Yuliian Tarnovych as a researcher of polish-ukrainian relationships

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Yuliian Tarnovych as a researcher of polish-ukrainian relationships

Volodymyr Nakonechnyi, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Assistant Professor of the Department of International Relationships, Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, Kyiv, Ukraine

Анотація

Мета дослідження полягає в реконструкції польсько-українського дискурсу редакторської та публіцистичної праці Юліана Тарновича. В основі методології дослідження лежить міждисциплінарний підхід. Провідну роль відіграв біографічний метод, сфокусований на реконструкції подій минулого крізь призму життєписів його творців. Також важливими для дослідження були загальнонаукові (насамперед історичний, логічний, аналізу та синтезу) і спеціально-історичні (порівняльний, генетичний, типологічний та ін.) методи. Наукова новизна статті полягає у спробі комплексного аналізу польсько-української проблематики в громадсько-політичній публіцистиці Юліана Тарновича. Висновки. Проведене дослідження засвідчило насиченість творчої спадщини Ю. Тарновича проблематикою польсько-українських відносин. При цьому впадає у вічі, що видатний публіцист висвітлює цю складну тему не з вузького національного становища, а з позиції загальнолюдських цінностей. На багатьох прикладах він показав, що ігнорування сильнішим звичай - них людських прав слабшого, у віддаленій перспективі руйнує його самого, адже варварство стосовно ближнього породжує енергію самознищення. Відтворюючи трагедію лемків в 193040-х рр., дослідник не приховує і вчинків польських друзів українського народу, що ціною власного життя рятували сусідів від жаху новітнього геноциду. І хоча такі свідчення були поодинокими, та саме вони, слушно переконує Ю. Тарнович, дають надію на польсько-український консенсус ціною відновлення історичної справедливості та вшанування пам'яті безневинних жертв.

Ключові слова: Юліан Тарнович; лемки; публіцистика; Друга Річ Посполита; польсько-українські взаємини.

Summary

The purpose of the study is to reconstruct the Polish- Ukrainian discourse of editorial and journalistic works of Yuliian Tarnovych. The methodology of the study is based on the interdisciplinary approach.

The biographical method is a leading one, as it helped to focus on reconstruction of the events of the past through the prism of the biographies of its creators. Such methods as general scientific (first of all, historical, logical, analysis and synthesis methods), special historical (comparative, genetic, typological, etc.) were also applied as well. The scientific novelty of the article is the attempt to comprehensively analyse Polish-Ukrainian issues in the social-political journalism of Yuliian Tarnovych. Conclusions. The study showed the richness of Yu. Tarnovych's creative heritage that covered the problems of Polish-Ukrainian relations. At the same time, it is obvious that a prominent publicist covers this difficult topic not only from a narrow national position, but from the standpoint of universal values. He showed that if the stronger ignores the human rights of the weaker, in the long run, it destroys the former, because barbarity towards one's neighbour produces the energy of self-destruction. Recreating the tragedy of the Lemkos in the 1930s and 1940s, the researcher does not hide the actions of some Polish friends of the Ukrainian people, who saved their neighbours from the horror of the newest genocide at the cost of their lives. Even though such testimonies were not numerous, they are the ones, as Yu. Tarnovych claimed, that give hope for the Polish-Ukrainian consensus, restoration of historical justice and honouring the memory of innocent victims.

Keywords: Yuliian Tarnovych; Lemkos; journalism; Second Commonwealth; Polish-Ukrainian Relations.

The statement of the problem. Among the leaders of the Lemko movement of the twentieth century, Yuliian Tarnovych holds a special place. After all, many publications (for example, the newspapers «Our Lemko» («Nash Lemko»), «Ukrainian Word», «Lem- kivschyna», «Ukrainian Worker», («Lemko news») «Lemkivski Visti», etc.) and organizational projects (for example, the Lemkos Commission at «Prosvita») are associated with his name. These projects aimed at modernizing all aspects of life of the Ruthenian community and establishing close connections with Ukrainian cultural world. At the same time, a special place in the multifaceted creative heritage of Yu. Tarnovych belonged to the issue of the problem of Polish- Ukrainian relations, which was the most urgent for the inhabitants of his small Motherland. After all, Lemkos, like no other Ukrainian ethnic group, being historically settled among the Polish population, felt all the tragedy of the effects of a conflict between historical neighbours. As a direct witness and in some places an active participant in this conflict for many decades, Yu. Tarnovych turned to the analysis of its origins, the course and consequences, and during the post-war period he became the most authoritative expert on the problems of Polish- Ukrainian antagonism in Zakerzonia.

