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ID: WOJ-000089-W/58271 (LV-0125b)

Graves of Polish Army soldiers killed and died of wounds in the Polish-Bolshevik war

ID: WOJ-000089-W/58271 (LV-0125b)

Graves of Polish Army soldiers killed and died of wounds in the Polish-Bolshevik war

Archival documentation from the 1930s shows that 10 marked burial places of Polish soldiers who died during the fighting against the Bolsheviks in local field hospitals between January and April 1920, and probably also in 1919, had been preserved in the Kraslaw cemetery by that time. Exhumation and partial consolidation of the graves was considered at the time. One group of them was located to the left of the entrance to the cemetery, while the other was deep in the cemetery, close to the slope, behind the chapel on the right - in the place of the present grave of Lieutenant Marian Załuski and unknown soldiers. This grave measures 3 m x 2 m. According to reports, there was originally a large wooden cross on it, on which hung a plaque with the four verse: "Through suffering, toil and endurance/ And the bloody sweat of martyrdom/ The white eagle brought us/ To glory and victory". In 1994, a terrazzo plaque on a low pedestal was erected on the site of the cross, which no longer existed, probably since the Second World War, through the efforts of local Poles. At the top of the plaque a cross was engraved, next to it the national emblem and an inscription in Polish: "TO THE FALLEN POLAKS/ DURING THE WAR OF 1920/ GRATEFUL COUNTRYMEN". In 2000 the memorial was extended with funding from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites - a wooden cross was placed next to it, an additional plaque and a boulder with the original text of the four-line poem, and the whole was surrounded by a border of metal pipes attached to concrete posts. The plaque bears the inscription in Polish and Latvian: "TU SPOCZYWAJĄ/ LIEUTENANT MARIAN ZAŁUSKI/ AND TWO SOLDIERS OF THE POLISH ARMY NN/ HONOUR THEIR MEMORY". The name of Lieutenant Marian Załuski has not been found in archival materials, nor does he appear on the "List of Polish Army Losses" issued in 1934 by the Military Historical Office. According to archival sources, apart from the soldiers with undetermined names, the following are buried at the site - the ranks Antoni Szpak and Antoni Bitowt, Lieutenant Marian Dąbrowski and an unknown Polish Army ensign named Feliks. The first three are commemorated on a monument dedicated to Polish soldiers erected in 1928 in the Kraslaw cemetery. In the records of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, it has been assumed that Lieutenant Marian Załuski is identical to Lieutenant Marian Dąbrowski due to the similar burial location and the description of Marian Dąbrowski's gravestone in archival sources.

Publikacja:

22.06.2022
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