Pomerania Voivodeship, repairs encompassed 12 sites in the amount of 1,538,000 zlotys.

The amount of additional funds granted to Russian sites, with regard to the total additional funds granted by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites for all war grave sites, amounts to 32%, and varies depending on the year from 12% (2009) to 35% (2012). The amounts were granted, depending on the territory of the country and voivodeship, to sites from the First World War period (Łódź, Lesser Poland, Subcarpathia, Podlasie and Warmia-Masuria), where repair and renovation work was being carried out, based on reconstructing elements of

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cemetery installations, such as the outlines of graves, crosses and enclosures. In the remaining voivodeships (Lower Silesia, Kuyavia-Pomerania, Lublin, Lubus, Masovia, Opole, Pomerania, Silesia, Holy Cross, Greater Poland and West Pomerania), work was carried out at sites mostly from the Second World War, connected to repairing central monuments, gravestones, enclosures, cemetery path surfaces, markers and plaques with the names of soldiers, as well as revitalising vegetation at Red Army cemeteries and sections.

Thanks to the guardianship and vast amount of financial outlay of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, voivodes, national administrative organs and local government entities – mayors, district governors, rural commune heads, as well as local communities – a decided majority of Red Army cemeteries and sections are maintained in good condition, well-cared for and systematically revitalised. It is worth underlining the fact that the authorities of the Russian Federation take notice of the Polish labour and effort. Symbolic assessment and moral recognition of this was expressed in the statement of the then Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, in his letter to the Polish people on the 70 th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, published in Gazeta Wyborcza.

In the publication, Putin wrote: “We are deeply grateful that in Poland, where over 600,000 Red Army soldiers rest, having given their life for her liberation, our military graves are tended with care and respect. Please believe that these words are not stated for protocol, they are frank and come from the heart”.

Besides the aforementioned repair works, the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites also financially supported, among others, the carrying out of surveys for the purpose of confirming the existence of graves of Red Army soldiers in Kamienna Góra-Dębrznik (Lower Silesia Voivodeship) in 2013 and 2014, as well as exhumations of Russian soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars period in Bledzew (Lubus Voivodeship), Red Army and Italian Army prisoners in Przemyśl (Subcarpathia Voivodeship) as well as Red Army soldiers on the territory of Podlasie Voivodeship.

This study, which will be published in Polish, Russian and English, contains general information on the state of Russian war graves on the territory of Poland.

The legal basis regulating the protection and maintenance of cemeteries, sections, prisoner of war camps and other sites where Russian soldiers are buried has been mentioned. An important part of this publication is the extended description and iconographic presentation of many of these sites. Due to the limited amount of space in this publication, the most important and largest war cemeteries and sections have been described in an essential purview. In the section dedicated to the Second World War, the strategic-operational force, army and unit which the buried soldiers belonged to are signally mentioned, as officers and other ranks, during post-war exhumations, were often brought from very distant places, powiats of given regions, or even voivodeships. It is hoped that the presentation of these details will be a signal to many families still searching for their loved ones and family members. At many cemeteries, there may be noticed fresh new markers and photographs on the gravestones Karty historii – powód do wzajemnych pretensji, czy podstawa do pojednania i partnerstwa?, Gazeta Wyborcza, No. 2013, 31 August 2009.

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of the dead, which, relatives living in former Soviet republics have brought of their own initiative. A well-known example is the case of David Kolbaia, a Georgian lecturer at the Centre for East European Studies at the University of Warsaw, residing in Poland for over thirty years. Over this whole period, he stubbornly searched for his maternal uncle, Major Buchuta Josifowicz Parulava, who served as a doctor in Field Hospital No. 5216 of the Red Army, attached to the 16th Mechanised Brigade, and died in 1945, on the territory of Poland. No institution, either in Poland or the Russian Federation, was able to determine where he had been buried. Tracing the field hospital’s route in 1945, the cemetery where its soldiers were buried gave a positive signal in September of 2016. In this way, Dr. Kolbaia, after over thirty years of searching, discovered his uncle’s grave in the Red Army war cemetery in Żary. This example serves to demonstrate that including the numbers and names identifying which particular Red Army structures and formations the dead soldiers belonged to is indeed valid and advisable – it may yet lead to discovering yet another relative and identifying one more previously unmarked grave.

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THE 19TH CENTURY

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he armed conflicts of the 19th century left behind few cemeteries, sections or graves on Polish lands. This was due to the practice of sanitary burials of the dead directly on the battlefield in mass graves, a practice which only began to change at the end of the century. Sporadically, such graves were permanently marked by a monument or roadside shrine, usually just a cross or raised mound. Only officers, or those soldiers whose families requested their bodies, could count on individual burials.

Knowledge of war burials in the field, under crosses or roadside shines, often faded from the memories of local inhabitants, especially when they concerned foreign soldiers, aggressors or occupiers from the period of Polish national uprisings. Nonetheless, in the last few years, a number of burial sites of soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars have been rediscovered, belonging both to Napoleon’s armies, as well as those fighting in the ranks of the anti-French coalition. They originate from the last period of fighting on current Polish lands, starting with the French retreat at the beginning of 1813, and ending with the attempt at regaining the initiative by Napoleonic corps operating in Silesia until the end of August 1813.

GRAVES OF RUSSIAN SOLDIERS WHO DIED DURING THE NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS 1803-1815 VOIVODESHIP Lower Silesia Lubus Masovia Opole Pomerania Silesia

LOCALITY Kruszyn Gryfów Śląski Jeżów Sudecki Kolonia Sokołowska, Oleśnica gmina2 Bledzew Kałuszyn Warszawa Koperniki Kwidzyn Kłobuck Tarnowskie Góry

NUMBER OF BURIED 40 61 3 1 87 X X 1 X X Total: 193 + X3

In the years 1815-1830, Russia did not maintain permanent garrisons on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland. Russian soldiers who died during the suppression of the November Uprising were buried on battlefields, often along with dead Polish soldiers, as for example following the capture of Warsaw on 6 September 1831, on Reduta Ordona, made famous by Adam Mickiewicz. The situation in the years 1863-1864, was entirely different.

The January Uprising was suppressed by Russian occupying forces stationed in local garrisons. The burials of dead Russians was thus carried out at garrison cemeteries. In time, these graves fell prey to erosion, after the cemeteries were taken over by the Polish Army and later, after the garrison cemeteries were handed over to the gminas.

2 3

The Polish gmina (gm.) is something akin to a commune or municipality.

Where “X” signifies unidentified remains.

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BLEDZEW

Lubus Voivodeship The grave of 87 Russian soldiers who died between the years 1806-1814, during the Napoleonic Wars, is located here and now lies on private land. Today, few remember that the figurine hidden among the bushes is no ordinary roadside shrine. The Virgin Mary standing on the top of the column was once called “Bledzewska”. It originates from the Napoleonic Wars. It was erected in 1811, over the grave of Russian soldiers. The local Cistercians monks organised a hospital in the town. Among others, wounded participants of the war against Napoleon were treated there.

Those soldiers who did not make it home were buried in the collective grave. In order to consecrate this place of burial, a figurine of the Blessed Virgin Mary was erected on it.

The inscription carved into the stone socle, which is somewhat difficult to read, informs that 87 Russian soldiers were buried on the spot.

General view of the raised burial mound topped with a column with the figure of the Blessed Virgin.

Photograph by Adam Siwek

Inscription marker on the column’s socle.

Photograph by Adam Siwek

KRUSZYN

Lower Silesia Voivodeship The grave of 40 Russian soldiers, who died during the Napoleonic Wars in 1813, is located on private land near ul. Lipowa. The memorial stone bears an inscription in German, which in translations reads: DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF RUSSIAN SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN A SKIRMISH IN THIS AREA ON 21 AUGUST 1813, SOME OF WHOM ARE LAID TO REST HERE. Unfortunately, archaeological research commissioned by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites in 2015, did not find any graves in the vicinity of the monument. It is possible that the site was moved from its original spot when it underwent renovation in 1901. In this situation, in order to safeguard the monument against destruction, it was disassembled with the intention of reconstructing it at the Red Army war cemetery at ul. Kutuzowa in Bolesławiec. There the monument is now located, beneath which an urn rests with the heart (or rather the entrails) of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, Russian army commander, who died during the anti-French campaign in Bolesławiec, on 28 April 1813. The Field Marshal’s entrails were placed there after his body was embalmed and dispatched to Russia.

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Monument to “Prince Kutuzov of Smolensk” at the current Red Army war cemetery in Bolesławiec.

Photograph by Adam Siwek

Inscription on the column’s socle.

Photograph by Adam Siwek

GRYFÓW ŚLĄSKI

Lower Silesia Voivodeship

Monument atop the grave of Russian soldiers in Gryfów Sląskie, on a pre-war postcard.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites

The monument following recent repairs.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites

At the communal cemetery in Gryfów, there is the grave of 61 Russian soldiers who died in 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars. The grave is a hexahedron, stone block which is topped by a semicircular dome.

From ul. Lubańska, the grave is enclosed by 18th century grating. Red cedars, planted in 18131814, surround the monument. The grave bears the following inscription in German: FRIENDS OF THE MOTHERLAND DEDICATE THIS MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF THE RESCUE OF THIS CITY FROM GRAVE DANGER

BY PROVIDING IT WITH GREAT AID. THEY DIED ON THE FIELD OF GLORY DURING AN ASSAULT ON THE CITY IN FRENCH HANDS. IN THIS GRAVE, 61 RUSSIAN IMPERIAL SOLDIERS WERE JOINED TOGETHER, KILLED ON 31 AUGUST 1813.

JEŻÓW SUDECKI

Lower Silesia Voivodeship The grave of 3 Russian soldiers who died during a skirmish with a Saxon unit on 22 August 1812, is located in Jeżów Sudecki near ul. Zachodnia, leading from Płoszczonki to Czernica, beside the house at No. 95. A sandstone cross stands over it with an inscription in German: ON THIS SPOT, THREE COSSACKS WERE KILLED BY THE ENEMY, BURIED ON 22 AUGUST 1813.

Cossack grave in Jeżów Sudecki.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cross inscription. Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

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KOPERNIKI

Opole Voivodeship The original gravestone of podpraporshik4 Aleksander Kolzakov, a Russian marine officer, who was wounded on 21 May and died 2 June 1813, from wounds suffered during the Battle of Bautzen, is located in the St. Nicholas Church cemetery in Koperniki, in Nyski powiat. This gravestone is in the shape of a shattered column (symbolising a prematurely ended life) with a skull and Orthodox cross at its base. The monument bears an inscription in German which reads: HERE LIES ALEKSANDER KOLZAKOV, LIEUTENANT OF THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL GUARD AND CAVALIER, WHO DIED ON 2 JUNE OF A WOUND SUFFERED ON 21 MAY 1813 DURING THE BATTLE OF BAUTZEN, AT THE AGE OF 28 YEARS 9 MONTHS AND 5 DAYS. An analogous Russian inscription contains further details in its first part: UNDER THIS STONE LIES THE BODY OF ALEKSANDER KOLZAKOV, LIEUTENANT OF THE MARINE GUARDS AND CAVALIER, WHO DIED 21 MAY AT 8 O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING…

Gravestone of Aleksander Kolzakov.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

WARSZAWA WESOŁA

Masovia Voivodeship At ul. Mazowiecka in Wesoła (western district of Warsaw) on the outskirts of the forest is a grave covered by a fragment of stone slab with an Orthodox cross. It is further identified by an added perimeter and four solid posts of sandstone, once held together by chain links. Recently, the grave has been additionally strengthened with a fortified band of granite paving stones. Konstantin Dmitrivich Lukin, a Leib Guard Russian Lieutenant of the Horse Guards and adjutant to Gen. Ivan Sukhozanet, is buried here. He was heavily wounded during the First Battle of Wawer on 19 February 1831, and died four days later. This is a unique war grave from the November Uprising period, especially since the full identity of the dead officer is known.5 4 5

Equivalent to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army. http://www.hrono.ru/biograf/bio_l/lukin_kd.html

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Grave of Konstantin Lukin. Photograph from the Iconographic ACPSMS.

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he largest number of burial sites connected with Russian soldiers comes from the period of the First World War. During the last verification, conducted in 2013-2015, it was confirmed that there are 1939 First World War grave sites on the territory of Poland. The soldiers of all three armies (Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian) were buried there. It is estimated that around 400,000 soldiers from the First World War lie buried in Poland. Nonetheless, there are few cemeteries where only the soldiers of a single army were buried. Depending on the routes of the fighting armies, in cemeteries in southeast Poland, there are mostly soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies, and not as many German soldiers. On cemeteries located on the territory of former East Prussia, Podlasie and Masovia, as well in the vicinity of Łódź, German and Russian army soldiers were buried, while in southern Podlasie and the Zamojść region, the soldiers of every army.

Although much is known about the trenches of the Western Front, much bitter fighting also took place on the Eastern Front during the First World War. In 19141915, the Eastern Front was situated on the territory of Poland, especially in the Russian and Austrian partitions.

In 1914, after the Germans halted the Russian advance, first at the Battle of Tannenberg on 25-31 August, and then at the Battle of the Masurian Rivers on 5-15 September, the Russians were forced to retreat. In essence, these events ended the war in this part of former East Prussia, with the Russians suffering enormous losses.

The Austro-Hungarian and Germans armies began an offensive in the direction of Warsaw and Dęblin. However, they met with a counterattack of the Russian Army, which resulted in the Battle of Łódź (17-24 November and 1-6 December), in which the Russians suffered another defeat. From autumn 1914, the fighting shifted to the territory of Galicia, where the Russians once more went on the attack on a wide front, and in November and December 1914, fighting took place in Subcarpathia. The Russian army’s offensive also broke down at Kraków (16-25 November) and Limanów (2-12 December). The beginning of 1915, signified the start of an offensive by the armies of the Central Powers through the Dukla and Uzhok Pass, in the direction of Przemyśl and Stryj. In Eastern Galicia, the Russian armies counterattacked at Smabir. The fighting was hard and bloody, and continued from 23 January to 22 March 1915. It ended with the capitulation of the fortress of Przemyśl.

At the beginning of May, the Russians were entirely forced out of Western Galicia, and then later, Eastern Galicia. The effectively planned, Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive was a great success, breaking through the Russian defensive lines and forcing the Imperial Russian Army to retreat. The Battle of Gorlice took place on 2-5 May 1915 and signified the end of fighting in Western Galicia. During the period from 25-27 June 1915, the Russian were again defeated in Tomaszów Lublin.

In 1915, Germany and Austria did not achieve a decisive victory in the East.

Nonetheless, the Russian army was beaten on the south-eastern front, as well as on the remaining fronts. On 5 August, the Russians abandoned Warsaw, and on 19 August, they evacuated the fortress of Modlin. The Russian army retreated, heading east from the Kingdom of Poland, leaving many burial sites in their wake.

THE FIRST WORLD WAR

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From the very beginning of the war, the Aleksander Committee, functioning in St. Petersburg, was charged with caring for wounded soldiers, as well as dealing with war grave matters. This committee, already at the turn of August and September 1914, formulated an order in which it addressed the problem of commemorating the wounded soldiers returning from the front, as well as the sick and dying in hospitals.

The Committee believed that these soldiers should be buried in separate cemeteries or in allocated areas. Crosses and memorials to the dead were to be raised. The graves of Russian soldiers can be found on the territory of all 16 voivodeships. The most can be found in the voivodeships of Lesser Poland, Warmia-Masuria, Subcarpathia, Lublin and Podlasie. It is estimated that on the territory of all the voivodeships, there are 1129 cemeteries, sections and graves, in which Russian soldiers are also buried. In all, 160,540 soldiers that were able to be counted are buried there. In addition, there is also an unknown number of missing soldiers, 4472 of them identified by name.

The construction and organization of cemeteries varied, depending on the region of fighting. On the territory of Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship, cemeteries were established immediately following the end of fighting on the battlefield. Work intended to manage and organise these places, were begun after the end of the war and continued into the 1930s. In order to give these activities an organised form, the German authorities set up a Provincial Advisory Office for War Remembrance Matters (Urząd Doradczy do Spraw Upamiętnienia Wojen) in Królewiec. The work to manage and organise cemeteries began in 1917. The main responsibility of cemetery and grave record keeping in this area fell to Dr. Richard Dethlefsen, the then Provincial Conservator of Historical Relics in East Prussia. Under his leadership, projects for cemeteries, monuments, crosses and other burial site elements, were completed. In August 1918, special instructions were issued concerning the setting up of war cemeteries in East Prussia. They set forth the principles which should be followed when establishing a war cemetery. The main impetus was put on strictly harmonising the cemeteries with their immediate surroundings. Thus, it was recommended to utilise local raw resources and native types of trees and shrubbery for planting. War graves were to be modest and simple in form. The above-mentioned instructions also mentioned that the graves of dead enemies – soldiers of the Russian army – were to be treated and cared for on equal footing with the graves of German army soldiers. It was also important that the cemetery décor be homogenous, especially with regard to the gravestones. On the territory of this voivodeship, an effort was made for cemeteries to always be marked in the landscape, and thus, with this aim in mind, an appropriate amount of trees were planted and a tall cross was instituted as the dominating element, visible from a distance and of singular sacral meaning, consecrating the spot.

On the other hand, mass graves were often formed in the shape of mounds. Despite the aforementioned governing set of principles, every cemetery has its own unique character.

Both in Lublin and other surrounding cities, the Russian Imperial Army carried out war burials at garrison cemeteries, like in Lublin, Dęblin, or at civilian Orthodox cemeteries. Where there were only Catholic cemeteries, separate war sections were created. Most of the graves located on the territory of the current Lublin Voivodeship were in fact created on battlefields, most numerous in regions where heavy fighting had taken place, such as around Kraśnik and Puławy. In 1915, the Gover-

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nor of Lublin ordered that the graves of dead soldiers be arranged by digging deep trenches around them. In this way, the first war cemeteries were created. There are 121 war grave sites from the First World War on the territory of Lublin Voivodeship, which, among others, contain the bodies of 17,424 Russian soldiers.

Already during the war, on the territory of the current Holy Cross Voivodeship (formerly part of the Russian partition), services of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy were active, whose mission was the cleaning up and management of battlefields. In March 1915, Imperial and Royal Military Headquarters issued an order, which for the first time addressed the issues of war graves, rules of burying the dead, burial spots and their care. At the same time, in the German Ministry of War, a unit operated which was charged with managing war graves and keeping field records. Austro-Hungary did not create any unit for the organisation of war graves until quite late. Only in 1917, did exhumations of the dead begin, moving them to mass graves. Later, two groups began operating, one responsible for war grave record-keeping and the other, grave maintenance. The first group’s work involved searching for, establishing origin, identifying and registering graves. The second group was involved in conceptual work, based on moving graves, as well as planning and maintaining war graves, commemorating and caring for them.

Despite efforts to ascertain the precise number of graves and dead soldiers, the records of the war grave units contained many gaps. Almost 70% of soldiers’ surnames and the units they served in were unknown. This state of affairs is a result of the fact that war operations continued, while issues connected to the dead were left for later. Besides this, Austro-Hungarian war grave units were charged with taking care of the dead of their army, the Polish Legions and the Russian army. On the other hand, German units only took care of their own army’s war dead. The least amount of identified soldiers were from the Russian army – only around 8%. This was a result of the fact that Russian forces left the territory of the Kingdom of Poland, and did not have time to establish the identities of their soldiers. As well, all records and documents were destroyed. The Austro-Hungarian authorities were only able to identify Russian soldiers by the inscriptions found on their graves. When cemeteries were established, the bodies of enemy soldiers were treated the same as their own soldiers and those of allies. However, the principle of creating separates graves, cemeteries and sections was retained. On the territory of Kielce Region, it was recommended to use simple and modest gravestones, placed on earth graves and decorated by grass lawns or ivy. Besides small crosses with surnames on the graves, a large cross was placed on the site, along with an inscription highlighting that it was a war cemetery and the common fate of the dead soldiers. Instead of a cross, it was permitted to construct a monument in the form of an obelisk, a stone tablet or a small shrine. Currently, on the territory of Holy Cross Voivodeship, there are located 48 war grave sites from the First World War, which contain, among others, 5492 Russian soldiers.

In Łódź Voivodeship, it is mainly German and Russian soldiers that are buried. Similarly to Holy Cross Voivodeship, units of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies were tasked with the construction of war cemeteries. These cemeteries were mostly constructed on battle sites. On this territory, and on the territory of Masovia Voivodeship, there are also many war grave sites of soldiers who died as a result of poison gas attacks. For this reason, it is difficult to ascertain the number of dead soldiers. It

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is estimated that certain such war cemeteries contain up to a few thousand buried soldiers each. The area and composition of war cemetery spaces in this region is varied.