Analysis of previous research. Nevertheless, Yu. Tarnovych's creative heritage is still not thoroughly researched. Nowadays, there are only a few brief biographical essays (Savka, 1999, pp. 327-330) and references to his activities in Lemkos studies (Nakonechnyi, 2017, pp. 129-137) or general literature. This obviously does not correspond to the magnitude of Yuliian Beskid's contribution to the study of the history and culture of his native land.

The purpose of the article is in the reconstruction of Polish- Ukrainian discourse of editorial and journalist works of Yuliian Tarnovych.

The statement of the main material. As Yu. Tarnovych became the chief editor of the first Lemko magazine of pro-Ukrainian sentiment «Nash Lemko» (issued in the second half of 1930s), he comprehensively approached the problem of Polish-Ukrainian relationship.

Yu. Tarnovych joined the work on newspaper being inspired by a well-known publisher, Ivan Tyktor, who, according to Yuliian Beskid himself, was «the first to dare, amidst the thoroughly hostile Polish police regime - to publish the first in the history of Lemkiv- schyna Ukrainian national magazine «Nash Lemko», and later to help the editor of that magazine Yuliian Beskid to publish the Library of the Lemko Region in difficult circumstances (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 51). Reflecting on the urgent need for an independent printing for the Highlanders, he noted: «The awakened from sleep Lemkivshchyna lacked a healthy national «feed». For the people of Lemkivshchyna this feed was the newspaper «Nash Lemko» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 51).

The responsible decision to head the people's newspaper came from Yu. Tarnovych's understanding of the importance of per iodicals in native tongue for the national progress: «The measure of people's cultural development is its press. The press is a mirror of the soul of the people, their cultural heritage, moral and material richness, social and economic income» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 8). Due to the editorial policy of Yu. Tarnovych, the columns of the newspaper now can tell us about many years of violence that has been planned and consistently implemented by numerous representatives of the Polish administration to supress the national consciousness of the Lemkos. In spite of the constant confiscation of individual articles, or even whole issues of the newspaper, the newspaper he edited desperately fought for the right of the Lemkos to be Ukrainian, informing their readers about the forms and methods of «de-nationalizing» of the most western ethnic group of our people.

Yu. Tarnovych himself became the most active contributor to his newspaper, writing on various topics that were united by the prob - lem of the national existence of the Lemkos in the Second Commonwealth. While reproducing the multifaceted nature of his work in «Nash Lemko», the editor later noted from the perspective of decades: «In order to fill the most important gaps of work, following the principles of a healthy Lemko state of mind, the editor signed all major political and public articles in «Nash Lemko» with his real name; literary and educational articles were signed by his family name of his mother - Beskid, household ones - by the name of his friend from young years, who died in the war during the Ukrainian War of Independence - Yuri Zemlyanyn, and all other articles were signed by the name of an the old landlord who had a talent for telling stories - Ostap Zubryd» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 12).

According to «Nash Lemko» columns, the national pressure of the Polish state was felt in all areas of the Ukrainian population from the mountainous terrain. The pressure was the most unbearable in the area of public self-organization. Representatives of the Polish administration of all levels - from soiectwo to the police and the representative of the fiscal service - paid particular attention to those Ruthenians who professed Ukrainian national ideology. In this case, the marker of the latter was the fact of peasants' subscription for «Nash Lemko».

Although the newspaper was published completely legally, and before it got into the hands of a reader, it went through meticulous censorship, subscribers to the publication inevitably got into the list of unreliable ones. Using various pretexts government officials often visited and punished these Lemkos for the smallest, usually entirely made up, offenses. Complaints about such visits were often included in the column of editorial mail, though mostly in censored form.

As the «Nash Lemko» files in the library of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv contains copies of the newspaper from the censorship committee, we have a chance to get a real picture of Lemkos' appeals to their newspaper. On the occasion of officials' pressure an anonymous correspondent complained: «From the time I subscribed for «Nash

Lemko», I was punished regularly. The police are treating me in a special way. [...] The police persecute all those who feel themselves Ukrainians, and the old people told me not to linger in politics, because to read the newspaper «Nash Lemko» is to be interested in great politics [...]. The living is unbearable here, denunciations, slanders, and everyday reality, but we believe in a better future» («Harni slova», 1934, p. 3).

