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ID: dok-000940-P

Cemetery in Surkonty

Surkonty | Belarus
biał. Surkanty (Сурканты)
ID: dok-000940-P

Cemetery in Surkonty

Surkonty | Belarus
biał. Surkanty (Сурканты)
Cemetery with Polish gravestone monuments. Information about the cemetery has been published (see bibliography).

According to Anna Lewkowska, Jacek Lewkowski and Wojciech Walczak, "during the Second World War, on the edge of the Grodno Forest, near the village of Surkonty, Lt. Col. Maciej Kalenkiewicz, pseud. "Kotwicz", was hiding with his Home Army unit. On 21 August 1944, the Russians hit Surkonty from three directions - it was a special pursuit unit in the strength of a battalion. The "Kotwicz" unit had 72 men. (...) At Surkonty 36 soldiers of the AK were killed, which was 50% of the squad. The commander, Lieutenant Colonel Maciej Kalenkiewicz, also fell. (....) The local population wanted to bury the fallen AK soldiers in the cemetery in nearby Pielasy, but the priest, a Lithuanian, refused to bury them for fear of reprisals from the Soviets. As a result, the inhabitants decided to bury the soldiers in the old insurgent cemetery of 1863 (...) In 1980, at the site of Lt. Col. Kalenkiewicz's grave, a resident of Lida laid a stone, which was a fragment of a monument from the old cemetery of the insurgents of 1863. From 1988, activities to commemorate the fallen began. In 1991, the cemetery was consecrated. It has a rectangular plan and a 160 m² area surrounded by a stone wall. To quote the aforementioned authors: "On the axis of the entrance there is a monument in the form of a stone mound, with a rectangular iron plaque and the Virtuti Militari Cross, the mound topped by a simple iron cross. On the plaque the inscription: '"To the soldiers of the Home Army of the 'Nów' and 'Wiano' districts who fell for Poland at Surkonty on 21 August 1944 and at Poddubicze on 19 August 1944" By the southern fence there are two rows of concrete crosses, 18 in each row - these are the graves of 36 partisans from the unit (...) killed in the battle with the NKVD troops at Surkonty. By the northern fence there are 8 crosses on symbolic tombstones of Home Army soldiers killed near Poddubicze. (...) The inscriptions on the cemetery include only Lieutenant Colonel Maciej Kalenkiewicz, the other crosses bear the inscription "Unknown Soldier". In the cemetery there is also a gravestone of Franciszek Wojnicz, a soldier of VI Bat. 77 PP, killed near Pietrykany on 24 December 1944. Only one gravestone has survived from the old cemetery, located in the south-western corner, with a partially illegible inscription: "(...) Lunkiewicz of 1870" (...) The state of preservation of the cemetery is very good - the cemetery under the care of the Union of Poles in Belarus."

In August 2022, the media reported on the devastation of the cemetery by the Minsk regime. As we read on the Polish Radio website: ""The cemetery of AK soldiers in Surkonty is being devastated by the Minsk regime's services. Those who think that the human memory of heroes will be eradicated are very wrong. The regime will pay for these acts of barbarism," Jasina wrote on Twitter. The fact that such demolition is taking place using heavy equipment was reported by Belarusian journalist Tadeusz Giczan on Thursday. Information about the incident was also provided by the Glos znad Niemna portal on Thursday. "According to the information we have obtained, the devastation of the cemetery resembles a large-scale special operation. (...)," the portal reads. At the end of July, the Glos znad Niemna portal reported that the Belarusian authorities demolished a monument on a mass grave of Home Army soldiers in Stryivka in the Grodno region. Earlier, in Mikuliszki in the Grodno region, the quarters of AK soldiers killed in 1944 were razed to the ground; none of the 22 crosses erected at this memorial site remained. Following the reaction of the Polish MFA, which called this action an "act of bestiality" that undermined mutual obligations to protect memorial sites, the Belarusian diplomatic ministry responded that there were no "registered burial sites" at the site in question. As a result of this situation, the chargé d'affaires of Belarus was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to whom a strong protest was conveyed regarding the destruction of the Mikuliszki cemetery. Belarusian independent media also reported cases of destruction of other Polish memorials." (cf. h ttps://www.polskieradio.pl/399/7977/Artykul/3025743,Kolejny-akt-panstwowego-terroryzmu-Stanislaw-Zaryn-o-dewastacji-cmentarza-AK-w-Surkontach )

Bibliography:
  • „Cmentarze polskie poza granicami kraju” , raport, oprac. B. Gutowski, Warszawa 2022 (maszynopis).
  • Lewkowska Anna, Lewkowski Jacek, Walczak Wojciech, „Zabytkowe cmentarze na Kresach Wschodnich Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej. Wschodnie powiaty dawnego województwa białostockiego (obecnie na terenie Białorusi), Warszawa 2007.
Author:
Bartłomiej Gutowski, Dawid Mendrek
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