Posted by Roman D. Mac on March 04, 2003 at 21:47:13:
May 1, 1945, if my memroy does not fail me, as a junior member of OUN and UPA
"kushch" (local unit), I was placed in the ouskits of Village of Dipche, near
Seniava, to observe any activities, especially approaching hostile communist
military units. In the neighboring village Teplyci was a meeting between
Polish AKA and the political leadership
of Ukrainian underground movement,
UHVR (Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council). At the age of 13, I could not
understand all of it, especially why should we become kissing cousins with Poles in our struggle for liberation.
Memories were still very fresh about
Polish milicia preventing inhabitants
of my village, Molodych, to biuld their
cultural club, "chytalnia", disband
national holidays, like Shevchenko
celebrations, or revoke license to
perform Ukrainian plays such as "Svatannia na Honcharivtsi" or
"Stepovyj Hist" The poles, especially educated ones, often called us "Rusini-
Swini" The elders pointed to many polish
families who were once Ukrainian but by
accepted Polish clergy offers of a shot of whiskey now and then, change their religion to Latin Catholicism and thus automaticly becoming Polish.
I don't remember any real physical violence on both sides. When we celebted
Christmas or Eastern, it was common
for poles and Ukrainians to visit each other and exchange gifts. We considered
that all kinds of "epithets" addressed to us by poles merely of historical
nature.
During German occupation. 1941-1944,
German military enforced colection
of "contigents", mandatory allocations
of peasants crop, by Polish Milcia groups
from polish territories. Often these Polish groups left behind peasants with bloody noses or broken ribs.
When in late summer of 1944, Poland was declared as "Polish Spcialist State" and
new Polish administration started its rule, the first thing it did was arresting all young vllagers for no
reason. At the same time Polish bands
calling themselves "Volyniak Group",
were simply robbing and killing villagers, especially near the edges of the forrests. I never heard that they would call themselves "Armija Krajova"
or any other names, except "banda bits
rusinuf" In the early month of 1945,
about 400 men consisting of
local poles and milicia from Radawa,
burned Molodych and its outskirts, and
letting elderly, who could not escape to the deep woods, die in their burning houses.
This was the first time that local Polish milicia and peasants commited such an atrocities in my region.
It is interesting to note that Polish
military units were not permitted to help polish molicia in Radava, even tough theys asked for help. It was also puzzling that Polish local authorities
complained that UPA units raidied Polish
villages and killing people. To me and to us all it was not believable because
there were no units of UPA in these Polish areas at all.
Years later we learned that in the county village of Vievsonitsa, mostly
polish population, settled a group of
young, educated military men, without any standard fire arms or visible ranks,
and who only spoke Russian. Their true
activities as of now not known to me,
but only after their arrival did hostilities between Ukrainians and Poles
were becoming an event of everyday life.
(It is interesting to note that at present, Hajek Mac, a journalist and
historian of Yaroslav region, mentions
also presence oF NKVD group in Viasovnitsa).
Going back to May 1, 1945, where Polish Ukrainian relations were supposed to become
better, coordinated to fight against
common enemy, many of us could not agree with it considering the above stated Polish inhuman behavior. The most protests we heared from "volyniaki"who remembered Polish Pacification movement in their region
and fresh polish outright physical hostility against Ukrainians. But we all
tacitly agreed to "nakazy" of our leaders and must say that after that,
for a while, hostility between both groups subsided. As a matter of fact,
our groups would go to Polish villages
and pay for the the food with Ukrainian
zloty, money printed by UHVR to give to poles so they coud buy for them goods when Ukraine becomes independent.