1936 slab with Polish text in a forest in today's Belarus

[naaloh]

Hi, Polish neighbors.

I am Belarusian and live not far from the pre-1939 Polish-Soviet border. In 2012, while cycling along a forest road I saw a strange granite slab with some Polish text inscribed. The slab looked at least several decades old and had indentations, which appeared to be made by bullets or shrapnel. Here are characters that I was able to make out:

Gro__a
WykonanaPrzez
Ocho__cza
DruzyneRobocza
___6
w 1936 r.

The underscore marks represent the unreadable characters. I don't speak Polish so I had no I idea what might they be or what the whole text meant (apart from "w 1936 r.", which obviously means "in 1936").
I already posted this question on another forum back in 2012, which came up when I was googling some Polish names. That forum, apparently, had very small community, so the only reply I got was from its admin who also has an account here as zefir454. Turns out that zefir454 or Józek, as he signs his posts, for some reason reposted my question here as "Mysterious Monument in Belarussian.", rather than simply inviting me to this larger forum with an English-language section.

Communication with zefir454 was always very difficult due to the language barrier (Polish is, basically, the only language he speaks and I don't speak Polish), for that same reason the thread he started here as "Mysterious Monument in Belarussian." with my question is badly messed up, since he had very dim understanding of what I originally asked and so, as far as I can see, steered the conversation the wrong way. Besides it's completely in Polish, so even with GoogleTranslate I don't understand much.

Because of all that plus the fact that zefir454's forum is very unreliable (look at my 2012 thread, all my posts had vanished, but his remain and he doesn't know why), I decided to start a new thread when I accidentally found out about this forum (via Google, too).

One more (and hopefully the last) thing off topic, when looking at zefir454's thread with my question, I noticed that some of the other posters thought it was weird for a Pole and a Belarusian to communicate in English. Well, I don't know what it is that you expect from me, but I can assure you that while it might be weird for a Belarusian to speak good English, it's a lot more weird for a Belarusian who lives 100+ kilometers from the current border with Poland to speak any Polish, so I decided to use English as the one and only international language. Anyone who can help me, but only speaks Polish is welcome to use GoogleTranslate to translate my question and answer in Polish. Hopefully another user will be willing to retell his answer to me.

And now that I finished with off topic, hopefully sorting out the mess created by zefir454 in the process, let's move on to the relevant things. Below is an up-close photo of that slab, which presents a relatively good view.



I didn't take any photos when I first saw that slab, so it was taken in 2013, nothing had changed about it, though. Links to three more photos, one from a greater distance, one from a different angle and one identical to the photo above but with minimal compression are below.
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?imag ... ge(01).jpg
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?imag ... ge(02).jpg
http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?imag ... ge(03).jpg

From what I gathered of zefir454's replies on his forum, I assumed that the original text was "Grobowca wykonana przez ochotnicza drużyne robocza", am I correct? If yes, can anyone translate into English? Also, from what I understood reading zefir454's thread here and links in it through GoogleTranslate, it seems that "ochotnicza drużyne robocza" refers to a specific organization. Can anyone tell me more about the organization, hopefully shedding some light onto what exactly is that thing they built and why they built it?

[wiktor_jatkiewicz]

Hello!
Grobla Wykonana przez Ochotnicza drużyne Robocza.I don't know what is a Further writing.
Dam made by volunteer work team.
my english is very weak and i don't know it is correct.

[naaloh]

Thanks, so it's not grobowca, but grobla! And I know what grobla means, because there's a nearly identical word грэбля in Belarusian. It's not dam, it's causeway!

Yes, that would surely make much more sense, because a) the space between "o" and "a" is hardly big enough to fit "bowc", b) there's no reason why a 1936 mass grave would be placed in the middle of a forest and c) the ground there indeed gets boggy at times. Also, on that same road I saw some rather old concrete (apparently) construction elements. They didn't strike me as belonging to 1936, more like 1950s, but who knows... The roads in that region are actually quite interesting, I can post some GoogleEarth screenshots to illustrate why.

