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Last summer in "God's Attic", Canada, we received news that the Polish school in Kraslaw, Latvia had received a substantial subsidy from the Polish government under the aegis of its "Wspolnota Polska / Polish Commonwealth" program. The program provides financial and technical assistance to Polish minorities outside of Poland. The monies were to be used for building a new school.
As the school was to be named after the Counts Plater, there was also an invitation for the family to attend the official opening on September 14, 2002 and fulfill a request to pay for a new school standard. The family responded enthusiastically by raising the funds for the standard and organizing an extended bus trip to Kraslaw. 28 family members from Poland, Switzerland, France, Belgium and Canada signed on for the self-guided heritage tour through Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus. There were sprightly pensioners, middle aged people and young ones. We left Warsaw on September 7th, on our way to Kraslaw, the Platers' mother-house. On our way we visited Plater possessions in the three states. In Lithuania we visited Biala Waka, Zatrocze, Czerwony Dwor (all of which had belonged to our Tyszkiewicz relations), Abramowsk, Szweksznie, Polaga, Kretynga (the latter two also belonging to the Tyszkiewicz), Tyszki, Kurtowiany and Plinksze. In Latvia we visited Rundale Palace and on the family trail, Rubin, Bebra, Schlossberg, Lixna, Kraslaw and in Belarus, Horodziec. From a North American perspective, the majority of the various family possessions would require major financial investments to return them to their former glory. For instance, the estate at Biala Waka stands empty and in disrepair. An elderly woman who we met during our sightseeing tour of the grounds, remembered fondly its last owner Janusz Tyszkiewicz; according to her "the count was handsome, smart, and kind". On the other hand, Zatrocze is under solid and careful renovation as it will serve as a summer residence for the President of Lithuania and invited foreign dignitaries. Czerwony Dwor, Polaga and Kretynga are well-kept as they serve as tourist destinations, museums, or government offices. Abramowsk however is in ruins while Tyszki serves as a multi-family dwelling. In Szweksznie at the "Willa Genowefa" we were greeted by Aunt Felicia, an 81 year old ethnic Lithuanian, widow of Alexander Plater. Felicia Plater re-possessed the family estate and is restoring the property mainly with her own funds. For me, a middle-aged individual living and working in North America where the main focus is the present moment and the radiant future, the meeting with Felicia was touching. But logically what are this elderly lady's efforts going to amount to? Felicia and Alexander were childless. She, however, with Lithuanian determination is committed to leave a trace of a family that contributed greatly to the development of this region of Lithuania. In Kurtowiany there is a grassy field where the house once stood, a tiny piece of the tennis court is still visible and the charred remains of the granary due to a recently set fire. Beautiful Plinksze is in very good shape but empty. In Latvia we could not find the estate at Rubin but finally we decided that an abandoned house could have been the object of our search. Bebra now serves as a school; of Schlossberg there remains only a fragment of the main gate; in Lixna, my ancestral home, I found a wall fragment beneath a three level stork's nest. We also found a well-kept chapel where ancestors are buried. The palace at Kraslaw is a ruin. Horodziec, in Belarus, is lived in but is now in terrible shape. During our first Wilno stopover we met the elderly Dominik Broel-Plater. As a thirteen year old boy, Dominik, with his mother and sister were evicted from their property in Degule, and deported to Siberia. He spent 20 years doing forced labour as a lumberjack before he was allowed with his mother and sister to settle in Alma Ata where he worked as driver. In 1992, against all odds, he was repatriated as a Lithuanian citizen and moved to Uciany where he reclaimed the family property. His great-grandfather was the half-brother of Emilia Plater. Dominik died three months later on December 26, 2002 in Uciany. His sister Stefania, and her descendants still live in Alma Ata. Dominik made a tremendous impression on me during our meeting - being deported to Siberia as a child is a situation straight out of a Russian novel. In my imagination a "Sybirak" meant an adult male simply because chances of survival were greater. My imagination could not allow for such mistreatment of children. During dinner Dominik spoke very little - was this shyness or was he inarticulate by nature or habit? He looked like a mixture of a miniature Leo Tolstoy and J.R. Tolkien's hobbits. He sported a long white beard and long hair in a ponytail; he was well-dressed but had tattoos on his forearms. When I asked him about these, he said that in the evenings, in order to pass the time, the deportees would tattoo themselves and others. He had enormous burning eyes, somewhat sunken - they had seen too much. Asked by relatives how he would describe his life, Dominik said in a laconic manner "my life adapted around temperatures -40 in Siberia, +40 in Alma Ata". I was impressed by his achievements: the return of his estate, the return of his mother's ashes from Alma Ata to Degule and the monument he erected to Emilia Plater. His dream had been to bring his sister, nephew and great-nephew to Lithuania from Alma Ata. He did not live to see it.
And then we arrived in Kraslaw for the school opening and other ceremonies. The attitude towards us, the descendants of the former landowners, was friendly and curious. In Kraslaw we visited St. Louis Cathedral which had been funded by the Platers; Prelate Lapkowski offered a service in the family crypts for the souls of our ancestors - benefactors of the church. The whole parish participated and the two groups eyed each with great curiosity. After the mass parishioners greeted us with emotion, as if we had finally come home after 80 years. From a personal standpoint I found that September 14 was the most emotionally charged day. It began with a mass celebrated by three priests, the blessing of the school standard, and a recital of Polish religious songs while in the patron's pews sat representatives of the Polish and Latvian governments and members of the Plater family. We looked with awe at Emilia Plater's pew; we had visited her graveside just days before in Kopciowo, Lithuania. After the service, visiting the Church on my own, I had an interesting encounter when an elderly, careworn man approached me and introduced himself as the Church sexton. He asked politely for a Polish souvenir something along the line of a saint's picture, a medallion or a postcard. I was greatly surprised by the request and began explaining that I had nothing to give him as I was from Canada. He looked embarrassed and disappointed and we both ended up crying. I was wearing a brooch commemorating the golden jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, who is also queen of Canada; I quietly gave it to the sexton and ran away. Left behind in Kraslaw is a little piece of Canada. During the encounters at the school celebrations the townspeople asked jokingly: "So when are you coming back - the palace roof requires renovations!" We were also told: "When you were here, there was law and order, when you left, there was disorder and thievery." I had the impression that time had stood still in Kraslaw. The townspeople speak of the insurrections, about Emilia and Leon Plater as if it was yesterday. The Polish population of Kraslaw is intricately connected to and conscious of its history and traditions. Signing myself into the school's guest-book I thanked Polish Kraslawians for their fortitude and perseverance in remaining Polish. Like the Acadian minority of Prince Edward Island they live by the motto "endurer pour durer", or in English, "endure to last". To "Melior Mors Macula" we can add that we endured until our symbolic homecoming to Kraslaw. Bibi Tiley Ottawa 23.III.2003 |
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