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Dytiatin

Anniversaries

Dytiatin

Anniversaries

99th Anniversary of the Battle of Dytiatyn

September 14, 2019

Children in folk costumes kneel in a row under the cross. A Polish prayer flows from their lips with an audible Lviv accent. They look at the plaques with the names of the 59 fallen. These boys, not much older than them, died here almost a hundred years ago. White and red candles burn in their memory every year in mid-September.

There are hundreds of places where Polish soldiers fought with indescribable sacrifice. But only a few of them have been called "Polish Thermopylae". In this way, those battles are distinguished in which, despite the huge disproportion of forces in favor of the opponent, the defenders faced the enemy and did not surrender, fighting almost to the last man.

 In the interwar period, only one battle bore this honorable title – Dytiatyn. It was not until 1989 that it was joined by another heroic battle from the Polish-Bolshevik war, namely Zadwórze near Lviv, the Battle of Wizna from the September Campaign, and several battles from history before the 20th century.

Although the Battle of Dytiatyn ended in defeat for the defenders, holding back the Bolsheviks for one day was enough to gain the time needed to cover the northern flank and save the Polish-Ukrainian forces, which drove the enemy out of Galicia within a month. The sacrifice of the soldiers of Dytiatyn, comparable to the attitude of the Spartan warriors in the Thermopylae Gorge, has not been forgotten. In the interwar period, the term "death battery" was popularized to describe the 4th battery of the 1st Mountain Artillery Regiment, which remained in position until the end under the command of Captain Adam Zając - the "Polish Leonidas", who died alongside his soldiers. The Second Polish Republic built a tombstone church for its heroes at the place of their death, and every year on the anniversary of the battle, patriotic ceremonies were held there.

The cult of Dytiatyn developed until 1939. Everything was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II and the loss of the eastern borderlands by Poland. The Soviet occupiers could not forgive the Polish soldiers for the resistance they put up, even after 28 years. In 1948, the tombstone church was demolished and the cemetery razed to the ground. There was supposed to be no trace of the memorial site. However, the communists did not manage to overturn the massive cross, made of shell casings from cannon shells. For decades, it marked the resting place of Polish soldiers, which was never sown by the local Ukrainian population. The oldest residents of Dytiatyn even took care to ensure that the trace of the cemetery did not disappear.

The liquidation of the cemetery in Dytiatyn finally took place five years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. When Poland and Ukraine were already free, the formal obstacles to restoring the memory of the "Polish Thermopylae" disappeared. However, the states did not take on this task, and it fell to the families of soldiers and people of good will.

Until the early 2000s, almost no one knew about Dytiatyn. Polish and Ukrainian officials chose the more accessible Zadwórze, located near Lviv, as a place to celebrate together. It was not until 2005 that a descendant of the inhabitants of Dytiatyn, Szymon Hatłas, reached the homeland of his ancestors. As we sit together in the car, which slowly approaches Dytiatyn over holes and bumps, Mr. Szymon tells me:

- On the first day I drove around the entire village. I looked around in all directions, because I learned that the cemetery was now only an earthen rampart. But I didn't see anything like that. I returned to Halicz completely resigned. I wanted to leave, but something made me want to go back. I happened to meet an old woman on the road and asked her about the cemetery. She said her name was Tatarewska and she was half Polish. She took me to the cemetery itself. She walked ahead of me for a few kilometers, and I drove behind her in first gear because she didn't want to get in. But we finally got there. Sure enough, there was nothing there at that time but a hump of earth and weeds.

Mr. Szymon activated all possible contacts and decided to bring about the renovation of the cemetery in Dytiatyn. He recalls the indifference of state institutions and emphasizes that private individuals made a decisive contribution to this work. A local master from Dytiatyn, a Ukrainian, made a copy of the cross, which was placed in the place of the original, saved by Mr. Petro. Since 2009, under the new cross, which was quickly overgrown with wild rose bushes, Holy Masses were held on every anniversary of the battle. Finally, thanks to the efforts of Wiesława Holik, a borderland activist born in Stryj, the reconstruction of the cemetery began.

- The project was scheduled for a month and a half and we had to complete all the work within that time. – explains Mrs. Wiesława, standing at the cemetery gates. – Here it was a toil of two shifts of twelve hours, day and night. Where the buses are now, there were tents pitched. Around the lamps, the generator roared twenty-four hours a day, and that's how we worked. There was no mercy.

If Mr. Szymon is the earth, then Mrs. Wiesława represents fire. She is a person with a very strong personality, for whom the words "impossible" do not exist. She will see every matter she starts through to the end and no difficulty will disturb her faith in the possibility of achieving the goal she believes in. Despite her advanced age, she does not seem to lack strength. In 2015, the work of many people was crowned with the opening of the renovated Polish War Cemetery in Dytiatyn, which was consecrated during a solemn mass by Bishop Marian Buczek.

