# Interpellation of senators on the torture of those arrested in Nyasvizh

- URL: https://syn.by/en/history/archives/interpellation-of-senators-on-the-torture-of-those-arrested-in-nyasvizh/
- Published: 1924-05-22T18:35:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T19:50:22+00:00
- Section: Archives
- Language: en
- BE edition: https://syn.by/historya/arkhivy/interpeliacyja-senatarau-ab-katavanni-aryshtavanych-u-niasvizhy.md
- RU edition: https://syn.by/ru/istoriya/arhivy/intyerpyellyatsiya-syenatorov-o-pytkakh-aryestovannykh-v-nyesvizhye.md

> Belarusian senators ask the ministers about the torture of three peasants in the Nyasvizh police: they were beaten on the heels with sticks until a confession of stealing flour was beaten out of them. One cut off three of his own fingers.

![](https://syn.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/illustration-746-1024x585.webp)

of the senators of the Belarusian Club to the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Internal Affairs, concerning the beating and torture of the arrested Stanislau Drazd from the village of Kutouschchyna, Tsyryn volost, Andrey Kalesnik from the village of Krasnahorki, Haradzeya volost, and Mr. Lashuk from the village of Makasha.

On 5 April of this year in the town of Nyasvizh, Navahrudak voivodeship, Senator A. Nazarеuski, in the presence of Mr. Chudzinovich, deputy prosecutor of the District Court in Navahrudak, established the following lawlessness and acts of violence by the State Police:

1. Held under arrest in Nyasvizh is Mr. Lashuk from the village of Mikasha, who was arrested by the State Police from the station in Haradzeya on suspicion of stealing flour. The arrested man stated that after his arrest on 27 March of this year he was taken to Nyasvizh, where in the Police Headquarters the detective "Nitka" began to torture him terribly, forcing him to admit his guilt. He beat him on the head and on the face, then they tied his hands, put them under his knees, pushed a stick between his arms and legs, threw him on the ground and began to beat him on the heels with a stick until he lost consciousness. All this was done in the presence of three policemen. The marks of the torture, namely the swelling of the head and the feet, could be established even on 5 April of this year.

2. The second arrested man, Stanislau Drozd (village of Kutouschchyna, Tsyryn gmina, Nyasvizh county), is in the surgical hospital in Nyasvizh. Suspected of stealing flour, he was arrested on the night of 1 to 2 March, but was released on bail of 10,000,000 marks, because there were not sufficient grounds to keep him in prison. On 24 March Drozd was arrested again and taken to Nyasvizh, where the detective "Nitka" tormented him terribly for the whole night, from 9 o'clock in the evening until morning. Policemen No. 943 and No. 1802 and the detective "Nitka" beat the arrested man on the head, on the face, on the sides, tied his hands, put them under his knees, pushed a stick between his arms and legs, threw him on the ground and beat him on the heels with sticks half to death. When the tortured man came to consciousness, they forced him to take the guilt upon himself. In order not to suffer the torments any longer, the arrested man said that he confessed to the theft. In connection with this, on 25 March of this year the detective "Mikita" took the arrested Drozd to the village of Krasnahorki to show the place where the stolen things were hidden. Having returned home, Drozd saw his sick wife in bed (the second day after childbirth), who received her husband badly for taking upon himself the great shame of a theft. Explaining to his wife that he could not bear any longer the torments inflicted on him by the Polish police, he reached a state of despair and, to prove the purity of his conscience, began to eat tobacco, and seized an axe and cut off three fingers on his left hand. After the above-mentioned torments, sufferings and ordeals Stanislau Drozd was placed in the hospital in Nyasvizh.

3. Similar mockery and torments were inflicted on the third arrested man, Andrey Kalesnik, from the village of Krasnahorki, Haradzeya gmina, Nyasvizh county, who was afterwards released on bail of 50 million marks.

Despite the fact that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has supposedly issued an order to stop the beating of arrested persons, the latter continues to this day.

For this reason the undersigned ask the Ministers:

1. Are they aware that the State Police in the Belarusian lands still inflicts torments and mockery on the arrested?

2. Do they intend to bring to account not only the policemen who beat and mock the arrested, but also the police commandant, to whom those guilty of the violence and torments are subordinate?

Warsaw, 6 May 1924.

The Interpellants.