Gronsky Yulian Mikhailovich

V. A. Khanevich's article examines the history of the Catholic clergy in Siberia in the 1920s and 1930s—one of the least studied and most tragic periods in the history of the Catholic Church in Russia. Drawing on archival materials from the FSB, regional party archives, memoirs of contemporaries, and published sources, the author reconstructs the scale and mechanisms of Soviet repression against Catholic priests and parishes during the rise and consolidation of the Bolshevik regime. The paper demonstrates that the policy of formally equalizing confessions after 1917, in practice, resulted in the systematic destruction of religious life, the forced secularization of church property, the fabrication of criminal cases, and the physical extermination of the clergy. Particular attention is paid to the fates of individual priests serving in Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, and rural parishes across Siberia, many of whom endured prisons, camps, exile, and even executions. The author traces the evolution of repressive policies from the localized persecutions of the early 1920s to the mass terror of the late 1930s, which led to the virtual destruction of the Catholic hierarchy in the USSR. The author concludes that the resilience of Siberian Catholics, who retained their religious identity despite the loss of clergy, churches, and organizational structures, paved the way for the subsequent revival of the Catholic Church in the region.

List of persons mentioned in the text:

• Audor Ivan was a Catholic priest, priest of the Timofeevsky parish of the Barabinsky district, repressed in 1920.
• Baranovsky Leonty - a Catholic priest, an exile, served secret masses, died in the Narym region in 1930.
• Beletsky is an OGPU employee, investigator in the case of N. I. Mikhasenko.
• Benedict XV is the Pope who authorized the Catholic mission in Siberia during the Civil War.
• Brinchak Matvey - a Catholic priest, repeatedly arrested, exiled, died in Tomsk in 1936.
• Budkevich Konstantin was a Catholic prelate, convicted and executed in 1923 in Moscow.
• Bugenis Mykolas (Fr. Bugenis) - rector of the Omsk Catholic community, convicted, imprisoned in camps, and exiled abroad in 1934.
• Voinarovsky Maryan - former organist of the Tomsk Catholic Church, repressed.
• Vudtsan Sidor is a local party functionary and the initiator of the persecution of Fr. Grabovsky.
• Ganetsky Yakov – a figure in the Polish and Russian revolutionary movement, mentioned in the context of the events in Novosibirsk.
• Grabovsky was a Catholic priest who was repressed and executed in the early 1920s.
• Grechikho Pavel - chairman of the Novosibirsk church council, active parishioner, repressed.
• Yulian Mikhailovich Gronsky - Catholic priest, administrator of Catholic parishes in Siberia, convicted, and expelled from the USSR in 1934.
• Zhukovsky Antony - Catholic priest, administrator of Siberian parishes after 1935, executed in 1937.
• Zakovsky is the head of the OGPU plenipotentiary representative office in Western Siberia.
• Zerchaninov Alexei is a Catholic priest of the Eastern Rite (Uniate), one of the leaders of the Russian Catholic Church, an exile.
• Kazakevich Joseph - a Catholic priest, was in exile.
• Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, signed a decision to commute the sentence of Archbishop Tseplyak.
• Kolchak Alexander Vasilyevich - admiral, head of the White government in Siberia.
• Kretovich is a worker from Tomsk, the subject of a propaganda article against Catholics.
• Nikolai Krylenko - Soviet prosecutor at the Tseplyak-Budkevich trial.
• Lipnitsky Joseph - church organist, repressed and shot.
• Mikhasenok Nikolai Ivanovich - Catholic priest, rector of the Novosibirsk church, convicted, died in exile in 1933.
• Popalaigis was a Catholic priest from Tomsk who was subject to confiscation of his property.
• Pronsky Sigismund - acting chairman of the Tomsk Catholic community, executed.
• Romanov is an OGPU-NKVD officer, an investigator in the cases of Gronsky and Zhukovsky.
• Sikorski Władysław, Prime Minister of Poland, protested against the repression of the Catholic clergy in the USSR.
• Tomich Vanda - secretary of the Tomsk church council, repressed.
• Frizon Alexander - Catholic bishop, apostolic administrator of Crimea, executed in 1937.
• Jan Ciepljak - Catholic archbishop, convicted in 1923, sentence commuted to imprisonment.
• Tserpento Ieronim Ieronimovich - Catholic priest, administrator of the churches of Siberia, executed in 1938.
• Shabutsky Franz - guard of the Tomsk Catholic Church, repressed.
• Shvaros Marceliy - a Catholic priest, died in prison.

Vasily Khanevich's essay tells the tragic story of the Siberian Pole Stanislav Mikhailovich Bach, an organist born in the Polish village of Bialystok in Siberia. Through eyewitness accounts, archival documents, and criminal case materials, the author reconstructs the life of Bach, who became a victim of political repression. Arrested twice, he went through camps, was subjected to new charges of espionage and sabotage, did not confess, and was shot in 1938. The essay also highlights the fate of his brother Pavel and presents a broad context of the repressions against the Polish minority in Siberia.

List of persons:

• Bakh Pavel Mikhailovich - brother of Stanislav Bakh, worked as an accountant at Soyuzzagotskot in Tomsk, shot in 1938.
• Bach Stanislav Mikhailovich - organist, native of the village of Belostok, repressed twice, shot in 1938.
• Felemena (no surname) is the author's great-aunt, who recalled Stanislav Bach.
• Filimonenko Alexander - a member of the party organization, gave incriminating evidence against Bakh.
• Gronsky Julian - priest, administrator of the Catholic Church in Siberia, arrested in 1931.
• Zhukovsky Antony Iosifovich - a priest, previously convicted of espionage.
• Makarov (no name) - director of the home for the disabled, prosecution witness in the Bakh case.
• Mikhasenok Nikolai Ivanovich is a priest previously convicted of espionage.
• Ovchinnikov Ivan Vasilyevich - head of the Tomsk city department of the NKVD, who approved the indictment against Bakh.
• Pesotsky (no name) - employee of the Shegarsky RONKVD, participated in the arrest and interrogations.
• Rybintsov (no name) - named as the son of a landowner who allegedly recruited Bakh into a counter-revolutionary organization.
• Vasily Khanevich is the author of the article and a member of the Council of the Union of Poles in Russia.
• Zoskov (no name) - an employee of the Shegarsky RONKVD, participated in the arrest of Bakh.