The cemetery was operated from 1921 to 1940, but after the arrival of the Soviet army, a monument dedicated to the soldiers of the UPR was blown up there.
Renovations have been completed at the Kalisz-Szczypiorno UPR soldiers’ cemetery in the city of Kalisz in western Poland. They continued from 2023. This was announced by the former head of the Association of Ukrainians in Poland Yuriy Reit in a commentary Ukrinform on Tuesday, October 20.
“There are 240 crosses installed in the cemetery, most of them with a metal frame. The frames of some crosses contain elements of the original crosses that were found in this place during the preparation for the restoration of the cemetery,” Reith said.
Before renovations began, one or two original crosses remained in the cemetery. During the repair, the top layer of soil was removed and the fragments of the original pre-war crosses that were underground were collected. It was decided to include these elements in the new metal crosses to show the connection between the past and the present.
In this cemetery in pre-war times there were up to 400 crosses on graves, according to archival data, the existence of 300 was established, and 190 names of people buried here were confirmed. Reith noted that this was largely possible thanks to the archives and books of the historian from Przemysl, Alexander Kolyanchuk.
Many Jewish and Crimean Tatar burials were also found here – these people also served in the UPR army.
The cemetery was operated from 1921 to 1940, but after the arrival of the Soviet army, the monument erected in memory of the UPR soldiers was blown up in the cemetery, and then until 1992, cows were eaten here.
The process of restoring the cemetery began in 1990, when he sent an official letter to Kalisz City Hall and the Council for Preservation of the Memory of Polish Struggle and Martyrs. The process continued until 1999, when this territory was fenced, but then there was a pause in the matter of restoring the necropolis until 2013, when the top layer of soil was removed from it and the remains of Cossack crosses was discovered. The arrangement began in 2023 through the efforts of the Ukrainian and Polish sides.
The value of the work carried out in 2023-2024 reached more than 1.2 million zlotys (more than 300 thousand dollars).
The cemetery also features a granite monument with a trident, similar to the one destroyed by the Soviet army. There is an inscription here in Ukrainian: “To those who died before they brought joy to Ukraine. Ukrainian Army.” The information table at the entrance to the cemetery and near the monument lists 190 names of those buried.
Source: korrespondent
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