Many sites are established in the shape of a rectangle or square, but also in the shape of a rhombus or circle. Usually, the central accents are stone obelisks of monumental design. In all, the territory of Łódź Voivodeship contains 85 war grave sites from the First World War, in which 4554 Russian soldiers (+X) were also buried.

The largest number of First World War grave sites, including the most interesting compositionally, is located on the current territory of Lesser Poland (272 sites – 21,007 Russian soldiers), as well as Subcarpathia (131 sites – 15,091 Russian soldiers). Their décor is completely different from the décor of war cemeteries found on the territories of Warmia-Masuria, Podlasie, Masovia and Lublin Voivodeships.

There, monumental memorials, memorial walls and even shrines, stone fencing and numerous gravestones with the names of soldiers can be found. These war cemeteries were designed by well-known figures, including the German, Siegfried Heller, the Slovak, Dushan Jurković, and the Polish carver, Jan Szczepkowski.

Following the cessation of hostilities, the Polish authorities entered a period of statehood building and organising state structures. Thus, it became necessary to also create rules regulating war grave issues, as the peace treaties charged Poland with maintaining war graves and creating institutions to deal with this issue. From 1919, these issues were dealt with by the Ministry of War, while in the period 1922-1939, by the Ministry of Public Works. On 28 March 1933, the War Grave and Cemetery Act was enacted, which continues to be in force to this day. The Polish authorities, carrying out the responsibilities encompassed by the Act, stated at the time that not all war cemeteries were in good shape and the construction of many was incomplete, especially war grave sites on the territory of the current voivodeships of Lublin, Łódź, Masovia and Holy Cross. In accordance with these findings, activity was undertaken aimed at merging war grave sites. Negative opinions began to appear in public society concerning the form of war cemeteries established by the occupiers. The monumental architectural forms/styles which dominated the landscape were not pleasing. These opinions mainly concerned the war cemeteries built by the Austro-Hungarian army in Western Galicia.

In other regions of the country, war cemeteries possessed a more modest architectural style and were not received so negatively. Following the Second World War, war cemeteries from the period of the First World War no longer raised such interest. The Second World War left new graves on the territory of Poland, which required immediate attention. At this time, graves from the First World War, deprived of care, began to fall into ruin. This state of affairs existed until the 1960s, but only in the 1970s was work undertaken to remedy the state of war cemeteries from the First World War. Their historical and artistic value was underlined, while private individuals, enthusiasts from local cultural associations and committees for the refurbishment of heritage cemeteries , began to take interest in them. Currently, most war cemeteries from the First World War are listed in the heritage site register and encompassed by the protection of most Voivodeship Offices for the Protection of Heritage Monuments (Wojewódzkie Urzędy Ochrony Zabytków). The remainder find themselves under conservation protection.

Few historical documents, such as registers of the dead or cemetery blueprints, survived, as the Polish archives where they were kept burnt down during the Second World War.

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The identification of burial sites and personnel data of Russian soldiers was already very difficult during the war, as the Russians mainly buried their soldiers in collective graves, either temporarily marked or, often, not marked at all. The great majority of dead soldiers was buried as unidentified. Many graves have still not been found or recorded to this day.

On the request of gminas, every year, voivodes and the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, grant funds ear-marked for completing repair and renovation work on war cemeteries from the First World War, among others.

Each year, depending on the amounts requested, these funds range from 250,000 to 500,000 zlotys. Unfortunately, these funds are insufficient, and so the refurbishment of particular war cemeteries often takes many years. These many-year-long repairs are often caused by the size of cemeteries, or complicated elements of the sites’ construction, requiring large amounts of funding and labour. These types of war grave sites are especially common on the territory of Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which often contain monumental stone memorials and fencing, and thus are often difficult to consistently maintain. Thus, all types of support or aid from outside sources is greatly appreciated, for example from various associations, such as the Austrian Red Cross, German War Graves Commission or the Hungarian government. In recent years, in summertime, the German government sends youth and Bundeswehr soldiers to Poland, who clean up selected war cemeteries from the First World War. During repair and renovation work, gminas attempt to reconstruct war cemeteries according to their original form, especially in Lesser Poland and Subcarpathia Voivodeships, where original war cemetery blueprints have been preserved. Usually, in accordance with the conservator’s guidelines, the original fencing, crosses and graves steles are recreated. Wherever possible, the names of soldiers known to have been buried there are added.

Bearing in mind the many graves from the period of the Second World War, in Poland, the period of the First World War is not as popular or as promoted, despite the fact that Poles served in all the armies fighting on Polish territory, in some cases even in units fighting against each other. Nevertheless, annual ceremonies remembering the outbreak of the First World War are held, which take place at the local level. Nonetheless, recently, war grave sites from the First World War are becoming the calling cards of certain regions and voivodeships, as well as gmina tourist attractions.

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LOWER SILESIA VOIVODESHIP Lower Silesia only contains 2 war grave sites from the First World War. One is the collective grave of 14 identified Serbian and Russian prisoners of war, situated in the communal cemetery at ul. Gumińska in Niemcza. Atop the grave is an obelisk inscribed with the names of the buried, died in 1916-1918.

The other site is the collective grave of two identified prisoners of war, one Polish and one Russian, who died in 1918, located in the church cemetery in Sobota (gm. Lwówek Śląski).

Grave of Serbian and Russian prisoners of war from the First World War in Niemcza (Lower Silesia Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

The grave of a Polish and Russian prisoner of war from the First World War in Sobota (Lower Silesia Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Collective grave of Russian soldiers from the First World War in Inowrocław (Kuyavia-Pomerania).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

On the right, the collective grave of Russian soldiers from the First World War in Lipno (Kuyavia-Pomerania).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

KUYAVIA-POMERANIA VOIVODESHIP Kuyavia-Pomerania contains 10 war grave sites from the First World War, in which 1532 +X Russian soldiers are buried.

At the diocesan cemetery in Inowrocław at ul. Libelta, there is a collective grave which bears the remains of an unknown number of Russian soldiers who died in German captivity in hospitals in Inowrocław.

In the Roman-Catholic cemetery in Lipno, the collective grave of 26 unidentified Russian soldiers is located, who died in 1914-1915.

The monument was funded by the Polish Association for the Protection of Heroes’ Graves (Polskie Towarzystwo Opieki nad Grobami Bohaterów) in 1935.

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War cemetery in Grabowiec (gm. Kąkolewnica Wschodnia, Lublin Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites

Cemetery for soldiers of the AustroHungarian and Russian armies in Zaczopki (Lublin Voivodeship) Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites

LUBLIN VOIVODESHIP Lublin contains 132 war grave sites from the First World War, where 14,649+X Russian soldiers are buried.

In Grabowiec (gm. Kąkolewnica), the war cemetery is surrounded by a mound of earth, containing birch, aspen and self-seeding pine trees, aged from one to sixty years old. The cemetery contains around 1000 Austro-Hungarian and Russian soldiers who died 14-15 August 1915. The Russian army, exhausted from the constant retreat from Warsaw eastwards, mostly completed on foot, was unable to effectively defend against the Austrians. As a result of a strong Austrian attack in the region, from the direction of a number of villages located to the west and south of Międzyrzec (namely: Turów, Polskowola, Żakowola, Lipniak, Kąkolewnica, Grabowiec, Ostrówek and Szóstka), many Russian soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers died, as well as a small number of Austrian soldiers.

Their bodies were left unburied for a long period, and the heat soon began to cause their bodies to decompose. After the cessation of hostiles, and the Austrian army’s march on Brest, the German Army command taking over this area immediately ordered the establishment of a war cemetery and the burial of the dead soldiers. Today, it is unknown exactly how many soldiers of each army are buried there.

The cemetery in Zaczopki (gm. Rokitno) is completely different. It is near a hill on the Terespol-Janów Podlaski highway route. It was established in 1915, following a battle in the vicinity of the village of Zaczopki, located on a small hill.

The path to the cemetery entrance contains steps made from field stones. The cemetery is surrounded by a stone wall. The interior is occupied by graves marked with wooden crosses in regular sections. The cemetery contains 83 soldiers of the German and Russian armies. The highest point contains a stone and field block obelisk.

The obelisk is topped by a metal cross. Two types of pine trees grow in the cemeteries interior. In front of the entrance, there is a plaque bearing the following inscription: HERE LIE BURIED 83 GERMAN AND RUSSIAN SOLDIERS, DIED AUGUST 1915.

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The diocesan cemetery in Rybitwy (gm.

Józefów nad Wisłą), which contains a war section, is structured in an entirely different way. Its central part contains a glacial erratic and a cross, as well as a plaque with an inscription in memory of the dead soldiers. 160 Austro-Hungarian and 75 Russian soldiers are buried there, died on 1-3, 5-7, 9-10, 12-13, 17, 20 and 26 July 1915. Crosses made of iron were placed atop the graves.

Cemetery for soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies in Zaczopki (Lublin Voivodeship) Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites

First World War cemetery section in Rybitwy (gm.

Józefów nad Wisłą, Lublin Voivodeship) Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

LUBUS VOIVODESHIP Only one grave site from the First World War exists in Lubus.

In Żagań at ul. Lotników Alianckich, there is a war cemetery for Russian soldiers from the First World War and Red Army soldiers from the Second World War. The cemeteries central point is a colonnade with a monument and plaque honouring Russian soldiers died in 1914-1920. The names of 104 Russian soldiers are known who died in Żagań in 1918-1920.

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Cemetery for Russian Soldiers from the First and Second World War in Żagań (Lubus Voivodeship) Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

ŁÓDŹ VOIVODESHIP

The cemetery of an undetermined number of Russian and German army soldiers from the First World War in Gadka Stara (gm. Rzgów, Łódź Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Russian and German army cemetery of an undetermined number of soldiers from the First World War in Witkowice (gm. Brzeziny, Łódź Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for Russian army soldiers from the First World War in Gałków (Łódź Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Section of 7 Russian and 10 German army soldiers from the First World War in Tum (gm. Góra Świętej Małgorzaty, Łódź Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites

On the territory of Łódź , there are 85 war grave sites from the First World War, in which, along with soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian and German armies, there were buried 4554+X soldiers from the Russian Army.

At the cemetery in Gadka Stara, there are most likely 2000 soldiers of the German and Russian armies who participated in one of the largest battles of the Eastern Front during the First World War. In this great battle, there was no outright victor, although it was the Russians who withdrew from Łódź following the battle, straightening out the front along the line of the Rawka River.

One of the only cemeteries in which only Russian soldiers are buried is the cemetery in Gałków (gm. Koluszki). The war cemetery was established by the Germans in 1914-1915. 500 soldiers are buried here from the 25th Rifle Regiment of the 6th Siberian Division from Khabarovsk, commanded by Georgyi Mandryka. On 23 November 1914, they fought the German 49th and 59th Infantry Reserve Divisions, as well as the 3rd Guards Division, commanded by Gen. Reinhard von Scheffer-Boyadel.

The fighting lasted one day, and only about a dozen soldiers survived from the Russian regiment. The dead were buried in individual graves, while their names, ranks and units were inscribed on stones, or put on small plaques. In the centre of the hill, there is a stone with an inscription dedicated to the dead.

Dead German soldiers were also buried here during the Second World War, who were later exhumed and moved to another German cemetery. To this day, though, their symbolic graves remain there.

Another site is the cemetery located in the forest near Witkowice (gm. Brzeziny), divided into two parts. Soldiers of the German army are buried in the first part, while Russian army soldiers are buried in the second. In the central spot of each section there is a monument – to the glory of the German army soldiers and in memory of the dead Russian army soldiers.

At the diocesan cemetery in Tum (gm. Góra Św. Małgorzaty), there is a section in which the precise number of buried German and Russian army soldiers is unknown. According to the preserved gravestones, the section contains 7 Russian army soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Regiment., as well as 10 German army soldiers, died in November and December 1914.

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LESSER POLAND VOIVODESHIP Lesser Poland contains 272 war grave sites from the First World War. One of the most interesting is Cemetery No. 91 in Gorlice. It is located at the peak of the cemetery hill located above “Korchak” housing estate. Due to its unique location, it is visible from nearly every part of the city. From there, a beautiful panorama of the city and a view of the Sęków Valley is visible, as well as the surrounding mountains south of the Ropa River. This cemetery is the largest and most representative site located in the former AustroHungarian Army Third District. Its current look was provided by the design of Emila Ladewiga.

This cemetery was not constructed in an empty spot. Directly after the battle, a war cemetery was establish there, where soldiers were buried who had died during the battles for the northern and western part of the city. Its décor was not entirely provisional – for example, it contained a chapel, suitable for ceremonies in honour of the dead, as well as different gravestones, depending on the army the dead belonged to. Despite all this, it was judged inadequate and the construction of a new site began. The artistic director of the Tenth Cemetery District, Capt. Gustav Ludwig took it upon himself to design a massive memorial cross, linking Christianism and Germanism in its symbolism, and harmoniously fitting it into the cemetery’s architecture. The interior decoration is limited to a massive stone wall, running in steps, depending on the level of the terrain.

In the centre of the wall’s chief side, it widens, adopting the shape of a bastion. The main architectural accent of the wall is the descriptive construction of a large-sized gate, raising its ancient and beautiful form and shape on the spot where the entry road turns into a square. The ceremonial ambience of this construction well underlines the meaning of the whole cemetery’s layout. In the gate-hall, there was originally castiron plaques with the names of the dead buried in the cemetery. The cross which is the central monument is adorned with two newer plaques – one from 1928, the other from 1946. A new element is also the cast-iron plaques walled into the gate from the outside, which contain the names of Russian soldiers buried here – gained, in part,

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First World War Cemetery in Gorlice-Korczak (Lesser Poland Voivodeship).

Photograph by Adam Siwek.

Cemetery No. 123 in Łużna-Pustka containing the graves of all three armies which fought on the Eastern Front during the First World War (Lesser Poland Voivodeship). Photograph by Adam Siwek.

Cemetery No. 123 in Łużna-Pustka rebuilt with a stave temple.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery No. 122 for Russian army soldiers from the First World War in Łużna (Lesser Poland Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

through cooperation with Russian archives. In all, there are 425 Austro-Hungarian, 140 German and 287 Russian soldiers buried here.

The cemetery in Łużna is located on the south face of Pustka Mountain, and with an area of 29,152 m², it belongs to one of the largest sites of this type. Cemetery No. 123 was established on the spot of fierce fighting for the hill on May 1915.

It is built according to the design of an irregular trapezoid. It has only been surrounded by stone posts and a wooden picket fence from the south side, where the entrance, in the form of a wooden double-winged gate is located. The cemeteries main element is the chapel, which burned down in 1985. Reconstruction of the chapel began in 20142015. The whole area contains a collective grave grouped around a monument. The graves are framed with stone ashlars. The gravestones have the shape of Lotharingian and Latin crosses with gabled or rounded peaks, and enamelled plaques at their centre. In 46 collective graves and 829 individual graves, there were buried: 912 Austrian army soldiers, 65 German army soldiers and 227 Russian army soldiers.

At the foot of the western face of Pustka Mountain, at the edge of the village of Łużna, there is a second cemetery – Cemetery No. 122.

The cemetery is built according to a rectangular design. It is surrounded from the front by stone posts connected by pairs of pipes and on its remaining sides a stone. Here there are buried, in 15 collective and 3 individual graves, 154 soldiers of the Russian army. The cemetery’s main element is a memorial wall topped by a massive Lotharingian cross, which contains an inscription with the number of Russian army soldiers buried there. The gravestones are in the form of three cast-iron, slat Lotharingian crosses, located on a common, graded socle. Its raised part contains enamel gravestone plaques. A single, taller Lotharingian cross marks the grave of an officer in the centre of the pathway.

Cemetery No. 150 of 13 Austro-Hungarian army soldiers and 27 Russian army soldiers in Chojnik (Lesser Poland Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

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MASOVIA VOIVODESHIP There are 81 sites from the First World War located in Masovia, which contain the remains of 5890+X Russian soldiers. One of the most interesting cemeteries which contains the remains of Russian soldiers, among others, is the war cemetery in Jednorożec, located in a forest. 1465 German soldiers and 2119 Russian soldiers are buried there.

The war cemetery in Jednorożec is the largest, in terms of number of buried, in Masovia. It contains the remains of 3584 soldiers, including 1192 identified, soldiers (mostly German), 273 unidentified German soldiers and 2119 unidentified Russian soldiers. The cemetery is located at the edge of the forest at the end of ul. Długa on the right side, in the direction of Skierowizna. The site is in the shape of a rectangle and composed of two terraces. The bottom and upper terrace are connected by stone stairs. The upper terrace contains a central monument of red sandstone. Originally, following the end of hostilities, the war cemetery had a wooden perimeter and the gate was composed of two, tall wooden columns. Later, the cemetery was enclosed by a fence with t-beam posts at the foundation. In 1937, the cemetery was remodelled and inside its border, stone steles were placed (today there are 65 of them) with the names of the dead, mostly German army soldiers. Soldiers exhumed from smaller surrounding cemeteries, for example from the village of Nakieł, were moved there and buried.

A completely different site is the collective roadside grave situated at the edge of the village of Krzywda (gm. Łaskarzew). The grave, enclosed by a concrete wall, contains the remains of an undetermined number of Russian army soldiers, including Poles. The central part contains a large wooden cross, surrounded by four juniper trees. Under it, there is a plaque with the following inscription: PASSERBY, HERE LIE BURIED THE ASHES OF POLISH AND RUSSIAN SOLDIERS, DIED DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR. KRZYWDA, OCTOBER 2008.

A totally unique site, when it comes to Masovia Voivodeship, is the cemetery for soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian armies, died in 1914-1915, in Ruda Wielka (gm.

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Cemetery for German and Russian soldiers from the First World War in Jednorożec (Masovia Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Collective grave of Russian soldiers in Krzywda (gm. Łaskarzew, Masovia Voivodeship). Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

War cemetery from the First World War in Ruda Wielka (gm. Wierzbica, Masovia Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

PowÄ…zki Military Cemetery in Warsaw. Lapidarium from the Russian garrison and war cemetery from the First World War. Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Wierzbica).The cemetery is a class “0� heritage site. It was probably established in 1915, as a cemetery for the armies of the Central Powers. It was build and fenced by a wall by the Germans. It has an area of 875 m2. The remains of soldiers of all three sides who died fighting on the Eastern Front in 1914-1915 are buried there. Most of those buried on the hill covered in pine trees died in May 1915. The battle took place on 2-6 May 1915 in Gorlice between the Nida, Pilica and Vistula Rivers. On 28 July of that year, the Germans decisively pushed the Russian army out of the former voivodeship of Radom. In 1929, the necropolis contained 112 individual and collective graves, as well as 106 Latin and Orthodox crosses. It was never precisely determined how many soldiers were buried there. At the beginning of the 1990s, there were 56 earth graves with crosses and two stone grave markers. The cemetery is notable for its commemorative rotunda, the only example of this type of construction in Poland.

This is an all-faith commemorative rotunda. Rotundas were placed at honorary cemeteries and places of remembrance for German and Austrian heroes. The rotunda is a seven-metre long construction covered by an open dome. The walls possess two rectangular window openings and a large entranceway, above which, between the dates 1914-1915, the monogram Christ XP has been engraved. The dome base consists of stylised battlements, topped with a series of rectangular, cogged ledges with gaps running along its base. In 1929, a project to take apart the commemorative rotunda to salvage its sandstone was brought up, though fortunately it never came to fruition. In 1991, the necropolis was renovated, the area was cleaned up, excavated and enclosed, and the graves were reconstructed. The rotunda wall was added to and the dome was built. A castiron entrance gate was also constructed. The sites renovation was carried out on the order of the Offices of the Gmina of Wierzbica, under the direction of the art conservator. In 2000, further renovation was undertaken. Mechanical damage to the rotunda was removed, while the surface of the stone wall was cleaned and secured. 6 blanks were reconstructed and added on to the partly vaulted dome, while gaps in the windows were filled out. Numerous inscriptions on the portal and inside the rotunda were also repaired.

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OPOLE VOIVODESHIP There are 20 war grave sites from the First World War on the territory of Opole, containing 3326 Russian army soldiers.

The largest and most interesting it is the prisoner of war cemetery in Łambinowice, which was establish in the second half of the 19th century as a war cemetery site. It was built two kilometres from the village of Lamsdorf (from 1945, Łambinowice) on the territory of a military proving ground, next to the so-called “Camp Two” (Lager II). The oldest part of the cemetery is from the Prussian-French War (1870-1871).

But the period of the cemetery’s most impressive development of took place during the First World War. In essence, a second cemetery was established next to the already-existing one. It was surrounded by a separate fence and dead prisoners of war, as well as soldiers from the Entente were buried there from the nearby complex of German prison camps. The burial of prisoners continued up until 1919, until the moment that the camp complex was liquidated. In total, almost 7000 new graves and a few monuments were added during this period. In the years 1914-1919, buried here were: 3571 Russians; 2602 Romanians; 244 Italians (partially exhumed); 286 Serbs; 83 Britons (exhumed); 80 Frenchmen (exhumed); 2 Belgians (exhumed); and 1 Greek (exhumed).

