In the city of Kalisz in western Poland, repairs have been completed at the Kalisz-Szczypiorno cemetery of UPR soldiers, which have been underway since 2023.
This was reported in a commentary to Ukrinform by the former head of the Association of Ukrainians in Poland, Yuriy Reit, who is in charge of organizing Ukrainian military burials in Poland.
“There are 240 crosses in the cemetery, most of them with metal frames. Some of the crosses have elements of the original crosses found in this place during the preparatory work for the cemetery’s restoration,” Reit said.
According to him, before the repair work began, one or two original crosses remained in the cemetery. During the repair work, the top layer of earth was removed and fragments of the original pre-war crosses that were underground were collected. It was decided to put these elements into new metal crosses.
“Mounting elements of the original crosses in the metal frame of the new Cossack crosses was done to show the connection between the past and the present,” Reit said.
According to estimates, there were up to 400 crosses on graves in this cemetery before the war, and archival data has revealed the presence of 300, as well as 190 confirmed names of people buried here. Reith noted that this was largely possible thanks to the archives and books of Oleksandr Kolianchuk, a historian from Przemyśl.
According to him, several Jewish and Crimean Tatar burials were also found here, as these people also served in the UPR army.
The former head of the OUP emphasized that the military cemetery operated from 1921 to 1940. After the arrival of the Soviet army, a monument in memory of the UPR soldiers was blown up at the cemetery. Until 1992, cattle were grazed there.
Reit said that the process of restoring the cemetery began in 1990, when he sent an official letter to the Kalisz City Hall and the Council for the Protection of the Memory of the Polish Struggle and Martyrdom. The process lasted until 1999, when the area was fenced off, but then there was a pause in the restoration of the necropolis until 2013, when the top layer of earth was removed and the remains of Cossack crosses were discovered. The actual renovation began in 2023 through the efforts of the Ukrainian and Polish sides.
The cemetery also features a granite monument with a trident, similar to the one destroyed by the Soviet army. It bears an inscription in Ukrainian: “To those who died but did not betray Ukraine. Ukrainian Army”. An information table at the entrance to the cemetery and near the monument lists the 190 names of the buried.
The soldiers of the 1st Zaporizhzhia, 4th Kyiv, 5th Kherson, and 6th Sich Rifle Divisions of the Ukrainian People’s Republic are buried here. Among them are the general-corporal Naum Nikoniv, colonels Volodymyr Bokitko, Oleksandr Vovk, Oleksa Voronin, Dmytro Hudziv, Mykola Yefremov, other officers, sergeants, ordinary Cossacks, and their families.
The completion of the repair of this cemetery completes the project to restore Ukrainian military necropolises in Poland on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, which included cemeteries in Lancut, Warsaw, and Lublin.
The cemetery was restored with the assistance and participation of the Ukrainian Historical Society in Poland, the Embassy of Ukraine in Poland, the National Institute for the Restoration of Historical Monuments under the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, and contractors. The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland and the Office of the Voivode of the Greater Poland Region.
The cost of the work performed in 2023-2024 amounted to more than PLN 1.2 million [over USD 300,000].
As reported, in 2020, the restored cemetery where UPR soldiers are buried was inaugurated in the city of Łańcut [southeastern Poland].
After the liberation struggle of 1917-1921, a significant part of the UPR army ended up in Poland. As a result of the 1921 Riga Treaty between Poland and Soviet Russia, UPR soldiers ended up in numerous camps on the territory of the Second Polish Republic.
Photo: Embassy of Ukraine in Poland
Source: Repairs completed at UPR soldiers' cemetery in western Poland
