BEAUTY
Which land is the most beautiful? Ukrainians will undoubtedly say it is Ukraine. In the historical and cultural sense, Lemkivshchyna, Nadsiannia, Kholmshchyna, and Pidliashshia are also Ukrainian lands that as far back as the reign of Prince Volodymyr the Great were part of the ancient Ukrainian political territory on which Ukrainians were the indigenous peoples. Here they built their dwellings for a peaceful life, fortifications for protection in time of war, and churches to offer prayers to God. They created beauty that, although ravaged by time, has been preserved in the inimitable wooden churches and roadside chapels and crosses, stone monuments on ancestral graves, decorations on village houses, and landscapes that have been immortalized in the souls and works created by many generations.
SORROW
However, for over half a century these lands have been known as Zakerzonnia — the territory that was severed from Ukraine proper when Stalin was redrawing the state borders. The years 2004-2006 mark the unhappy 60th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Ukrainian population from the Lemko, Nadsiannia, Kholm, and Southern Pidliashshia regions, which was done under the pretence of “repatriation” with the use of brutal administrative pressure and subsequently with bayonets. As a result, nearly half a million Ukrainians were evicted from this land. This black deed was completed in 1947 by means of “Operation Vistula,” during which 150,000 Ukrainians who had managed to hold on to their homes were evicted and scattered across northern and western Poland, and which was done under the guise of the struggle against the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
The only region to be spared was Northern Pidliashshia. Situated above the northern bank of the River Buh, it borders on the Bilovezhska Pushcha (Bialowieza Forest Reserve) National Park (in the area of Bilsk, Simyatychi, and Haynivka in what is now Poland’s Podlaski Province). But here a different method was used during the interwar period: the non-recognition of the ethnic Ukrainian character of the local population and the building of an official veneer of fake Belarusian ethnicity, which was in turn frowned upon in authentically ethnic Belarusian territories. Since, for historical reasons, the local Ukrainian-speaking population did not have strong national ties with Ukraine and because they feared that they would suffer the fate of Ukrainians in the southern lands, Ukrainians on this territory did not become visibly active in national and cultural terms until the 1980s.
VOICES FROM THE PAST
Where are you, olden days? Answer.
Who else will tell us about you?
Who will awaken and warm our thoughts
And show us the right path to go?
With these words from a collection of poetry entitled Zapovity ridnoyi starovyny [Testaments of the Native Past] (1907) and published in Kholm, the teacher and poet Vasko Tkach (Vasyl Ostapchuk) from Southern Pidliashshia addressed the heritage of the past. A nation’s history is as important as our own memories of our whole lives, without which we would be nothing but specks of dust lost in a dark and ominous chasm. This voice of the past speaks about the feats of Prince Volodymyr the Great, who recaptured the Cherven towns on the left bank of the River Buh and pacified the Yatvingian tribes that were a constant threat to the territories of present-day Pidliashshia, the Berestia area, and even Volyn. This voice speaks about Volodymyr’s son Yaroslav the Wise, who continued to consolidate the western border of the Kyivan Rus’ lands and in 1031 founded the city of Yaroslav on the bank of the River Sian. Historians connect his name with the founding of such towns in Pidliashshia as Dorohychyn and Bilsk (Bielsk).
The voice of the past also speaks about Danylo Romanovych, whom historians dubbed Halytsky. In 2003 we marked the anniversaries of two historical events: the defeat of the Crusaders by the armies of Princes Danylo and Vasylko Romanovych outside Dorohychyn in 1238, and the crowning of Prince Danylo as Prince of Kyivan Rus’ in that same Dorohychyn in 1253. These are some of the momentous events that place Pidliashshia’s past in the general history not only of the lands of the Galician-Volhynian Principality but all of Ukraine.
The stereotype about the River Buh as a border separating Ukraine from the outside world was perpetuated in the latter half of the 20th century. Meanwhile, history paints a completely different picture of this river. For centuries it was a line connecting the lands of Ruthenian Ukrainians: Galicia (Halychyna) with the Belz region, Volyn with the Kholm region, and the Berestia region with Pidliashshia. The unity of these lands was personified by Prince Danylo, who shaped the history of not only Volodymyr-Volynsky, Halych, and Lviv, but also Yaroslav, Peremyshl, Kholm, and Dorohychyn.
Princely Peremyshl, as the oldest town in Halychyna, was the seat of Prince Volodymyr Volodarevych, who in the first half of the 12th century united the southwestern Ukrainian lands in the Galician Principality. It became the episcopal see in the late 11th century. In the early 19th century, even before Lviv, Peremyshl became a center of the Ukrainian national revival and boasted numerous cultural and educational institutions.