From the left side of the main alleyway, near the graves of Russian prisoners, there stands a tall memorial column built of sandstone and marble.

Following the end of the First World War, it was raised by Russian prisoners of war to honour the memory of their comrades who did not survive the camp in Lamsdorf. The monument is unique because of the enclosed obelisk, topped by a ball (in 1945, it still possessed the Tsar’s two-headed eagle with spread wings) as well as a bas-relief in the shape of acanthus leaves and a laurel wreath with the Tsar’s Order of St. George (GS was inscribed on the spot of the saint, signifying St. George). The monument bears an inscription in Polish, German, French, Hebrew and Arabic: TO OUR COMRADES WHO DIED IN HARSH CAPTIVITY, THE RUSSIAN PRISONERS OF LAMSDORF. HERE LIE BURIED 4571 RUSSIANS

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The old prisoner of war cemetery in Łambinowice. Monument dedicated to Russian prisoners.

Photograph by Adam Siwek.

The graves of prisoner of war at the old cemetery in Łambinowice.

Photograph by Adam Siwek.

The graves of prisoner of war at the old cemetery in Łambinowice.

Photographs by Adam Siwek.

SUBCARPATHIA VOIVODESHIP

Cemetery containing soldiers of the AustroHungarian and Russian armies in Krempna (Subcarpathia Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery from the First World War, Wola Cieklińska (gm.

Dębowiec, Subcarpathia Voivodeship). Photographs by Adam Siwek.

There are 131 First World War sites in Subcarpathia. One of the more interesting, in terms of style, is Cemetery No. 6, located on a hill over the village of Krempna. The site’s oval shape is underlined by the central monument in the form of six pillars topped by a stone circle stylised to look like a laurel wreath. Around the monument, near the perimeter, are the graves – 75 individual and 12 collective. The graves are surrounded by field stones, each one adorned with a wooden cross decorated with ornate carvings. The graves contain the remains of 53 Austro-Hungarian soldiers and 33 Russian soldiers, as well as 33 (possibly more) soldiers of unidentified nationality.

Cemetery No. 11 in Wola Cieklińska (gm.

Dębowiec) distinguishes itself through its interesting architectural shape, designed by Dušan Jurković. It is created by two circular terraces connected by steps. Next to the stairs connecting the two terraces, two pylons have been erected, topped by crosses. The circular base pieces turn into an octagon with a square and richly decorated capitals. In a large circle over the graves of four officers, a mausoleum has been built in the shape of a rotunda. The enwalled plaque bears an inscription in German. The remaining graves are circularly placed around the rotunda in two rows. The whole cemetery is enclosed by a low wall built of sandstone and topped by stone slabs. There are 56 individual and 7 collective graves. Buried there are 114 soldiers of all three fighting armies, including: 22 Austro-Hungarian, 48 German and 44 Russian.

The gmina of Dębowiec encompasses areas where heavy fighting took place during the First World War. Collective graves and cemeteries are scattered around the area. They were part of two cemetery districts: Żmigród Nowy and Jasło. Two collective graves and four cemeteries belong to them. At the beginning of May 1915, heavy fighting was ongoing for the wooded hills above Cieklin, heavily fortified by the Russians.

Hundreds of soldiers died on both sides, attackers and defenders. The cemetery layout designer, Johann Jäger, attempted to move the original graves as little as possible. Due to this, he created a very characteristic cemetery complex layout, called “Calvarian”, the only one of its type in

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Subcarpathia. He connected two cemeteries and five collective graves scattered along the forested hill with a road, running for almost two kilometres. At the entrance, he constructed a stone chapel covered by a steep, shingled roof. Around the chapel, a short distance away, the individual and collective graves can be found in the forest, surrounded by stones and with wooden crosses placed on them (Cemetery No. 14 F). Further in the forest, collective graves containing unidentified Russian soldiers (Cemeteries Nos. 14 B–E) are similarly arranged. Every grave was enclosed by a separate, wooden picket-fence. The location of specific graves and directions were contained on shrines and two wooden crosses. On the opposite side of the “Calvarian” road, there is a cemetery for German soldiers (Cemetery No. 14 A). For a number of years, the cemeteries and graves were repaired, or rather reconstructed. In all, the whole cemetery complex contains 545 German and Russian soldiers.

• Cemetery No. 14 – 83 German soldiers • Cemetery No. 14 A – 38 Russian soldiers • Cemetery No. 14 B – 53 Russian soldiers • Cemetery No. 14 C – 27 Russian soldiers • Cemetery No. 14 D – 35 Russian soldiers • Cemetery No. 14 E – 32 Russian soldiers • Cemetery No. 14 F – 18 German soldiers and 259 Russian soldiers

Grave No. 12 for Russian soldiers.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the CPSMS.

Chapel at Cemetery No. 14 F in Cieklin (gm. Dębowiec, Subcarpathia Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

In Cieklin there are two more sites where only Russian soldiers were buried – Collective Grave No. 12, which contains the remains of 50 Russians, and Collective Grave No. 13, which contains the remains of 103 Russian soldiers.

Grave No. 13 for Russian soldiers in Cieklin (gm.

Dębowiec, Subcarpathia Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery in Nowy Żmigród (Subcarpathia Voivodeship) containing 58 soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army, 7 soldiers of the German army and 149 soldiers of the Russian army. Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

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One of the collective graves at Cemetery No. 14 containing Russian soldiers from the First World War in Cieklin.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for German and Russian soldiers in Berżniki (Podlasie Voivodeship). Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for German and Russian soldiers from the First World War in Dowspuda (gm. Raczki, Podlasie Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Photographs Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

PODLASIE VOIVODESHIP Podlasie contains 90 sites from the period of the First World War, containing the remains of 7718+X soldiers of the Russian army.

At the eastern end of the village of Berżniki, near the powiat road and the intersection of gmina roads, there is a cemetery for German and Russian soldiers who died during the First World War. It is located at the edge of an ice-marginal valley. From the eastern and southern sides, there are agricultural lands, while a young forest grows on the western side. The cemetery is laid out in the shape of a polygon and is enclosed by a wooden fence with a gate from the other side.

In the central part of the cemetery, there is a monument in the shape of a cuboid on a low socle, built from hewn field stones. The monument is topped by a concrete army cross.

Behind the monument are two crosses – one Latin, one Orthodox. The earthen graves with wooden Latin crosses are set up in five rows.

153 unidentified German soldiers and 358 unidentified Russian soldiers are buried in the cemetery.

Another interesting site, refurbished in 2006, using funds provided by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, as well as the voivode of Podlasie, is the war cemetery in Dowspuda (gm. Raczki). Located in a field, it is enclosed by metal bays placed in a concrete foundation. In the centre of the stone pedestal, a stone plaque has been placed, bearing the inscription: HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF 59 SOLDIERS (29 IDENTIFIED, INCLUDING 5 OFFICERS), AS WELL AS 119 RUSSIAN SOLDIERS, WHO DIED IN 1914-1915.

On both sides of the plaque, there stand two, large wooden crosses – one Latin, the other Orthodox. Inside, near the enclosure, there grows a tall deciduous tree.

A similar site is the cemetery for Russian army soldiers in Gregorowce (gm. Orla), which was renovated in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

The cemetery is enclosed by a wooden fence and sown with grass. The central element is a

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plaque with a tall Orthodox cross. Unfortunately, the number of soldiers that are buried there is unknown, as are their identities.

Cemetery for Russian soldiers from the First World War in Gregorowce (gm. Orla, Podlasie Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

POMERANIA VOIVODESHIP Pomerania contains 5 war grave sites from the First World War, containing the remains of 17,240+X Russian soldiers. Three of these sites contain the remains of prisoners of war.

Southwest of Czersk, in a forest near Łuków, in Bory Tucholskie, there is a Russian prisoner of war cemetery from the First World War. In the years 1914-1917, the German prison camp, Kriegsgefangenelager Czersk, was located nearby. Here, Russian prisoners of war from Gen. Aleksander Vaslievych Samsonov’s destroyed 2nd Army from Nidzica were gathered. It was a branch of the larger prisoner of war camp in Tuchola. The branch in Czersk contained around 50,000 prisoners, among them: Romanian, Russian, English and Italian soldiers. Some of them live in barracks, while the remainder lived in earth dugouts. Disease and a high mortality rate were especially prevalent in the latter part of the camp. The dead were buried in collective graves in a field cemetery located near the camp. Most likely around 4500 Russian prisoners were buried in the cemetery. In the central point of the cemetery there stands a monument in the shape of a stone mound-pyramid, by Grzegorz Trzowski, constructed once Polish statehood had been reinstated following the First World War. The earth graves are more or less marked, and placed in even rows. On top of the graves are concrete

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Prisoner of war cemetery from the First World War, Łuków near Czersk (Pomerania Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Prisoner of war cemetery in Czarne (Pomerania Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery of soldiers of all three armies in Kotowice (gm. Ĺťarki, Silesia Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

crosses with a place on which metal inscriptions were attached with the scratched-in names of the dead prisoners.

The second large prisoner of war grave site is the cemetery in Czarne, where 12,000 to 15,000 Russian prisoners from the First World War are buried, interned in Lager III German prison. Czarne once contained a military proving ground, on which a prison camp was establishing during the First World War. Not far from the jail which stands there today is the massive cemetery which contains the remains of over 12,000 Imperial Russian soldiers, Poles among them. In 1933, one of the first concentration camps of the Third Reich was establish there, and as soon as September 1939, a Stalag for prisoners from all fronts of the war. It was divided into two sub-camps: one contained Polish, Belgian, Yugoslavian, French and American soldiers, while the other contained Soviet and Italian soldiers. In the nearby woods, there are collective graves which contain the remains of around 60,000 individuals of various nationalities and faiths. The First World War prisoner necropolis is located directly opposite the jail. The original, concrete monument, topped by a Russian helmet, is very eye-catching. An inscription in Latin and Cyrillic inform that it was constructed in memory of the Russian prisoners who lost their lives in the camp in Hammerstein during the Great War.

SILESIA VOIVODESHIP Silesia contains 12 war grave sites from the First World War, containing the remains of 1839 (including 487 unidentified) Russian soldiers.

One of the largest (in terms of number of soldiers buried there) is the war cemetery in Kotowice (gm. ŝarki), which contains the remains of the soldiers of the three partitioning armies, who died in 1914 during fighting in the southeastern part of the Kingdom of Poland. It was probably established at the beginning of 1915 as a large site (the second in terms of size in Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska), containing around 800 soldiers. In 1936, as a result of cemetery merging, bodies were transferred there from the cemetery in Hucisk (10 Austrians, 147 Russians), Jaworznik (196 Austrians, 17 Russians), Lud-

35

winów (5 Austrians, 52 Russians), Łutowiec (32 Germans, 16 Austrians, 27 Russians), Morsk (19 Austrians, 30 Russians), Nowa Wieś (22 Germans and 1 Austrian), Parkoszowice (145 Austrians, 149 Russians), Podgaj (5 Germans, 45 Austrians) and Przewodziszowice No. 1 (44 Germans, Austrian, 68 Russians) and Przewodziszowice No. 2 (33 Germans). In all, in Kotowice, 1200 soldiers are now buried, including 481 from the AustroHungarian army, 92 from the German army and 490 from the Russian army, as well as 137 soldiers of unknown nationality, which is unique on the territory of Jura. Nearly all the buried Russian soldiers are unidentified. One is known by his name and surname –Ivan Pavlov from the 13th Biełożeński Infantry Regiment. One unknown soldier was an officer in the 267th Dukhevschin Infantry Regiment Infantry Regiment. The cemetery contains six different types of cast-iron crosses (three types are Latin and three are Orthodox; Muslims from the Austrian army are also buried there but it is unknown whether in future separate burial markers will not be designed for them), as well as characteristic cast-iron plaques on concrete pedestals. A part of the cast-iron crosses which fell victim to thieves have been currently replaced by wooden replicas.

At the diocesan cemetery in Mysłowice, located at ul. Mikołowska, there is a section where 276 soldiers from all three armies are buried, including: 178 Russian soldiers, 70 Romanian soldiers, 12 German soldiers, 6 Serbian soldiers and 3 Austrian soldiers, all identified. The section is covered with grass, on which rest pillows with the names of the soldiers.

HOLY CROSS VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Holy Cross there are 48 war grave sites from the First World War, containing the remains of 5645 (including 170 unidentified) Russian soldiers.

At the war cemetery located in Końskie, there are buried 163 (including 115 unidentified) Russian army soldiers, 57 Austro-Hungarian army soldiers, 14 Germans army soldiers and 2 Polish legionaries, including the remains of soldiers exhumed and moved in 1937 from the war cemetery in Siepla Wielka, who died in 1914-1915.

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War section in Mysłowice (Silesia Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian armies from the First World War in Końskie (Holy Cross Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

War section in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski (Holy Cross Voivodeship). Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the CPSMS.

First and Second World War cemetery (95 Russian army soldiers and 35 Austro-Hungarian army soldiers) in Chmielnik (Holy Cross Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

The cemetery was established to the south of the church cemetery, on an earth mound, on which 112 Orthodox and 4 Latin cast-iron crosses were concentrically placed. Below, in two rows, there are cast-iron plaques on pillows with the names of the soldiers.

Another interesting site on the territory of the voivodeship is the war section at the diocesan cemetery at ul. Deńkowska in Ostrowiec Swiętokrzyski. Buried there are 133 Russian army soldiers (3 unidentified), 74 Austro-Hungarian army soldiers and 20 German army soldiers, including those exhumed and moved in the 1930s from the war cemetery in Ostrowiec (Ostrówek) and Nietulisk Fabryczny. There are also the remains of around 30 Polish Army soldiers who died in 1939. Originally, the war section encompassed over 100 graves grouped in a few rows. In 1929, the graves were equipped with new Latin and Orthodox crosses. A large wooden cross was placed in the centre. In the middle of the 1970s, in the spot where the graves were located, a new section was marked out by a concrete perimeter.

The wooden crosses were removed and replaced by concrete crosses.

WARMIA-MASURIA VOIVODESHIP Cemetery for German and Russian soldiers in Żytkiejmy (Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

On the territory of Warmia-Masuria, there are 246 war grave sites from the First World War, containing the remains of 18,409 (including 2159 unidentified) Russian soldiers.

In Żytkiejmy (gm. Dubeninki) there is a cemetery with the graves of 35 German soldiers, 5 Russian officers and one collective grave. In all, 337 soldiers are buried there, including 116 German and 221 Russian soldiers (19 identified).

Buried at the war cemetery in Kętrzyn, there are 258 soldiers of the German army, including 101 identified, most of whom died during the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes in September 1914, as well as 75 soldiers of the Russian

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army, 2 soldiers of the French army and 1 soldier of the Romanian army. The site is located at the edge of the city, next to a group of army barracks, which contained the garrison lazaretto, now at ul. Kasztanowa. It is laid out in the shape of an almost-square, and enclosed at its borders by rows of hedges. It was divided into four sections. Russian soldiers were buried in the first section, located near the eastern entrance. The southern entrance, preceded by a double alleyway (no longer in existence) is flanked by two stone pylons. The western entrance is preceded by an alleyway flanked by chestnut and hornbeam trees, running along the line of the barracks and the lazaretto building. The cemetery was refurbished by the efforts of the Zofia Licharewa Association of Kętrzyn Enthusiasts (Towarzystwo Miłośników Ziemi Kętrzyńskiej). The alleyways were marked out, fragments of the stone rotunda were displayed and large wooden crosses were constructed. During these works, the remains of a small number of soldier gravestones were found. In April 2005, a stone commemorating German soldiers who died in Southwest Africa in 1904-1906, was moved from the park near the old army mess to the cemetery. Originally, a monumental stone construction – a rotunda – was located in the cemetery, but it has since been purposely removed, leaving just its foundations.

In terms of its layout, the First World War cemetery in Płośnica, established 28 August 1914, is interesting. It contains the remains of 402 soldiers – 370 Russian soldiers and 32 German soldiers. Originally the graves bore concrete grave markers with plaques, which contained the names and places of origin of the buried soldiers. After 1945, all the plaques were forcibly removed. The site retains its original layout. Two sections located closer to the road are composed of four rows, four graves to a row. Behind them are two large graves and the remaining two sections, composed of seven rows, two graves to a row. These are most likely collective graves. In all, there are 62 grave markers (individual grave markers of German soldiers). The cemetery is surrounded by a spruce forest. In 2007, the cemetery was fenced in. in 2008, voussoir paths were laid out between the graves, and information plaques were purchased and placed near the graves. In 2009, 32 concrete crosses were replaced. The patrons of

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War cemetery in Kętrzyn (Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for German and Russian soldiers from the First World War in Płośnica (Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

the site are Nadleśnictwo Lidzbark and the gmina of Płośnica.

The largest cemetery on the territory of Warmia-Masuria is in Markajmy (gm. Lidzbark Warmiński), established at the edge of a pine forest, where 2761 prisoners of war are buried, including 2081 Russian prisoners. Among others, there is a monument there in the shape of a pyramid topped by an eagle, erected by Russian soldiers. The cemetery underwent renovations, as recently as 2013 and 2014, with funds provided by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites The largest post-battle cemetery is in Orłowo, situated on the high bank of the Łyna River, where, along with German soldiers, 1101 Russian soldiers are buried who died in August 1914, during the Battle of Tannenberg at Frąknowa, Łyna and Orłowo.

Prisoner of war cemetery in Markajmy (gm. Lidzbark Warmiński, Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship), Russian prisoner of war monument.

Photographs by Adam Siwek.

Cemetery from the World War in Orłowo.

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of First Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

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GREATER POLAND VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Greater Poland, there are 7 war grave sites from the First World War, which contain the remains of 50+X Russian soldiers.

In Kalisz in 1883, in the Russian partition of Poland, on a hill in Majkowo, an Orthodox cemetery was established for the Russian garrison of Kalisz. During the First World War, 437 German and Russian army soldiers were buried there.

The exact number of soldiers from each army is unknown. In 1915, a monument constructed of field stone was unveiled at the cemetery, dedicated to the German dead. The German war governor, General V. Sontag, spoke at the unveiling.

After Poland regained its independence, Polish soldiers, who died during the Polish-Soviet War, or in the garrison, were also buried there. From that time onwards, the cemetery is known as a military cemetery. During the period of Nazi occupation, graves were added – over 200 individuals exhumed from execution sites. The cemetery was also called a “mausoleum”, as the remains of legionaries were moved there from the military cemetery, which until the Nazi occupation existed at ul. Mickiewicza.

In Konin, there is a cemetery for German and Russian army soldiers. Buried there are 134 German army soldiers and 43 Russian army soldiers. The site was established in 1918 (according to other sources, in 1916). German and Russian soldiers who died in the area of Konin or in the nearby hospital are buried there. A decided majority of them died in November and December 1914, when fighting took place in the region of the city. There are also individual graves from 1915 and 1917. A number of the victims were of unknown identity. Only 117 grave plaques have survived to this day.

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War section from the First World War in Kalisz (Greater Poland Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for German soldiers and Russian soldiers from the First World War in Konin (Greater Poland Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

WEST POMERANIA VOIVODESHIP On the territory of West Pomerania there exists only 1 war grave site from the First World War. In March 2013, on the area of the “Agryf ” factory production hall in Szczecin, during landscape work, human remains were discovered. Until the 1930s, there was a garrison cemetery on this land, where the remains of prisoners from the Napoleonic Wars, the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War were buried. The Voivodeship Office, on the recommendation of the Regional Prosecutor in Szczecin, gave the order to exhume the remains. In April 2013, the Department of Judicial Medicine of the Pomerania Medical University in Szczecin conducted work, revealing the existence of 22 gravesites. Near three of the remains, religious items were discovered in the form of 2 crosses, 2 medallions and a chain of coloured metal. The discovered items indicate that the grave sites belong to Russian prisoners who died during the First World War. In accordance with the decision of the voivode of West Pomerania, after studying the prisoners’ remains, they were buried in the collective grave in Central Cemetery in Szczecin, at ul. Ku Słońcu.

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THE POLISH-SOVIET WAR

T

he Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921) took place between two newly created states: Soviet Russia, created in 1917 as a result of the October Revolution and the Second Polish Republic, reborn in 1918. Soviet Russia aimed to conquer Poland, establish Soviet republics on its territory and to transfer the proletarian revolution into the heartland of Europe. The newly reborn Polish state desired to retain its recently regained independence, safeguard its border and encompass within it most of the lands previously part of the First Republic of Poland.

The most important operations of the Polish-Soviet War include: the Kiev Offensive – the capture of Kiev by the Polish Army, the Battle of Warsaw, known as the “Miracle on the Vistula”, which took place 13-18 August 1920, as well as the Wieprz River Counteroffensive, the Battle of Komarów on 31 August 1920, as well as the Niemen River Offensive in September 1920. On 12 October 1920, Polish and Soviet diplomats signed an armistice which went into effect on 18 October. The eventual peace treaty was signed on 18 March 1921.

