“The Edge of the World”

By Dr. Myron Kuropas

“’It’s the best place to have an apiary,” says Father Volodymyr Protsyk of his village in Western Ukraine.  “It’s like the edge of the world surrounded by fields and woods.”

Thus begins a fascinating article by Mariya Tytarenko and Petro Didula titled “What’s Next for Ukraine’s Villages?” which appeared in the March issue of ONE, a bi-monthly magazine published by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA).  

The authors focus on Yakymiw, a village located some 18 miles from Lviv, but the implications are clear.  Ukraine’s villages are dying.  “Of the 100 or so occupied houses, “they write, “about 10 are home to young families. The elderly, mostly widows or widowers, live in the rest.”

Lviv Professor Andriy Sodomora grew up in the area. He is saddened by the decline of Ukrainian village life which has disrupted intergenerational communication and understanding.  Professor Andriy is the son of an Orthodox priest who served the spiritual needs of both Catholic and Orthodox in Yakymiw after the Soviets closed the Catholic Church and sent the pastor to Siberia. The professor is keeping the history of the area alive with articles devoted to his local research.

The remaining inhabitants of Yakymiw are a hardy bunch, who have coalesced around their church.  Two others villages, Vyriv and Horphyn have joined with Yakymiwites to form a single village council.  This arrangement seems to work rather well. Villagers from the three different churches recently made a joint ecumenical pilgrimage with an icon of the Blessed Virgin Our Lady of Zarvanytsia.  

Despite their poverty, “the villagers are very generous”, declared 36-year old Mariya Batyiovska, president of the council for the past five years.  “Recently, we gathered two tons of potatoes for the region’s nursing home - the largest donation among other more prosperous settlements in the area,” she proudly declares.  

Yakymiw remains unique, however.  Fiercely nationalistic, the village functioned as a major military centre for Ukrainian nationalists.  The village was burned to the ground by the Soviets in 1939. Local prosvita leaders were murdered.  Other members of the enlightenment society were sent to Siberia.  The locals remained loyal, however, and the Soviets burned the village again in 1944, murdering 23 nationalists, exiling 22 families to Siberia, and arresting and deporting 42 people to labour camps.  Still, the nationalist spirit lives on. One of the many illustrations gracing the magazine piece shows three young boys in a grassy field near a church with makeshift wooden rifles in their arms.  The caption reads: “Children from Vyriv play a game that pits ‘Ukrainian Nationalists’ against ‘the Russians’.”

I have been receiving ONE for many years.  The magazine is richly illustrated and keeps me in touch with a part of the world that our media tends to ignore.  The March issue also included articles devoted to Arab Catholics living in The Holy Land, a youth development centre operated by the Armenian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, and Orthodox iconography in Ethiopia.  Other issues of special interest to me were devoted to the Orthodox of Poland and Kenya. A special issue devoted to Christians in the Middle East came out last September.

Articles featuring Ukrainians are plentiful as well.  Ukrainian religious traditions in Canada was the focus in November 2010.  “Argentina’s Ukrainians” was an article which appeared in May of 2010.

An especially poignant report titled “Burying Alcohol: Churches Tackle Substance Abuse in Western Ukraine” was featured in the January 2010 issue of ONE.   Speaking about Soviet times, one of those interviewed mentioned that “staying sober among tipsy colleagues was viewed with suspicion - the sober person might be a KGB agent.”  Vodka was cheap and the Soviet system encouraged drinking as a way to dull the realities of socialism.  

Alcoholism has not only lingered in independent Ukraine, it has become “pandemic” according to Dr. Myroslava Kabanchyk, Chief Physician at the Lviv State Clinical Pharmacological Dispensary.  Ukraine ranks among the top countries for alcoholism among young people.  Dr. Myroslava believes one of the main reasons is the “easy money” their emigrant working mothers send from abroad.  

Two priests, Fr. Ihor Hiletsky, a Ukrainian Catholic, and Fr. Oleksander Koroliuk, a Ukrainian Orthodox, have joined forces to address substance abuse in Ukraine. They have organized youth seminars and, in cooperation with an ecumenical organization called “Christian Ukraine”, have helped establish a low-cost rehabilitation centre for struggling addicts in Lviv oblast.  “After medical treatment in a dispensary, these people definitely need to cure their minds and souls”, explains Myroslav Danylkiv of “Christian Ukraine”.  

Commenting on this extraordinary ecumenical endeavour in Ukraine, Fr. Koroliuk concludes:  “We need to stop arguing among ourselves since we have one mutual goal - to heal the nation.”  That’s sage advice.  We Ukrainians in North America might wish to reflect on that comment as well.

Readers interested in learning more about ONE can contact cnewa@cnewa.org.