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Broken Branch of the Boiken Tree:
Forced Deportation of 1951 and its Consequences for Boiken Population from the Beskids
Mountains
Our project focuses on the history and identity of Boikos as former residents of Beskids (Beskids
are mountains in Europe, stretching from the Czech Republic in the west through Slovakia and
Poland to Ukraine in the east). Boikos are an ethnic group living in the Carpathian Mountains
(nowadays the Ukraine) and in Beskids Mountains (nowadays Poland). The Boikos adopted the
Ukrainian national identity.
The historian Dmitry Vyedyenyeyev wrote: "The reunification of Western Ukraine from the rest of
the ethnic Ukrainian lands in the Ukrainian SSR, which occurred in 1939-1940, respectively, had
objectively progressive character, laid the historical background for the unity of Ukrainian lands.
However, the model of totalitarian politics of Stalinism already worked in the Soviet Ukraine and
other republics of the USSR was immediately transferred in the Western region. It starts mass
repression. If at first it was directed primarily against "socially hostile elements" among the wealthy
citizens and members of national political organisations (...) then gradually they acquire a mass
character (deportation, imprisonment, etc.).
In 1951 an eviction occurred against civilians of then Drohobych region (Ukrainian People's
Republic, USSR) in the south of the Ukraine. The Polish-Soviet territorial exchange of roughly 480
km² and border adjustment was due to the Polish-Soviet treaty of 1951, which had been signed in
Moscow between the People's Republic of Poland and the USSR. Over 30 thousand inhabitants of
Beskids were evicted to the south of Ukraine (e.g. Mykolajivska, Odeska, Chersonska and
Mykolaivska regions).
Boikos suffered a lot from this violent eviction from their ethnic territories in 1951. It divided the
Boikos' ethnic group into tree parts (one still living in Carpathian Mountains, the Eastern Boikos)
while second one was evicted to the southern part of the Ukraine (Western Boikos). Third branch
of Boikos live in foreing countries (Poland, USA, Canada, Australia, Russia).
The projects' goal is to find out more about the identity of Western Boikos (inhabitants of Beskids)
in the context of their history. We want to examine the forcible relocation of its population in 1951.
We want to look at the history of Skorodne village (it had belonged to Drogobych region, Ukraine,
after 1951 to Podkarpacie, Region Lutowiska ) according to remembrances of those who still
memorize them being in Skorodne. In this village Boikos used to have their own customs, social
rules and laws. As an ethnic group being isolated in Beskids mountains Boikos', inhabitants of
Skorodne, developed their own artifacts in house building, textile production, preparing food, folk
songs and legends. These artifacts distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Beskids (Lemkos,
Huzulen). Also the Boiko's dialect underlines this difference.
The issue of national and cultural identity gets more and more attention in post-socialist societies.
Volodymyr Zviglyanich, a senior research fellow of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences' Institute of
Sociology, wrote: "In Marxist-Leninist philosophy and social studies in the USSR and Ukraine there
was no place for research into questions of national self-identification, national characteristics,
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national ways of running the economy and the national character (Zviglyanich, 2009).“ If the issue
of national identity in Ukraine was suppressed, the issue of ethnic minorities and their identities in
Ukraine in general de facto did not exist for discussion in Soviet society. This applied especially for
Boiko's ethnic group, residing the border strip, which divided then Ukrainian Soviet Republic
(USSR) and the Polish People's Republic in period till 1951.
What is left and has been saved from those Boikos identity is a big question which we want partly
to answer with our project. We want to collect knowledge about the history and culture of Skorodne
village the way Boikos remember it. We would like to approach the people from Boiko’s community
in Krywe Ozero Mykolajivska region in the Ukraine (the place where Boikos from Skorodne have
been deported) to speak about Boikos identity, how they perceived themselves before and after the
deportation. We would like to ask Boikos to remember what still have left in their memories about
their life, culture and history in Beskids Mountains before 1951. We would like to see which
customs have been saved, which folks songs and which legends are still in use. We want to hear
how the Boikos' dialect developed so far.
We are going to reach our goal by scientific method of oral history, particularly narrative
(biographic) interview. We want interview at least 20 persons.
