Attention Ivan_Mazepa

[Burrbee]

Hi,

Are you from Bukovyna? If so I would like to ask you some questions about the area.

Thanks!

[Ivan_Mazepa]

Yes dear, I'm listening.

[Burrbee]

I want to know everything and anything about Bukovyna. I am wondering if your family has history in the area or if you are a new arrival?

My grandparents came from Bukovyna and I want to know what the people are like there (I am sure that you will tell me that they are the same as people anywhere else but whenever I run in to people from Ukraine I ask them if they have heard of Bukovyna and if they have or have been there they usually reply that the people are eccentric and that Bukovyna is different than the rest of Ukraine).

I guess I want to know how you would describe the heart and soul of a Bukovynian patriot. (Maybe I am just wondering if I would identify with anything you might say). I want to know how the people feel, are they happy with their lives there? What do they wish to see for their area, or even Ukraine as a whole?

I just want to know so that I may understand a little more about other people on this planet that I have a connect with be it only in the genes.

[Ivan_Mazepa]

I already might have written about Bukovyna before, so I'll try not repeating myself. Let's start from the basics:
- Northern Bukovyna (named after "buk"- a tree beech) - Chernivtsi oblast is the smallest oblast in Ukraine located in Subcarpathia, West Ukraine. Was part of the Kyiv Rus-> Moldavia-Besarabia/Hungary/Poland-> Austria-> Romania-> USSR.

I'm from Chernivtsi- capital of Bukovyna. It's an old city, with beautiful architecture- Kobylianska street and Chernivtsi National University are the best examples. Under the Austrians it was penned "Little Vienna". Franko, Kobylianska and Fed'kovych are the three biggest literary names that at one time worked or lived in Chernivtsi. The city and the region ethnically are very mixed. In the city- Jewish (at one point as high as 40% of the city, but by the 1980s-90s most of them have left), German, Romanian, Polish, Armenian, Ukrainian etc. elements. There was also a settlement of Old Believers, from Russia. Chances are, the number of Chernivtsi Jews is third after Odesa and Kyiv. There a couple of synagogues and Polish kostiols, an Armenian church, and couple of Romanian schools. It's a melting pot, which reflected in the culture and language of Bukovyna (sarako, bayete, oy zukhen vey). I for one can count to 10 in Romanian. In the region there are entire Moldavan/Romanian villages. Closer to the Carpathians are the "colorful" Hutsuls.

Compared to the neighboring Galicia, Bukovynians are not as patriotically zealous. Yet in 1918 this fact hasn't stopped the Bukovynske Viche (an assembly) to vote to join the Ukrainian National Republic. (This was followed by Romanian troop occupation of Bukovyna and annexation by Romania.)

As I mentioned before on the forum, my father's family is from a village 5km from Khotyn. (Khotyn castle is a site of a famous 17th cent. Cossack victory over the Turks. Hetman Sahaidachny was mortally wounded and in Chernivtsi there remains a small wooden Sahaidachnyy church. In the interwar years it was right at the intersection of three countries- Poland, Romania and SU. My father's uncle who in 1940 was one of those welcoming the Soviet "osvoboditiliey" ("liberators") later got to be arrested and buried heck knows where. Currently, Bukovyna is more Russified than the neighboring Galicia and UOC-MP (Russian Orthodox Church) is the more dominant one in the region, where ethnic Russians are 2-3% of the population. Ukrainians are 70%, Moldavans/Romanians- 20%. One of the confusing facts are that Moldavans almost unanimously are attending the Russian Orthodox Churches. I always ask Moldovans "what the hell?"- Russians threw in the Transdniester conflict for you guys, and the country Moldova itself is not a Russia-freindly state, yet there you are going to their churches, and supporting them, not us. But in fact what is happening is that Bukovyna Moldovans are allying themselves with Russians as counterweight to the Ukrainian majority.

they usually reply that the people are eccentric and that Bukovyna is different than the rest of Ukraine

Well, it is a unique region of Ukraine. Hutsuls, trembita (a musical instrument, do you know it?), clothes, dialect. The musical talent!- It's likely that Bukovyna has the highest musicians per capita ratio than anyone else. Moldavans and Ukrainians have lived side by side pretty much without a conflict (unlike in Galicia). "Live and let live" probably should be the motto of Bukovyna.

Some pics of Chernivtsi: http://www.tryukraine.com/photos/chernivtsi.shtml

[Unbreakable]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ivan_Mazepa
Compared to the neighboring Galicia, Bukovynians are not as patriotically zealous.

- so You mean Bukovynians are (were) cowards? collaborators? - or just lazy ones?

Moldavans and Ukrainians have lived side by side pretty much without a conflict (unlike in Galicia)

- OK - very interesting! - just tell me a bit more about these mysterious "Moldavano-Ukrainian conflicts" in Galychyna!

[Ivan_Mazepa]

Compared to the neighboring Galicia, Bukovynians are not as patriotically zealous.
- so You mean Bukovynians are (were) cowards? collaborators? - or just lazy ones?

I didn't say being patriotically zealous is a bad thing. (I wish Bukovynians were more patriotic)


Moldavans and Ukrainians have lived side by side pretty much without a conflict (unlike in Galicia)
- OK - very interesting! - just tell me a bit more about these mysterious "Moldavano-Ukrainian conflicts" in Galychyna!

Emphasis is on "conflict", not "Moldavan-Ukrainian". Koniu zh iasno, that I'm talking about Poles and Ukrainians in Halychyna.
----------------------------------------------------------

BTW, Lviv- way overrated.

[Serhii]

Hi Mazepa and Viktor
It is so nice to meet you here. I hope very much I am not a kin' , but I understand you both. Oh my, Bukovyna and Galychyna ! Remember Donbas.