History of Wlodawa region

[Zbyszek]

Wlodawa, placed on Bug river, is a small town of long and interesting history.
I have just returned from a short staying in Wlodawa region which is nowadays a borderland of three countries: Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.
The region is a peaceful place, with many lakes which are geologically very old, much older than the most of European lakes created in the ice age. Gradual drying of the world marks unfavourable changes for the swampy regions like those surrounding Wlodawa. Fourteeen years ago, a new Polissya National Park(PPN) was separated in Poland. Its headquarters are placed in a small placed called Urshulin. An elegant PPN building was erected in this village and it is really a pleasure to get inside. I slipped in for a moment just looking for the local Internet connection and I spent a lot of good time inside, discussing with the committed botanicians.
Then, I stopped a few kilometers away from Urshulin, in a small village named Nowy Brus. I was looking for information about prewar times when a lot of Ukrainians lived in the area. Surroundings of Wlodawa experienced an extreme hardship during WWII.
I found a lady in Brus on my way and I just mentioned about my interest. I have never expected that I would invoke such painful personal stories. Lady G. was born in Brus in 1946. Her mother had a kind of good or bad luck be be ready for her birth exactly on one day in 1946 when the Ukrainian minority of the village was forced to cross the Bug river and settle on the present Ukrainian site while the Polish people from behind Bug river were forced to move West. Such were orders of brutal Soviet "peacemakers".
Lady G. became the only reason for why one family was allowed to stay in Brus...
(to be continued)


[Edited by Zbyszek on 17th August 2003 at 00:07]

[forest]

Hello Zbyszec look forward to the second installment ,I have a personal interest in this thread all the best.

[Zbyszek]

(continued)

Lady G. is a wonderful middle-aged woman. We discussed with her for hours and she ensured us that relations between Poles and Ukrainians in Brus were cordial in general before WWII. They celebrated both Christmas holidays (Orthodox and Catholic) together.
Things changed for worse during and after WWII. Lady G. de facto changed her nationality to a Polish one. She says more Ukrainians in the surrounding did this. That hard decision made her life easier. She speaks both languages.
During our friendly talk she encouraged you, Forest to come and see Brus and visit her. I can understand how exciting, how emotional it could be.
Now, I am in a small town 100 km away between Warsaw and Lublin I found an Internet connection so I am writing those few words. Lady G. told us about another Polish from Brus
whose life was so disrupted by her 6 years in Siberia...
A story of lady S. was something I would like to share with you. Really an exceptional woman with a unique biography. She left her father and her sister in the East and she also left her one eye there...

[forest]

Hello Zbyszec My aunty told us that my Grandfathers place boarded on to the priests place, they were good neighbours . Before the soviets came the Priest said convert to Catholicism and pass yourselves off as Poles you will be able to stay.My Grandfather thought about it and said that he would stay as he was, come what may . Some did convert and stayed but the majority went . Some man who lives near my auntys village ,said that the convoy when they were moving off was held up by a young boy with a gun, whilst he was looking through the belongings of the convoy someone hit him at the back of the head and killed him they then threw the body in to a lake or resovoir. Further down the road the mother of this youth held up the convoy with a gun, and she was told that her son had held up the convoy and had everything of value, she then went off to find him .The soviets then came and gave the convoy an escort to where they are now . We were also told that the people from a village further down the road from Busnowy then took over the houses that had been vacated .Apparently the soil in their village was rather sandy and it was better in Brusnowy the other village was then turned into Forest . My aunty and the old folks from Brusnowy all seem quite happy about there situation now, I don,t know what they felt at the time .My old man is bitter but he was not there then, he was in England, so I expect it was because he felt so helpless at the time. Although by the time he had heard of it . It was over and done with .The news then not being like it is today 24-7. Thanks Zbyszec would like to hear more .

[Volodya987]

Plenty of bugs crawled in up this river. Must have been Vlad The Impalers first home. Watch out the P R.I.P Et marshes don't decide to migrate West.

[Zbyszek]

Hi Forest, I am still on holiday and I occasionally get access to the Internet. In fact, I asked about your family name in Brus and they could not recognize it. They said it can be found in another village called Hola. (there is still wooden Orthodox church there and people from Brus said there was no Orthodox church in Brus before WWII so people had to go to Suchawa).
Lady S. was a Polish woman and when Germans were approaching in September 1939, people in Brus were afraid of being killed. Some of them crossed the Bug river in their search for safety. Unexpectedly, on September 17, a new border was established on Bug river and Lady S. and her family inadverantly became SOVIET citizens against their will.
The Soviets demanded written declarations of loyalty to the Soviet state. All Polish people refused. In spring 1940, their exile began. Lady S. was taken to Siberia with her family. Their travel lasted two months and many died on the way. Lady S. found it shocking that they were treated like criminals while their foreign nationality was their only guilt.
They have been travelling for weeks in the the railway carriage intended for cattle transport. There was a strict order refusing them to take off on their way.
They came to the end of the world, to a place where there were no railway tracks anymore...

[Volodya987]

Uninvited guests ALWAYS end up in trouble in the end.
It may take 8, it may take 64 years.
Or it might take 256, 512 or perhaps even 1,024 years.
Some reichs in very ancient times actually lasted 3,200,000 years. However, you can't hide on the planets any more, there's nothing left to eat, steal or kill.
Clones of murderers, liars, cheats & thieves ALWAYS get their just desert. The instant you march out, from where God planted you, you're DEAD.
Either human Will or The Divine Will will ensure that
AS YOU SOW SO YOU REAP.