June 10, 2014
Jackson, NJ: Remembrance of Lienz Tragedy

On June 1, 1945, at the conclusion of the Second World War, in the town of Lienz, Austria, over 20,000 Cossacks were rounded up and handed over to death in the Soviet Union. By tradition, the Kuban Cossack Voisko Abroad commemorates the victims of this tragedy every year on the nearest Sunday to June 1.

On June 1, the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, worshippers gathered at St. Vladimir’s Cemetery in Jackson, NJ for a panihida at St. John the Baptist Chapel. Eastern American Diocesan secretary Archpriest Serge Lukianov (spiritual father of the Voisko Abroad), served the panihida.

Upon conclusion of the panihida, Valery Annenko, Executive Officer of the Russian Military Historical Society for Cossack Affairs in the USA, presented an award ‒ the "Cossack Glory" Cross, 4th Class ‒ to Cossack Maria Druchila, on the occasion of her 90th birthday. Annenko then delivered a brief speech, in which he thanked all those who came to honor the memory of those killed in Lienz, and did not forget their Cossack brothers and sisters, even living so far from their homeland and almost 70 years later.

Those in attendance then came to the Cossack Hall in Howell for a commemorative luncheon.

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Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese