function

diocesan priest

creed

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

diocese / province

Zhytomyr diocesemore on
www.catholic-hierarchy.org
[access: 2021.12.19]

date and place
of death

09.10.1937

Smolensktoday: Smolensk oblast, Russia
more on
en.wikipedia.org
[access: 2022.01.06]

details of death

cause of death

murder

perpetrators

Russians

date and place
of birth

10.10.1891

Kulchynytoday: Krasyliv urban hrom., Krasyliv rai., Proskuriv/Khmelnytskyi obl., Ukraine
more on
uk.wikipedia.org
[access: 2023.03.02]

presbyter (holy orders)
ordination

1916

positions held

others related
in death

SZAWDZINISClick to display biography Mieczyslav, ŻOŁNIEROWICZClick to display biography Vladislav

murder sites
camp 
(+ prisoner no)

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

Great Purge 1937: In the summer of 1937 Polish Catholic priests held in Solovetsky Islands, Anzer Island and BelBaltLag were locked in prison cells (some in Sankt Petersburg). Next in a few kangaroo, murderous Russian trials (on 09.10.1937, 25.11.1937, among others) run by so‑called „Troika NKVD” all were sentenced to death. They were subsequently executed by a single shot to the back of the head. The murders took place either in Sankt Petersburg prison or directly in places of mass murder, e.g. Sandarmokh or Levashov Wilderness, where their bodies were dumped into the ditches. Other priests were arrested in the places they still ministered in and next murdered in local NKVD headquarters (e.g. in Minsk in Belarus), after equally genocidal trials run by aforementioned „Troika NKVD” kangaroo courts.

Forced exile: One of the standard Russian forms of repression. The prisoners were usually taken to a small village in the middle of nowhere — somewhere in Siberia, in far north or far east — dropped out of the train carriage or a cart, left out without means of subsistence or place to live. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20])

Solovetsky Islands: Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp SLON (ros. Солове́цкий ла́герь осо́бого назначе́ния) — Russian concentration camp and forced labour camp, on Solovetsky Islands, in operation from 1923 and initially founded on the site of famous former Orthodox monastery. Functioned till 1939 (in 1936‑9 as a prison). In 1920 the largest concentration camp in Russia. Place of slave labour and murder of hundreds of mainly Christian, including Catholic, priests, especially in 1920s and 1930s. The concept of future Russian slave labour concentration camps system Gulag its beginnings prob. can trace to camps of Solovetsky Islands — from there spread to the camps along Belamor canal (Baltic Sea — White Sea), and from there to all regions of Russian state. From the network of camps on Solovetsky Islands — also called Solovetsky Archipelago — Alexander Solzhenitsyn prob. formed his famous term of „Gulag Archipelago”. It is estimated that tens to hundreds of thousands prisoners were held in Solovetsky Islands camps. In 1937‑8 c. 9.500 prisoners were brought out of the camp and murdered in a number of execution sites, including Sandarmokh and Lodeynoye Polye, including many Catholic priests. (more on: pl.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09])

KemLag: Sub–camp of BelBaltLag concentration camp group in Karelia republik, on the shores of White Sea. Many Catholic priests were held captive there on their way to or from Solovetsky Islands concentration camps. (more on: www.gulagmuseum.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20])

BelbaltLag: White Sea‑Baltic Sea camp — Russian concentration and forced slave labor camp, under the management of the Gulag camp network (i.e. the genocidal OGPU, and then the NKVD), with the HQ in Medvedevegorsk (then in the Karelo–Finnish rep.) on the White Sea. Established on 16.11.1931, on the basis of the former SLON camp (on the Solovetsky islands). Prisoners slaved on canal construction between the White Sea and the Baltic Sea (the canal itself was opened on.06.1933). Later, prisoners worked in logging forests, in sawmills, in the construction of wood products and paper factories, hydroelectric plants, nickel factories and alcohol distilleries, construction of ports, and laying railway lines. C. 58,965 to 107,900 (1932) prisoners were held in the camp at one time —–e.g. in 1938, there were 3,946 women among them. According to official data, 12,300 perished during the construction of the canal itself — according to unofficial data, from 50,000 to 300,000. One of head managers of the construction of the canal was a Jew, Naftali Frenkel, who went down in history as the author of the principle„We have to squeeze everything out of the prisoner in the first three months — then nothing is there for us”. He was to be the creator, according to Solzhenitsyn, of the so–called „Boiler system”, i.e. the dependence of food rations on working out a certain percentage of the norm. The term ZEK — i.e. prisoner – canal soldier (Rus. заключенный–каналоармец) — was coined in the camp, which was adopted to mean a prisoner in Russian slave labor camps. The camp operated until 18.09.1941, and the entire project — in economic terms — turned out to be a total failure. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09])

Gulag: Network of Russian slave labour concentration camps. At any given time up to 12 mln inmates where held in them, milions perished. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.05.09])

Moscow (Butyrki): Harsh transit and interrogation prison in Moscow — for political prisoners — where Russians held and murdered thousands of Poles. Founded prob. in XVII century. In XIX century many Polish insurgents (Polish uprisings of 1831 and 1863) were held there. During Communist regime a place of internment for political prisoners prior to a transfer to Russian slave labour complex Gulag. During the Great Purge c. 20,000 inmates were held there at any time (c. 170 in every cell). Thousands were murdered. (more on: en.wikipedia.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2020.05.01])

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

sources

personal:
biographies.library.nd.eduClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2014.12.20], christking.infoClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2018.09.02]
bibliograhical:, „Fate of the Catholic clergy in USSR 1917‑39. Martyrology”, Roman Dzwonkowski, SAC, ed. Science Society KUL, 2003, Lublin,
original images:
www.russiacristiana.orgClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2021.12.19], ipn.gov.plClick to attempt to display webpage
[access: 2019.02.02]