In 1919, there were only 7000 Russian prisoners on Polish territory, captured during fighting in Eastern Galicia. The prisoners were held in camps located in Strzałków, Dąbie near Kraków, Pikulice near Przemyśl and Wadowice. These prisoner of war camps were not built by the Poles with Red Army prisoners in mind. They were inherited from the powers that partitioned Poland, who built them during the First World War. A mass infusion of Russian prisoners to prison camps took place after the Polish Army’s victory at the Battle of Warsaw from 13-25 August 1920. At that time, until 19 September 1920, around 50,000 prisoners ended up in Polish hands, soldiers of the Red Army. It is generally accepted that following the cessation of war operations on the Eastern Front (18 October 1920), there were around 110,000 Russian prisoners on the then territory of Poland, of which around 25,000, right after their capture, following agitation, joined Russian, Cossack and Ukrainian army units fighting for the Polish side.

Unfortunately, Poland was not prepared to take in such a large number of prisoners, and thus problems with providing adequate housing and sanitary conditions occured.

Because of prisoner overpopulation in the camps, the mortality rate of prisoners rose to 17-20%. The main cause of death was epidemics of infectious diseases.

In March 1921, the exchange of prisoners began between Poland and Soviet Russia, on the basis of an agreement on prisoner exchange signed in Riga on 24 February 1921. The exchange only encompassed those Russian prisoners who agreed to be exchanged of their own volition. Individuals who had decided to remain in Poland, remained temporarily in camps, and then, later, were quickly released. The exchange of prisoners was completed by mid-October 1921.

On the basis of available materials, it is be estimated that during their entire time in Poland (February 1919-October 1921) at most, around 16,000-18,000 Russian prison-

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ers died. Most of this number died in the camp at Strzałków (around 7500 prisoners) and the camp in Tuchola (around 1370 prisoners). The remainder died in other prison camps and sorting stations (around 6000-8000). The cemeteries where Russian prisoners were buried were located near the camps.

The graves of Red Army soldiers are situated on the territory of eight voivodeships: Kuyavia-Pomerania, Lublin, Łódź, Lesser Poland, Masovia, Podlasie, Pomerania and Greater Poland Voivodeship.

LIST OF GRAVES OF RED ARMY PRISONERS AND SOLDIERS: No. 1.

2.

3.

4.

Voivodeship KuyaviaPomerania

Lublin

Łódź

Lesser Poland

Location

Prisoners/Soldiers

Internees

Tuchola

1370

55

Dęblin

217

Józefów (gm. Dubienka)

30

Puławy

X

Turka

27

Skierniewice

X

Kraków

530

Nowy Sącz

72

Tarnów

15

Wadowice Ossów 5.

44

Masovia

6.

Podlasie

7.

Pomerania

8.

Greater Poland

856 22

Szydłowo

199

Warszawa

X (61)

Czyżew-Osada

X

Klimówka

8

Czersk

X

Kalisz-Szczypiorno

111

Łężec-Strzałkowo

7 500

111

KUYAVIA-POMERANIA VOIVODESHIP

Prisoner of war cemetery in Tuchola. Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

In Tuchola, at ul. Świecka, the Prussian authorities established a prisoner of war camp during the First World War. Prisoners who died there were buried at the cemetery attached to the camp. When Pomerania was occupied by the Polish Army in January-February 1920, it was in a state of ruin and required essential repairs. The first transport of Russian prisoners arrived on 15 May 1920. After 1920, Russian prisoners from 1920-1921, as well Ukrainian prisoners and Russian internees, where buried at the (old) cemetery. The graves of Bolshevik prisoners and internees are also located at a cemetery nearby. The number of Russian prisoners who died at Tuchola is estimated at 1370 individuals, including 523 identified by name.

In 2000, a plaque commemorating the prisoners was placed there.

LUBLIN VOIVODESHIP

Section for Russian prisoners at the garrison cemetery in Dęblin. Photographs by Adam Siwek.

In Dęblin, at the war cemetery situated at Fort Balonna, there are collective graves containing the remains of 217 prisoners of war from the 16th, 24th, 26th and 73rd Prisoner Labour Companies, who died in hospital in 19191921, including 202 prisoners identified by name. The prison of war camp was located in the settlement of Młynki (gm. Stężyca), as well as the citadel of Dęblin Fortress.

The Balonna war cemetery was established during the First World War by the AustroHungarian army on the slopes of the Dęblin Fortress redoubt. Initially, soldiers of various nationalities from the Austro-Hungarian and German armies were buried at the cemetery. In the years 1919-1937, the site fulfilled the function of a garrison cemetery. During the PolishSoviet War, dead soldiers of the Polish Army and prisoners – soldiers of the Red Army – were buried there. The cemetery was closed to further burials in 1938.

The war cemetery in Józefów contains the remains of 25 Polish Army soldiers of the 27th Volunteer Infantry Regiment, as well as 30 soldiers of the Red Army who died in fighting

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around Józefów, which took place on 15 August 1920. Most likely this was fighting which took place on the central section of the Bug River between the Polish 7th Infantry Division and soldiers of the Red Army. Two Soviet airmen, from a plane shot down in the area during the Second World War, are also buried there.

In 1995, in Puławy, near ul. Budowlanych, an undetermined number of human remains was found. As a result of expert medical testing and historical research, it was established that the remains belonged to prisoners from the First World War or internees from the PolishSoviet War. During the Polish-Soviet War, similarly to the First World War, the mess building was adapted as a military hospital. The building, constructed before the First World War, is located in between the territory of the prisoner of war camp and the place where the human remains were discovered. The remains were buried in a collective grave at the communal cemetery. A plaque commemorating the prisoners was placed on the grave.

In Turka (gm. Dorohusk) there is a cemetery from the First and Second World Wars, as well as the Polish-Soviet War. The site contains the remains of soldiers from the partitioning powers from the First World War, as well as 33 soldiers of the Polish Army and 27 soldiers of the Red Army from 1920. Neither the circumstances of their deaths, nor their names, are known. Most likely, these are soldiers who died in fighting around the Bug River in 1920.

Cemetery for Polish and Russian soldiers from 1920 in Józefów.

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Grave of Bolshevik prisoners at the communal cemetery in Puławy.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

ŁÓDŹ VOIVODESHIP In Skierniewice at ul. Strobowska, in the forest of “Strzelba”, there is a collective grave of an unknown number of Red Army prisoners from 1920. The grave was repaired in 2003 and 2004, with the help of funds from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

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Grave of Bolshevik soldiers at the war cemetery in Turka.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

War Cemetery No. 350 in Nowy Sącz.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

War Cemetery No. 200 in Tarnów.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

War cemetery in Wadowice.

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

LESSER POLAND VOIVODESHIP

In Kraków, at ul. Rakowicka in collective graves No. 71 and No. 72, situated in the war section, prisoners of the Red Army from the camp in Dąbie were buried. The camp in Dąbie was established during the First World War, as an Austrian rallying point for Russian prisoners. After Poland regained its independence, it was utilised as a camp for prisoners and internees, mostly from various Russian and Ukrainian formations. There were Russian prisoners from the Polish-Soviet War among them, as well as interned soldiers from the “White” Volunteer Army of Gen. Anton Denikin (including Gen. Nikolai Bredov’s whole corps).

Cemetery No. 350 from the First World War is located in Nowy Sącz. 1332 identified soldiers are buried there, from the Austro-Hungarian, German, Russian, Italian and Montenegrin armies, as well Serbian soldiers, interned individuals, Polish Army soldiers, as well as the soldiers of other, undetermined armies. According to materials presented to the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites by the Lesser Poland Voivodeship Office in Kraków, there are also 72 identified Russian prisoners buried there from 1920.

Cemetery No. 300 from the First World War is located in Tarnów, at ul. Chyszowska. Soldiers from the Austro-Hungarian, German, Russian, Serbian and Italian armies who died during the First World War are buried there. According to materials presented to the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites by the Lesser Poland Voivodeship Office in Kraków, there are also 15 Russian prisoners buried there from 1920.

At the war cemetery in Wadowice, alongside soldiers and civilians buried during the First and Second World Wars, there are also soldiers of the Polish Army, died in 1918-1921, as well as internees, Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war, who died in Polish captivity, not to mention soldiers of the “White” Russian armies. Besides the military hospital and garrison in Wadowice, in the years 1918-1921, there existed a camp for prisoners and internees. In all, 2160 individuals from all of the above-mentioned formations and armies were buried there in the years 1918-1921. According to materials presented to the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites by the Lesser Poland Voivodeship Office in Kraków, there are also 856 Red Army prisoners from the Polish-Soviet War buried at the cemetery.

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MASOVIA VOIVODESHIP In the collective grave in Ossów–Zielonka, 22 unidentified soldiers of the Red Army are buried, who died 14 August 1920, in fighting around Ossów, a significant combat area during the Battle of Warsaw. The dead belonged to the 79th Brigade of the 27th Rifles Division of the Soviet Army, directly attacking Warsaw. The remains were uncovered during archaeological research in the Ossów area in 2008-2009. The grave was established in summer and fall of 2010, by the efforts of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, the gminas of Wołomin and Zielonka, as well as other institutions.

In Szydłowo, in a collective grave, the remains of unidentified prisoners and soldiers of the Red Army from Bzhishkyan’s Calvary Corps are buried, executed by the Polish 5th Army in August 1920, for the murder of Polish prisoners, including prisoners of the 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment of the 18th Infantry Division in Szydłowo. The site was established in the 1950s. In 2010, utilising funds from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, the grave was rearranged to include an Orthodox cross, a granite perimeter and a granite socle with a commemorative plaque with the inscription: HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF 199 SOLDIERS OF THE 3RD CAVALRY DIVISION OF THE RED ARMY, SHOT ON 24 AUGUST 1920, FOR WAR CRIMES AGAINST POLISH PRISONERS In Warsaw at the Powązki Military Cemetery, an unknown number of Russian prisoners were buried, who died in epidemic and staging hospitals in Warsaw. The graves were removed in 1961. The cemetery office retains a list with the names of 61 dead prisoners. No other commemoration exists.

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Grave of Bolshevik soldiers who died at Ossów.

Photographs by Adam Siwek.

Bolshevik grave in Szydłowo.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

PODLASIE VOIVODESHIP In Czyżew-Stacja (gm. Czyżew-Osada), there is a collective grave of Red Army soldiers who died in 1920.

In Klimkówka (gm. Kuźnica Białostocka), 44 soldiers of the Polish Army (10 identified by name) and 6 soldiers of the Red Army are buried, died in September 1920 during the Battle of the Niemen River. In 2009, the grave was thoroughly repaired using funds from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

POMERANIA VOIVODESHIP Collective grave of Polish and Bolshevik soldiers.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for prisoners of war from the First World War and the PolishSoviet War. Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

At the prisoner of war cemetery from the First World War in Czersk, an unknown number of Russian prisoners are buried in a separate section, died in 1922 at the nearby prisoner of war camp. The camp in Czersk was built by the Germans to house a massive amount of Russian prisoners, captured during the German offensive in the East. In 1915-1918, over 3000 Russian prisoners died in the camp in Czersk, including hundreds of Poles and over 5000 Romanians.

GREATER POLAND VOIVODESHIP In Kalisz Szczypiorno, at the beginning of 1915, as part of preparations for the German offensive on the Eastern Front, a camp was built for housing captured soldiers. Following the socalled “Oath Crisis” on 13 July 1917, soldiers of the Polish Legions were also sent here. In the second half of 1917, there were also over ten thousand prisoners being held there, mostly Russian. At the end of the First World War, a camp

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for German prisoners of war was established. In the years 1920-1924, Internment Camp No. 5, for soldiers of the Ukrainian People’s Army, functioned there. Along with a number of Ukrainians, 111 dead Russian prisoners interned at the camp in Szczypiorno were buried at the cemetery next to the camp.

In 1925, in Łężec-Strzałkowo, a cemetery was established next to the German prison of war camp, built in 1914, by the Prussian occupying authority for prisoners of various nationalities (including Russian prisoners) from the First World War. In the years 1918-1923, there was a cemetery for prisoners who died in the camp, which functioned as a Polish camp for Red Army prisoners and interned individuals, already in operation from 11 July 1919 (Polish Prisoner of War Camp No. 1 in Strzałkowo). 8000 dead were buried at the cemetery, including: 506 prisoners of various nationalities from 1915-1918 (mostly from the Russian army, as well as a small number of British and French prisoners exhumed in the 1920s, and around 7500 prisoners from 19181923 (mostly Red Army prisoners, as well as interned individuals).

PRISONERS AT SORTING STATIONS: In Białystok Pietrasze, dead Russian prisoners are buried in the communal cemetery at ul.

Wysockiego. According to estimates, 1600 individuals died of disease there. The exact location of their graves at the cemetery is unknown.

In Modlin, prisoners were most likely buried at the fort’s cemetery. The exact location of graves at the cemetery is unknown.

In Rzeszów Pobitno, according to cemetery records, 25 Red Army prisoners were buried in the communal cemetery in 1920. The location of their burial has yet not been determined.

In Pułtusk, on the spot of the old cemetery from 1919-1920, a mausoleum and cemetery for Red Army soldiers from 1944-45 was built. The exact location of graves from the Polish-Soviet War is unknown.

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Central monument at the prisoner of war cemetery in Strzałkowo. Photographs by Adam Siwek.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR

A

fter First World War cemeteries, the second largest number of burial sites of Russian soldiers are graves of Red Army soldiers from the Second World War. During the latest verification, which took place in 2013-2014, it was established that there are 718 sites on the territory of Poland, which contain the remains of Soviet soldiers and prisoners who died during the Second World. Their graves can be found on the territory of all sixteen voivodeships.

There are 230 Soviet cemeteries in Poland, including: 170 autonomous cemeteries (Red Army soldiers and prisoners), 60 combined cemeteries (with Polish Army soldiers and prisoners of other nationalities), 80 war sections and 480 collective and individual graves.

In 1944-1945, massive groupings of strategic-operational forces were operating on the current territory of Poland. These formations included the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts, as well as the 1st and 4th Ukrainian Fronts. According to official statistics, over 600,000 Red Army soldiers of all ranks died on the territory of Poland. The Soviet fronts suffered especially high losses in 1944, while crossing the Vistula, fighting at the Sandomierz Bridgehead at Janów, at the Magnuszewski Bridgehead, as well as during the forced crossing of the Narew River at Pułtusk and Różana. Thousands of soldiers also perished at the Dukla Pass. During the winter offensive of 1945, the Soviet fronts lost tens of thousands of soldiers in fighting on the territories of East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia, while crossing the Oder and Nysa Rivers, as well as fighting for the fortress cities (Festungs) of Wrocław (Breslau), Poznań, Piła, Kostrzyn and Opole. The dead were buried on the move wherever available, in mass graves, and in most cases, without identification and without designating the place of burial by name. To this day, tens of thousands lie buried in graves, marked with an “Unknown Soldier” grave plaques.

The first burial sites of Red Army soldiers from the Second World War are from September 1939, though they are few in number. Later graves are from 1941 (mainly on the territory of Podlasie Voivodeship), followed by the graves of partisans and finally, the most numerous graves, from fighting in 1944-1945.

After the end of the war, the Polish authorities began compiling lists of war graves located on the territory of Poland. The lists not only encompassed the graves of Soviet soldiers, but also Polish soldiers, prisoners of various nationalities and civilians. The lists were compiled by gminas on the basis of grave plaques with the names of soldiers, as well as information and accounts from the local population.

The gathered data concerning established grave sites, along with their description and a sketch of their location on the gminas territory, were sent to the powiat authorities (starostas), who then forwarded them to the Ministry of Public Administration.

The Ministry was then responsible (in the name of the government) of compiling a consolidated list of war grave site locations, organising exhumations and creating consolidated war cemeteries or war sections at communal cemeteries.

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The majority of exhumations of Red Army soldiers took place in the years 1948-1954 and 1957-1958. They were carried out by Polish teams, and the work was financed by the Polish state budget. Military units of the Soviet fronts possessed socalled “burial teams”, which carried out burials of dead soldiers. Initial burial sites became the basis for establishing the first formal cemeteries. The Russians often chose areas located in city and town centres for the locations of cemeteries or collective graves. These were public or green spaces, such as public parks or squares.

Field cemeteries were most often located in not built-up areas, usually in places where fighting had taken place, and thus places such as clearings, or near communication routes. Collective and individual graves usually came into existence in places where soldiers had died. The lists of burial sites provided further basis for designating the locations of new cemeteries. The selection of sites was primarily guided by large concentrations of dead soldiers. In general, cemeteries were established in large and medium-sized cities in representative places. The Ministry of Public Administration prepared plans for the distribution of new cemeteries in agreement with voivodes. The realisation of exhumation work was initially the responsibility of starostas, but was later taken over by national councils. They were directly responsible for conducting exhumations in accordance with the regulations in effect at the time, the Acts on Burying the Dead and Ascertaining the Cause of Death from 17 March 1932 (Ustawy z dn. 17 Marca 1932 o chowaniu zmarłych i stwierdzaniu przyczyny zgonu). The remains of soldiers identified by name were buried in individual graves, while unidentified soldiers were buried in collective graves (Russian soldiers did not possess identification tags).

Red Army soldier cemeteries where mainly created and established in the years 1948-1954, during the first phase of exhumations. New sites were not constructed during the second phase of exhumations (1957-1958), with the discovered remains buried at existing cemeteries.

Cemeteries from the Second World War are most often characterised by the large swathes of area they cover, only 30% of which are occupied by graves. The remainder is allocated for greenery, as well as paths and squares, used for ceremonies commemorating anniversaries. Also characteristic of the construction of cemeteries from this period was the creation of separate burial places for officers and enlisted soldiers. Examples of these types of cemeteries can be found in Bolesławiec and Wrocław in Lower Silesia. A large example of a cemetery of this type can be found in Wolsztyn in Greater Poland, as well as in Cybinka in Lubus Voivodeship. Most cemeteries built after the Second World War have a similar spatial layout. They were established according to a square or rectangular design, with a main pathway leading to a monumental central accent, usually in the form of an obelisk, topped with the symbol of a red star. Officer graves were placed individually along the main pathway. The remaining graves were collective, commemorated by sloping plaques and small obelisks. Around the graves, high greenery was planted, often in the form of tall hedgerows, providing a background for the graves. In the 1960s, Polish government offices conducted reviews of Red Army cemeteries and acknowledged that many of them where in poor states of repair. The cemeteries were not built of durable materials and quickly were quickly deteriorating. Thus the need was stated to improve their image and aesthetic appearance. New greenery was also planted at

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the burial sites. At that time, many cemeteries gained a new, beautiful park-like appearance, as well as new architectural accents.

There are also Soviet prisoner of war cemeteries on the territory of Poland. As a rule, exhumations were not carried out of those who died in prison camps constructed on the territory of Poland by the German Third Reich. Determining the estimated number of buried took place while carrying out discoveries of mass graves. The number of dead prisoners was established on the basis of the arrangement of bodies in graves, their size and the findings of the Central Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. On the basis of various findings and gathered information, it was established that around 1,000,000 prisoners died on the modern-day territory of Poland. Neither then, nor today, have the Russian authorities ever been interested in the fate of these particular sites. Initially, Russian prisoner cemeteries were not arranged at all (only to a minimal extent). The situation of combined sites proved better – where not just Soviet prisoners, but also representatives of other countries, were buried. In accordance with this, in the years 1967-1971, the Polish authorities decided on the necessity to commemorate these site and put those sites order. The task turned out to be problematic with regard to the fact these sites were difficult to access, often located in forests and covering very large areas. Monuments of various forms and sizes were raised on these sites. Unfortunately, because of the difficulty of determining the precise number of buried, only the estimated number of murdered victims was inscribed on commemorative plaques.

In the 1980s, the Ministry of Spatial Economy and Construction, at the time responsible for war grave affairs, conducted renewed site verification and ascertained that the number of places where Soviet soldiers were buried was much larger than originally calculated. Such a state of affairs occurred because of inaccurate examination or the omission of soldier graves in the post-war years.

Currently, it has been established that there are 718 burial sites on the territory of Poland. This number may change in the next few years, due to carrying out exhumation work with the goal of confirming the factual existence of graves, or merging them into larger and easier to maintain sites. To this day, new and unarranged graves of soldiers are being discovered in forests, especially on the territory of Lublin, Masovia, Podlasie and West Pomerania Voivodeships, which are then, according to means and financial resources, exhumed, with the remains mostly transferred to nearby cemeteries of Red Army soldiers.

Some sites remain completely undiscovered. A prime example is the prisoner of war camp in Konin (now Gródek) in Brokęcin, where around 40,000 prisoners died.

