Verushin, a picturesque village 140 km from Irkutsk, was founded in 1910 by Polish settlers from the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie region who came there voluntarily.

The Polish community in Vershyna, despite the distance from their homeland and the difficult conditions, quickly organised their life there. Already in the first years of their stay, a school for children and a church were built. The church, dedicated to St. Stanislaus the Bishop, was built in the first years of their stay. St Stanislaus the Bishop and Martyr, built in 1913, survived Bolshevik persecution, and after reconstruction in the early 1990s still serves the faithful. The parish belongs to the Diocese of St Joseph in Irkutsk.

There is also a cemetery in Verkhyn, bearing witness to the presence of the first Polish settlers in this remote land. Although many of the graves date from later periods and are made in the Russian style with names written in Cyrillic characters, few remnants of Polish graves can still be found. These include the tombstones of Stanisław Mitręga (1879-1931), Antonina Mitręga (1888-1967), and Bolesław Olzsak (1910-1957), although an error in the spelling of his surname is noticeable on his tombstone.

About 300 Polish families live in Wierszyn today. The village, although far away from Poland, remains an example of Polish heritage and spirit of survival on foreign soil.

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