Danylo Romanovych founded Kholm in the 1230s. Originally a princely seat (he was buried there in 1264 in the Mary Immaculate Cathedral), it subsequently became a Ukrainian cultural and religious center beyond the River Buh. For several centuries the Kholm cathedral was home to the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which the natives of Kholm recently presented to Ukraine. It is currently on display at the Museum of Volhynian Icons in Lutsk as the oldest icon on Ukrainian territory.
Kholm was the birthplace of the leading light of Ukrainian historiography, the chairman of the Ukrainian Central Rada and president of the Ukrainian People’s Republic Mykhailo Hrushevsky, who was born in 1866. In 1940-1944 the Kholm-Pidliashshia bishopric was headed by Metropolitan Ilarion, (secular name: Professor Ivan Ohienko (1882-1972), the celebrated linguist, philosopher, writer, translator of the Bible into Ukrainian, and minister of education and religions of the Ukrainian National Republic. Pylyp Pylypchuk (1869-1940), Prime Minister of the Ukrainian National Republic in exile (1921-1922) and professor of the underground Ukrainian Polytechnic University in Lviv, is buried in the Kholm Hill Cemetery, a short distance from Mary Immaculate Cathedral. Reverend Petro Krypyakevych, the father of Ivan Krypyakevych (1886-1967), the famous historian and student of Mykhailo Hrushevsky, moved from Kholm to Lviv. The Lviv Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences is named after him.
South of Kholm above the River Buh lies the Southern Pidliashshia village of Krychiv, the birthplace of Mykhailo Krychevsky, the godfather of Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s son and distinguished colonel, who during the 1649 battle of Loiv stopped the Lithuanian army’s advance on Kyiv at the cost of his life. Southern Pidliashshia is also the native land of Mykola Yanchuk (1859-1921), the folklorist, literary critic, and writer. While working in Moscow, he organized the commemoration of Taras Shevchenko’s jubilee, and his plays were published and staged in Ukrainian theaters, especially in Halychyna. Yanchuk was blessed with many talents and used the folk melodies he heard in his native village in the musical arrangements of his plays.
One of Ukraine’s most revered musical talents is Mykhailo Verbytsky (1815-1870), who was born on the southern edge of Zakerzonnia, in the Lemko village of Uliuch and in 1863 composed the music to Ukraine’s national anthem. For many years he was a parish priest in the village of Mlyny outside Yaroslav, where he is buried. His grave is marked by a monument shaped like a lyre, which reads “To the pioneer of Ukrainian songwriting.” It was erected in 1934 with funds collected by the local community and the Lviv choir “Banduryst.” Close by are an 18th-century wooden church, which was rebuilt in the 20th century, and crosses marking the 950th and 1000th anniversaries of the baptism of Kyivan Rus’-Ukraine.
Another great son of the Lemko region is Bohdan-Ihor Antonych (1909-1937), the greatest poet of Halychyna after Ivan Franko, who was born in the village of Novytsia, south of Horlytsi (in 1990 a monument was unveiled on the site of his parental home). Even though Antonych spent his life in Lviv, as Dmytro Pavlychko wrote, “his books are like windows onto the intoxicating air of Lemkivshchyna.”
The poet Jerzy Harasymowicz was the greatest Lemko bard of our time. His collection of poetry entitled Nebo Lemkiv abo Rusky Likhtar [The Sky of the Lemky Region or Ruthenian Lantern] appeared in Lviv in 2003 in a Ukrainian translation by Ihor Kalynets. As the poet requested, his ashes were scattered at a mountain pass in the Beskyd Mountains, where a memorial plaque was erected. Before he died, Harasymowicz declared that he was a Ukrainian poet who wrote in the Polish language. Until now Ukrainians generally considered him a Polish poet.
The Lemko artist Epifaniy Drovniak (1895-1968), widely known as Poland’s greatest naХve artist Nikifor Krynicki, was born in the town of Krynytsia in the western Lemko region. In 1947 he was resettled during Operation Vistula, but several times returned on foot to his hometown, where he died and was buried. Another Lemko, Hryhory Petsukh, who now lives in Zakopane, built a monument on his gravesite.
HOPE
However, the Ukrainian heart of this land is not restricted to memories of the past, architectural or museum relics, or literary works. Although few in number, Ukrainians still inhabit this land and cherish their culture, trying to withstand the destructive winds of modernity. Several dozen churches still follow the Byzantine rite; Ukrainian is taught in schools; several social and cultural organizations are active (The Association of Ukrainians in Poland, the Association of Lemkos, the Union of Pidliashshia Ukrainians, etc.), and there are Ukrainian periodicals, amateur choirs, artists, and writers.
Every year a series of events is held in various places, ranging from the Lemko region to Pidliashshia: “Lemkivska Vatra” (Zdynia, Lemko region), “Na Ivana na Rusalia” (Zyndranowa, Lemko region), “Na Ivana na Kupala” (Dubychi Tserkovni, Pidliashshia), Polish-Ukrainian Musical Gatherings (Cheremukha, Pidliashshia), the Ukrainian Culture Festival “Autumn in Pidliashshia” (Bielsk, Pidliashshia), etc. Every year their organizers invite musical groups from Ukraine.