The largest number of Soviet war cemeteries and sections from the Second World War are located in the voivodeships of Lublin, Podlasie, Subcarpathia and Kuyavia-Pomerania. In these voivodeships, collective graves predominate, as well as individual graves, in which smaller amounts of soldiers were buried. On the other hand, the most cemeteries with only Red Army soldiers, or combined with Polish Army soldiers, are located in in the voivodeships of Pomerania and Lower Silesia.

The largest number of Red Army cemeteries combined with Polish soldiers are located in West Pomerania Voivodeship.

In some voivodeships, such as Lower Silesia, Lubus, Pomerania and West Pomerania, Soviet cemeteries comprise 24% to 40% of Second World War grave sites. This

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situation cannot be compared with the remaining voivodeships, especially those located in the east of Poland, where sites from, for example, the First World War and Polish-Soviet War, also exist.

Cemeteries of Red Army Soldiers and Prisoners

Combined Cemeteries with Polish Army Soldiers and Prisoners of Other Nationalities

Section

Mass and Individual Graves

Total

Lower Silesia

19

5

1

6

31

KuyaviaPomerania

16

1

14

41

72

Lublin

11

6

4

73

94

Lubus

8

5

2

0

15

Łódź Voivodeship

4

2

4

18

28

Lesser Poland

7

2

13

32

54

Masovia

15

2

7

28

52

Opole

4

1

0

2

7

Subcarpathia

14

5

5

50

74

Podlasie

11

4

3

73

91

Pomerania

23

5

2

7

37

Silesia

9

4

7

23

43

Holy Cross

8

2

4

18

32

WarmiaMasuria

11

3

3

3

20

Greater Poland

6

3

7

27

43

West Pomerania

4

10

4

7

25

Total

170

60

80

408

718

The greatest number of burial sites of Red Army soldiers and prisoners can be found on the voivodeships of Lublin, Masovia and Podlasie.

The most Soviet soldiers, in relation to cemeteries, were buried in the voivodeships of Opole (9.86%), Lower Silesia (7.85%), West Pomerania (6.78%), Silesia (6.57%) and Podlasie (6.52%).

The table below present the number of soldiers and prisoners buried in particular voivodeships:

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Voivodeship

Number of Buried

Number of Identified

Lower Silesia

39,486

14,676

Kuyavia-Pomerania

29,400

3295

Lublin

552,244

1594

Lubuskie

52,487

15,508

4890

1995

Łódź Voivodeship Lesser Poland

21,795

2933

Masovia

28,3211

22,798

Opole

70,954

6931

Subcarpathia

65,741

6170

Podlasie

13,9421

3040

Pomerania

76,942

5300

Silesia

65,389

6707

Holy Cross

63,751

4108

Warmia-Masuria

57,904

6865

Greater Poland

21,655

5749

West Pomerania

36,846

7627

1,582,116+X

115,296

Total

The state of maintenance of Red Army soldier and prisoner graves is satisfying. Individual and collective graves located in small diocesan cemeteries are in especially good condition. The situation is somewhat worse with larger cemeteries located in large urban agglomerations. As mentioned, these types of sites cover large areas and contain rich elements of decoration, such as monumental architecture (grave markers in the form of obelisks, squares, numerous pathways, greenery). Because of the lack of adequate finances necessary for the regular upkeep and repairs of such sites, in some cases the voivoide, along with the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, decides (always in consultation with the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Warsaw) on the cemeteries’ décors. This usually consists of removing individual or collective perimeters and planting grass on the territory of the whole site. Oftentimes, concrete grave markers (commemorative plaques and obelisks), ruined by atmospheric conditions and the passage of time, are replaced by smaller elements (concrete pillows or flat markers, inscribed with stars) made of better quality materials, usually granite. Bearing in mind the small number of soldiers identified after the war, their names were rarely put on graves (except at officer cemeteries). Currently, because of the large number of searches for the resting places of relatives by citizens of former countries of the USSR (Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Russians, Kazaks and Uzbeks), the Embassy of the Russian Federation, along with the Polish Red Cross, are carrying out work to verify the names of Red Army soldiers in order to identify soldiers and find their initial and final resting places (on the basis of exhumation records). It should be remembered that the Red Army consisted of many nationalities and many faiths. Serving within its ranks were citizens of the current countries of Russia (48%), Ukraine (28%), Belarus

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(7.5%), Uzbekistan (2%), Kazakhstan (1.69%), Georgia (1.74%), Azerbaijan (1.52%), Lithuania, Moldova, Latvia, Kirgizstan, Tadzhikistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Estonia. Kalmyks, Tatars (2.24%) and Jews also served in the Red Army. Confirmed names of soldiers (voivodeship financial means permitting), are inscribed on collective commemorative plaques and usually placed at the entrance to the cemetery. Changes to cemetery layouts and dĂŠcors allow for their better maintenance and signify less of a strain on the state budget, which, in turn, means that these finances can be spent on other war grave sites located on the territory of Poland.

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LOWER SILESIA VOIVODESHIP

Kutuzov Red Army Cemetery in Bolesławiec (Lower Silesia Voivodeship).

Photographs by Adam Siwek.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Bolesławiec (Lower Silesia Voivodeship), Photograph by Adam Siwek.

On the territory of Lower Silesia, there are 31 war grave sites from the Second World War, which contain the remains of 39,486 Red Army soldiers and prisoners.

The most interesting, in terms of décor and layout, is the Kutuzov Cemetery for Red Army officers at ul. II Armia Wojska Polskiego in Bolesławiec. On 10-12 February 1945, during fighting for Bolesławiec powiat, over 3000 Red Army soldiers and officers were killed of the 3rd Armoured Guards Army and 52nd Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. They were buried at two cemeteries, one for officers and one for enlisted men. The former contains the remains of 142 Soviet officers, identified by name and buried in individual graves. The entrance to the terraced site is through a decorative forged gate, composed into imposing stone pylons, topped with the figures of soldiers – the left, with a Red Army soldier, the right, with a soldier from the Napoleonic Wars period, as Prince Mikhail Kutuzov, Field Marshal in the Imperial Russian Army, fell ill and died on the territory of the current cemetery on 28 April 1813, on his way to Zgorzelec. On the place where he fell ill there is a broken column with an oak wreath. Inside the monument was a small pewter chest, which served as an urn, containing Kutuzov’s entrails (or heart), which were left after his body was embalmed. After 1945, the small pewter chest was removed and sent to St. Petersburg. A commemorative plaque was affixed to the monument inscribed in two languages – German and Russian, as Prussia and Russia were allies in the fight against Napoleon at the time. The monument was funded by the son-in-law of Gen. von Sacken and the field marshal’s daughter. Following the Second World War, the area around Kutuzov’s monument was utilised as a cemetery for Soviet officers who died in 1945, officially naming it the Mikhail Kutuzov Cemetery. Besides the monument dedicated to Kutuzov, the cemetery also contains three sandstone monuments, including one dedicated to Gen. Maksimov and one to Sgt. Zaytsev, who covered the loophole of a German bunker with his own body, allowing his comrades to storm it. In 2014, the Em-

57

bassy of the Russian Federation began conservation work at the cemetery, paid for with their own finances, which continues to this day.

The remains of soldiers who died in the fighting for Bolesławiec were also buried in Bolesławiec, at ul. Willowa. 3312 Russian soldiers are buried there, along with 25 Russian prisoners murdered by the Germans during their retreat.

Two more Red Army cemeteries can be found in Wrocław. In the district of Krzyki, at ul. Karkonoska, is a cemetery for officers, whose construction began while the fighting for Wrocław was still ongoing. The cemetery was built in the years 1945-1947. 781 officers are buried there (including 710 unidentified). The author of the initial project was the architect, Tadeusz Ptaszycki. The cemetery is designed in the shape of a triangle, containing the central accent at its peak – a mausoleum in the form of a gloriette (designed by Roman Feliński).

In the last few years, the Embassy of the Russian Federation, following arrangements with the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites and the voivode of Lower Silesia, carried out a comprehensive overhaul of the cemetery, primarily, removing the officer gravestones and in their place, putting sloped granite plaques with the names of the buried.

On the other hand, at ul. Działkowa, on so-called “Skylark Hill” (Skowrona Góra), the remains of 7205 Red Army soldiers are buried who died in the fighting for Wrocław, or to the south of the city, from 16 February to 6 May 1945. The cemetery contains a large collective grave sown with grass, as well as a uniquelyshaped monument of red marble, with a small number of names of the soldiers. In 2012 and 2014, thanks to funds from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, as well as the voivode, repair work began on the cemetery’s enclosure.

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Cemetery for Red Army officers in Wrocław at ul. Karkonoska (Lower Silesia Voivodeship).

Photographs by Adam Siwek.

Cemetery for Red Army Soldiers in Wrocław, ul. Działkowa (Lower Silesia Voivodeship). Photographs by Adam Siwek.

KUYAVIA-POMERANIA VOIVODESHIP

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Bydgoszcz, ul. Artyleryjska (Kuyavia-Pomerania Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Section for Red Army soldiers at the war cemetery in Grudziądz.

Photographs by Adam Siwek.

On the territory of Kuyavia-Pomerania, there are 72 sites from the Second World War, which contain the remains of 29,400 Red Army soldiers and prisoners. The voivodeship mostly contains collective graves. 17 of the sites are cemeteries.

At the cemetery in Bydgoszcz at ul. Artyleryjska, the remains of 1404 (including 221 prisoners) Red Army soldiers are buried, died 23-27 January in the region of Bydgoszcz, and 24-25 January, fighting for the city itself. The cemetery contains collective and concrete with and concrete inscribed with the names of soldiers, which are regularly replaced by the Office of the City of Bydgoszcz.

At the war cemetery in Grudziądz at ul. 18 Pułk Ułanów Pomorskich, there are collective and individual graves which contain the remains of 754 Red Army soldiers who died of wounds sustained while fighting for the city. Among the graves in the shape of gravestones (concrete enclosures and plaques with inscriptions and stars), there is a squat monument in the shape of an obelisk.

The largest site, in terms of number of buried, is the prisoner of war cemetery in Mała Nieszawka-Glinki (gm. Wielka Nieszawka).

Buried there are 619 Red Army soldiers, 10,000 Soviet Prisoners, as well as 481 prisoners of other nationalities – French, Dutch and Italian soldiers – victims of Stalag 20 A prisoner of war camp, “Glinka”. The central accent is a composition of small concrete blocks creating a semi-circle with the inscription: DEDICATED TO THE VICTIMS OF FASCISM The graves, in the form of a stele, are situated in grassy terrain. At the turn of 1939-1940, the German authorities began setting up a prisoner of war camp on the territory of Toruń for Allied prisoners. To begin with, soldiers of the Polish Army were held there, but British and French soldiers as well. In 1943, Italian prisoners were brought there. In 1941, a camp for Soviet prisoners was built on territory in the direction of the village of Glinka. A high mortality rate prevailed there, due to the total lack of sanitary

59

facilities, numerous epidemics, starvation rations and planned executions. A portion of the prisoners were kept outside, in the open air, because of the lack of housing. The bodies of prisoners were buried in a specially prepared cemetery.

After the end of hostilities, a partial exhumation of remains was conducted, on the basis of which it was estimated that the number of buried was around 11,000 prisoners.

In the Red Army section at the diocesan cemetery in Szubin, the remains of 59 soldiers are buried who died in the fighting for Szubin at the beginning of 1945. The monument bears a plaque with the names of 12 identified soldiers.

The site was repaired with funds from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites

Prisoner of war cemetery in Mała Nieszawka (gm. Wielka Nieszawka, Kuyavia-Pomerania Voivodeship). Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Red Army section of the diocesan cemetery in Szubin.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

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LUBLIN VOIVODESHIP

Prisoner of war cemetery in Biała Podlaska, ul. Przemysłowa (Lublin Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Prisoner of war cemetery in Hola Forest (gm. Biała Podlaska, Lublin Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

On the territory of Lublin, there are 94 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the largest number of buried Soviet soldiers and prisoners, as compared to other voivodeships – 552,244. There are many collective graves and 11 cemeteries containing the remains of Red Army prisoners.

On the territory of the city of Biała Podlaska, there are 4 cemeteries containing the remains of Soviet prisoners. The fact that this area neighbours the former USSR was the reason that the Germans established the first camps for Soviet prisoners in this region. Their construction was begun just a few days before the invasion of the Soviet Union. This is also the reason that it became a place of horrible suffering and crimes against tens of thousands of prisoners.

They were organised provisionally and prisoners often camped in the open air. In all, due to starvation, terrible sanitary conditions, cold, infectious diseases, as well as executions, around 85,000 prisoners died in German Stalags located in Bialski powiat. Among them were the Polish residents of pre-war Brest.

One such site is the cemetery in Biała Podlaska at ul. Przemysłowa, where the remains of around 7000 prisoners were buried who died in 1941-1942, in the so-called “Red Barracks” – a camp which functioned from August 1941 to April 1942, first as a hospital and later as a prison camp. The cemetery contains more than a dozen unmarked graves, covered by concrete slabs with red, five-pointed stars.

Among the graves at the end of the main pathway, there is a monument bearing the inscription: DEDICATED TO THE VICTIMS OF NAZI CRIMES. The monument also bears a mounted plaque which contains an inscription in both Polish and Russian: BURIED HERE ARE OVER 7000 SOVIET PRISONERS OF WAR MURDERED BY THE NAZIS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN THE AREA OF BIAŁA PODLASKA – WE SALUTE THEIR MEMORY.

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Another site on this territory is the cemetery for Red Army prisoners in the forest of Hola, were around 40,000 prisoners are buried. Frontstalag 307 - Unterlager “B” was one of the most horrifying camps of Nazi persecution and torture. It was mainly a camp for officers, political commissars, Party members, komsomols, as well as Jews and citizens of the Soviet Union. These prisoners, known as “undesirables”, were marked for extermination.

Prisoners deemed to be especially dangerous were also held there – mainly real and potential leaders of prisoner groups and prisoners demanding proper treatment. The penal sectors also contained individuals who had attempted or organised escape, as well as those who had committed any infringement of the harsh camp rules. Prisoners who found themselves in the penal sectors did not receive any food, not even water. They were condemned to death by starvation or firing squad. Starvation was one of the main reasons for the high mortality rate among prisoners at Frontstalag 307. Mass prisoner deaths were also the result of epidemics of infectious diseases which prevailed in the camp. The number of prisoner deaths per day in this camp, surpassed one thousand people on more than one occasion in August and September 1941. This was confirmed by former prisoners of this camp, as well as residents of the surrounding villages. The collective graves, which to this day are are located nearby the camp’s former site, are also irrefutable evidence of the horrors that took place there. After the war, a monument was arranged on the spot in the shape of a burial mound, containing a plaque with the inscription: COMMEMORATING THE PLACE OF TORMENT OF 40 THOUSAND SOVIET PRISONERS MURDERED

BY THE NAZI FASCISTS – THE COMMUNITY OF BIALSKI POWIAT At the communal cemetery in Dęblin to the right of the entrance, there are the collective graves of Red Army prisoners, as well as Italians interned in 1943, part of the so-called “Armata Italiana in Russia”. The section for Red Army soldiers has a symbolic dimension. In the nearby fortress from Tsarist times, which contained the largest prisoner of war camp in Europe, 60,000-80,000 Soviet prisoners were murdered according to the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes against the Polish Nation. Around 200,000 Rus-

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The “Lublin Gate” at Fort Dęblin, where a Red Army prisoner of war camp operated. Photograph by Tadeusz Krząstek.

Section of Red Army prisoners at the cemetery in Dęblin.

Photograph by Tadeusz Krząstek.

Commemorative plaque at the communal cemetery in Dęblin.

Photograph by Tadeusz Krząstek.

Section for Red Army soldiers in Lublin (Lublin Voivodeship). Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

sians and 40,000 Italians passed through Stalag 307, known to the prisoners as the “Fortress of Death”. Red Army soldiers were treated in an especially brutal manner. They died en masse, held out in the open during the winter months. They were decimated by starvation, typhus and other mass diseases. To this day, not all of the sites where the mass burials of the dead and murdered took place are known. According to information gathered from local inhabitants, the bodies of Russians were thrown into the deep moats surrounding the fortress, covered in lime and burned. For a number of years after the war, there was a ban on conducting earthworks on the territory of the fortress, as well as in the regions of Fort Głusiec and Gen. Zajączek Redoubt. The collective graves at the cemetery are meticulously maintained and countlessly visited during the Feast of All Saints by the inhabitants of Dęblin. Near “Warsaw Gate”, there is an obelisk-monument commemorating the mass extermination of Soviet soldiers.

The cemetery in Kazimierz Dolny on the Vistula was built in the years 1950-1953, according to the project of Iwona Dworakowska and Kazimierz Kotowski.

A necropolis in the style of a park-mausoleum and in the shape of a large horseshoe contains the 56 individual graves and 164 collective graves. Buried there are the exhumed bodies of soldiers of the 69th Army, who died while crossing the Vistula in the direction of Janowiec in August 1944, as well as in the regions of: Poniatowa, Kraśnik, Lublin, Puławy, Bochotnica, Łuków and Lubartów, as well as Kozienice. The cemetery near Kazimierz Dolny is one of the most beautiful necropolis complexes of its kind.

At the communal cemetery at ul. Biała in Lublin there is a war section containing a mausoleum, as well as the graves of 341 Red Army soldiers. The section is laid out in a rectangular shape and enclosed on three sides by vertical concrete slabs, creating a kind of fence containing plaques with the names of soldiers. In the centre of the section there is a mausoleum in the shape of a helmet, placed atop a mound. The Red Army section of graves was established due to the need to bury soldiers who died during fighting for Lublin in July 1944. Its current form originates from the years 1973-1974, when after the exhumation of remains from the central part of the section, the mausoleum was erected.

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LUBUS VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Lubus, there are 15 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 52,487 Red Army soldiers.

Similarly to Lower Silesia, on the territory of Lubus Voivodeship, there are two cemeteries located in one place. In one, Red Army officers are buried, while in the other, enlisted soldiers are buried.

In Cybinka, at the officers’ cemetery at ul.

Lwowska, 575 Soviet officers are buried in individual graves. Its construction was begun and completed in 1945. The cemetery is built in the shape of a rectangle. Differently from other sites, the cemetery’s central accent is found right at its entrance, in the form of a tall granite monument atop which is the figure of an officer crushing a black German eagle. Around it is a semi-circular wall, containing reliefs representing various Soviet army units from the Second World War. Behind the central accent are the graves in the form of obelisks with name plaques and stars. Unfortunately, due to multiple thefts, the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, along with the voivode, decided to make changes to the cemetery’s décor. Specifically, removing the obelisks and in their stead, placing granite plaques inscribed with stars and the names of the soldiers. As of 2010, regular repair work is being carried out at the war cemetery.

In the cemetery for soldiers at ul. Białkowska in Cybinka, there are 10,870 Soviet soldiers buried in 404 collective graves. The cemetery was established in 1945, and work was completed in 1946. Initially, the graves were marked, similarly to the officers’ cemetery, with obelisks containing plaques and stars. Recently the decision was made to remove them and plant the area with grass. The obelisks have been replaced with plaques bearing the graves’ numbers. The site’s central accent is a tall granite monument with a carving representing a woman holding out an olive branch atop it. As opposed to the officers’ cemetery, which is open territory, the soldiers’ cemetery is enclosed.

The gate is flanked by two bastions atop which are placed field guns.

The war cemetery in Gorzów Wielkopolski was, for more than ten years, called the Soviet

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Cemetery for Red Army officers in Cybinka (Lubus Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Army Cemetery, which was not fully in accordance with the facts, as there are Poles, prisoners of German camps for Polish Army officers following the September 1939 Campaign, prisoners of Oflags in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia and Germany, as well as the bodies of 1160 antifascists, exhumed and moved from Sonnenberg concentration camp (Słońsk) after the war. The Soviet section of this multi-national cemetery is the largest. Collective graves contain the cremated remains of over 7000 soldiers who died fighting for Gorzów Wielkopolski and on the lands of Lubus Voivodeship. The Urban Social Committee for the Exhumation and Maintenance of War Graves (Społeczny Komitet Miejski dla Ekshumacji i Uporządkowania Grobów Wojennych) began organising the cemetery in 1948. For a number of years, soldiers were buried at the cemetery who had been exhumed in the regions of: Górzyce, Strzelce Krajeńskie, Radówka, Owczary, Głogów, Gozdnica, Drezdenko, Kamień Mały, Witnica and Dąbroszczyna. In the 1950s, the remains of Red Army soldiers previously buried in the region of Zielona Góra were brought there. The war cemetery in Gorzów Wielkopolski contains the remains of soldiers from the 1st Belorussian Front and 1st Ukrainian Front. In 1953, the cremated remains of over 1000 soldiers were moved from the war cemetery (now the City Park) in Kostrzyn, who died in fighting for the fortress, and holding the Oder bridgehead in winter and spring of 1945. Among those exhumed where sailors of a unit of the Dnieper Flotilla formed on 6 April 1945 in Kostrzyn.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Cybinka (Lubus Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

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ŁÓDŹ VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Łódź Voivodeship, there are 28 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 4890 Red Army soldiers and prisoners. There are only 6 cemeteries, while the remaining sites are sections and graves.

