One hundred years ago, in June 1920, the Polish Army, together with the allied Ukrainian Army, began its retreat from central Ukraine as a result of the Red Army's counter-offensive. A symbolic grave of Polish soldiers located in the Catholic section of the Bajkovo cemetery in Kiev is a reminder of these events. The fate of this cemetery, expanded - with the permission of the Soviet authorities - in the interwar period and later destroyed twice, was turbulent.

Military quarters in the Baykova c emetery
In the Catholic part of the Bajkowa cemetery, among the post-war burials, away from the main alleys, there is a symbolic quarter of Polish Army soldiers. Its central element is a simple stone cross decorated on its plinth with a bas-relief image of the Virtuti Militari Cross. On either side of the cross are plaques in Polish and Ukrainian informing about the 114 soldiers buried here who died in the spring of 1920 in Kiev and its surroundings.

The entire site occupies an area of just a few square metres. The original monument located there was destroyed during the Soviet era, and the present one - similar in shape to the one from 1935 - was built in 1998. - was built in 1998. The Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites.

History of the quarters in the interwar period
Polish soldiers who fell during the fighting in Kiev and the surrounding area, mostly from the 1st Infantry Division of the Legions, were buried in the Bajkowa cemetery in May and June 1920. After the end of the Polish-Bolshevik war, under the Riga Treaty, Poland and the USSR undertook to mutually respect the burials of soldiers of the opposite side located on their own territory. Beyond the eastern border of the Second Polish Republic, the largest number of such cemeteries was in Belarus and fewer in Ukraine. As far as possible, they were looked after by the Polish consulates in Minsk and Kiev.

The Bajkowa Cemetery section originally included a mass grave and individual burials marked with identical metal crosses with name plates. On the initiative of the Consul General in Kiev, Jan Karszo-Siedlewski, at the end of 1934, a monument in the shape of a cross, almost 3 metres high and decorated with several relief elements, was started to be erected. Interestingly, the monument was not made in Poland, but - commissioned by the consulate - at the local stonemason's workshop of a certain Truskalenko. The ceremonial unveiling took place on 3 May 1935.

It is worth noting that this was the period of the greatest Stalinist terror - two years earlier the Great Famine in Ukraine had ended, and two years later the NKVD anti-Polish operation began, during which hundreds of Poles were murdered in Kiev alone and both Catholic churches were closed.

The quarters were first destroyed just three years later. In October 1938, one of the consuls, visiting the Baykovo cemetery before All Saints' Day, was surprised to find that the resting place of Polish soldiers had been completely destroyed, and that the construction of an agricultural research institute had begun in its place. This was met with indignation by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which - citing the provisions of the Riga Treaty - made a prompt intervention in Moscow with its Soviet counterpart. Interestingly, this was successful and the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs obliged the Kiev municipal authorities to immediately rebuild the quarters at their own expense. In December 1938, work began and managed to partially restore the individual graves. However, the work was quickly interrupted by heavy frost and snowfall, and the stone monument was probably not reconstructed before the outbreak of war.

Further fate of the quarters
After the Soviet aggression against Poland, the NKVD kidnapped the last head of the consulate, Jerzy Matusiński, who was later murdered in circumstances unknown to this day. The graves of Polish Army soldiers were devastated again in the following years, this time completely. Of the original elements, only the bas-relief with the Virtuti Militari and one metal cross survived to the present day, and the area was used for new burials. It was not possible to reconstruct the quarters on a much smaller area until after the collapse of the USSR.