Since 1936, when the Stalinist constitution proclaiming “democratic freedoms” was adopted, tens of thousands of people have been relocated from the Ukrainian regions of Vinnitsa, Žitomir, kyiv and Kirovograd to the Avangard kolkhoz in the middle of the steppe. Where, in the name of a modern miracle of fish, the Queen of Peace, the protector of Kazakhstan, is worshipped today.
Astana () – In the village of Ozernoe, in northern Kazakhstan, between the cities of Petropavlovsk and Kokšetau, groups of Poles deported to the central steppe from what is now Soviet Ukraine settled about 90 years ago. The first major wave came in 1936, when the Stalinist constitution proclaiming “democratic freedoms” was approved, while terror, repression and deportations were rampant. On April 28 of that year, 35,280 Poles were rounded up from the regions of Vinnitsa, Žitomir, Kiev and Kirovograd, and another 60,000 arrived in 1940-41 from territories occupied by the Red Army.
In Ozernoe, the Avangard collective farm was opened for grain harvesting, but after the end of the USSR, agricultural activities stopped, most of the inhabitants tried to leave for better places, and those who could returned to the Poland from which their ancestors came. However, there is still life in this dying village in the northern steppe, because Ozernoe has become the main place of pilgrimage for Catholics from Kazakhstan, and some even come here from Poland itself. According to local legend, when deported Poles were dying of hunger and thirst in 1941, a lake of spring water suddenly formed near the village, where fish were stirring. The starving ones were saved, and the pond disappeared after some time.
Local Catholics immediately thought of a miracle of the Virgin Mary, who heard their prayers. The site of the rescued pond was named Mariamkol, where a tall statue of the Virgin Mary now stands, erected in 1997 and blessed by the saintly Pope John Paul II before being sent to the site. Already in the early 1990s, a small church was erected, later replaced by a rather large sanctuary, where solemn liturgies are celebrated with a large influx of pilgrims. In 2013, the altar “Star of Kazakhstan” was consecrated, with a bold futuristic design and ornaments from the Kazakh tradition, to express the relationship of the Catholic world with the country that welcomed them in such dramatic circumstances.
Since 2011, the parish of Ozernoe has officially become the national shrine of Our Lady Queen of Peace, the protector of Kazakhstan. Every year, thousands of faithful from all over the country and abroad flock here, reviving the small village of deportees, where some of their descendants still live, who now have no intention of emigrating. A three-storey hotel has also been built in the village, which is not always enough to accommodate all the visitors. In recent days, a group of volunteers from Poland arrived to restore the local cemetery, where many of Kazakhstan’s Catholic “martyrs” are buried, often choked by the tall grasses of the steppe.
The elderly people remember the stories of their parents, uncles and grandparents well, and are somewhat reluctant to share them with the many visitors, including journalists and curious people. The deportation regime and “restrictions on persons of Polish nationality” in these places was only lifted in 1956, after Stalin’s death, and rehabilitation began towards the end of the USSR, with a decree by President Mikhail Gorbachev on “recognition of the rights of victims of political repressions of the 1920s-1950s.” It is not easy to establish the exact number of deportees – between 100,000 and 250,000 people; in 1959 there were officially 53,000 Poles living in Kazakhstan, and today there are 32,000 who retain their ethnicity on their documents, mostly in the northern regions of the country.
As Ivan, an 80-year-old Pole who has always lived in Ozernoe, tells reporters, “I wouldn’t have known what to do in Poland. I went there once and didn’t like it… all the people I love are here, at least those who didn’t leave.” Ivan continues to work in the fields, and when asked if he doesn’t feel tired, he replies: “How can you be tired in a place where you can talk to Jesus and his holy Mother all the time, and in your native Polish?”
Photo: Catholic Information Center of Central Asia/VaticanNews
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