The name of this ceme­te­ry is signi­fi­cant: in the Pia­ty­khat­ky forest com­plex, once near Khar­kiv, today within the admi­ni­stra­ti­ve boun­da­ries of the city, lie the vic­tims of the Sta­li­nist pur­ges of the 1930s. They died in a big Khar­kiv pri­son, which was infa­mo­us even in tsa­rist times. The bodies were bro­ught to a sub­ur­ban forest and buried cha­oti­cal­ly in unmar­ked gra­ves. The same hap­pe­ned with the bodies of the Katyn mas­sa­cre vic­tims – pri­so­ners of war who were bro­ught to Khar­kiv from the NKVD spe­cial camp in Sta­ro­bilsk to be exe­cu­ted.

We did not learn that they were buried in Pia­ty­khat­ky until the 1990s. During the exhu­ma­tion, Polish teams of spe­cia­li­sts were una­ble to cle­ar­ly sepa­ra­te the gra­ves of the citi­zens of the Second Polish Repu­blic. More­over, it tur­ned out that some­ti­me in  the late 1970s – begin­ning of the 1980s, the forest was plo­ughed by geo­lo­gi­cal drills. In this way the Soviets attemp­ted to cover up the tra­ces of the­ir cri­mes. The­se cir­cum­stan­ces led to a modi­fi­ca­tion of the ori­gi­nal ceme­te­ry lay­out and the cho­ice of the name, empha­si­sing the sha­red fate of Polish citi­zens and the repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of the nations of the Soviet Union.

Betwe­en 1994 and 1996, the team of Polish archa­eolo­gi­sts con­duc­ting a rese­arch in Pia­ty­khat­ky was led by Pro­fes­sor Andrzej Kola (Insti­tu­te of Archa­eolo­gy and Eth­no­gra­phy, Nico­laus Coper­ni­cus Uni­ver­si­ty in Toruń). As in Katyn, an archi­tec­tu­ral pro­ject for the ceme­te­ry was selec­ted in a com­pe­ti­tion (the authors of the win­ning entry were Zdzi­sław Pidek, Andrzej Soły­ga, Wie­sław and Jacek Syna­kie­wicz, and Leszek Wit­kow­ski). The imple­men­ta­tion pro­ject was pre­pa­red by Zdzi­sław Pidek and Andrzej Soły­ga. Ear­th­works and con­struc­tion were car­ried out by Budi­mex S.A., whi­le the sculp­tu­ral ele­ments were pre­pa­red by a con­sor­tium of Budi­mex S.A. and Meta­lo­dlew S.A. from Kra­ków. The bell was cast by Odlew­nia Dzwo­nów Janusz Fel­czyń­ski i S‑ka from Prze­myśl.

Accor­ding to the con­cep­tu­al guide­li­nes, deve­lo­ped by Rada Ochro­ny Pamię­ci Walk i Męczeń­stwa (Coun­cil for the Pro­tec­tion of Strug­gle and Mar­tyr­dom Sites, which was the com­mis­sio­ner of this pro­ject), on each ceme­te­ry we see simi­lar ele­ments, illu­stra­ting a cohe­rent mes­sa­ge. The main mate­rial is cast iron, cho­sen for its dura­bi­li­ty.

The cor­ner­sto­ne was laid on 27 June 1998, and the ceme­te­ry was ope­ned on 17 June 2000.

At the entran­ce of the Ceme­te­ry of the Vic­tims of Tota­li­ta­ria­nism in Khar­kiv, the­re are pylons bearing the Polish mili­ta­ry eagle and the Ukra­inian coat of arms, as well as the cros­ses of the Vir­tu­ti Mili­ta­ri and the 1939 Sep­tem­ber Cam­pa­ign.

The outli­ne of the ceme­te­ry is mar­ked by the ‘black road’. Its win­dings are mar­ked with burial mounds made of black basalt sto­nes, cove­ring mass gra­ves. On the mounds the­re are cros­ses of the Eastern and Western Chur­ches, thus com­me­mo­ra­ting both Polish pri­so­ners of war and Ukra­inians mur­de­red in the 1930s. The axis of the ceme­te­ry is the alley lined with the epi­taph pla­qu­es com­me­mo­ra­ting Polish pri­so­ners of war, bearing the­ir names and sur­na­mes, dates and pla­ces of birth, mili­ta­ry ranks, pro­fes­sions or offi­cial posi­tions. One ele­ment com­mon to all the pla­qu­es is the date of death: 1940.

On one side of the alley, the­re is a col­lec­ti­ve Ukra­inian epi­taph in the form of a cast-iron wall bearing an Ortho­dox cross, and on the oppo­si­te side stands the Gate of Remem­bran­ce, on which the names and sur­na­mes of the vic­tims of the Katyn mas­sa­cre who rest here are listed in alpha­be­ti­cal order. A bell hangs at the foot of the gate, in an under­gro­und niche, for it tolls for the dead. The bell is inscri­bed with ver­ses from Bogu­ro­dzi­ca. In front of the gate stands the Meeting Table, whe­re visi­tors can gather and the litur­gy is per­for­med during the com­me­mo­ra­tion cere­mo­nies. The sym­bo­lism is com­ple­ted by the insi­gnia of the reli­gions pro­fes­sed by tho­se who rest here: the cros­ses of Eastern and Western Chur­ches, the Star of David, and the Isla­mic Cre­scent and Star.

Infor­ma­tion abo­ut the vic­tims can be found in the edi­ted volu­me Char­ków. Księ­ga Cmen­tar­na Pol­skie­go Cmen­ta­rza Wojen­ne­go [Khar­kiv. The Ceme­te­ry Book of the Polish War Ceme­te­ry], publi­shed by Rada Ochro­ny Pamię­ci Walk i Męczeń­stwa (Coun­cil for the Pro­tec­tion of Strug­gle and Mar­tyr­dom Sites) in the year 2003.

More infor­ma­tion abo­ut the esta­bli­sh­ment of the ceme­te­ry in Khar­kiv can be found in the sec­tions TIMELINE and RECOLLECTIONS.

Text pre­pa­red by Iza­bel­la Sariusz-Skąp­ska
Trans­la­ted by Ilias Sta­nek­zai