Nestled along streams flowing into the Prut River in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains lie the four inter-connected Bereziv villages -- Nyzhni, Seredni, Verkhni and Banya Bereziv -- with some 6000 inhabitants. Following my stint as a Canadian Observer for the March 26, 2006 parliamentary elections in Ukraine, I had occasion to visit the village, where my recently deceased mother was born some 99 years ago as Anna Genyk.

While we were window shopping in Kolomyia (30 km east of Bereziv), my first cousin, Lida Genyk, spotted and insisted on buying me the book, Spalakh, since she had been personally acquainted with its recently-deceased author and radiologist, Michailo Tomaschuk, through her work with the emergency medical services in Kolomyia.

The book is a fascinating collection of inter-connected chapters highlighting the various aspects of the Western Ukrainian struggle for independence from the 1920s through the 1950s with particular emphasis on the Kolomyia - Bereziv regions. To me, the book was doubly intriguing, since I had just recently been exposed in Kharkiv to the Eastern Ukrainian view that the UPA freedom fighters -- and Western Ukrainians, in general -- were "banderovtsi", bandits, traitors and murderers. Even exhortations by President Viktor Yushchenko, that the UPA be recognized as fighters for Ukrainian independence and be given equal status to veterans of the Red Army, are rejected by the Communist Party and the Party of Regions factions in the Verhovna Rada.

The Polish occupation (1919.08.28 - 1939.09.01):

Although the armed struggle for an independent Ukrainian state in 1917-1921 ultimately failed, it served as an impetus for future Ukrainian efforts. Western Ukraine was now under Polish occupation, the policy of which was to "Polonize" the inhabitants and suppress any nationalistic aspirations. The Ukrainians, on the other hand, did everything possible to maintain their language and culture -- and to promote the idea of an independent Ukraine. From the remnants of old military organizations, Ukrainians eventually formed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) under the leadership of Evhen Konovalets in early February 1929.

In August - September, 1931, there was a court case in Lviv against seven activists from Kolomyia for promoting an independent Ukrainian state. There were a lot of arrests and "pacification" of the countryside. After the assassination by Ukrainian nationalists of the Polish Minister of Internal Affairs, Bronislaw Pieracki, for his anti-Ukrainian policies, there were mass arrests in the Bereziv region in June 1934. The struggle continued. In October 1938, Roman Maleschuk organized a demonstration in Lviv of 20,000 against Polish repressions. However, the situation drastically changed for the worse with the advent of World War II.

The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, signed on Aug. 23, 1939 contained a secret protocol to partition Poland. Germany attacked Sep. 01, 1939 and Stalin "liberated" Western Ukraine on Sep. 17, 1939. The Polish Army trying to escape to Romania was intercepted by the Red Army and about 130,000 were sent to Siberia. Some 21,900 officers and generals were eventually executed at various ends of the empire.

Arrests started almost immediately. After the NKVD "cleansed" the Poles, they went after the Ukrainians. There were mass arrests, executions and deportations to Siberia. In 1941, there were about 800 OUN members in the Kolomyia region. In late April 1941, several OUN leaders reported on the second meeting of OUN in Cracow, which elected Stepan Bandera as leader. They predicted war. German bombardment of Kolomyia started on June 22, 1941.

The German occupation (1941.06.22 - 1944.03.28, 1944.08.00):

After the flight of the Bolsheviks and arrival of the Hungarian army, the OUN leadership committed a fatal mistake in that all OUN members came out into the open, legalized themselves and started rebuilding their lives. They massively celebrated the proclamation of Ukrainian Independence on June 30, 1941. They were shocked, when Bandera and the OUN leadership were arrested and sent to German concentration camps.

The final crash of illusions came with the Aug. 01, 1941 absorption of Halychyna into the General-Gouvernment by the German regime. On Aug. 14, 1941, the Germans arrested the OUN leadership and 200 of its members in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk). Surprisingly, arrests in Kolomyia did not start until Feb. 05, 1942 with the arrests of 20 men and 8 girls. After inhuman torture, 52 arrested people, were executed Nov. 27, 1942 in a field near the village of Yahilnitsi.

The disillusionment and bitterness of the Ukrainians is illustrated in the following quote:

"After the explosion of the German-Bolshevik war, our territory right up to the Dniester River was occupied by the Hungarian Army. The military leadership -- the German and particularly the Hungarian -- at the beginning of the war supported the concept of national independence of Ukraine, and even to very large regions to the East -- up to the Volga. That promoted optimism. Unfortunately, not for long. Soon the insane politics of Hitler negated not only all the hopes of Ukrainians, but the proposals of the more intelligent circles in Germany."

