My heroines lived difficult lives but none were disappointed

“Photographs are a flash of eternity at the life’s end. A memory’s call and a memory’s response. An immortalized story and an immortalized episode… Photos bring back the presence of those who are not nearby, those who have left the shelters of their homes or the earth itself. In the rustic wooden frames they contained a lively picture. It was an amulet of the village house, published stories of the family and its members’ life… Prestige and a portrait of civilization, a symbol of involvement in community affairs and evidence of community activity…” These are the words from the foreword to the book “The story of a photo: an attempt of self-presentation,” written by the compiler Halyna Datsiuk, radio-hostess on the radio Kultura, professor at the Shevchenko Kyiv National University and head of the women’s NGO Spadshchyna. Halyna has been an “archivist” of oral history for a long time, starting from the Soviet period, when she worked as a letters’ department head in a newspaper. Everything they did not manage to print then was issued after independence or became the basis for the publications Us in History, Woman’s oral story. The Return, and The story of a photo.

The last book contains 25 stories of women from all over Ukraine. The historical context of the book includes collectivization, repressions, resettlement, Holodomor, liberation movement, and postwar underground. The result is a crippled, reshaped life. But they do not think so. Like Lina Kostenko wrote: “I chose my destiny by myself…” Those women’s stories are very moving, aching even, deep and sincere. They are like confessions. It is a page of our history in the 20th century. They are examples of the dignity of the human spirit and heart. Some of the most intense parts are published here, keeping Halyna Datsiuk’s voice “offscreen.”

Halyna Datsiuk: You come to a woman and ask her to tell you about her life. You open your heart with this request, and she opens hers. She feels that you are really interested in her destiny. Together we recreate the world where she lived, it is only after she turned 80 that she speaks about it. The process seems to even prolong my heroines’ lives.

“I joined the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists when I was at school in 1939-40. Later I was a teacher in the village of Sokolivka, Kosiv region. There V. Andrusiak Hrehit-Rizun connected me with a local and regional OUN command. At first I was a messenger, then a regional leader of the women’s network and Ukrainian Red Cross regional leader. I was arrested on Apr. 23, 1945, in the village of Sheshory by the special troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs… I intentionally cut my veins in a prison yard in Kosiv, but they did not let me die. I was in prisons in Kosiv, Kolomyia and finally in Stanislav (present Ivano-Frankivsk – Author’s ). I was sentenced under the articles 54-1a and 54-11 by the military tribunal on Jan. 23, 1946, to 15 years of penal servitude and five years of civil rights limitation. I served in Siberia, mainly in Kolyma. I worked at the dressing works, mines, metal industry and lumbering… I am grateful to God that I did not betray anybody. It was my mother’s, my cell friends’, and my own prayers that helped me in that,” remembers Oleksandra Slobodian-Kovaliuk from the village of Zavallia, Sniativ region, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast.

H.D.: These materials can serve as the basis of documentaries and motion pictures. They do not need any artistic fiction.

In Shumsk region, Ternopil oblast (which is, by the way, where I am from), there is a village called Antonivtsi. “Far away, in Volyn area, where the Ukrainian Rebel Army was created,” actually refers to Antonivtsi. That is why the Soviet authorities resettled 350 households, removed the village council, and burned the cemetery and the church! When I came there in 1989 there were nine households left. Local citizens told us how they took fellow villagers away in the boxwagons to Zaporizhia oblast, with Germans coming back. Just imagine, many generations of Volyn inhabitants lived in those woods, full of mushrooms, strawberries and blueberries…And suddenly they were sent to a desert steppe! A mere handful of people survived.

“Once I came to a village and there was a roundup. Where to go? How to leave? I entered a house where an old couple lived alone, their son served in the army. I lay down on a stove, rubbed my cheeks as if I was sick. The couple pretended I was their daughter-in-law. Bolsheviks entered the house. One man said, “Pack yourselves”. The other one looked and said, “Leave it”. The old lady said I was sick. I was moaning, pretending to have a high temperature. When they left I ran away. Snow, fields, roads... I went to another village. I stopped – where to go? I entered a house. In the morning the roundup had arrived there as well! I came rushing into a house. The lady gave me potatoes to peel as if I lived there. She put some soot on my hands. They entered the house and left. I went from village to village, and the roundup kept coming after me… It was very difficult to hide. But I could not say: ‘enough, no more.’ I made an oath and had to keep it,” recalled Nastia Petrenii, from the village Yamnytsia in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast.

H.D.: My heroines lived extremely hard and traumatic lives. But what is important is that none of them was disappointed. Many lost their beloved men in the liberation struggle, and did not marry after that. They did not feel lonely. Maybe, it was because they were always together: women’s NGOs, optional school classes, meetings with the youth and social activities… Those women are like bells waking our consciences. They start their morning with prayers for family, neighbors, their villages or towns, and Motherland. They are concerned with political events; they worry that the history, in which they were involved, will be falsified; who in Ukraine will carry on their labor.

“Starting from 1976 I never got married again. My sons married, and my grandchildren were born, which brought me great joy. The biggest joy is that there are no Soviets anymore. When I remember my life it seems as though we were held in darkness. I think about how the authorities tortured and destroyed people. We did not belong to ourselves. Of course there were sycophants, but there were so many true and honest ones too. The Soviet authorities did not need such people. We grew up as rolling stones, slaves without roots. In 2000 we founded the International Women’s Community. The church choir and club resumed. Our community is growing and expanding. We often organize soirees, meetings and poetic readings. I wake up in the morning after such soirees and I feel so good,” reflects Kateryna Kozakova from the village of Horenychi in Kyiv oblast.

H.D.: It is very important to use the priceless resource of human memory. It is one thing to make conclusions based on the documents of interrogations, when testimonies were wrung out, and another to hear the stories of willingly talking people.

I work at the department of publishing and editing and I always say that the editor must be extremely responsive. Not only must s/he choose the apposite words, s/he must also respond to the sensitivities of a time. I believe that in order to avoid moral stagnation we need to publish living experiences which connect generations, bringing back memory and identity and making people stronger. The Day with its strategic rubrics “Ukraine Incognita,” “History and ‘I’,” “Small and Large cities/villages of Ukriane,” and “The Family Album of Ukraine” does a lot for Ukrainian identity. Ukraine is present on the pages of your edition – that is important. Both the historical and modern one.

My students wrote essays on the “The story of a photo.” In 2007 our Spadshchyna Center participated in a student scientific conference and held a workshop “Scientific experience visualization in the context of Ukrainian history. An attempt of self-identification.” By the way, I always tell them about James Mace’s experience and his three volumes on the Holodomor, Oral History. Once, within the framework of the Journalist Spring in the Institute of Journalism, we presented a gallery of women’s portraits and introduced them to hundreds of people – future journalists, professors and visitors. The Ukrainian Scientific Student Society focuses its research on oral history.

I suppose that while listening, recording and reading oral history, someone’s world is “unrolled as a scroll of cloth.” And it helps us to realize the value of life.