In Łódź, there are two cemeteries situated in the centre of the city in Poniatowski Park.

The first cemetery (No. 1) is located in the central part of Poniatowski Park. It is composed of two parts, somewhat divided by the parks central alleyway. Both Soviet soldiers and officers are buried there. On top of the graves are gravestones with plaques made from black polished stone in the shape of obelisks. Each plaque is inscribed with the soldier’s personal information and the symbol of a star. The entrance of the cemetery is graced by stone socles with caps, symbolising cooperation between the Red Army and the Polish Army in the East – a Polish four-cornered field cap and a Russian army cap. 395 Red Army soldiers and officers are buried at this cemetery.

The second cemetery (No. 2) contains the remains of 302 Soviet soldiers in 40 collective graves, who died similarly to those soldiers buried at the previous cemetery (No. 1), fighting to liberate Łódź on 19 January 1945.

At the Cemetery for Soviet Soldiers in Piotrków Trybunalski, there are 252 collective graves. They contain the cremated remains of prisoners of German camps created for Soviet prisoners of war in 1941. In Stalags 237 and 276, over 7000 prisoners were murdered or died of starvation. Also buried there are 1137 soldiers of units from the 1st Belorussian Front who died during the January Offensive of 1945 in the area of Piotrków. The cemetery was established in 1967 and is meticulously maintained.

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Cemetery No. 1 for Red Army officers and soldiers in Łódź (Łódź Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery No. 2 for Red Army soldiers in Łódź (Łódź Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

LESSER POLAND VOIVODESHIP

View from the Red Army cemetery in Limanowa onto the cemetery chapel from the First World War. Photograph by Adam Siwek

On the territory of Lesser Poland, there are 54 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 21,795 Red Army soldiers and prisoners.

On the hill of Jabłoniec (624m above sea level) in Limanowa, bloody fighting already took place during the First World War. Cemetery No. 368 on Jabłoniec, located 518m above sea level, serves as a reminder of this.

Liberation fighting also took place in the area of the hamlet of Jabłoniec in January 1945, during which 204 soldiers of units from the 1st Ukrainian Front died. They were buried in a number of collective graves, along with Soviet partisans, in a cemetery directly opposite the First World War cemetery. An existing viewing terrace was taken advantage of for the site and the bodies of soldiers from the whole Limanowa powiat were exhumed and brought there. The earthen graves contain grave markers with five-pointed stars, very typical of Soviet cemeteries.

In Kraków, at Rakowicki Cemetery at ul.

Prandoty, there is a section which contains the most number of buried soldiers that died on the territory of the voivodeship. 156 collective graves contain the remains of 1578 soldiers of the 59th and 60th Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front, who died during the January offensive of 1945. They are commemorated by an Orthodox cross and a monument designed by Leonard Demarczyk. In July 1997, the cremated remains of 19 soldiers were moved there, as well as a monument from the cemetery which from 1945 was in Planty near the Barbican.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers on the hill of Jabłoniec in Limanowa.

Photographs by Adam Siwek.

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Section for Red Army soldiers in Krakรณw (Lesser Poland Voivodeship). Photographs by Adam Siwek.

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MASOVIA VOIVODESHIP

Cemetery for Red Army Soldiers in Pułtusk (Masovia Voivodeship). Photographs by Tadeusz Krząstek

On the territory of Masovia, there are 52 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 283,211 Soviet soldiers and prisoners.

In Białobrzegi (gm. Nieporęt), a German camp for Red Army prisoners of war operated.

Poles were also imprisoned there. According to Polish and Russian sources, over 10,000 prisoners were murdered there. The central part contains a rectangular monument with a plaque on which there is Red Army imagery and an inscription informing who it is dedicated to. The cemetery’s architectural construction and décor are of modest size. The cemetery contains an obelisk with a black marble plaque, bearing the inscription: CEMETERY FOR SOVIET PRISONERS OF WAR IN BIAŁOBRZEGI. IN THIS CEMETERY LIE THE REMAINS OF AROUND 10,000 RUSSIAN AND POLISH PRISONERS, MURDERED BY THE NAZIS IN THE YEARS 1941-1944.

“Pantheon of Glory” at the cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Pułtusk.

Photograph by Tadeusz Chrząstek.

The graves of Poles - Red Army soldiers at the cemetery in Pułtusk.

Photograph by Tadeusz Krząstek.

In the village of Bolęcin, on the territory of the gmina of Sochocin in Płońsk powiat, there is a large Red Army war cemetery.

In fighting in the northern part of Masovia, in the powiats of Działdowski, Płońsk, Płock, Ciechanów and Mława, during the 1945 winter offensive, 2484 soldiers from the 70th , 65th and 2nd Ukrainian Armies, and the 1st and 8th Guards Separate Armoured Brigade. In the years 1950-1955, the bodies of the dead at the cemetery in Bolęcin were exhumed. Of the 40 individual and 188 collective graves, investigators were able to establish the names of 505 soldiers. The cemetery contains a tall monumental statue, consisting of a column surrounded by red sandstone blocks. On top of it is the silhouette of a soldier of the Red Army.

The cemetery is protected by the Bolęcin authorities and the powiat of Płońsk.

The war cemetery in Garwolin is one of the largest Russian cemeteries in Poland. The soldiers of the 1st Belorussian Front (70th Army, 4th Guards Cavalry Corps, 47th Army,

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8th Guards Army, 2nd Guards Tank Army), who died during the final phase of Operation Bagration, the battles for the Vistula, and fighting in the suburbs of Warsaw and Praga in 1944. The cemetery was established in the years 19481952. Buried there are the exhumed bodies of soldiers who died in Garwolin (around 300), in the powiats of: Puławy, Garwolin, Siedlce, Radzymiń and Gostyń. A large number (7644) of exhumed bodies were moved from the powiat of Kozienicki. These are soldiers who mainly died in fighting for the Warecko-Magnuszewski bridgehead in summer 1944. The cemetery contains 136 collective graves. Only a handful of the dead have been identified. In separate sections of this cemetery, soldiers of the Polish Army are buried who died in the September Campaign 1939, as well as soldiers of the 1st Polish Army who died in fighting on the Vistula in 1944.

One of the largest burial places of Red Army soldiers is the war cemetery in Pułtusk– Kleszewo, containing soldiers who died in fighting for Pułtusk in 1944-1945. The erection of a mausoleum was begun in 1948 and completed in 1949. It encompasses an area of 21,000m². The whole site is composed of a central area, whose focal point is a gloriette of granite and sandstone. There are 369 collective graves and 85 individual graves at the cemetery, with the remains of 16,591 soldiers and officers of the Red Army. Among the Red Army soldier graves are the graves of three Polish soldiers.

On their gravestones are photographs of them in their Polish Army uniforms from the interwar period. The enamelled photographs were probably placed there by the soldiers’ families.

The Soviet Military Cemetery in Warsaw at ul. Żwirki i Wigury was established in 19491950. The remains of 21,668 Red Army soldiers and 372 prisoners are buried there, died in the years 1944-1945. Most belong to Marshal Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front. The central element of the cemetery is a pathway marked by four granite pedestals, as well as a 38-metre-tall obelisk topped with a spire. It was erected on a raised plateau, the corners of which contain socles atop which are placed bronze sculptures of soldiers. The main alleyway contains the graves of 138 officers, as well as the graves of

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Soviet Military Cemetery for Red Army soldiers at ul. Żwirki i Wigury in Warsaw (Masovia Voivodeship). Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

especially distinguished Heroes of the Soviet Union. There are 834 graves, 696 of them collective graves, situated on an area of 19 hectares. The remains of the soldiers buried there were exhumed from the territory of Warsaw and its surroundings. The cemetery in Warsaw is among the most representative in Poland and the largest in terms of size. It is also the second largest cemetery in terms of number of buried soldiers, behind the cemetery in Braniewo in Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship.

The territory of Masovia also contains five other large cemeteries, containing the remains of 15,000 to 40,000 Soviet prisoners. Most of them are buried in the prisoner of war cemetery in Grądy (gm. Ostrów Mazowiecka). In June 1941, the Nazis established a concentration camp for Soviet prisoners on the spot.

41,000 Red Army prisoners died in the camp.

The site is located in a forest and the prisoners’ graves are marked solely by enclosures.

Prisoner of war cemetery in Grądy (gm. Ostrów Mazowiecka, Masovia Voivodeship). Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

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OPOLE VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Opole, there are 7 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 70,954 Red Army soldiers and prisoners.

The Red Army cemetery in Kluczbork is the largest in the Opole region. In 1945, at the turn of January and February, the armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front (5th Guards Army, 9th Parachute Division, armoured forces of the 4th Guards Separate Armoured Corps) were involved in hard fighting for the capture and defence of bridgeheads on the Oder River. Red Army units fighting near Lipki, Skorogoszcza, Żelazna, Mikolin and Grotkowo suffered heavy casualties, over 10,000 men, including a few thousand killed. After the war, the bodies of the dead were exhumed and buried in the war cemetery in Kluczbork. The cremated remains of 6278 soldiers are buried there. The cemetery is carefully maintained. Not long ago, thanks to the efforts and financial support of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, as well as local authorities, the cemetery was thoroughly refurbished and the monuments and gravestones underwent renovation. The information plaques contain inscriptions in Russian and Polish. At the entrance, the gate pillars contain plaques bearing the inscription:

Red Army war cemetery in Kędzierzyn-Koźle.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

HERE LIE 6278 SOLDIERS WHO DIED DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR. The central area contains a tall monument standing between columns topped by a roof. The figure of a woman dressed in Russian national dress holding a bouquet of flowers stands between the columns. N.J. Rigachin, a Hero of the Soviet Union who died in the fighting for Kluczbork, is buried in the cemetery.

Apart from the two main cemeteries in Kędzierzyn-Koźle and Kluczbork, the largest war grave site on the territory of the voivodeship is the prisoner of war cemetery in Łambinowice.

It was established in 1942, near the site of Stalag 318/VIII F (344) Lamsdorf. Soviet prisoners (including Poles conscripted by the Red Army) are buried there. The dead were buried in layers in collective, unmarked graves. Traces of the

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Prisoner of war cemetery in Łambinowice (Opole Voivodeship).

Photograph by Adam Siwek.

graves were discovered in July 1945. Part of the work conducted by the Special State Commission of the USSR at the turn of 1945-1946, included the partial exhumation of remains. According to fact-finding carried out at the time, around 40,000 individuals are buried at the cemetery. In 1946, the Prisoner of War Martyrology Monument was erected, dedicated to all the prisoners who died in the Lamsdorf prison camps during the Second World War. During construction work, it was decided not to permanently preserve the traces of collective graves. The monument, two massive columns decorated by figurative sculptures, was designed by the team of Jerzy Beski, Marian Nowak and Florian Jesionowski.

Prisoner of war cemetery in Ĺ ambinowice (Opole Voivodeship). Photograph by Adam Siwek.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Opole.

Photographs by Adam Siwek.

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SUBCARPATHIA VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Subcarpathia, there are 74 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 65,741 Red Army soldiers and prisoners.

The war cemetery in Dukla is a large necropolis containing the buried soldiers of many nations from the First and Second World Wars.

The section from the Second World War contains a number of Polish Army officers and soldiers from 1939, 7690 Soviet soldiers, as well as 221 Czechoslovaks who died during the bloody mountain operations Carpatho-Dukla Offensive in 1944. Also buried there are 149 soldiers of the Polish Army who died after the end of the Second World War in fighting with units of the armed underground, mainly Ukrainian nationalists. During the Battle of the Dukla Pass, the Red Army suffered 123,000 casualties, including over 10,000 dead. Officers and soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front (38th Army, 25th Armoured Corp and the 1st Guards Army) died in bitter fighting near Machnówka, Wrocanka, Dragonowa, Sulistowa and Dukla – the valley on the Dukla-Nowy Żmigród road. In 1947-1954, their scattered graves, often located in mountainous and wooded terrain, were exhumed and buried at the Dukla war cemetery next to the Bernardine church. Located in mountainous terrain, the cemetery is surrounded by a stone fence. The monument of the silhouette of a recumbent Red Army soldiers is located in its central part. In front of it are three black-marble plaques bearing the following inscription: GLORY TO THE HEROS OF THE SOVIET AND CZECHOSLOVAK ARMIES WHO DIED IN 1944 IN THE AREA OF DUKLA IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE NAZI OCCUPIER. TO THE MEMORY OF THE POLISH SOLDIERS AND PARTISANS WHO DIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM IN THE YEARS 1939-1945.

THE PEOPLE OF RZESZÓW VOIVODESHIP. At the cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Mielec, there are 36 individual graves and 84

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War cemetery in Dukla (Subcarpathia Voivodeship). Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

collective graves, containing the remains of 2291 soldiers, mostly of the 33rd Guards Tank Brigade of the 1st Ukrainian Front, who operated in the area in 1944. The cemetery was established in 1948-1949. It is one of the largest in Subcarpathia Voivodeship. Following a recent inspection demanded by the voivode of Subcarpathia6, the detailed architectural arrangement and condition of the cemetery proved unsatisfactory and will require renovation.

In Rzeszów, located on the southern outskirts of the city, there is a Soviet Army war cemetery. Established in 1948, the exhumed remains of 2217 soldiers from the 1st Ukrainian Front, who died in the Rzeszów region, were buried there until 1953. The last burials took place in 1968. It is worthy of note that 468 of the buried Soviet soldiers were able to be identified.

In Sanok, a section for Red Army soldiers was established near the northern part of the “Rymanowski Stary” cemetery in the years 1951-1953. The Russian part of the section contains 78 collective graves and 12 individual graves. The exhumed bodies of 2900 soldiers (mostly from the 38th Army) of the 1st Ukrainian Front are buried there.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Mielec (Subcarpathia Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

6

Document: S-VI_431.1.2.2005.BU, from 16 March 2015.

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PODLASIE VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Podlasie, there are 91 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 139,421 Red Army soldiers and prisoners, most of them buried in collective graves.

The cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Hajnówka is an interesting site. In 2009, using funds from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, a grey-granite monument in the shape of a stele (similar to the ones located on the soldiers’ graves) was built in the cemeteries central point. Two crosses were also built – one Catholic and one Orthodox. The monument contains an inscription in Polish, Russian and Belarusian:

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Hajnówka (Podlasie Voivodeship). Photographs by Adam Siwek

IN MEMORY OF THOSE OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE RED ARMY BURIED IN THIS CEMETERY THAT DIED FIGHTING THE GERMANS IN HAJNÓWKA AND THE SURROUNDING AREA IN JUNE 1941 AND JULY 1944.

THE RESIDENTS OF HAJKNÓWKA 1944.

The graves of soldiers, containing cuboid gravestones adorned with five-pointed stars, surround the monument.

The cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Milejczyce is unique in terms of the form of burial.

It was established in 1949, on the spot were a skirmish took place between Red Army and German troops on 20 July 1944. Mostly soldiers who died in 1944 during fighting in the regions of Czeremcha, Drohiczyn, Siemiatycz, Milejczyce and Mielnik are buried there – 1613 individuals in total. There are also graves from 1941, with the soldiers buried in 58 collective graves arranged in rows. The gravestones contain the names of identified soldiers as well as the number of unidentified soldiers. The central part of the cemetery contains a monument in the form of a concrete platform with a sculpted hand emerging from the earth. Below it is the inscription: TO THE HEROIC SOLDIERS OF THE RED ARMY WHO DIED FIGHTING NAZISM IN THE YEARS 1941-1944. WE SALUTE THEIR MEMORY.

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Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Milejczyce (Podlasie Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Milejczyce (Podlasie Voivodeship). Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Monument commemorating soldiers of the Red Army who died in the fighting for Suwałki in 1944.

Photograph by Tadeusz Krząstek.

To the right of the sculpture is a metal Orthodox cross. In 2016, a major renovation of the cemetery is planned, financed by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

The cemetery for Red Army prisoners and soldiers in Suwałki, conceals the cremated remains of over 46,000 murdered soldiers, as well as soldiers who died fighting in Suwałki and the area. In the years 1942-1944, Stalag IF Saudauen for Russian prisoners of war operated on the outskirts of Suwałki. According to official statistics, 46,000 soldiers were buried within its confines.

Initially, their bodies were buried in collective graves at the city’s Orthodox cemetery, where a monument commemorating the murdered soldiers was revealed in 1947. In the 1960s, the cremated remains were exhumed and moved to 67 collective graves on the current cemetery. The cemetery in Suwałki also contains 82 collective graves and over a dozen individual graves of 5136 soldiers, who died fighting for the city and in the area in 1944. In 1950-1952, the cremated remains of soldiers of the 175th Rifle Division, which liberated Suwałki on 23 October 1944, were moved there from the Park of the Constitution of 3 May. The cemetery for prisoners of war and soldiers in Suwałki is one of the largest Red Army commemorative necropolises in Poland.

On the wall near the entrance gate is an information plaque bearing an inscription in Poland and Russian: CEMETERY OF 46,000 SOVIET PRISONERS TORMENTED BY THE NAZIS IN THE YEARS 1942-1944, IN THE PRISONER OF WAR CAMP IN SUWAŁKI, AS WELL AS 5136 RED ARMY SOLDIERS AND OFFICERS WHO DIED FOR THE LIBERATION OF SUWAŁKI LANDS. The cemetery contains a memorial erected in 1967, as well as the Red Army monument, which was moved from the Park of the Constitution of 3 May in 2007, with the agreement of the Embassy of the Russian Federation. The cemetery was restored in 2010. As of 1991, it is on the list of Podlasie Voivodeship heritage sites.

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Monument dedicated to murdered Red Army prisoners of war in the cemetery in Suwałki.

Photograph by Tadeusz Krząstek.

Cemetery containing the bodies of over 12,000 Red Army prisoners of war, who died or were murdered at the German prison camp in Zambrów in the years 1941-1942.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

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Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Bojano (gm. Szemud, Pomerania Voivodeship).

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Gdańsk (Pomerania Voivodeship).

Photographs by Adam Siwek.

POMERANIA VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Pomerania, there are 37 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 79,942 Red Army soldiers and prisoners buried in 23 cemeteries.

The largest in terms of number of buried is the cemetery in Bojano (gm. Szemud). Buried there are 6058 soldiers from the 19th and 70thArmies of the Belorussian Front, who died on 13-20 March in fighting on the coast, in the Wejcherowo-Gdynia sector. The exhumed remains of soldiers from Chwaszczyno, Koleczkowo, Dobrzewino, Kielno, Osowa (Gdańsk), Wielki Kack (Gdynia) and Wiczlino (Gdynia), among others, were buried in 14 collective graves in the cemetery.

At the cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Gdańsk at ul. Giełguda, the remains of 2529 Red Army soldiers (and 563 Russian prisoners) from the 2nd Belorussian Front are buried, who died in fighting in Gdańsk and the surrounding area on 27-30 March 1945. The site is situated on three terraces, located on slopes at various heights. The highest section, on a small terrace paved with slabs, there is an 18 m tall, reinforced concrete obelisk, the top portion of which is decorated with a frieze containing elements of a stylised star, hammer and sickle, and topped with a forged metal globe of the earth.

The focal point of the cemetery is a monumental memorial in the form of a so-called “Wall of Remembrance”. It contains a sandstone bas-relief showing three Soviet soldiers in battle, and inscriptions in Polish and Russian on its sides. The lower part of the cemetery contains a burial field, known as the “Field of Stars”, which encompasses the three original, collective graves of soldiers. It is surrounded by a low granite wall, which is inscribed with the names of 810 buried Red Army soldiers.

The cemetery field’s décor consists of 1088 stars facing north. At the cemetery’s entrance, on the right side, there is a statue of Mother Poland and Russia by Zygfryd Korpalski, unveiled on 30 March 1984.

In Gdynia, at the Obrońcy Wybrzeża War Cemetery at ul. Witomińska, next to the section for Polish Army soldiers, is a section for

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Red Army soldiers, containing 1316 soldiers of the 2nd Belorussian Front, who died in the fighting for Gdynia on 25-28 February 1945.

From an architectural point of view, the Red Army cemetery in Pruszcz Gdański is very interesting. It contains the remains of 2480 Soviet soldiers from the 2nd Belorussian Front, who died in the fighting for Pruszcz Gdański and the surrounding area on 20-25 March. Their cremated remains, scattered in 38 different places, where exhumed and buried in the cemetery over a period from March 1948 to June 1949.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Gdańsk (Pomerania Voivodeship). Photograph by Adam Siwek.

Section for Red Army soldiers in Gdynia (Pomerania Voivodeship). Photograph by Adam Siwek.

