In 1771, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanisław August Poniatowski established a Catholic parish church in Jeleniewo. Afterwards, thanks to royal administrator Antoni Tyzenhaus, the village was developed into a town in 10 years. It was granted town rights in 1782, however, it lost them in 1800. The settlement grew regardless, however, it was overshadowed by the nearby city of Suwałki and its notable growth. In years 1815–1829, a postal road connecting Warsaw and Saint Petersburg ran through the village.
During the German occupation of Poland (World War II), in April 1940, the Germans arrested local Polish priest Władysław Brzozowski, and then deported him to concentration camps (see Nazi crimes against the Polish nation).[2] He was liberated in the Dachau concentration camp in 1945.[2]
Afterwards, Jeleniewo was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. The Polish anti-communist resistance was active in Jeleniewo, and in 1945–1947, it carried out two raids on the local communist police station.[3]
Poland