And to think that I wasted so much time with zefir454 when I could have my answer here in no time...

But, come to think of it, does building a causeway really warrants erecting a granite slab on a heavy foundation? I mean, perhaps it served some other purpose besides indicating who built the causeway?

[Sofeicz]

To be correct (with polish letters) -
"GROBLA WYKONANA PRZEZ OCHOTNICZĄ DRUŻYNĘ ROBOTNICZĄ W 1936 r."
"DIKE MADE BY VOLUNTEER WORK SQUAD IN 1936".

PS.
It's funny, that neighbors belarussian and polish people use the english, to communicate.

[naaloh]

To be correct (with polish letters) -
"GROBLA WYKONANA PRZEZ OCHOTNICZĄ DRUŻYNĘ ROBOTNICZĄ W 1936 r."
"DIKE MADE BY VOLUNTEER WORK SQUAD IN 1936".

The text on the slab is certainly not "ROBOTNICZĄ", it's even visible on the photo.

It's funny, that neighbors belarussian and polish people use the english, to communicate.

In that case what would be unfunny?

[jart]

To be correct (with polish letters) -
"GROBLA WYKONANA PRZEZ OCHOTNICZĄ DRUŻYNĘ ROBOTNICZĄ W 1936 r."
"DIKE MADE BY VOLUNTEER WORK SQUAD IN 1936".

The text on the slab is certainly not "ROBOTNICZĄ", it's even visible on the photo.

It's funny, that neighbors belarussian and polish people use the english, to communicate.

In that case what would be unfunny?

In my opinion: not "ROBOTNICZĄ" but "ROBOCZĄ".

http://www.nyka.home.pl/bibl_his/pl/bh_index.htm
W latach kryzysu i bezrobocia chcąc uchronić młodzież przed demoralizacją, stworzono ochotnicze Drużyny Robocze, przekształcone później w Junackie Hufce Pracy. Była to dwuletnia dobrowolna służba. Junacy byli skoszarowani, dostawali całkowite umundurowanie i wyżywienie w normach wojskowych.

(my english is rather poor, so i use goggle translate)

In the period of crisis and unemployment wanting to protect young people against demoralization, created volunteer teams Drafts, transformed later in the blustering Labour Corps. It was a two-year voluntary service. Youth brigade were billeted, getting complete uniforms and military standards board.

[naaloh]

Thanks, jart, yours is an interesting piece of information. So, do I understand correctly that only young people worked in those "Drużyny Robocze" and that it was NOT a military service?

And of course it's ROBOCZĄ, it's clearly visible ON THE PHOTO, this word is NOT obscured by any indentations. I wonder why anyone would think it was ROBOTNICZĄ.

[Sofeicz]

Mea culpa - "ROBOCZĄ"

"Junackie Hufce Pracy powstały z Ochotniczych Drużyn Roboczych, przejętych 16 września 1936 roku przez MSWojsk. od Ministerstwa Opieki Społecznej. Utworzono wówczas ich Komendę Główną, podległą PUWFiPW, oraz Komendy Okręgowe – nr 1 (Warszawa), nr 2 (Kraków), nr 3 (Brześć n/B). Czwarty okręg musiał powstać później."

http://www.dws.org.pl/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=122309

@naaloh - could you indicate the place where you've found this inscription?

[naaloh]

I sure can (and hope that in return you will answer my questions and share the relevant information you will find while keeping in mind that I don't speak Polish).

It's at 54,998768° N 28,120816° E, near the lake Mezhuzhol (Bel. Межужол) in Dokshitsi district Vitsebsk region. Anyone can view the place in GoogleEarth, but be aware that the map calibration there is incorrect, so the actual place on the image will be different from where the pointer appears when you enter the coordinates. The small village to the South is Trastsanitsa (Bel. Трасцяніца).