The special subjects of the repressive policy of the Polish administration in Lemkivschyna were reading halls of «Prosvita» - the leaders of national education and culture. Government officials tried at all costs to find reasons that could close these centres of Ukrainian spirituality. There were numerous defamation cases against people who gave their homes to reading rooms, and when such were found, they falsified «evidence» of dangerous public behaviour («Chytalnia zahrozhuie», 1936, p. 9).

The most violent were the actions of the Polish administration in the educational field. In fact, the Polish state has abandoned its international obligations to give cultural autonomy to its national minorities, first of all, the most numerous one - Ukrainians. In a short time, it became clear to the officials that without total influence on the school it would be impossible to implement plans for the denationalization, and subsequently, the Polonization of the Rusyn population. Therefore, despite their promises, the Poles began a violent de-Ukrainia- nization of the Lemko school. First of all, they made the attempts to replace the Ukrainian influences at school with the Moskvophilic ones. According to «Nash Lemko» correspondence, Ukrainian ABC books were widely replaced by the Moscow textbooks. However, Lemkos were aware of the dangers of such a replacement in the elementary school of Ukrainian literary language by the Moskvophilic «iazychie». One of the newspaper's contributors noted: «Today, every Lemko knows that he can use his language can at his home, but the common Ukrainian literary language must prevail at the school. [...] [Lemkos] are demanding teaching in Ukrainian literary language - one that is taught in all Ukrainian schools because we are children of one Mother! This is not a declaration of single people, it is the will of all Lemkos» («My ne khochemo bukvariv», 1934, p. 3). Of course, this claim has also been repressed - it was substantially edited with a censor hand.

Another threat to the Lemkos national school was the forced replacement of Ukrainian teachers by the Polish ones. The former ones were transferred to schools with the predominant Polish contingent, while the latter were put in Ruthenian educational institutions to create necessary denationalizing effect. These teachers, not knowing the native language of the local population, taught Lemko children in Polish, despite the law providing for the right of instruction in their native language («Bida z lemkamy...», 1936, p. 8). This situation became the topic of many posts on the pages of «Nash Lemko», where it was explicitly stated that «a Pole-teacher is not different from a Pole- policeman» («Dytyna, yak i zhyttia», 1935, p. 4).

The sphere of church and religious life of the Lemko commu - nity, which, by the specificity of its tradition, has always been a reliable protection against the Polonization of Lemkos, was not neglected by the Polish administration. The religious policy of the Polish state was aimed at proving the Lemkos with the means of propaganda that they were «Uniate Poles». This propaganda became especially insisting from the spring of 1934, when a papal administrator for the Lemko Region was appointed in Rome. The editorial board of «Nash Lemko» kept telling its readers that the Ruthenians are Greek Catholics and this fundamentally differs them from the invaders: «As we can see, Lem- kivshchyna had a living connection only with the East. The claim that all Lemko churches were built by Polish gentry is also false. Church chronicles clearly state that the Lemkos themselves built churches together, and some churches were built by solectwo Lemkos» (Lemko, 1934, p. 4).

The Polish administration's attention was also drawn to the historical memory of the Lemkos. State officials have made considerable efforts to reduce Ukrainian influence on the processes of formation of the national consciousness of the Ruthenians. The Polish authorities did not pick up the means in this struggle - they tolerated the propaganda of the Moskvophilic vision of Ruthenians' past or tried to present them as denationalized Poles. Therefore, the repression of the editions that formed the Ukrainian optics of their past and future was quite expected. A vivid example here was «Nash Lemko», front pages of which suffered censorship interventions in the historical columns the most. Polish officials were in particular concerned about the memory of the short-lived statehood of Western Ukrainians and their heroic protection of the Western Ukra inian People's Republic. The annual commemoration in «Nash Lemko» concerning the proclamation of Unity on January 22, 1919, was constantly a subject to censorship confiscation. Thus, in one of the confiscated texts, this heroic day for the Ukrainians of Zbruch was highlighted in such a way: «On that memorable historical day, despite all the malicious allegations, the Ukrainian people bore witness to their spiritual unity and inseparability. On that day, we told the world that we - the Kuban and Dnipro, Volhyn and Polissia Ukrainians and those from far Podlasie and Kholmshchyna, Hutsul, Boyko, Lemko, Transcarpathia, Bukovyntsi and Besarabka - are children of one common Mother Ukraine, united by one desire, one faith, one idea» (Halych, 1936, p. 3).

