Polish Prayer Book (Kazakhstan)

The first photo shows a Polish prayer book printed in Lviv before World War I (size: 6 x 10 cm) and accompanied by a Catholic rosary, taken by the parents of Stanisława Musiewicz who were deported to Kazakhstan in 1936 from Ukrainian SSR. Stanisława Musiewicz, born in 1931, currently lives in Petrovka (Shortandy district, Akmola region), and is a very cheerful person, who knows some Polish prayers and folk songs. The other two photos show how the process of transmitting religious knowledge proceeded. The printed prayer books were first carefully handwritten into notebooks (second image, size: 14 x 21 cm), but then, when the knowledge of the Polish language was waning among the second generation already born in Kazakhstan, the Polish prayers were rewritten in Cyrillic script (third image). As the consequence of these developments the Polish language tended to acquire the status of a sacred (and not fully understood) language of prayer. Although we are currently seeing a revival of religious life among Poles in Kazakhstan (mainly thanks to visiting priests from Poland), some older women like Stanisława Musiewicz are reluctant to pray in Russian during Catholic Holy Mass, as is now practiced.

Currently, the largest communities of Poles in Kazakhstan are the Akmola and North Kazakhstan regions (oblasts). The Polish spetspereselentsy who arrived in Kazakhstan in 1936, were completely deprived of pastoral care. Immediately after the deportation, there was probably not even a single clergyman in any of the Kazakh SSR’s special (forced) settlements; and this was the direct result of the intentional policy of the authorities. Testimonies given by the oldest Polish women from Shortandy district, Akmola region, who remembered the first years following their expatriation, contains no information about priests, and the only references are to “prayers for a priest”. The collective memory of the time recorded the first religious emotions experienced upon reaching the Kazakh steppes; these, however, were associated with lay persons. Some people for example, recounted how, after their transport was unloaded at the station in Shortandy, one of the women, named Halina Majcher, intoned the song Serdeczna matko!; indeed, group singing would soon become a form of collective therapy.

Unable to participate in the religious revival that co-occurred with the nationalist mobilization of the Great Patriotic War, Catholics in Kazakhstan had no choice but to function “underground”. The faithful of the Shortandy district managed to obtain a permit for the erection of a church only in 1990, and thus functioned in the religious “underground” practically throughout the entire Soviet period. The memory of the itinerant priests freed from Gulag, although today somewhat blurred, continues to live amongst Polish residents of Shortandy district, with some of them still remembering certain of the clergymen, like fathers Władysław Bukowiński (recently beatified), Bronisław Drzepecki, Serafin Kaszuba and Aleksander Bień. It was particularly important to retain vigilance at railway stations, where priests were often caught. Church services held in secret by these “underground” clergymen lasted some 3–4 hours, for in their course the priest also conducted marriages, christened children, and heard confessions. The services were participated in only by those who were “in the know”, with no more than 1 or 2 persons going at a time; this was crucial in order not to arouse any suspicions, since local “activists” (mainly Russians) regularly eavesdropped on such gatherings, sometimes clambering onto rooftops to achieve their goal. Visits from the local constable (uchastkovyi), who could order a search, were not uncommon, and, regrettably, there were also informers (sekretnye sotrudniki) within the communities themselves. The people who were informed on would be summoned to the selsovet, where they received various penalties – including terms of imprisonment. Children, on the other hand, could face harassment in schools, for example if they were reported by colleagues.

Local Poles also did not have the opportunity to learn Polish in schools. As a result they functioned in two parallel and mutually contradictory realities: the Soviet public sphere, represented first and foremost by the school and the workplace, which was hostile towards religion, and the home, where Catholic religious traditions – ridiculed at school – were cultivated, mainly through the involvement of women, such as Stanisława Musiewicz.

Stanisława Musiewicz, born in 1931, Petrovka, photo: November 2018

Jerzy Rohoziński (born in 1971), Doctor of Humanities, is a historian, anthropologist of culture and lecturer at the Center for Totalitarian Studies (the Pilecki Institute). His interests focus on the social and religious history of Tsarist Russian and the USSR. He has authored the following books (all in Polish): Saints, flagellants and red khans. Developments in the sphere of Muslim religiosity in Soviet and post-Soviet Azerbaijan (2005); Cotton, samovars and Sarts. The Muslim peripheries of Tsarist Russia 1795-1916 (2014); Georgia (series: ”Beginnings of States”, 2016); The birth of global jihad (2017) and The most beautiful jewel in the tsarist crown. Georgia under Russian rule 1801-1917 (2018). A new book by him under the title Pioneers in the steppe? Kazakhstani Poles as an element of the Soviet “modernization” project was recently published.