Scratches on a Prison Wall:

A Wartime Memoir Presented in Toronto

Komar, Luba. Scratches on a Prison Wall: A Wartime Memoir. New York: iUniverse, 2009, 239 pp. $19.95

(available on amazon.ca)

On December 11^th, a presentation of Luba Komar’s book Scratches on a Prison Wall, was held at St. Vladimir Institute in Toronto. The event was co-sponsored by St. Vladimir Institute, the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre (UCRDC), and the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) in Canada.

Scratches on a Prison Wall first appeared in English in late 2009, translated from Ukrainian by Christine Prokop, Luba Komar’s daughter. Dr. Daria Darewych, President of NTSh’s Canadian chapter, opened the event with a short review of the book, and Eugene Yakovitch and Iroida Wynnyckyj spoke on behalf of St. Vladimir Institute and the UCRDC, respectively. The main speaker was Lida Prokop, Luba Komar’s younger daughter, who transfixed the crowd with readings from her mother’s memoir. She also offered a short multimedia presentation, which featured interviews with Luba Komar, who passed away in 2007, and Professor Alexander Motyl (Rutgers University, Newark), who offered insightful comments on both the historical background of the events in the memoir and the exceptional literary quality of the translation.

As a student in Lviv, Luba Komar joined the underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists - OUN and, in 1940, she was arrested by the Soviet NKVD. Extremely difficult to read are Ms. Komar’s recollections of her interrogation at the hands of depraved and sadistic NKVD officers. In attempts to get her to confess, she is beaten, humiliated and threatened; however, she does not break. She is eventually sentenced to death in the so-called Protses 59-ty or Trial of the 59, in which 42 of 59 accused OUN activists are sentenced to death. Eventually, several, including Ms. Komar, have their sentence reduced to 10 years hard labour and 5 years exile.

Luba Komar describes life in Soviet prisons and on death row in great and vivid detail. On their way to Siberia when the war breaks out, she and several other inmates escape from Berdychev transit prison, though not before the retreating Soviets attempt to burn down the prison with the inmates still inside. As they try to escape, many are mowed down by NKVD machine gun fire.

The rest of the memoir focuses on Ms. Komar’s work as a courier for the OUN and Ukrainian Insurgent Army - UPA. Her descriptions of life in the Underground are captivating, particularly of the difficulty of operating in a situation where every person on whom one depends is also a potential traitor. As a courier, Ms. Komar had to rely on underground contacts in villages, people whom she did not know and who did not know her; suspicion was ever-present. More generally, we get a fascinating picture of the social dimensions and interactions of underground resistance movements.

The excellent translation manages to preserve the intensity of the writing. Ms. Komar offers us striking and detailed imagery. In describing one of her journeys as a courier in the Carpathians, she writes:

“We need to climb the forested peak and then descend on the other side into a village in the next valley... I am cold and frightened. Heartlessly, the full moon shines on me as I sit high up on the horse, wrapped in the light colored trench coat given to me by the commander in Lypa. I feel exposed by the moon’s glow on this slope. Trees and shrubs throw mysterious shadows that elongate and follow us as we pass. The moonlight sprinkles a silvery sheen on the dew-drenched tall grasses, charming wood sprites and fairies out of the deep shadows beneath the trees. In other circumstances I might have enjoyed this wonderfully romantic, moonlit night. But after hearing the war stories my friend told me in the lodge, I’m not thinking of forest nymphs. I’m in fear of the Soviets. [pp. 172-173]. 

Ms. Komar continued to work for the OUN and UPA in Slovakia and, in 1949, she immigrated, with her husband Myroslaw Prokop and young daughter Christine, to New York.

Luba Komar’s memoir is extraordinary for several reasons. As Dr. Darewych pointed out, the book truly does read like a thriller. More than that, however, it offers the reader some fascinating insights into the psychology and behaviour of people under great stress, as well as wonderful visual imagery, especially in Ms. Komar’s descriptions of nature in the Ukrainian countryside. Scratches on a Prison Wall is not only a great story. Ms. Komar’s “quiet heroism” is a reminder to all of us that, in the words of Prof. Motyl, “totalitarianism is ultimately powerless in the face of individuals with the spiritual courage to speak the truth.”

Orest Zakydalsky

PHOTO

L. to R.: Eugene Yakovitch, Daria Darewych, Lida Prokop, the author’s daughter, Iroida Wynnyckyj