Prawosławni święci męczennicy XX wieku - ofiary zbrodniczego systemu

Abstract

The problem of the Orthodox Church martyrs of the 20th century is a relatively new subject of studies, however, it has found its place in the latest Russian historiography. We know thousands of the saints canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. Those people lost their lives in different periods of the communist government in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, in terms of the activity of the Orthodox Church in Poland the problem is still new. The most well-known martyrs are those of Chełmszczyzna and Podlasie. They were canonized by the Autocephalous Church of Poland in 2003. There still exists a group of saints related to Białostocczyzna which have not been counted yet, but they have already been canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. The priests mentioned in the current article (Jarosław Sawicki and Aleksy Sienkiewicz), were among the victims of Stalin's repressions between 1929 and 1938. Both of them were executed on the well-known execution site, Butowski military training ground in December, 1937. Another described priest, Jerzy Stepaniuk, was shot during the Russian Civil War on 26th June, 1918. AlI of them were canonized by the decision of Bishop Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on 20th August 2000. The described subject will not only increase the knowledge about criminal, soviet system but it also help to study public relations in the Soviet Union in Stalin's period. The issue is extremely important in order to become acquainted with a significant part of the 20th century history of the Orthodox Church in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Poland as well.