08105
February 11, 2008
Russia’s killing field
Smolensk pastor, his grandfather a victim, reflects on
‘the unspeakable’
Editor’s note: for informal reflections and photographs of this Feb. 1-12 visit to PC(USA) missionaries in Russia, visit the blog.
A Vietnam Veterans Memorial-style wall commemorates the 4,500 Polish officers slaughtered in Katyn Forest in 1940. Photo by Jerry Van Marter SMOLENSK, Russia — On a snowy winter morning, the Katyn Forest is deathly quiet.
And with good reason.
Seventy-five years ago there were no trees here …only a goat pasture. The pines and birches were planted then to hide what the Stalin regime was about to do. Beginning in 1937, untold tens of thousands of “enemies of the people” were brought here, shot and dumped into mass graves.
In 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, Russia — which had signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler — moved in from the East. In March of 1940, Stalin added to the numbers in Katyn Forest by slaughtering 4,500 Polish military officers, thereby decapitating Poland’s army.
A large wooden cross towers over the Russian section of the Katyn Forest killing field. Photo by Jerry Van Marter For 20 years, the Soviet government blamed the massacre on Germany before finally confessing to the massacre in 1959. And though rumors had quietly circulated for decades, confirmation of the Katyn Forest as the final resting place of those countless Russian victims of Stalin’s brutality did not come for another 20 years.
One of the victims was the grandfather of the Rev. Viktor Vladimirovich Ignatenkov, pastor of First Baptist Church of Smolensk. Walking through the killing field of Katyn Forest as he tells his story, one find’s one’s heart seemingly permanently lodged in one’s throat.
Viktor doesn’t know where exactly his grandfather’s body lies in Katyn Forest. Only a fraction of the Russian bodies have been exhumed and all traces of identification were removed from the victims before they were shot and their bodies dumped. Stalin’s troops kept meticulous records, however, and Viktor’s grandfather’s name appears on the list.
All of the Polish soldiers’ bodies have been exhumed and identified … the Russians didn’t bother to strip those bodies. The Memorial Park on the site, opened in 1992, includes a Polish section with a Vietnam Veterans Memorial-style wall of remembrance with each victim commemorated with a brass plaque.
Simple foot bridges traverse the mass graves of Katyn Forest so visitors will not have to tread on them out of respect for the victims underneath. Photo by Jerry Van Marter The Russian section is much simpler and much of the killing field is traversed by two-foot tall wooden bridges so visitors will not tread on the mass graves beneath.
Viktor’s grandfather, born near Katyn Forest in 1905, converted to Christianity in 1925 and was immediately fired from his job on a collective farm. Life was very difficult for him and his wife and children — Viktor’s mother was the oldest. He eked out a meager living hauling things from village to village.
By the early 1930s, Viktor’s grandfather was the preacher for the small congregation in his village. Under Stalin, such activity was a death sentence. From 1930-1937, pastors were repeatedly arrested. When it happened the congregation would simply elect a new pastor. “They knew they were just standing in line,” Viktor says quietly. “They gave their lives to the church.”
When Stalin’s troops showed up at their door, Viktor’s grandmother immediately knew what was happening and began crying. Every day for two weeks, she and the kids traveled to the prison to deliver food parcels to Viktor’s grandfather. She received a couple of letters from him, letting her know the food had been delivered. Then one day her parcel was rejected. She was told her husband had moved “far away.”
When the Germans overran Smolensk, Viktor’s grandmother was forcibly taken to Germany to work in the war-machine factories. When the Allies liberated Germany, Viktor’s grandmother was told she could be repatriated anywhere she chose. Clinging to the hope that her husband was still alive, she returned to Smolensk.
The house they had lived in had been burned to the ground, so the family lived in a hole in the ground for several months until they were able to build a small shack out of rubble and scraps of wood. Viktor was born in Smolensk in 1955.
A large arch with separate portals leading into the Polish and Russian sections of Katyn Forest marks the entrance to the memorial park. Photo by Jerry Van Marter Time passed, Viktor says, and the family finally realized that his grandfather was probably dead. But it was not until 1980, that the truth of the Katyn Forest killing field finally began to come out and records indicated that Victor’s grandfather had been shot and dumped in Katyn Forest just two weeks after his arrest.
“The apostle Paul tells us to persevere ‘to the end,’” Viktor says. “This is what I want for the young people — to persevere, to love God and the church and to learn what Christian service is from those, like my grandfather, who sacrificed everything.”
Each year, on Oct. 30, a Day of Remembrance is observed at Katyn Forest. Viktor never misses the service and makes sure the young people of First Baptist Church attend as well. “Many of our young people just don’t understand, but they must know,” he says.
“It wasn’t so long ago.” |