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Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Pruszcz Gdański (Pomerania Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

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SILESIA VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Silesia, there are 43 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 65,389 Red Army soldiers and prisoners.

The war cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Bielsko-Biała, is the largest necropolis in the whole Lower Beskids area. Buried there are soldiers from the 1st Ukrainian Front (1st Guards Army and 38th Army) who died in fighting for the city and in the Lower Beskids area in 1945.

Buried at the cemetery in Bielsko-Biała, located in front of St. Nicholas Cathedral, are the cremated remains of 28 officers and 10,634 soldiers, exhumed from around the region. The cemetery’s location, in the city’s inner district, was the reason it was moved in 1968. The new cemetery at ul. Wyzwolenia, (now ul. Lwowska) contains 300 individual graves and 21 collective graves. The cemetery’s decor is complemented by the Heroes of the Soviet Army Monument, placed in its centre, and two 76mm field guns.

In Gliwice, next to Grunwald Park, there is a cemetery containing the remains of 2454 Red Army soldiers from the 1st Ukrainian Front, who died during the Second World War. At the war cemetery in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, 900 Red Army soldiers from the 1st Ukrainian Front and Czechoslovak Army are buried, who during in fighting for the city in March 1945.

Cemetery for Red Army and Czechoslovak soldiers in Jastrzębie-Zdrój (Silesia Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Sandomierz.

Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

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Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Sandomierz. Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for Red Army prisoners on Łysa Góra. Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

HOLY CROSS VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Holy Cross, there are 32 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 63,751 Red Army soldiers and prisoners.

The Germans established another camp for Red Army prisoners in Kielce in 1941. The prisoners were kept in very harsh conditions. Murderous labour, starvation rations and infectious diseases, including typhus and scarlet fever, decimated the ranks of the prisoners. Incidents of mass executions are also known to have taken place. In 1944, the camp was made a branch of Stalag 367 in Częstochowa. Tens of thousands of prisoners passed through the camp and around 12,000 died there. According to available data, the bodies of over 11,000 prisoners were buried in collective graves. In 1959, 29 graves were established and marked out. The whole area is enclosed by a fence.

The central area contains a red sandstone monument by Stefan Maj. At the Cemetery for Soviet Soldiers in Kielce, separated from the Old Cemetery, over 4000 Red Army soldiers are buried from the 1st Ukrainian Front, who died in the fighting for Kielce in 1945.

In terms of the number of buried, the largest cemetery for Soviet soldiers is in Sandomierz.

During fighting for a bridgehead on the left bank of the Vistula and for the city itself (18 July 1944), as well as during the whole January offensive of 1945, many soldiers died of the 1st, 3rd and 4th Armoured Guards Armies, as well as the 6th, 13th and 59th Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front. 366 collective graves contain the remains of 11,486 Soviet soldiers who died in various places in the voivodeships of Holy Cross and Subcarpathia.

The cemetery also contains the grave of Col. Vasily F. Skopenko, who was buried in Sandomierz according to his dying request.

On the northern slope of Łysa Góra, in the so-called “Bielnik Clearing” (gm. Nowa Słupia), there is a cemetery containing the remains of 6000 Soviet prisoners. Święty Krzyż is the old Benedictine abbey complex on Łysa Góra. At the start of the Second World War, it was divided into two parts – a monastery and a prison.

The Germans established a camp for Russian prisoners in the prison in fall 1941. The prisoners were kept in horrible conditions and nearly all of them died of starvation, or were murdered. The camp was liquidated in June 1942.

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WARMIA-MASURIA VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Warmia-Masuria, there are 20 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 57,904 Red Army soldiers and prisoners.

The war cemetery in Braniewo is located on the outskirts of the city. The necropolis there is the largest war cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Europe, who died during the Second World War, outside the Russian Federation. It was established in the years 1945-1947. The cremated remains of 31,237 soldiers of the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts are buried there, who died fighting during the East Prussian Offensive in 1945. Both aforementioned Fronts suffered heavy casualties during the third phase of the Offensive, the destruction of encircled off 3rd, 4th and parts of the 2nd German Armies. Mass burials of soldiers were begun just after the end of the war in 1945. Thousands of bodies were exhumed from the regions of Tolkmick, Frombork, Elbląg, Pasłęk, Górowo Iławieckie, Kętrzyn, Barczewo, Reszel and Nidzica. Out of over 31,000 bodies, 4054 were able to be identified. The cemetery contains 20 individual graves and 250 collective graves on an area of 6.5 ha.

The construction of the monument in the central section representing a group of soldiers, as well as other decorative elements, was completed in 1968. The cemetery is cared for and maintained by the city authorities. Orthodox clergy and representatives of Kalingrad Oblast take part in ecumenical ceremonies held at the site.

At the Soviet Army cemetery in Elbląg, there are 2731 soldiers buried from the 2nd Belorussian Front. Its focal point is occupied by the “Monument of Gratitude” – an obelisk erected on a three-level pedestal in 1945, located on an asphalt square in front of the actual cemetery. A 6.2 m tall, wooden cross was erected in 1993, in front of the monument. Behind the monument is the burial place, containing 253 graves in its central part, including 124 collective graves and 129 individual graves. The grave stones consist of concrete obelisks, which taper off at their peak. Each gravestone contains the symbol of a star, the grave number and a granite plaque with the soldier’s name.

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Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Braniewo. Photographs by Adam Siwek

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Elbląg (Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

War section for Red Army soldiers in the communal cemetery in Pieniężno. Photographs by Adam Siwek.

The war section for Red Army soldiers is part of the war cemetery in Olsztyn, and besides 4262 Russians, 290 soldiers of the Polish Army are also buried. In the central part of the cemetery there is a monument with three black-marble plaques: the one on the right commemorates soldiers of the Polish Army, the one in the middle commemorates soldiers of the Red Army, while the one on the left commemorates the Free French airmen from the Normandie-Niemen Fighter Regiment who fought on the Eastern Front. The French airmen are also commemorated by a separate obelisk, containing two inscribed plaques and a centrally engraved propeller. It is worth noting that, in fact, no French pilots were buried in the cemetery. Their nearest burial site is in what is now Węgorzewo, where two pilots were buried in 1945. The plaque and obelisk are merely of symbolic meaning and serve as a reminder of the participation of French airmen in air operations over East Prussia. On 14 June 1945, they returned to France from an airfield in what is now Elbląg. The largest part of the cemetery in Olsztyn is occupied by the section for Red Army soldiers from 3rd Guards Separate Cavalry Brigade, who died in the fighting for Olsztyn and in other cities in Warmia-Masuria. The main plaque, of black marble, bears the following inscription: BURIED AT THIS CEMETERY ARE 4262 RED ARMY SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE NAZI INVADER DURING THE VICTORIOUS WINTER OFFENSIVE OF 1945 IN THE CITIES AND POWIATS OF OLSZTYN, SZCZYTNO, RESZEL, JEZIORANY, BISKUPIEC, NIDZICA, DOBRE MIASTO AND BARCZEWO. THEIR MEMORY WILL ALWAYS REMAIN WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THIS LAND AS AN ETERNAL SYMBOL OF BROTHERHOOD AMONG NATIONS IN THE FIGHT FOR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IDEALS OF HUMANITY, SOCIALISM, FREEDOM AND PEACE. Below three plaques, Polish, Russian and French, the following motto is inscribed: ETERNAL RESPECT TO THE FALLEN HEROES.

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GREATER POLAND VOIVODESHIP On the territory of Greater Poland, there are 43 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 21,655 Red Army soldiers and prisoners.

In 2004, at the communal cemetery in Czarnków a section was established for the exhumed and moved remains of 288 Red Army soldiers, originally buried in two collective graves in Plac Wolności in Czarnków. The decision to move their remains was made due to a project of the City Council of Czarnków, wanting to develop the area and build a square, where previously the graves and a tank monument stood. Currently, the section has an interesting and modern décor.

In Gniezno at St. Lawrence Cemetery at ul.

Witkowska, there is a section containing the remains of 411 soldiers of the 1st Army of the Belarusian Front who died fighting for the city.

The graves of the soldiers were scattered on the territory of many nearby localities. In the years 1945-1950, exhumation work was carried out and the remains of the dead were buried in the section. The central accent is a monument in the shape of an obelisk, constructed from brick and concrete, lightly narrowing at its top and finished with a red, five-pointed star. It is located in the upper-central part of the section. Directly on either side of the monument are the two individual graves of Major Sergei Ter-Gabrielyana (1916-9 February 1945) and Capt. Mikail Dmitryev (1919-February 1945). The main pathway leads to the monument, either side of which are 36 and 20 collective graves, while in front of them are 65 individual graves.

In Piła-Leszków, soldiers of the Red Army are buried in a multi-national cemetery from the Second World War. 1372 Red Army soldiers are buried in a couple dozen collective graves and a few individual graves. Their graves are located in the northern section of the necropolis. The grave register, compiled in 1956, is located in the Piła City Archives. The dead soldiers were from units of the 1st Belorussian Front (47th Army, 185th, 260th and 60th Infantry Divisions, 12th Guards Tank Corps, 79th Tank Corps).

Their remains were exhumed from parts of the

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Section for Red Army soldiers in Czarnków (Greater Poland Voivodeship).

Photographs by Adam Siwek

Section for Red Army soldiers in Gniezno (Greater Poland Voivodeship).

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers on the Citadel in Poznań.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

city, as well as Smiłów, Jeziorek and other outlying areas.

The most graves are located at the Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Poznań, located in the central part of the necropolis located on the Citadel slopes. The main pathway consists of granite steps leading to the peak, topped by a massive obelisk called the “Monument of Heroes”. The cemetery is composed of 8 sections, containing the remains of 5380 Soviet officers and soldiers in 145 individual and 315 collective graves. Most of the soldiers died in the fighting for Poznań in January and February 1945.

A portion of the remains were brought from other areas of the city, as well as other regions of fighting, including the Pomeranian Wall and Szczecin. Construction work on the cemetery began in April 1945 by the decision of the Poznań War Authority (Komenda Wojenna Poznania). The architect, Jan Cieśliński, proposed it be built on the slopes of the Citadel. The main part of the work was completed in January 1946. The Monument of Heroes was revealed on 18 November 1945. The obelisk is situated at around 22 m above sea level. It consists of a reinforced concrete tower, which slightly narrows at its peak. The base is decorated by sandstone bas-reliefs, representing fighting soldiers of the Red Army. On its sides are plaques with Josef Stalin’s order in Polish and Russian, issued on the occasion of the capture of Poznań.

In Wolsztyn, there is one of only a small number of cemeteries for Red Army officers.

363 officers of the 32 Army of the 1st Belorussian Front are buried there, who died during the winter offensive in the region of Wolsztyn, and Sulechów nad Odrą. The cemetery contains a monument by Józef Murlewski and Edward Przymuszała. On top of a tall socle made of tooled stone blocks, there is the figure of Soviet officer treading on a Nazi eagle and torn swastika flag. The socle contains a plaque bearing an inscription in Russian: ETERNAL GLORY TO THE HEROES WHO PERISHED FIGHTING FOR THE FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE OF OUR MOTHERLAND. All the graves are walled in and decorated with grey grit. The graves are crowned by tall

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trapezoid, concrete monuments, also decorated with grit. The main walls contains a metal Red Army star, as well as a trapezoid plaque with the soldier’s name, rank, as well as dates of birth and death. Compared to other Soviet cemeteries, this cemetery is unique in its architectural form. It is very meticulously maintained and cared for by the local authorities.

At the war cemetery in Złotów, the exhumed remains of 777 Red Army soldiers of the 1st Belarusian Front are buried, who died in 1945 during the winter offensive. The cemetery also contains 621 soldiers of the Polish Army in collective graves, who died during the September Campaign 1939, and in the ranks of the 1st Polish Army, fighting in the area in 1945.

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Cemetery for Red Army soldiers on the Citadel in Poznań.

Photograph by Adam Siwek

WEST POMERANIA VOIVODESHIP

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Chojna. Photographs by Adam Siwek

On the territory of West Pomerania, there are 25 war grave sites from the Second World War, containing the remains of 36,846 Red Army soldiers and prisoners, buried alongside soldiers of the Polish Army.

The war cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Chojna is close to the city centre. Plans to establish a war cemetery go back to 1946, but the actual work only began in 1950. Chojna was chosen because of the large number of individual graves of Red Army soldiers on the territory of the powiat. In 1950, the technical documentation was completed for the cemetery, authored by the engineer, Irena Kozłowska, from Szczecin. The cemetery was placed at the corner of the pre-war German Evangelical cemetery, next to the Chapel of St. Gertrude from the 15th century. The planned cemetery was to cover an area of 1.5 ha, and contain 185 collective graves, as well as a square for gatherings. The terrain was cleared and partial exhumations were conducted in 1950, while the work was set to continue a year later and the square was to be built. The project foresaw the creation of 3 sections, each containing 9 rows of graves. The square was intended to be placed close the Chapel of St. Gertrude, which was to be taken apart, so that it would not obstruct the monument planned for the square. In 1953, work on the cemetery was halted and, in October, the voivodeship conservator ordered that the already in-progress disassembly of the Chapel be stopped, as its interior contained wall-paintings from the Middle Ages.

Thus, the cemetery project had to be altered and its construction dragged on. It was finally completed in fall 1954. In 1962, the new cemetery was enclosed and separated from the remaining part of the old Evangelical cemetery. In 1969, the cemetery was rebuilt and refurbished according to the project of Witold Andrzejewski. In 1971, a monument was raised in the middle of the square. Currently, the cemetery has an area of 9800 m². It is divided into three sections consisting of 58 collective graves. On top of them are placed stone plaques with fivepointed stars. 4076 soldiers are buried there.

The confirmed names of soldiers are located on

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22 plaques of black marble, which were placed next to the Chapel of St. Gertrude in 2006.

They were completed with funds from, among others, the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

At the war cemetery in Choszczno, 3000 Red Army soldiers are buried, who died fighting in the area of the city, or from wounds they suffered, in January and February 1945. These soldiers were from the 2nd Guard’s Tank Army and the 16th Army of the 1st Belorussian Front.

The Cemetery for Red Army Soldier in Gryfino is located near al. Wojska Polskiego and the communal cemetery. In terms of the number of graves, this is the largest Soviet war cemetery in West Pomerania. The cemetery’s construction began in 1946. In the years 1947-1948, 1953-1954 and in 1969, exhumations of Soviet soldiers took place in over a dozen places on the territory of the voivodeship, including: Gryfino, Trzebiatów, Stargard, Chlebowo, Kobylanka, Daleszewo, Kliniska, Sobieradz, Goleniów, Łobez, Żelisławiec, Gardno, Dobra, Szczecin-Zdunowo and SzczecinŚmierdnica. In 1972-1974, the cemetery was rebuilt according to the project of Witold Andrzejewski. The central axis divides it into two parts which contain fields planted with roses, and low, framed walls. Behind them, slabs are placed with the names of the dead. The central part of the cemetery contains a monument representing the combined flags of victory. Below it is a bas-relief showing soldiers being greeted by a man with a shield which is decorated with an eagle, a woman holding bread, and various scenes from soldierly life. In all, 7134 Soviet soldiers from the 1st Belorussian Front are buried there, of whom 1320 were identified at their names inscribed on the slabs. In 2012, instead of the old identifying slabs, new granite plaques began to be put in place on a newly built wall. The work is being completed thanks to the financial support of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, as well as the voivode of West Pomerania.

One of the most beautiful war necropolises in Poland is the cemetery for Polish and Soviet soldiers in Zieleniewo near Kołobrzeg, established in 1948. From the region of Kołobrzeg – a fortress city in 1945 – and the surrounding area, the bodies of 1413 soldiers of the Polish First Army and 7 soldiers of the Polish Army

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Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Choszczno.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

Cemetery for Red Army soldiers in Gryfino (West Pomerania Voivodeship). Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

from 1939, as well as 257 Soviet soldiers7, were moved to Zieleniewo. The cemetery possesses a unique and beautiful architectural form, as well as a very rich décor and original monuments. Its current form was designed by the architect Zygmunt Wujek, in 1980. The Polish part of the cemetery contains a vivid model of the battle for the fortress city of Kołobrzeg.

Behind it, a monument-sarcophagus has been placed. Its front wall contains the slogan: “FOR POLISH KOŁOBRZEG”, in bronze letters.

On the other side, the helmet of a soldier from the Polish First Army and a helm from the times of Bolesław Krzywousty are placed. The sides contain bas-relief historical scenes from the fighting for Pomerania. The central part of the necropolis contains the “Monument of Glory”, a large black semi-circular wall, the front of which contains a knight’s shield containing two unsheathed Grunwald swords in its centre8. Beneath the shield, there is an inscription in Polish and Russian, which reads: GLORY TO THE HEROES OF THE POLISH AND SOVIET ARMIES WHO DIED IN THE FIGHTING TO FREE THE LANDS OF KOŁOBRZEG

War cemetery in Myślibórz (West Pomerania Voivodeship).

Photographs by Adam Siwek

Most of the Soviet soldiers buried in Zieleniewo belonged to the 272nd Infantry Division of the 19th Army, attached to the 2nd Belorussian Front, which was supported by the Polish First Army during the Battle of Kołobrzeg in March 1945.

The section contains the individual grave of Maj. Konstantin Klimenko, Hero of the Soviet Union.

The cemetery is well maintained and the plants, flowers and decorative shrubbery are well cared for. Elaborate patriotic-religious celebration and ceremonies are held there, especially commemorating the liberation of the city and the wedding of Poland to the Baltic on 18 March 1945.

The cemetery for Red Army and Polish Army soldiers in Myślibórz was established on a hill, 7

According to the Book of the Fallen compiled by Dr. Hieronim Kroczyński in 2003. Some publications claim the number to be 400.

8 Gift presented by Ulrich von Jungingen, Grand Master of the Order of Teutonic Knights, to King Władysław Jagiełło of Poland and Grand Duke Vytautas the Great of Lithuania on 15 July 1410, just prior to the Battle of Grunwald.

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whose peak is 69 m above sea level. The spot contains the burial site of soldiers who died in fighting for West Pomerania and is attractively located on Półwysep Ptasie, on the northeast bank of Myślibórz Lake. The first burials took place in the years 1947-1950, when the bodies of soldiers were exhumed from the main square in Myślibórz. These were most likely soldiers who died in the field hospital. Today, the war cemetery in Myślibórz contains the buried remains of 71 Polish soldiers and 616 Soviet soldiers from the 1st Belorussian Front, who died in fighting for the town on 2 February 1945.

The war cemetery in Szczecinek consists of a Polish First Army section and a Red Army section.

It was established at the start of the 1950s with the participation of Red Army soldiers and units stationed in Szczecinek and Borne Sulinowo. The Russians designed and erected a concrete obelisk topped by a metal red star. The soldiers buried at the cemetery were exhumed from the territory of Szczecinek powiat and neighbouring regions, part of the 1st Belorussian Front who took part in the battles for Central Pomerania and the Pomeranian Wall. The aforementioned cemetery contains the remains of 4427 soldiers, most of them unidentified. The cemetery, following expansion, was opened in 1966 by the commander of the Northern Group Forces in Poland, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Defence and Pomeranian Military District. The cemetery in Szczecinek has been renovated a number of times, financed by the Polish and Russian authorities. In 2003, the city authorities signed an agreement with the Embassy of the Russian Federation defining the extent and conditions of the cemetery’s renovation. The Embassy earmarked tens of thousands of zlotys for this work. The cemetery’s information plaque bears the following inscription: IN THIS CEMETERY REST 4427 SOVIET SOLDIERS OF THE FIRST BELORUSSIAN FRONT, AS WELL AS 39 SOLDIERS OF THE POLISH FIRST ARMY. THEY DIED ON THE FIELD OF GLORY FIGHTING NAZI FASCISM IN 1945. THEIR CREMATED REMAINS WERE EXHUMED FROM 143 LOCATIONS ON THE TERRITORY OF THE FORMER KOSZLIŃSKI VOIVODESHIP. WE SALUTE THEIR MEMORY!

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War cemetery in Myślibórz (West Pomerania Voivodeship).

Photograph by Adam Siwek

War section for Red Army soldiers at the communal cemetery “Ku Słońcu” in Szczecin.

Photograph by Adam Siwek

War section for Red Army soldiers at the communal cemetery “Ku Słońcu” in Szczecin.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

The war section in Szczecin is located in the communal cemetery at ul. Ku Słońcu, on the cemetery’s main viewing axis, between the chapel and the “Brotherhood of War Monument”. It consists of 4 sections, divided by a wide path and marked by rows of yew trees. The cemetery contains the remains of 3379 soldiers, including 367 Polish soldiers and 3032 Soviet soldiers. The section was established successively in the years 1946-1954, when the remains of soldiers were exhumed from temporary burial sites on the territory of this part of Pomerania, especially in the areas of Szczecin, Dobra, Gryfino, Kołbaskowo, Nowogard, Łobez and Płoty. Also buried there are the remains of soldiers who died in Meklemburgian Lands during the Battle of Berlin. The graves of soldiers contain plaques with stars, and are arranged in rows with grass sown around them.