The German occupation had turned into a nightmare very quickly. They demanded half of all food products. Young people were rounded up and sent to Germany to work as Ost Arbeiter. There were major repressions and executions of Ukrainians and Jews.

The Ukrainian response was to create the UPA -- the Ukrainian Insurgent Army -- to fight the German occupation and try to protect the Ukrainian people.

The second Soviet occupation (1944.03.28 (Kolomyia), 1944.08.00 (Bereziv) - 1991.08.24):

The Red Army returned to Kolomyia on March 28, 1944. The Soviets conscripted about half the men from 18 to 55 and sent them as human minesweepers and cannon fodder against the Germans. In August 1944, the front moved west (towards the Bereziv villages).

Most of the material in the book, Spalakh, relates to this period. For example, on June 14, 1945 the KGB arrested 80 women in Debeslavtsi and tortured them to reveal UPA personnel. Similar atrocities in other locations are described. By 1953, in the 10-year battle with Bolshevism, the Bereziv villages had sacrificed over 250 of their better daughters and sons to the grave, some 200 to the concentration camps, and over 80 families to the frozen Siberian tundra.

Oleksandra (Tomych) Payevska, "Orysia" (1908.01.17 - 1953.04.08):

"Lesia [Oleksandra] Tomych entered OUN sometimes before the war. Because of the severe rules of conspiracy, the details of her underground work from that time are, unfortunately, little known. Certain only is that under Polish occupation, under the first Soviet occupation and under the Germans, she was in the front line of fire -- in the first rows of fighters for freedom."

By 1947, Oleksandra Payevska, pseudonym "Orysia", had become the courier for the UPA leadership of the Bukovina and Kolomyia regions. The isolated schoolhouse in Babyn, where she taught and lived with her two boys and mother, served as an UPA hideout. In April 1950, UPA counter-intelligence learned that her identity had been discovered and that the Chekists were preparing for her arrest. On the May 1 holiday weekend, she gave away her youngest 10-year-old son, Andrij, to strangers and with her elder 14-year-old son, Yurij, disappeared into the UPA underground.

In a letter written in July 1950 and delivered via the underground, she described her new illegal status deep within the forests and streams of the Carpathian Mountains as "Sitting here, where the devil says good night and making use of the ice water and sun". To her relatives, she wrote:

"Dearest Mother, Father, Uncle and son:
It is difficult. But there must be such people as us. You may ask why I, in particular, took this path? Once more I repeat: I chose this path long ago. Since last fall, I know nothing about you. I also know nothing about Yurij ["Zhuk"], but he is probably alive. As for little Andriko, it does not matter to me how you "Christianed" him. If possible, let him study. If someone would like to adopt him, then give him away. I will not reclaim him. Because it is most likely that you will never again see either me or Yurko. These are not just words in the wind, or some sort of dark thoughts, but the reality -- and please take this into account in your life plans. Be healthy and do not feel sorry for me."

And to her 10-year-old son, Andrij, she continued:

"Son, be polite and obedient, pray for Yurko. Remember, that the most important thing in life is study -- knowledge. Therefore use every minute to learn something. Learn farming, learn to cook, learn to sew -- it will be useful in life. Read! Watch your health, because in a healthy body is a healthy soul. If you remain with Grandmother, then take care of her, be good to her and God will not abandon you. And know that those of my friends who remain alive will be interested in you. Because I, probably, will not return. Although hope supports us all. Maybe we will yet see each other."

But it was not to be. Because of the work of a super-traitor, Roman Tuchak, "Kirov", on June 25, 1952 a large number of UPA members were either killed or captured by the NKVD. Among the captured were Olexandra Payevska, "Orysia", and her son Yurij Payevsky, "Zhuk". They were imprisoned and questioned under torture for seven months in Stanislav. On Jan 21, 1953 a military court sentenced "Orysia" to be shot; "Zhuk" was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. Thus, mother and son saw, but were not allowed to speak to each other, one last time. On April 08, 1953, Olexandra Payevska, along with some 60 other UPA members, was shot -- burial place unknown.

Conclusion:

The spirit of "Orysia" from Nyzhni Bereziv reflects the aspirations of hundreds of thousands of her compatriots, who fought for freedom from the Polish, German and Soviet occupations -- and for an independent Ukraine. I would suggest that every deputy in the Verkhovna Rada -- including those from the Party of Regions and the Communist Party -- has a duty to recognize her and the UPA as true Ukrainian patriots. Otherwise, the deputies themselves could be labeled as "enemies of the Ukrainian people".

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