A special place in the cultural landscape is occupied by open-air museums displaying masterpieces of Ukrainian folk architecture. There are state-funded museums (the one in Sianok features the architecture of the Lemkos, Boikos, and Dolyniany [Lowlanders]) and privately organized ones: in Zyndranowa (Lemko region), Gola (Southern Pidliashshia), or Bialowieza (Northern Pidliashshia).
After 1989 it became possible to restore monuments from the interwar period and erect new monuments on sites linked to the Ukrainian liberation struggle. But to be frank, the local Polish administration and population are not always supportive of such initiatives.
It follows from this brief and very general outline that, regardless of the current political borders of Ukraine, the Lemko, Nadsiannia, Kholm, and Pidliashshia regions are an integral part of the Ukrainian national territory: this land witnessed events and produced individuals without whom Ukrainian history and culture would be incomplete. Moreover, we should never forget that Ukraine is home to several million citizens with roots beyond the River Buh. Some of the half-million Ukrainians who were resettled in 1944-1946 are still alive, and all of them have children and grandchildren who are working devotedly for the good of their nation. Among them are my good friends.
Poland and Ukraine have each dedicated a year in their lives to one another. A year is not only a measure of earthly time, but also a means of putting the spiritual space in order. By proclaiming these “years” for the commemoration of outstanding personalities, events, or neighbors, our political and intellectual elites have set goals to which our societies ought to aspire in their thoughts, words, and deeds.
That President Viktor Yushchenko has stressed the urgent need to create a museum dedicated to the Holodomor, the manmade famine-genocide, and a Ukrainian Hermitage is proof that the process of putting the Ukrainian spiritual space in order is underway. Therefore, in my view, it would be appropriate to include a “month of Zakerzonnia” in the calendar of events held as part of the Years of Poland and Ukraine in the two countries. This month of celebration could be launched with the inauguration of a chapel (pantheon) on the grave of Mykhailo Verbytsky in Mlyny, which was built on the initiative of the Lviv Oblast State Administration, scholarly, cultural, and artistic associations of Halychyna, and under the auspices of the local government in Poland’s Podkarpacie Province.
The Polish mass media in Podkarpacie Province often mention the efforts to renovate the church in Mlyny. After the Ukrainians who belonged to the local Greek Catholic parish were resettled, the church passed to Roman Catholics, who had settled in Mlyny. The 18th-century church was in disrepair, but instead of building a new Roman Catholic church, the parishioners of Mlyny decided to repair the old church so as to preserve the continuity of traditions. Aside from the reconstruction of the church building, conservation work is underway inside the church, which has preserved a number of murals and an ancient iconostasis. The latter created quite a sensation when the Peremyshl-based icon conservation specialist Margarita Davydiuk came across it. Beneath half of the 18th-century icons she discovered older iconic layers dating from the 17th and 16th centuries. The conservation project has a price tag of $300,000 and is funded by the Podkarpacie Province department for the conservation of ancient monuments. The residents of Mlyny have chipped in for the repairs of the church walls and roof and have received financial support from the administration of the Radom district and the state-funded Fundusz Koscielny (Church Fund). The Riashiv-based newspaper Novyny [News] recently quoted Marius Chuba, an art restorer from Podkarpacie, as saying that “the repairs of the church in Mlyny and conservation of the iconostasis are a good example of respect for the Polish-Ukrainian heritage and a symbol of unity.”
The Ukrainian organizations that initiated the construction of the pantheon in Mlyny would like its opening to be timed to coincide with the opening of the Polish Eaglets Cemetery in Lviv, which would be attended by the presidents of both countries. For the president of Ukraine this would not be the first visit to Ukrainian sites in Podkarpacie Province: a September 2003 photo report published in the latest issue of the Ukrainian weekly Nashe Slovo [Our word] shows then Ukrainian MP Viktor Yushchenko laying flowers on the grave of Nikifor Krynicki and meeting in Krynytsia with the representatives of the Association of Ukrainians in Poland and the Association of Lemkos.
I believe that such events would help the Poles, who are infatuated with Polish vestiges in what they call the “Kresy,” or the eastern borderlands, to understand that in the past century Poland and Ukraine underwent a process that is very similar to the surgical separation of Siamese twins. As a result, Ukrainians have also lost a great deal. The Poles would also grasp the statement that “places and monuments that are a part of the national history and culture have remained on the other side of the state border” also applies to the Ukrainian people. Now, this historical and cultural heritage that has survived the fires of the past should become our common and eternal treasure, and both nations should care for it as though it were their own spiritual wealth. We should do so for the sake of the future, because only the future can neutralize the poisonous vibrations and dispel visions of past enmity.
