During the Intervention in Crete, Russia had responsibility for the control of the secteur of Rethymno. The bulk of their forces, other than a small detachment in the International zone in Canea, were based in barracks below the Venetian Fortezza. In 1899, on the orders of the Russian governor Theodore de Hiostak, Russian troops constructed, within the Fortezza, the chapel of Agios Theodoros Trichinas.

However, this building would not have satisfied the spiritual needs of one portion of the Russian military: Those who were Roman Catholics and would today be identified as Poles rather than Russians since, at the time of the Intervention, Poland did not exist, having finally been partitioned between Prussia, later Germany, Austria, later Austro-Hungary, and Russia in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars.

The Russian Empire made deliberate efforts to stamp out Polish nationalism and, after 1864, what education there was had to be conducted in Russian, even in elementary schools. Private education in Polish was forbidden, and young men were liable to conscription as ordinary soldiers in the Russian army if they failed to pass Russian High School exams.[1] On January 1, 1874 , a statute concerning conscription was approved by the Tsar by which military service was made compulsory for all males at the age of 20, including ‘Polish’ Russians. It is unsurprising then that amongst the Russian troops sent to Crete in 1897, there would be a number of conscripts, and possibly some officers, who would now be considered to be Polish – what they considered themselves to be is unknown.   One source states that 200-300 ‘Poles’ served in Crete.[2]

One of the main defining characteristics of ‘Polishness’ for those living in Russia was an individual’s religion; the overwhelming majority of ‘Poles’ being Roman Catholic rather than Russian Orthodox. It has to be assumed that the Russian military had some mechanism to cope with the presence of Roman Catholic troops. It is clear that at least some ‘Polish’ troops were allowed to interact with the local Catholic clergy in Canea and the Catholic church in Rethymno acknowledges the role played by ‘Polish’ soldiers in its construction.[3]

In Rethymno there appear to initially have been language difficulties in that the local Catholic priest, a Sicilian, could not understand his new parishioners; a problem which was overcome at the beginning of 1899, when a Polish speaking priest Marcin Czermiński came to Rethymno, becoming the de facto Catholic chaplain of the 13^th Rifle Regiment of Riflemen in which the ‘Poles’ served.[4] 

However, an issue clearly arose when any of these ‘Polish’ troops died when in Crete. While Russian Orthodox troops could be buried in Greek Orthodox graveyards, Roman Catholic troops could not. This led to 18 ‘Polish’ soldiers being buried, not alongside their Orthodox colleagues in the churchyard of the large church of Agios Konstantinos and Eleni in Rethymno, but in a small, physically separate, cemetery nearby at the junction of Odos Tim. Vassou, and Odos Kriari.

(Unfortunately, the wording on the plaque, erected in 1933, is misleading. The ‘Polish’ soldiers did not die fighting for the ‘Freedom of Greece.’ They died as apart of the International force which was on Crete ostensibly to keep the peace between Cretan Muslims and Cretan Christians, but more specifically, to prevent the union of Crete and Greece and, after December 1898, to maintain the autonomous status of Crete.)

The names of the dead soldiers are not on their tombstones, but, along with their date of death, are recorded on a plaque on the wall inside the cemetery.

Ten of the 18 died within a three-month period between November 1898 and January 1899. In late October 1898, the Acting British Consul in Odessa reported to Sir Nicholas O’Connor, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, that sickness amongst the Russian troops in Crete was disrupting Russian plans for replacement and reinforcement on the island.[5] It is quite possible then that these ten men were part of that reported ‘sickness’ outbreak. Although of the 30 or so Orthodox Russian soldiers mentioned on gravestones or memorials in the nearby Orthodox churchyard, only two date from late 1898 to early 1899. One Polish source[6] states that three ‘Polish’ soldiers died as a result of clashes during the Theriso revolt, and the Catholic memorial lists three who died between March and November 1905, the period of the Revolt.

Many thanks to the following for their help in this article.

Dominique Kuczynska for the Polish translations

Jean-Pierre Destelle for getting access to the, normally locked, cemetery in Rethymno.

[1] http://acienciala.faculty.ku.edu/hist557/lect6.htm

[2]http://hellenopolonica.blogspot.com/2014/07/cmentarz-polski-w-rethymno.html Accessed 13 Nov. 2019.

[3] https://talesofcrete.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/the-catholic-church-of-st-anthony-in-rethymno/

[4] http://hellenopolonica.blogspot.com/2014/07/cmentarz-polski-w-rethymno.html Accessed 13 Nov. 2019.

[5] National Archive. ADM 116/93

[6] http://hellenopolonica.blogspot.com/2014/07/cmentarz-polski-w-rethymno.html Accessed 13 Nov. 2019.