Tatiana Pastushenko describes the method as follows: "Narrative interviews is a free interview,
which looks like the story of persons' life without interference from the interviewer, who asks only
general direction of the narrative, which is expected. It is assumed that during a free presentation
in memory of the narrator associative arising primarily those scenes and moments that have the
greatest subjective value, so you can find sensitive points constructing their biographical narrative
(Tatiana Pastushenko, 2010)“.
With advantages of narrative (biographic) interviews we want to allow the witness to speak about
her/his memories. We assume, that her/his memory includes not only individual aspects but also
collective onces, and that the latter will give a glance on the repressive system in the Soviet
Ukraine. We ask our respondents how their percieved the soviet regime in the region of Beskids
and what excately they suffered from. We don't want to emphasis on Boikos as victims of Soviets
repressive system but rather to understand subjective biographical experience of people we will be
listening to. From our point of view, the interviews are not only subjective and biographical but at
the same time historical.
All our research will be recorded in audio- and video-formats. Through conversations and videorecording
of life stories of Boikos we expect to understand a microcosm of former Beskids'
population, the way they perceived the new conditions in the south of Ukraine.
Working with transcripts and at the same time with audio and video files we will try to go beyond
textual analysis. Voice and picture are not neutral media – they bear meaning that could be
explored. We will classify the stories as common for many of our interviewers and those which
have individual meaning. We will compare interviews according to different criteriums (historical,
ethnographical, personal) to be able extract the Boikos' common identity according to the
experience of Boikos in different historical and ethnografical conditions.
In order to present the results of our research we will make a multimedia-publication for internet
use (portal of boikos www.bojky.wordpress.com and other Ukrainian media portals).
The results of project are supposed to tell us about the life of Boikos in Skorodne before 1951. In
such a way we would like to reach a point of historical justice towards Boikos' population who
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survived through violent deportation in 1951, lost the connection to their native land but still have a
right to be recognized as an ethnic group with its own history. The reconstruction of their history
and culture, the identity of their village are the Boikos heritage which in fact belongs to the
European cultural heritage.
The results of our research will publish, amongst GWE-Website, on: http://boyky.wordpress.com,
http://www.los.org.pl/, www.http://lemky.com.
Olga Samborska
Zoryana Svystovych
Anna Gluh
Selected Literature:
Volodymyr Zviglyanich: Ukrainian identity and challenges of modernity“, Prism Volume: 5 Issue: 5.
Vedomosti of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Moscow, 1951, 14.VII, № 23.
Dmitry Vyedyenyeyev: Creating network of soviet troops and state security in Western Ukraine (1939-1941), magazine
„Military history“, #5 (47), 2009.
METHOD AND ORAL HISTORY RESEARCH oral history IN UKRAINE, History of Ukraine, January 17 -18 (657-658),
May, 2010.
Tetyana Velichko, Tetyana Pastushenko, Field School of FF-term history of "Holocaust through the eyes of non-Jewish
population of Ukraine", in East / West: Ist.-cult. Coll. / East. Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Kowalsky et al. - Vol. 11.12:
Spec. ed.: An Oral History in modern social and humanitarian-making studies: theory and practice of research. - H.,
2008.
This Project is realised in the call on „War, Post War, Cold War“ of Geschichtswerkstatt Europa. It
is one of 28 European projects that is funded by the foundation „Remembrance, Responsibility and
Future“.
Geschichtswerkstatt Europa is a programme of the foundation „Remembrance, Responsibility and
Future“ addressing the issue of European remembrance. The Institute for Applied History
coordinates the funding of projects in cooperation with the European University Viadrina. The
International Forum is organised by the Global and European Studies Institute at the University of
Leipzig.
Quoting form:
Samborska Olha, Svystovych Zoryana, Gluh Anna: Broken Branch of Bojken Tree: Forced
Deportation of 1951 and its Consequences for Bojken Population from the Beskid Mountains, in:
Geschichtswerkstatt Europa, 31.05.2012, URL:
http://www.geschichtswerkstatt-europa.org/media/projekte/Methodenpapier/MP_Bojken.pdf
Copyright (c) 2012 by Geschichtswerkstatt Europa and the author, all rights reserved. This work
may be copied and redistributed for non-commercial, educational purposes, if permission is
granted by the author and usage right holders. For permission please contact
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