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ID: WOJ-000095-W (LV-0077a)

A quarter in the Catholic cemetery of Polish Army soldiers killed in the Polish-Bolshevik war

ID: WOJ-000095-W (LV-0077a)

A quarter in the Catholic cemetery of Polish Army soldiers killed in the Polish-Bolshevik war

In 1919, during the Polish-Bolshevik battles in the vicinity of Dyneburg south of the Dvina River, a war cemetery was established in the Catholic cemetery in Lavetske. Resting here are 55 soldiers of the 1st Legion Infantry Division, killed between 8.08-29.09.1919, 30 of whom lost their lives on 27.09.1919 in heavy fighting near the Dyneburg fort. The site was reconstructed in the 1990s by local Poles, making visible the earthen graves - 2 large (mass) and 16 smaller ones. A commemoration was then erected in the form of a metal cross and a boulder on which the inscription was engraved: "To Polish Legionaries Fallen in 1919-1920: Compatriots from across the Dvina". The opening ceremony of the reconstructed quarters took place on 10.11.1995. A year later, plaques funded by the Council for the Protection of Remembrance of Struggle and Martyrdom were placed next to the boulder, with the names of the soldiers established on the basis of Jarosław Sozański's research. In 1997, over a second small group of graves located at the opposite end of the cemetery, the OPWiM Council erected a two-metre-high reinforced concrete legion cross. In 2017, the remains of 9 Polish Army soldiers found in a field cemetery in nearby Katymiolka, next to the railway line, were buried in the military quarters. The traces of this cemetery have been completely obliterated, but it was possible to find it and establish the names of those buried. Buried in Katymiołka were 7 infantry soldiers of the 1st Legion Infantry Division, as well as Cpl. Emil Brzychczy of the 1st Tank Regiment and sapper Roch Bonusiak. Archaeological and anthropological work in Katymiołka was carried out by a team from the Pomeranian Medical University on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The exhumed soldiers were laid to rest in individual graves in Ławkies, their ceremonial funeral took place on 21.10.2017. In 2018. The Foundation in Aid to Poles in the East gave the quaternary in the Ławkies cemetery its final shape within the framework of the task subsidised by the programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage "Sites of National Remembrance Abroad". The cemetery section was built according to a design by architect Marek Partyka, taking into account the location of the individual earthen graves. The existing commemoration and the plaque dedicated to the soldiers of the 'Wachlarz', which was placed by local Poles in the 1990s, have been preserved. The soldiers transferred from Katymiolka now have individual headstones by name, the names of the remaining 53 legionaries (as determined by the MKiDN) are placed on collective plaques on the mass grave. The exception is Private Mieczyslaw Monsior, whose parents put up a tombstone with a photograph and the inscription shortly after the fighting: "corporal of the 5th company of the 6th pp Leg died on the battlefield on 3 X 1919". This tombstone has been preserved to this day. The area between the tombstones is filled with grit, as are the grave fields. The section of the cemetery containing the graves of soldiers transferred from Katymiolka is paved with cobblestones. A cube is also laid around the quarters. The name plates contain information on 11 soldiers whose names could not be determined. 10 of them are most probably buried at the opposite end of the cemetery, in a place commemorated with a legion cross by the OPWiM Council in 1997. A plaque with the inscription: "POLIJAS ARMIJAS KARAVIRU KAPI / 1919 / POLISH ARMY QUARTERS". An information board with text in three languages - Latvian, Polish and English - was also placed next to it. A total of 63 soldiers known by name and 11 unknown soldiers are commemorated in the Lavetske cemetery.

Publikacja:
22.06.2022
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