Polish censors also sought to correct the canon of national heroes presented on the pages of «Nash Lemko». Particularly meticulous was their attention to the commemoration of the Dnipro figures on the pages of newspaper. Thus, when Mykhailo Hrushevsky died in November 1934 and the entire Western Ukrainian press responded to this sorrowful event for the nation (Telvak, 2008, pp. 358-377), the censor found it necessary to edit the content of the obituary mentioned in the newspaper.

The economic policy of the Polish state regarding the Lemko territories has caused no less criticism on the pages of Our Lemko. The authors of the newspaper drew attention to the barbaric approach of officials to the exploitation of the natural resources of the region, their unwillingness to invest in renewable projects. Particularly threatening was the case of uncontrolled deforestation, which brought the threat of natural disasters to the local population. For example, in one of the confiscated posts, this problem was outlined: «You were called Galician Siberia, Native Lemkivschyna. [...] The healing waters of your valves treat strangers now, your own children die in need, the forests of your beautiful tops disappear, the bridges are built of them on the far paths, and streams and debris become the roads for you» (Kosta- revych, 1934, p. 3).

Despite the galloping state terror against the Lemkos, Yu. Tar- novych noted that the Poles had failed to achieve their goal. This happened, first of all, thanks to the active educational work of the Lemko intelligentsia and such popular publications as «Nash Lemko». Its editor proudly stated: «The population of Lemkivshchyna stood firmly on the guard of their national rights and did not surrender. It was not afraid of any threats and heroically stood against its greatest danger» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 126).

As it is well-know, the story of «Nash Lemko» was short-lived - its last issue was published on the eve of the bloodiest of all world wars. Already in emigration in Canada, Yu. Tarnovych highly praised his own publishing offspring: «The Ukrainian, national magazine» Nash Lemko» happened to be a daily «nourishment» for the people of Lemkivshchyna; in that printed mirror they saw themselves, felt themselves and believed in each other. From the day the magazine appeared, the old, princely soul of the autochthon and the ruler of those Ukrainian lands, and from the cliffs of the Sribnolentnyi to the blue waters of Poprut and Dunayets, the Ukrainian heart began to beat in one stroke» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 8). Also, the editor rightly claimed: «The newspaper influenced the growing interest in the Lemko problems among the broad Ukrainian community, and in the second half of the 1930's, all the Ukrainian national press in Lviv supported «Nash Lemko» and published articles about Lemkivshchyna» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 9).

The Polish national policy depicted above was one of the factors behind the weakness and swift absorption of the Commonwealth of Poland by Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, according to Yu. Tarnovych, Poland's another division between Hitler and Stalin did not become a lesson for the Poles and a reason for reflection on the causes of this situation. On the contrary, after the German occupation of part of the Lemko terrains, the Polish-Ukrainian antagonism, inherited from the former masters, took on new cruel forms. As a witness of the events of the time, the publicist set out to recreate the tragedy of Polish- Ukrainian relations in the 1940s. Recognizing the complexity of his plan, he noted: «The historian's task is difficult: s/he should not worry; neither to cause nor to take away anything as s/he wishes; s/he must write only what has happened and rely on true sources» (Yuliian Beskyd, 1954, p. 123).

Taking into account the abovementioned facts, Yu. Tarnovych supported every fact and every event with substantial evidence. The outbreak of World War II was marked by Polish intentions related to attracting fascist terrorist attention to its Ukrainian neighbours. According to the orders of the German occupying power, all available

military equipment - weapons and ammunition - should have been given to the police. Failure to comply with this order led to the death penalty without any trial. Therefore, Ukrainian-phobic minded Poles picked up purposefully such things to their Ukrainian neighbours, at the same time informing the Gestapo or the police, which in their grassroots remained Polish. According to Yu. Tarnovych, many Lemkos were destroyed in this way, without trial and investigation. Outlining the horror of the local population, the author wrote: «The people did not know where and from whom to seek rescue. Polish policemen were far more cruel to the Ukrainian population of Lemkivshchyna, being supported by Gestapo, who did not doubt and the slightest denunciation from the Polish police led to the detainment of the accused or s/he was taken to concentration camps or even shot on the spot» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 60). However, Lemkos, as Yu. Tarnovych argues, once again demonstrated «a heroic stance», refusing the call of the Bolshevik agitators to go to Moscow's «paradise».