His large gold cross gleams in the sunlight so that I have to squint as I write the notes of the conversation. The mighty figure of the bishop stands before me in the middle of the cemetery as preparations for the ceremony are already underway.

Bishop Buczek has been serving in Ukraine for 30 years. Perhaps no one has such insight into the life and problems of the Polish minority in this country as he does. He has been the bishop of the Kharkiv-Zaporizhia diocese since 2009, but is often invited to various celebrations in the western part of Ukraine. When asked what the Battle of Dytiatyn means to him personally, he replies:

- It is a defeat that was actually a victory. We need to remember it, because it happens in our lives as well. You can draw good from every defeat and hardship. These soldiers sacrificed themselves, but thanks to that we managed to win the war and the Soviet Union arrived here 20 years later. A few years ago, during the anniversary celebrations, even a Ukrainian woman told me that thanks to that we saved them from collective farms, hunger and deportations to Siberia. I personally tried to have classes at the school in Dytiatyn, where local children are told about what happened here and what Polish soldiers saved their grandparents from..
I look over the bishop’s shoulder at the children’s choir rehearsing. I ask how His Excellency sees the future of Poles in Ukraine.

- The Polish minority is simply dying out – says the bishop bluntly. – There are only a handful of old Kresowiacy who were born as Polish citizens. And the youth are fleeing to Poland as much as they can, especially from western Ukraine. They go to college and don't come back. The jump in living standards is too big. And it's all our fault! The effect of bad state policy, calculated to bring as many people with Polish roots to Poland as possible, and not make their lives easier here. I asked for scholarships for the local youth and nothing. And you have to know that Ukraine is not a sweet country for minorities. It's not like in Poland, where the Ukrainian minority publishes "Nasze Słowo" with taxpayers' money. Here we won't get a single hryvnia from the state and if we don't have support from Poland, we won't do anything. Churches renovated 20 years ago are falling into ruin again, because parishes have 10-15 faithful...

A slim, elegant woman adjusts the collars of the girls and hands them white and red flags. It is clear that she has a knack for children. Mrs. Mirosława Tomecka is the director of the Society for the Aid of Poles "Big Heart" in Nowy Rozdół, a town located 50 km south of Lviv. For eleven years, the Society has been running a Polish-language afternoon school named after Karolina Lanckorońska.

- Our children come to us after the Ukrainian day school and learn the Polish language, culture, history and geography of Poland. – explains Mrs. Mirosława. – Afternoon school is optional and it is truly encouraging to see the children committing themselves to it.

- Doesn't the fact that they spend almost the entire day at school bother them? - I'm asking.

- Nobody is complaining – Mrs. Mirosława smiles. – Poles in Nowe Rozdół are a very close-knit community, which is why it's stupid not to know Polish at all. There's such healthy competition among the children. Ukrainians also send their children to our school to help them start their studies in Poland. We even have one Indian.

The Polish school has 86 students. It's not that more wouldn't like to come there - there's simply no room for them. The institution is located in a small building with four classrooms, and all classes are taught by four local teachers. A typical problem for this type of educational institution in Ukraine is the lack of staff and funds. Domestic institutions haven't sent teachers from Poland there for years, and funding is very modest. Despite these difficulties, Polish children from Nowy Rozdol have already achieved success in science Olympiads in Poland several times.

- Why Krakow costumes? – I ask, very surprised, looking at the black vests and flowery skirts.

- Because that's what we have – Mrs. Mirosława replies with disarming honesty. - It's a gift from a private donor from Poland. Lviv costumes are appropriate for us, but here, in the Stanisławów region, it's not appropriate to dress like a "baciar" [laughter].

Many important people are taking part in the ceremonies. Among them are the Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Małgorzata Gosiewska and the Polish Consul in Lviv Katarzyna Sołek. However, out of the many letters and speeches read during the ceremonies, one in particular deserves to be mentioned. These were the words of the representative of the head of the administration of the Ivano-Frankivsk region (or according to the Polish nomenclature: the voivode of Stanislav), Volodymyr Fedorak:

- Orsha, Kiev, Zamość. In these and dozens of other places, Polish and Ukrainian troops stood together against the common enemy. (...) I thank the Polish soldiers who defended Ukrainian land from the barbarians. I also thank all people of good will who supported us in the worst days of the war in Donbas, when the existence of an independent Ukraine was at risk. Our two Christian nations, Polish and Ukrainian, still stand in faith and tradition between the savage hordes in the East and the secularized West, losing its identity. Let us continue to stand together! Long live Ukraine! Long live Poland!

Marcin Więckowski

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"Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Cultural Promotion Fund"

War cemetery in Dytiatyn

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