In Wałcz, at the War Cemetery of Polish and Red Army Soldiers, 4390 prisoners from Oflag II-D in Gross Born are buried, along with soldiers of the Polish First Army, as well as 1638 soldiers of the 47th Army and 2nd Tank Army of the 1st Belorussian Front, who died breaking through the Pomeranian Wall in January and February 1945.

The Polish soldiers are buried in 209 collective graves, while the Russians are buried in 40 collective graves. The cemetery was built in the form of semi-circular terraces. At its peak is placed an obelisk with the symbol of the Order of Virtuti Militari and the Star of the Red Army. The graves of the Russian soldiers are located on the left side of the cemetery. In 2014, according to an agreement between the voivode of West Pomerania and the Wałcz local authorities, the crosses and flag flagstaffs were renovated. The gmina gathered 19,950 zlotys in donations for this purpose, including 10,000 zlotys from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites and 9950 zlotys from the voivode of West Pomerania.

The cemetery is maintained and visited by tourist groups touring the Pomeranian Wall fortifications.

It is strongly written into the history and tradition of Wałcz and the surrounding area.

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GRAVES OF SOLDIERS OF THE NORTHERN GROUP OF FORCES AND MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILIES (1945-1991)

n the territory of Poland there are also four sites which are not war cemeteries.

These are the burial sites of soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces, as well as the graves of their family members, who were killed or died in the years 1945-1991. They are located in Chojna, Borne Sulinowo, Świętoszów and Legnica.

The graves of these soldiers, have already been the subject of Polish-Russian talks which took place in March 1995 in Moscow, regarding the realisation of the Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Poland on Burials and Memorial Sites for War and Repression Victims signed on 22 February 1994. At the time, the necessity to begin work intended to properly maintain post-war grave sites of Soviet soldiers and their families was highlighted. This issue, though, found itself outside the sphere of the aforementioned Agreement, as these individuals were killed or died outside of wartimeand the legal Agreement did not encompass them. Despite this, by request of the Russian side, the then Ministry of Spatial Economy and Construction responsible for the issue of war graves passed on extensive Information concerning the maintenance of cemeteries and sections where Soviet soldiers who were stationed in Poland, as well as their family members, were buried, including proposals for assuring care for those sites. In 1996, in Warsaw, another meeting concerning the aforementioned problem took place. At the time, the Polish side presented a number of proposals for its resolution, including the possibility for the Russian side to come to arrangements with the appropriate gminas, encompassing remunerations for carrying out maintenance and repair work at graves, or establishing one cemetery where the exhumed remains would be moved to from existing cemeteries and sections, which would allow for proper maintenance. However, the Russian side did not accept any of the Polish proposals. After 1997, the Russian side did not exhibit any interest in the aforementioned matters.

Only in 2000, the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, after taking over war grave matters on the request of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, took on the assignment of resolving and settling the further fate of graves of soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group Forces and their family members on the territory of the Republic of Poland. At the time, it was ascertained that on the territory of Poland there are 5 cemeteries and 11 sections located in communal cemeteries. In the years 1945-1991, a combined number of around 1571 soldiers and officers of the former Soviet Army, and members of their families, were buried. The level of site maintenance varied. Sections situated in communal cemeteries were often in a better state, as they found themselves under the constant care of the cemeteries’ administrations, even though care merely involved carrying out basic cleaning works. Because of the lack of systematic care, the cemeteries on the territories of former Soviet Army garrisons in Świetoszów and Borne Sulinowo were in much worse state.

In 2001, the first round of Polish-Russian consultations dedicated to burial sites of soldiers of the Former Northern Group of Forces and members of their families, as well as other citizens of the former USSR on the territory of Poland took place. The Polish delegation was headed by

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Andrzej PrzewoĹşnik, Secretary of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, while the Russian side was led by Gen. Aleksandr Kirilin, head of the Armed Forces Military History Centre of the Russian Federation. During the consultation, the lack of legal status for burial sites of soldiers of the former Soviet Army and members of their families was ascertained. The inadequate level of preservation of these sites was also ascertained, scattered in various regions of Poland, abandoned and deprived of care.

The Russian side, guided by humanitarian concerns with regard to the families of individual buried in Poland, as well as the need to properly commemorate the memories of citizens who died in the course of service abroad, put forward a motion to settle the question of burial sites and proposed two resolutions: 1. Establishing one or two collective cemeteries and exhuming remains from existing sites; 2. Exhuming remains from existing sites and transferring them onto the territory of Russia.

However, only in 2003 did the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation decide on the first variant and to establish cemeteries in Legnica, Borne Sulinowo and Chojna for the exhumed remains of soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families. At the time, the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites approached interested gminas to obtain permission to establish cemeteries on their territory and calculated costs for completing the work, which it then passed on to the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Warsaw. It also informed the Embassy that there was no need to enter into a special international agreement defining the mentioned intent, as these were civilian graves and did not fall under the protection and care of the Polish state in accordance with the Act on War Graves and Cemeteries.

Due to the numerous questions of particular gminas interested in taking advantage of exhumed sites, only in 2005 did the Embassy of the Russian Federation announce that both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation expressed their agreement to establish three sites in Poland, with the consideration that identified persons be buried in individual graves. The remaining unidentified remains were to be buried in collective graves. The matter of financing these works by the Russian side was, at the time, still being worked out.

Because of the lack of activity with regard to establishing these sites, in March 2006, the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites once more took on the task of negotiating on the behalf of the gminas with the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Warsaw, in the matter of establishing gravesites on the territory of three gminas and the necessity of exhuming remains from other localities. The local authorities of the remaining localities which still contained the graves of soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families had, until this point, been made to maintain these sites with their own resources, or, in accordance with the Act on Cemeteries and Burial of the Dead, shut them down because of the lack of fees paid for their maintenance. Unfortunately, the Russian side did not receive the financial funds necessary to realise this purpose at the time. In accordance with the above, in 2006, the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites took up the task to finance the maintenance of graves of soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families located in Chojna and Borne Sulinowo.

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Chojna Section in the Communal Cemetery at ul. Odrzańska

Section of former Soviet Northern Group of Forces soldiers and members of their families in the communal cemetery at ul. Odrzańska in Chojna. Photograph by Adam Siwek

In 2006, work was begun to establish a new section at the communal cemetery in Chojna at ul. Odrzańska. Soldiers and members of their families, exhumed from other regions, were buried there.

• From Chojna at ul. Narciarska, 232 persons were exhumed – 27 were buried in individual graves, 205 unidentified remains where buried in a collective grave; • From Szczecin, 29 identified persons were exhumed and buried in individual graves; • From Stargard, 2 persons were exhumed and buried in individual graves, while an unknown number of persons (loose bones) were buried in a collective grave.

In 2007, work connected with arranging 58 individual graves and 2 collective graves was continued. Plaques with names were placed on the individual graves, while plaques with the numbers of buried persons (89 and 90) were placed on the collective graves. A plaque was also placed in the middle area, which can be reached by a cobblestone path.

In 2008, additional funds were granted for earth to be brought to allow gravestones to be arranged in one, level line, for grass to be sown on the territory of the section and to plant decorative hedges and trees, in order to separate the section from the rest of the cemetery.

The total amount of financial support by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites in the years 2006-2008, amounted to 236,933 zlotys.

Main commemorative plaque at the section of former Soviet Northern Group of Forces soldiers and members of their families in the communal cemetery at ul. Odrzańska in Chojna. Photograph by Adam Siwek

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Borne Sulinowo Cemetery The cemetery in Borne Sulinowo is situated in a forest and contains the remains of 348 persons.

Work was begun in 2006, when exhumed remains were buried in the cemetery: • 45 remains from Białogard, 29 were buried in individual graves, 16 unidentified were buried in a collective grave; • 8 remains from Kołobrzeg, 2 were buried in individual graves, 6 unidentified were buried in a collective grave Triangular stainless sheet-metal plaques were affixed to concrete pillows on the individual graves with the names of those buried. Granite slabs inscribed with information concerning the buried were placed on the collective graves.

In 2006, a new cemetery enclosure was also completed.

In 2007, cemetery work was carried out, connected with: repairing pathways (cleaning, levelling surfaces), cleaning and renovating 25 grave markers, as well as replacing grave plaques (dismantling grave perimeters), sowing the terrain with grass and other planting work, completing 5 stopping points in front of the cemetery, as well as constructing a slip road from the powiat road.

In 2007, the remains of 10 additional persons were buried, discovered and exhumed from the former Air Force base in Bagicz.

The total amount of financial support by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites in the years 2006-2007, amounted to 276,770 zlotys.

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Cemetery for soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families in Borne Sulinowo.

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Świętoszów (gm. Osiecznica) Section in the Communal Cemetery

Collective graves in the communal cemetery in Świętoszów. In the background, renovated monument from the First World War. Photograph by Adam Siwek.

Collective grave of 123 exhumed remains, including 100 unidentified remains.

Photograph by Adam Siwek

Grave of V. I. Suleymanovich and two unidentified soldiers from the Second World War. Photograph by Adam Siwek.

In Świętoszów, graves with the remains of soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families were located at two cemeteries.

• At communal Cemetery No. 1 (containing graves from the First and Second World Wars) there were located the individual graves of 73 identified persons. Only two gravestones were readable.

• At Cemetery No. 2 (testing ground), there were located 59 individual graves, including 39 graves of identified persons). All of the gravestone inscriptions were unreadable and the gravestones were damaged.

In 2007, the Russian side decided to also establish in Świętoszów a section for soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families at communal Cemetery No. 1 and move the remains from Cemetery No. 2.

In 2008, the Russian side decided to finance the exhumation of 32 graves from both cemeteries and bury them in a newly establish section.

The Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, on the other hand, decided to grant funds for: the purchase of coffins, rendering grave plaques with the names of 100 individuals buried there, enclosing the section’s terrain, hardening the square and walkway, as well as renovating the monument commemorating Russian prisoners who died during the First World War. The section focal point became the monument from the First World War, next to which it was planned to place 3 collective graves, where the remains from both cemeteries were to be buried.

In October 2008 the Osiecznica Gmina Office proposed to complete a collective grave composed of five plaques and an individual grave, in which the later exhumed (from a nearby collective grave) remains of three Soviet soldiers from the Second World War, including V. I. Suleymanovich, were buried. The plaques were inscribed with 100 (25 each) names written down from the register of names possessed by the gmina.

Exhumation costs were covered by the Russian side, while the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites covered the costs of establishing the section, which amounted to 92,000 zlotys.

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Legnica Section in the Communal Cemetery The matter of establishing a section in Legnica was taken care of by the Russian side from the very beginning, which took upon itself the entire cost of conducting exhumations and constructing graves. Until 2008, at the communal cemetery in Legnica, there were two separate sections for soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families. One contained the buried remains of adults (226 graves), the other, children (272 graves). The Office of the City of Legnica proposed establishing one section, in place of the adult section. In addition, the section was to also contain exhumed remains from Wrocław (1 collective grave – 53 persons), Świdnica (1 collective grave – 13 persons), Szprotawa (7 individual graves, 1 collective grave – 13 persons), Żagań (1 collective grave – 73 persons) and Brzeg (53 individual graves, 2 collective graves – 11 and 6 persons, respectively) The Embassy of the Russian Federation financed the establishment of two collective graves in 2008-2012, in which all the exhumed remains were buried.

According to data from the Embassy of the Russian Federation, not all post-war graves have been moved. The remains of soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families are likely still located at cemeteries for Red Army soldiers in Oława, Poznań, Świdnica, Wałbrzych, as well as on the territory of the communal cemetery in Legnica (the grave of Lidya Novikova Sergieyevna – archetype for the heroine of the film “Little Moscow”) and in Świnoujście.

These graves are civilian graves, not war graves. Thus, they are neither under the protection of the voivode or the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Nonetheless, the Gmina Offices of Chojna, Osiecznica, Borne Sulinowo and Legnica have agreed to arrange them on their territory. As well, they have initially declared they will remain and be protected.

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Section of soldiers of the former Soviet Northern Group of Forces and members of their families in Legnica. Photograph from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

RUSSIAN WAR GRAVES AND CEMETARIES TODAY

D

espite appearances to the contrary, the task of preserving graves and military cemeteries is not restricted to the maintenance and renovation of catalogued and renovated objects. Even 70 years after the end of the Second World War, the remains of dead soldiers and civilian war casualties from different periods of history are constantly being discovered on Polish territory. The remains are found either by accident or as part of deliberate exploratory works, conducted according to the findings of historians, or the information transmitted by representatives of local communities. The Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites has contributed towards various activities, among others, conducting surveys whose purpose was to confirm the burials of Soviet soldiers in Kamienna Góra-Dębrznik, Lower Silesian Voivodeship (2013), and the exhumations of Russian soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars period in Bledzew, Lubus Voivodship (2014), Soviet and Italian prisoners of war in Przemyśl, Subcarpathia Voivodeship (2014), as well as Red Army soldiers on the territory of Podlasie Voivodeship (2014).

The Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites supports the organisation of funeral ceremonies for the remains of Russian soldiers exhumed from battlefields or graves, either forgotten or threatened with destruction. These funerals take place at their respective military cemeteries assisted by the Polish Army, in the presence of local, voivodeship and even state authorities. The funerals are accompanied by prayers in the Latin and Orthodox rites, and crosses are more and more often erected on the graves.

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Hajnówka Funeral of Red Army Soldiers 22 June 2009

In Hajnówka the remains of 16 Red Army soldiers of Belarusian nationality were buried, who died during the first days of the Third Reich’s aggression against the Soviet Union in June 1941. They had been exhumed in the region of the village of Wojszki by the Special Search Battalion of the Belarusian Ministry of Defence.

The funeral was held in accordance with the ceremonial rites of the Belarusian Army, whose members formed the Honour Guard. The ceremony was attended by Maj. Gen. A. P. Anisimov, Secretary of State in charge of Military Politics at the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Belarus, Stanisław Komorowski, Deputy Minister of National Defence, and Andrzej Przewoźnik, Secretary of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, as well as representatives of the voivodeship and local authorities.

Funeral of Red Army Soldiers in Hajnówka, 22 June 2009.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

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Chojna Funeral of Red Army Soldiers 9 June 2011 In Chojna a reburial ceremony was held for the remains of 91 Red Army soldiers (6 identified), who died on the territory of West Pomeranian Voivodeship in fighting with German troops in 1945. Their remains were buried at the Red Army cemetery in Chojna. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the church, the Polish Army, the Russian and Belarusian embassies, the Russian Consul General in Poznań, the Ukrainian Honorary Consul in Szczecin, employees of the National Department of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites (Director Adam Siwek and Anna Wicka), representatives of West Pomerania Voivodeship, local authorities of the city of Chojna, the Committee of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites in Szczecin, the Forensic Medicine Department of the Pomeranian Medical Academy in Szczecin, as well as veterans and children from local schools. During the ceremony, speeches were delivered by the Mayor of Chojna, the West Pomeranian voivode, and the Russian and Ukrainian Consuls General.

Funeral of Red Army Soldiers in Chojna, 9 June 2011.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

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Hajnówka Funeral of Red Army Soldiers 10 July 2011 In a funeral ceremony held at the cemetery of Red Army soldiers in Hajnówka, the remains of 15 Red Army soldiers of Belarusian nationality were buried. They died in 1941, and were found in 2010 in Wojszki (gm. Juchnowiec Kościelny).

The exhumations were conducted by the Special Search Battalion of the Belarusian Ministry of Defence. The ceremony, replete with an Honour Guard of Belarusian and Polish soldiers, was officiated by Catholic and Orthodox clergy. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Defence of the Republics of Belarus (Col. Edvard G. Golovko, Col. Viktor Shumski) and Poland (Col. Rafał Nowak, Col. Ireneusz Prokocki), the Belarusian Embassy in Poland (Andrey M. Lozovik, Col. Igor Tereshko), the Belarusian Consulate in Białystok (Aleksandr Berebenya), the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites (Director Adam Siwek, Anna Wicka), the Podlasie Voivoide (Andrzej Kozłowski, Anatol Lewczuk), and local authorities, including the Mayor of Hajnówka (Jerzy Sirak), the Starosta of Hajnówka (Włodzimierz Pietroczuk) and the Hajnówka Powiat Mayor (Olga Rygorowicz), as well as the local inhabitants.

During the ceremony, speeches were delivered by the Mayor of Hajnówka, Jerzy Sirak, representative of the Belarusian MoD, Col. Edvard Golovko, representative of the Belarusian Embassy, Andrej Lozovik, representative of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, Adam Siwek, the representative of the Polish MoD, Col. Rafał Nowak, and the representative of the Podlasie Voivoide, Andrzej Kozłowski. After the mass and the burial of the soldiers’ remains, the participants laid single flowers on the graves, and later placed wreaths at the main monument of the cemetery

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Warsaw Funeral of Red Army Soldiers 24 April 2013

Funeral of Red Army Soldiers in Warsaw, 24 April 2013.

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

At the Soviet Military Cemetery in Warsaw at ul. Żwirki i Wigury, a ceremony of reburial was held for the remains of 29 Red Army soldiers, who died between July and August 1944 around the village of Krubki-Górki, near Wołomin. It was attended by representatives of the Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Kazakh embassies, the Orthodox Church, the Polish Ministry of Defence, the National Department of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites (Director Adam Siwek and Anna Wicka), the Masovian Voivode, the capital city of Warsaw, the “Kalina Krasnaya” Society for Military History Enthusiasts, as well as Russian school youth.

Following a speech given by Russian Ambassador, Aleksandr Alekseyev, and Artur Gaca, President of the “Kalina Krasnaya” Society for Military History Enthusiasts, the participants laid wreaths on the grave where the discovered remains had been buried.

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Hajnówka Funeral of Red Army Soldiers 27 July 2014 At the military cemetery in Hajnówka, the remains of 56 Soviet soldiers (12 identified) were buried. They had served in the 31st Armoured Division of the Red Army and died on 25 June 1941, in combat with the German 137th Infantry Division on “Srebrna Górka”, near the village of Czyże. Their exhumation was carried out thanks to the collaboration of the “Grupa Wschód” HIstory and Militaria Collectors of the Society for Enthusiasts of the Podlasie Region, from Białystok, with journalists from the Moscow magazine “Voyennaya Arkheologya”.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of the local authorities, the officiating clergymen and the inhabitants of Hajnówka. It was also attended by a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defence, the Russian military attaché and his deputy, the Counselor at the Belarusian Embassy in Warsaw, the Belarusian Consul General in Białystok, the Director of the National Department of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, a representative of the Podlasie Voivodeship Office and journalists representing the Moscow magazine “Voyennaya Arkheologya”. The most important guests were the families of the dead soldiers whose remains had been identified.

The funeral service, called “Panikhida”, was celebrated by a representative of the Polish Orthodox Military Ordinariate and the Orthodox chaplain of the Białystok Military Garrison. The Catholic chaplain of the Białystok Military Garrison also prayed over the coffins. The Honour Guard was formed by the 18th Reconnaissance Regiment in Białystok.

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Funeral of Red Army Soldiers in Hajnówka, 27 July 2014.

Photographs from the Iconographic Archive of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

Chojna Funeral of Red Army Soldiers 9 June 2015

Funeral of Red Army Soldiers in Chojna, 9 June 2015.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

In Chojna, 46 (4 identified) Red Army soldiers were buried, who either died in West Pomerania in February and March 1945, or in field hospitals there. The ceremony was attended by Deputy Voivode Ryszard Mićko, Adam Siwek and Anna Wicka of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, as well as veterans and Chojna school children. The Russian side was represented by the Russian Consul General in Gdańsk, Alexander Karachevtsev, as well as Alexey Fomichev and Valeriy Popchuk of the Russian Ministry of Defence, in charge of the organisation and management of militarymemorial activities in the Republic of Poland.

A relative of one of the identified soldiers also came to Chojna to attend the funeral.

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Funeral of Red Army Soldiers in Chojna, 9 June 2015.

Photographs by Adam Siwek

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MAPS

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Cemeteries on the territory of Poland of Russian soldiers from the Napoleonic Campaigns, the First World War and the Polish-Soviet War.

Graves of Russian soldiers from the period of the Napoleonic Campaigns (1803-1815) Selected war graves of Russian soldiers and prisoners from the First World War

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Cemeteries and sections of Red Army soldiers and prisoners from the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921)

Cemeteries of murdered and killed Soviet prisoners, as well as soldiers of the Red Army, who died on the territory of Poland during the Second World War

Officer cemeteries Burial sites containing more than 50,000 bodies Burial sites containing 30,000-50,000 bodies Burial sites containing upwards of 10,000 bodies Burial sites containing up to 10,000 bodies

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