Lemkos suffered even more in the last years of German-Soviet confrontation. The Soviet and fascist troops and the diverse Polish guerrillas acted against the aboriginal inhabitants of Zakerzonia with all their might and ruthlessness. The bandit practices of the guerrillas were even more cruel than those of totalitarian powers. But it was absolutely impossible for the Lemkos to live after the Bolsheviks and the Polish Communists planned a large-scale resettlement campaign to expel the native inhabitants of Zakerzonia from their native lands. It was Yu. Tarnovych's book «At the Burning Grounds of Zakerzo- nia» that became the most complete work in the first post-war decade, where the genesis and the course of the Lemkos genocide was reconstructed with great detail and operation «Wisla» became its last infamous chord. The author explained the reasons for writing his book: «Human memory is short, human life is even shorter, but nothing should be forgotten from the life of the people. With that in mind, we proclaim the historical documents of the events and losses suffered by Lemkivshchyna in our present day; by what methods and by what ways the enemies of Ukraine destroyed our homeland, one of the best branches of the Ukrainian Lands, recently rich and full of happy life, and today a wasteland» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 91).

Reproducing the Bolsheviks and the Poles' motivation to destroy the Lemkos, the author noted: «Stalin presented Lemkivschyna to the

Poles and he relocated the Ukrainian population from the Lemkivschyna by force to the East. He did it not because of great love for the Ukrainian people and for the Ukrainian nation. [...] Dzhugashvili thought carefully about his strategy for the destruction of Lemkivshchyna. Having made an agreement for giving this Ukrainian land to the Poles as a present, he gave the possibility to the Poles to deal bloodily with the Lemkivshchyna, which the Poles could not themselves defeat, obtain and assimilate or de-nationalize for centuries» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, pp. 77-78).

In implementing this crime against humanity, Stalin aimed to set off the Polish chauvinists on the Lemkos, known for their strong national consciousness, whose lands were the centre of a rebel movement of liberation. At the same time, the expectation was that the Poles would first and foremost destroy the Lemko intelligentsia, and without their leaders, the simple Ruthenians would be much more manipulated and less likely to resist measures to resettle them on Soviet lands. «And the Poles have accomplished their «heroic» task with 100 % accuracy! - proves Yu. Tarnovych. - How to explain killing hundreds of defenceless people of Lemkivschyna - there has not been a single trial for the Poles, who have been torturing the Ukrainian population of Lemkivshchyna for days and nights, cutting out people's eyes alive, burying them alive, tying people to horse tails, carving cros - ses on their breasts, hitting young children heads on an iron pole in one hit - killing hundreds of Ukrainian children. Thus, the Poles fulfilled the will of their patron and the benefactor, who gave them all the riches of the Lemko region - the will and order of the Asian: Dzhugashvili Stalin» (Yulian Beskid, 1954, p. 79).

Further, literally with chronic accuracy, Yu. Tarnovych reconstructed the Lemko «Golgotha» over half a hundred pages during 1944- 1946. He showed by numerous examples the cooperation of the Polish and Soviet communists in the barbaric process of subjugation, destruction or expulsion of Lemkos from their native lands. «The tragedy of Lemkivshchyna, the equal to which is difficult to find is the tragedy of the entire Ukrainian people» - the researcher said (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 79).

It should be noted that for his study about the recent tragic times of the Ukrainian Lemkivshchina Yu. Tarnovych conducted a serious and extensive research work. Along with his own observations, he questioned the Lemkos who, having witnessed the genocide of their people, survived and moved across the ocean. As a result, he managed to reconstruct the terrible martyrologic image of the Ukrainian Zaker- zonia - systematically destroyed and depopulated. Thus, even during the frontline actions in the fall of 1944, the Bolsheviks deliberately destroyed Ukrainian villages, even those that were between the Polish ones, so that the homeless population would sooner agree to move to the USSR. The author provides numerous examples. For example, the village of Chaszyn in the Sianotski county, which lay between two Polish Tarnavs, was burned down only where the Ukrainians lived. The same fate was prepared for the villages of Mokry, Morokhiv, Zavadka Morokhivska, Kamiane, Polonna, Sredne Velyka and others. At the same time, neighbouring Polish villages remained intact by a military outrage.

