BOOK REVIEW: New book describes post-World War II events in Zakerzonnia (10/15/00)

BOOK REVIEW

New book describes post-World War II events in Zakerzonnia

"Na Mezhovii Zemli" by Nata Lenko. Kyiv: Pamyat Stolit, 1999. 127 pp., $20. ISBN 966-7236-13-7.

by Diana Howansky

Although Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945 signaled the end of the second world war in Europe, the battle over territory on the Polish-Soviet border persisted long after peace was officially declared. In particular, members of the Ukrainian underground continued to fight for the establishment of a Ukrainian state and to resist the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe.

Natalia Leontowych-Bashuk, a Ukrainian Canadian, was one of the participants in this Ukrainian underground. Her memoirs, recently published posthumously under the title "Na Mezhovii Zemli" (On the Borderland) and written under the pseudonym Ms. Lenko, provide readers with valuable insight into the life of a Ukrainian patriot in Zakerzonnia during the post-war period. (Zakerzonnia refers to the western Ukrainian ethnographic lands that fell within the boundaries of Poland after World War II when the Allies allowed Stalin to move the Polish-Soviet border westward to the historic Curzon Line.)

While eloquently describing her own experiences and emotions, Ms. Lenko offers a broader account of what took place in Zakerzonnia between winter 1945 and fall 1946. Her memories, for example, document the results of the September 1944 agreement between Poland and the USSR, according to which Poland's Ukrainian population was to be exchanged for the Soviet Union's Polish population.

The author notes how the Polish army used agitation techniques, such as attacking Ukrainian villages, to pressure the Ukrainians to leave. She details how she and other Ukrainians tried to escape this forced population transfer by hiding in the woods for extended periods of time and by obtaining false documents which stated that they were actually Roman Catholic Poles.

The author also makes references to the beginning stages of Akcja Wisla, the 1947 military operation that forcibly relocated the Ukrainian minority in Poland to western and northern areas of the country in an attempt to make the Ukrainians assimilate. Ms. Lenko's memoirs, thus, contest the Soviet propaganda of the time that the resettlement was voluntary.

The memoirs also clearly illustrate the hopes and goals of Ukrainian nationalists working on both sides of the Polish-Soviet border. At about the time that the population exchanges began, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) started to concentrate more of their efforts on Zakerzonnia in an attempt to wrestle control of this territory away from Communist Poles and Soviets.

Ms. Lenko describes how Ukrainian partisans tried to halt the forced resettlement campaign, blowing up bridges to make travel difficult and battling the Polish bands that attacked Ukrainian settlements. Throughout, her memoirs she speaks of the UPA as "our young boy-heroes" who "defend their wronged people" and give the Ukrainian community incredible hope.

This insight into the mind of a Ukrainian nationalist is particularly important as the current Polish and Ukrainian leaders begin to discuss points of tension in their joint history and try to dispel various stereotypes. Although there is currently greater discussion and understanding of Ukrainian nationalism than in past years, the term "UPA" continues to have a negative connotation in various circles in Poland and in other countries and to be associated with bandits. Ms. Lenko's memoirs question this perception, portraying the Ukrainian nationalist aim of creating an independent state as sincere and noble.

At the same time, the author views the situation objectively and does not hesitate to constructively criticize the OUN's political game plan or to bring up such issues as the "sins" of the Ukrainian underground. Ms. Lenko's book shows that many Ukrainian partisans were willing to die for their cause and, thus, that the post-war Polish-Ukrainian conflict must be viewed through the prism of the revolutionary atmosphere of the time.

Ultimately, it is Ms. Lenko's descriptions of her personal struggles and experiences that give the reader a better picture of what daily life was like on the borderland after World War II. Ms. Lenko's love for her culture and desire for a Ukrainian state are so great that she considers it treason to leave Zakerzonnia and to join her husband, who has been released from Auschwitz, in the comfortable West. Not only does the author's separation from her husband weigh heavily on her heart and her mind, it also means that she must take care of their 5-year-old daughter alone during this turbulent period. As Ms. Lenko's memoirs show, this is not an easy task. On one day she and her daughter must run through gunfire to escape a Polish attack on their home, and on the next, they must make sure not to speak Ukrainian and reveal their identities to interrogating Polish soldiers who would deport them. In addition, the problem of obtaining food and news from the outside is ever-present. As Ms. Lenko notes, even sending a letter abroad is not simple since nothing is stable in Zakerzonnia and she is unsure whether a Polish or a "bolshevik" stamp necessary.

Vasyl Turkewych, the editor of Ms. Lenko's book, states in his foreword, "The memoirs of Natalia Leontowych-Bashuk are, first and foremost, a document. Acutely candid and poignant. A testimony to the time."

Dr. Bohdan Huk, a specialist on issues concerning Akcja Wisla and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, is the author of the second foreword.

Ms. Lenko's book does indeed serve as a valuable historical resource for analysis of the post-war period in Eastern Europe. As the people who remember this recent history the best begin to pass away, Ms. Lenko's memoirs document in detail the fighting, dislocation, struggle and attempts to create a normal life on the Polish-Soviet border after World War II.

Today, forced resettlement and brutal wars between peoples continue to take place in distant places around the world, but, hopefully, the public can be better informed through the spread of information via the mass media. Likewise, it is such individual stories as Natalia Leontowych-Bashuk's and such books as "Na Mezhovii Zemli" that can also play a role in objective reporting and historical research, by providing greater substance and filling in various gaps regarding the complex events that occurred over 50 years ago but continue to affect Polish-Ukrainian relations today.

For further information or to obtain a copy of "Na Mezhovii Zemli," contact: U-CAN Ukraine Canada Relations Inc., 1360 Aylmer Road, Aylmer, Quebec J9H SEI; telephone, (819) 771-0723; fax, (819) 775-9481; e-mail, khepburnfox.nstn.ca. The book, written in Ukrainian, costs $20, including taxes and shipping. Checks should be made out and sent to the above address. Proceeds go towards the financing of Polish and English editions of this book

Diana Howansky is a former Fulbright Scholar researching Akcja Wisla in Poland since September 1998.

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