Wikipedia
Belostok is a small village in Russia located northwest of Tomsk, Russia. It was voluntarily founded, at the turn of the 20th century, by Polish settlers from the Podlaskie / Białystok region. Today, Bielastok has several dozen wooden and brick houses, a few shops, a community centre and a Roman Catholic church built in the early 20th century.
In the beginning Polish settlers were doing fairly well and the village developed quickly, but the situation changed when the new authority came to power. At the time of the Soviet rule the residents of Bielastok resisted compulsory collectivisation for a long time, refused to join the kolkhoz, fought for the right to keep their identity and religion.
Between 1936–1938, Poles were affected by mass repressions on the part of the NKVD: attempts were made to ban the use of the Polish language at school, orders undermining everyday life were sent, severe punishments were imposed, and matters of faith and tradition were interfered into. Finally, the residents of Bielastok gave in, and the village was collectivized. Soon afterwards the Polish operation of the NKVD arrested more than one hundred men from Bielastok. The accused were subjected to sham trials, sentenced to death and murdered in the nearby Krivosheino. Afterward their bodies were thrown into the Ob River without informing their families about their fate of their grandparents, parents, and sons killed. The truth about the NKVD crime was published only in 1993 by Vasily Khanevich, the researcher of the history of Poles in the Tomsk Oblast, who came from Bielastok and published the book Białostocka tragedia[The Bielastok Tragedy] based on archival documents and eyewitness accounts.
Hanevich V.A. Bialystok Tragedy: The History of Genocide of the Poles in Siberia, Vasily Antonovich Hanevich; IPO "Memorial." - Tomsk: Tomsk Bulletin, 1993. - 192. - Annotated.: Martyrology: pp. 180–189. On the mass repressions in the late 30's in the village of Bialystok, founded in the 19th century by immigrants-Poles in the north of Tomsk province. During 1937 – 1938 years. in Bialystok were killed, almost all men-the Poles. Published Martyrology, which includes about 100 people (the list of residents of the village of Bialystok, repressed in 1930.).
At present, Bielastok is inhabited chiefly by Russians, and people with Polish roots account for only 25 percent of its residents. The descendants of Polish settlers seldom use the language of their grandparents. The Polish language can still be heard in prayers which have survived in the memory of subsequent generations. The Church building, seized by the authorities in the Stalinist period and falling into ruin, was returned and refurbished after the transformations of the early 1990s.