As Father Alexander Was a Partisan Priest During WWII

A partisan movement began to form on Belarusian territory as early as the end of the summer of 1941 during World War II.

More than one generation will remember these heros — from surviving photographs in family albums, from videos on tablets. Time passes, but the memory of our relatives — veterans of the war that ended 80 years ago — remains.

Here is another such face — familiar to some, but not to others. An extraordinary and absolutely recklessly brave man, with a difficult, undeservedly difficult fate that brought him to an early grave.

And it all began like this.

The village of Malaya Plotnitsa was occupied by the Germans in July 1941. They did not touch the local priests, since they were confident in their loyalty to the new government.

In 1942, when our hero, priest Alexander Romanushko, managed to contact the underground partisans, he began to actively help them.

From March 1, 1943, Father Alexander himself began working underground, receiving assignments from the leaders of the partisan movement, combining this activity with serving in churches. And in November 1943, he and his entire family left for the Kuibyshev Partisan Brigade.

The priest repeatedly participated in combat operations, went on reconnaissance, and was a partisan priest in the full sense of the word. In the churches abandoned by the clergy and in areas where churches were burned, Father Alexander performed funeral services for people who were shot, burned alive, and also partisans who died on the battlefield.

And invariably during the service he called on believers to help the partisans and defend their native land from the invaders. The priest was not afraid to take with him reports from the Soviet Information Bureau, other materials, and leaflets. Talking to people, he asked them not to succumb to any provocations of the Germans, mobilizing local residents to fight.

In the characterization given to Father Alexander by the commander of the partisan units of the Pinsk region, Major General Komarov and the Chief of Staff of the partisan units, Captain Fedotov, it was noted:

“Priest Alexander Romanushko is an impeccable patriot of his homeland.”

In Moscow, in the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill, an exhibition was held “The Russian Orthodox Church during the Great Patriotic War”, where among numerous materials a document yellowed with time was presented:

“To the priest of the Maloplotninskaya church Alexander Romanushko.

I am sending you 10 cartridges for a revolver of the “Nagant” system. I cannot satisfy your request regarding a pistol, because I do not have one now. I wish you success in the fight against the German monsters.

Commander of the unit, Major General Komarov.

February 24, 1944.” The priest had an old “Nagant” and he asked for a new one…

One incident that happened to Father Alexander showed him as a real hero and pastor and causes a slight shock.

In the summer of 1943, relatives of a policeman killed by partisans were looking for a priest to perform the funeral service for the deceased, but the local priest refused them. Then they turned to the commander of the partisan unit, Major General Vasily Zakharovich Korzh, with a request to “send” a partisan priest to the funeral. The commander gave Father Alexander the right to accept or decline this invitation, and Father Alexander agreed. He took with him vestments, a censer, and, accompanied by two machine gunners, left for the village. Armed guards were posted at the cemetery. Everyone prepared to listen to the prayers recited during the funeral service. Father Alexander, having put on an epitrachelion and a chasuble, stepped aside and thought deeply.

And then, quite unexpectedly, he began: “Brothers and sisters! I understand the great grief of the mother and father of the murdered man, but not our prayers and “May he rest with the saints” he deserved for his life, now lying before us in this very coffin. He is a traitor to the Motherland and a murderer of innocent children and old people. Instead of “Eternal Memory,” let us say “Anathema.” The people stood as if struck by thunder. A dead silence fell among the astonished assembled. Everything the priest said sounded very bold and could have led to his quick death.

And Father Alexander, approaching the policemen, continued: “To you, the lost, my last request: atone for your guilt before God and people and turn your weapons against those who destroy our people, who bury living people in graves, and burn believers and priests alive in God’s churches.” These simple words shocked everyone. The mesmerized policemen did not touch the priest.

Father Alexander’s group returned to the base area from the funeral, many times larger. Among the new partisan reinforcements were policemen, but now former ones.

Archpriest Alexander Romanushko participated in the partisan movement from the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1944, i.e. until the liberation of the Pinsk region from the occupiers.

Subsequently, he was awarded the medals “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” and “Partisan of the Patriotic War” 1st degree. A long stay in the forests, among the Pinsk swamps, seriously undermined the priest’s health.

Immediately after the liberation of the territory from the invaders in 1944, Father Alexander Romanushko was appointed temporary administrator of the parishes of the Pinsk-Polessye diocese. In 1945, he transferred the administration to Archbishop Vasily (Ratmirov) of Minsk and Belarus, appointed by the Moscow Patriarchate, and he himself was appointed administrator of the affairs of the Polesie diocese, dean of the Polesie district and rector of the St. Michael’s Cathedral in Mozyr.

In 1945, he was elevated to the rank of archpriest by Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Alexy I (Simansky). For his service in the church field, he was given the Patriarchal blessing and gratitude. Until 1950, Archpriest Alexander Romanushko combined his service in the cathedral with the performance of all administrative duties assigned to him.

In October 1950, he was arrested by the state security services on a false denunciation. The investigation lasted almost three years. The priest’s family left for Kharkov, and he was able to return to them only in the summer of 1953, after the false charges were dropped and he was released. His long imprisonment finally destroyed his health, which had been undermined during the war, so after his release he was forced to undergo treatment outside the state.

But in 1954, the priest received a new assignment — he was sent to serve in the distant northern Olonetsk diocese. Father Alexander became the rector of the Exaltation of the Cross Cathedral in Petrozavodsk and the dean of the churches of the Olonetsk diocese, which had been governed from Leningrad since 1944.

Having found himself in a new place of service, Archpriest Alexander Romanushko energetically took up the duties assigned to him — he traveled around the diocese, trying to protect the already few operating churches from closure. But, unfortunately, the priest’s strength and health were completely undermined by that time.

He served in his new place for a little over a year — from March 1954 to June 1955. On June 27, 1955, Archpriest Alexander Romanushko died and was buried in Petrozavodsk.