Remembering January insurgents on Rasos

Graveyard on Rasos in Vilnius is a silent proof of the history of a nation fighting for one’s independence. Grave plates, containing concise information about the deceased, however aren’t able to express the entire wealth of their life. Witnesses of history leave us, but thanks to next generations the memory about them can remain and to ensure that the Social Committee for Care of Old Rasos exists. 150 years after the January Uprising they surround the graves of insurgents with particular care.

A lot of people are working in order to keep Rasos Polish. Social Committee for Care of Old Rasos put forward exceptional work for the Old Rasos. Within 25 years of its activity on the graveyard they renovated about 80 historic gravestones and monuments. Money for renovation and conservation works was collected during collections on Warsaw Powązki. From the initiative of the committee, actions of cleaning the graveyard and collections of memory lights are organized. In the last year they surround the graves of insurgents with particular care. Recently they managed to conduct the renovation of the tomb of Aleksander Oskierka (one of leaders of the uprising from 1863).

Oskierka, upon completion of the service in the tsarist army handed in his resignation and settled in the family estate in Polesie, committing himself to cultural and social work. Dramatic fates of the homeland didn’t let him, however enjoy the peace. From 1862 he was a member of the management of an underground civil organization. In 1863 he entered the committee of so-called “whites” in Lithuania, then he was appointed to the Department overseeing Provinces of Lithuania (insurrectionary government of Lithuania), where military matters were entrusted to him. In the insurrectionary underground activity he also acted as the civil governor of the city of Vilnius. After the arrest he was convicted and faced the capital punishment which was after the appeal changed into fifteen years of Siberian torment in Usol above Angara. There the transported convicts and the exiled appointed him their district administrator. His torment was shortened by half because of a tsarist manifesto. He settled then in Irkutsk, where he went with his wife Teodozja from Grabowscy family and their children. He returned to Poland in 1872; however they didn’t allow him to go back to Lithuania. He settled in Warsaw, and in 1888 he saw Vilnius again.

Renovating the grave of Aleksander Oskierka was possible thanks to the Prof. Aleksander Gieysztor Award which is awarded by the Kronenberg Foundation, which the Social Committee received in February 2014. Award for outstanding achievements, being aimed at protection of the Polish cultural legacy, it is not only a prestigious distinction, but also 50 thousand zloty which enabled the completion of another project. Kęstutis Norkūnas (an experienced conservator who renovated over one hundred monuments, among others on the Bernardine Cemetery) managed the renovation.

Chairman of the committee, Alicja Klimaszewska, is also caring so that the younger generation doesn’t forget about the insurgents. She was an initiator of the history lesson on Rasos which pupils from the John Paul II Middle School conducted. By the Dalewski family grave, a family from which all members were part of the January Uprising and paid a huge price for it, pupils told about events from the past, learning not only history, but also patriotism.

Adapted from: naleczow.com.pl, inf. wł.