Xawery Czernicki | |
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| Born | (1882-10-16)16 October 1882 Giedejki (Giedeikiai),Russian Empire (present-dayAshmyany District,Belarus) |
| Died | March/April 1940 (age 57) Katyn,Russian SFSR,USSR |
| Allegiance | Poland |
| Years of service | 1901–1940 |
| Rank | Kontradmirał |
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Rear AdmiralXawery Stanisław Czernicki (1882–1940) was a Polish engineer, military commander and one of the highest-ranking officers of thePolish Navy. Considered one of the founders of Polish Navy's logistical services, he was murdered by theSovietNKVD in theKatyn massacre.
Xawery Czernicki was born on 16 October 1882[1] in aszlachta family in the village ofGiedejki (Giedeikiai) in theOshmyansky Uyezd of theVilna Governorate (present-dayAshmyany District.[1] After graduating from a localgymnasium in 1901, Czernicki joined the Imperial Naval Engineering School inKronstadt.[1] In 1905 he graduated[1] from the shipbuilding faculty and joined theRussian Navy in the basic officer's rank ofmichman. The following year he was admitted as thesecond lieutenant (laterfirst lieutenant) and served as an engineer in theSt. Petersburg naval base. In 1910 he became the head of a small naval shipyard inSretensk (on theShilka River,Amur basin), where he authored severalriver monitors. Until 1914 he also served as a deputy engineer and then lead engineer of theGangut-class battleshipsSevastopol andPetropavlovsk. Promoted in 1913 to the rank of captain, until the end ofWorld War I Czernicki served as the leadhull designer in the naval shipyard in Reval (modernTallinn,Estonia). In 1917 he was promoted to navy lieutenant colonel and the following year he resigned his post.
In 1919 he returned toPoland and volunteered for thePolish Navy. He was admitted as the chief of Technical Services of theVistulan Flotilla, the first unit of the newly reborn Polish naval forces, created even before Poland regained itsBaltic shore. During thePolish-Bolshevik War Czernicki served as the commanding officer of theModlin Fortress inland naval base. In 1925 he became the head of a commission supervising the construction ofGdynia naval base and the following year he also started to head a commission supervising the construction ofORPBurza,ORPWicher,ORPWilk,ORPRyś andORPŻbik in France.[1] Promoted to the rank ofKomandor, he returned to Poland in 1932 and became the Chief of Services[1] and the Deputy Commander of the Chief of Polish Navy in the Ministry of Military Affairs. In 1938 he was again promoted, this time to the rank ofrear admiral.
After theinvasion of Poland in 1939, Czernicki was evacuated from Gdynia toWarsaw and then eastwards to the area ofPińsk and Brodów. There, in the village of Deraźny, he was ambushed by theRed Army with a group of Polish Navy officers, after theSoviet Union joinedNazi Germany in theinvasion of Poland. Transported toRówne (modern Rivne, Ukraine), the officers were arrested by theNKVD and sent to various prisons and camps in the USSR. Czernicki, after a brief stay in Talitsa, was transferred to the NKVD special camp ofKozelsk.[2] He was murdered in the spring of 1940, aged fifty-seven, in what became known as theKatyn massacre.[2]
After the fall on the Soviet Union in 1989, Xawery Czernicki became one of the patrons of the Polish Navy. He is the name-sake of the Polish Navy Depot (1993), theORPKontradmirał Xawery Czernicki logistical ship (2001) and the X. Czernicki's Grand Prix prize, awarded every year during the Balt-Military-Expo inGdańsk.
Polonia Restituta (4th Class - Officer's Cross)
Cross of Merit (1st Class - Gold Cross)
Commemorative Medal for War 1918-1921
10 Years of Independence Commemorative Medal
Légion d'honneur (France, 4th Class - Officier)
Order of St. Anna (Russia)
Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russia)
Order of the Sword (Sweden, 3rd Class - Commander)
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