Twelve Polish Soldiers
Do you recognise these names? Józef Wojciechowski, Józef Męczyński, Feliks Czerniakowski (or Sylweszczak), Feliks Borkowski, Julyan Smal, Jan Zapard, Jan Janasiński, Bronislaw Kaczmarek, Marion Cudzik, Jan Kaminski, Kazimierz Paluba and Antoni Sujka: soldiers, neighbors, friends, veterans of the Polish army. They were the inhabitants of the village of Ostrowki, situated in the Kresy (currently Western Belarus) territory, one hour from Pinsk. It was here these twelve families lived between 1920 - 1939. This is not only our story, but one we share with these other eleven families. Their dream was our dream to start a new life after years of war, only for it to end tragically nineteen years later on a cold September morning back in 1939.
Józef Wojciechowski was my grandfather, born in Pogon Gosławska western Poland, son of Maria and Mateusz. He was just 16 years old when he joined the 31st Regiment of the Kaniowski Fusiliers fighting against the German occupiers. It was during this time that Józef met his brothers in arms, Józef and Henryk Męczyński, from a small town in the Soviet occupied territories. Józef life was about to change when the brothers convinced him to return with them to the eastern territories. In the October of 1920 an armistice was signed and these territories were now returned to Poland. The promise of land was part of a programme to resettle the Polish veterans, it seemed tempting to the young Jozef, so the three soldiers began the 800-kilometre journey home. This was to lead Józef Wojciechowski to a new life as a farmer in the village of Ostrowki. Arriving at the Męczyński’s manor house in Drochiczyn, he was greeted by the head of the family Aleksander Męczyński, a man who had served the Tsar before the Bolshevik Revolution and was soon to become his father-in-law, friend and mentor.
Józef was given about twenty acres next door to the already established Męczyński family land. Aleksander had two sons and two daughters, Jadwiga and their youngest 17-year-old daughter Helena. It wasn’t long before the handsome and heroic newcomer, combined with a family’s friendship forged by war, that a romance blossomed between Józef and Helena. In 1921 the couple exchanged wedding vows in the beautiful church of St Andrej Bobola in Janów. (They had six children - Stanislaw, Boleslaw, Amelia, Maria, Krystyna and Jan ).
Later there would be familiar faces on the other side of the property, Józef sister Zofia had married an ex serviceman Feliks Borkowski (had ten children) and they were gifted one of the small estates to the Combat Colonists, as the settlers were to be known. Within a short time, more military settlers would arrive from the west, creating a small community of some twelve farming families around the village of Ostrowki. Henryk Męczyński set up a home in Drochiczyn.
The Polish presence was now firmly established in Ostrowki, the twelve soldiers from the west had more than fulfilled the faith of the government when it granted them lands. How the land allotments were made is unknown, but it seems to be coincidental that people with such close ties would find themselves living together by sheer chance, it must be assumed they were allotted their holdings by request. Over time the ill-starred locals and the optimistic newcomers, formed a symbiotic relationship that worked. The newcomers needed the local’s labour, in turn these newcomers brought new knowledge and economic development that would benefited all in this area. The group organised regular meetings to share Polish ideas and ideologies, held radio listening sessions and political debates. The newspaper “Poland in Arms” arrived in bulk to the Wojciechowski house for distribution to the neighbours. For the next nineteen years the families thrived, the families became close and shared a common bond. But the Borderland provinces had been cruelly battered by war and the local peasants were deeply suspicious of these newcomers, with the onset of war life had became tense. In 1939 the Red Army were advancing, Józef had voluntarily re-joined the Polish army as a reserve, in his green uniform and blue hat. He patrolled the Ostrowki area on horseback offering a reassuring presence. On the 17 September 1939 the twelve families woke to hear that Soviet armies had crossed the border. Initially these twelve families were spared any violence but the mood of the local populace was about to take a dramatic and ugly direction. Soviet propaganda called Stalin’s Liberation leaflets, were dropped from planes with messages of “Can you suffer more from the atrocities of the land owners and capitalist? Soldiers turn your weapons against the landowners and the capitalists – do not shoot at your Soviet brothers.
Józef’s and his fellow settler’s fate was about to be sealed, they would pay dearly for the ownership of land and involvement with organisations promoting the cause of Polish nationalism. The Soviets came for them within days of their arrival in the district. They arrived in broad daylight rather than under cloak of darkness, they were methodical and strategic in their approach to removal of the Polish community. They went to each of the twelve Ostrowki homes in this tiny settlement to arrest the male leads of the families. With an escort of armed soldiers, they came to the door of the Wojciechowski house”. (ref: John Roy-Wojciechowski, from the book “A Strange Outcome” Penguin Books)
In 2018 I travelled to this region, wanting to see for myself my mother’s past and to piece together the story handed down of her homeland. The village of Ostrowki, now sown with grain it sits amongst the Polesia marshes and is no more. Huta, where their children attended school, now sits at the end of a dusty dirt road. Osowce, where Józef ran the creamery survived and is still operating today. Popina, where these families came together for mass every Sunday, the Catholic church is now replaced with the gold domes of a Russian Orthodox Church. It was evident that life has been hard since 1939 under the Soviet regime. Never to forget these families …. it was war that brought these men together and it was war that ultimately separated them.
Brother and sister of Helena Meczynska (Wojciechowksi) Jozef and Jadwiga in Polesia.