Reconstructing the mechanism of the Lemko genocide, Yu. Tar- novych wrote: «They [Bolsheviks] used the existing Ukrainian-Polish antagonism, resorted to chauvinistic and bandit Polish elements, advised them to expel Lemkos from the Polish state. After that the NKVD created Polish gangs and ordered them to plunder and torture the Ukrainian population so that it would soon abandon their villages and leave for the Ukrainian SSR. Bandit groups, created under the initiative of the NKVD, were followed by all sorts of criminal Polish types - thieves and scum gangs, to benefit from wartime and plunder other people's property. And Lemkos had such property, so everyone attacked them and every village where possible» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 82).

Due to such a mechanism of repression, in the early spring of 1945, various sorts of Polish bandits attacked Ukrainian villages every day and night, plundering everything that had any worth, beating and killing innocent peasants. At the same time, on every occasion, the bandits ordered the terrorized Ukrainians to move to Soviet Ukraine, because there, as they said, was «Polish land». More conscious peasants, intellectuals, and those unwilling to leave their homes under any circumstances received letters from the Poles and Bolsheviks stating the deadline for the forced departure. Failure to comply with this order led to the death penalty. Lemkos realized the threat immediately as they saw the fate of their families and relatives. The shootings of

Polish bandits could be heard every night and they saw the burned down by communist barbarians Lemko settlements.

It is noticeable that the Soviet troops did not prevent Polish bandits from terrorizing the Ukrainians in Lemkivshchyna. On the contrary, representatives of the Soviet administration, pretending to pity the Ukrainians, in every way persuaded them to flee to the east from the historical oppressors. Yu. Tarnovych proved in numerous examples the connection of the Poles and Bolsheviks in the expulsion of Lemkos from their native lands. That was a banal scheme, where the villages that were not lured by Soviet advertising and refused to leave their homes were attacked by Polish bandits at night, and the next day they, as representatives of the migration commissions, again insisted on leaving their homes, hinting at futility and danger of resi - stance.

Reconstructing the geography of the atrocities supported by the Stalinist authorities of the Polish guerrillas and Army Krajova soldiers aimed at the Ukrainian Lemkos, Yu. Tarnovych noted: «The strongest Polish gangs, known for their atrocities against the Ukrainian population, were recruited in the following Polish villages of the Romanov region: Balutianka, Klymivka, Lyubatova of Krosno and Doshno County, Hlyboke, Wojtyakhova, Dovhe of Senik County. The gangs of those villages, soaked in hatred of the Ukrainian population and thirsty for profit, following the orders of the Bolshevik migration commissions, treated the Ukrainian masses very horribly» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 84).

Further on, the author, summarizing numerous witness statements, recreated the terrifying picture of the systematic barbaric des - truction of the Lemkos and their material world. Consecutively - by counties and villages, with specific dates and figures. He presented an impressive number of victims - human and material. As a result of Tamovych's study, a picture of the true Lemko genocide emerged, which has not yet received its proper assessment. The author himself was shocked by the cynical lies of communist propaganda about these bloody events, spread through various news channels in the late 1940s - in the first half of the 1950s: «Today, the Moscow-Bolshevik and Polish-Bolshevik shamelessly brag about the «happy and joyful life» of their citizens. But isn't it a barbaric mockery? When here, in every village of Lemkivshchyna, there were cases of mass murder, robbery, arson, or when state robbers with weapons in their hands demanded from the Lemkos to give them crops, which they did not have in general» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, pp. 97-98).

But even among these unprecedented atrocities, there were instances of unspeakable cruelty that made shiver even accustomed to war crimes witnesses. As an example, Yu. Tarnovych for the first time thoroughly reconstructs the tragedy of the Lemko village of Pavlokom, which became a symbol of the genocide implemented by the Poles. Appealing to numerous testimonies, the author consistently reproduces the course of events that led to the complete barbaric destruction of this picturesque corner of the Lemko region and its population (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, pp. 102-105). At the same time, showing Polish atrocities, the author invariably mentioned those Poles who did not succumb to mass anti-Ukrainian hysteria and remained humane even in such cruel circumstances: «Fortunately, there were also those Poles, who, while exposing themselves to danger, gave shelter to families and people» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 104).

By expelling the Lemkos from their native lands or eliminating the most conscious citizens, the Polish invaders continued to demonstrate their barbaric essence. Yu. Tarnovych describes the actions of the new owners of the Lemko terrains: «By evicting the Ukrainian population from their homes over the middle part of the Danube and Poprad - the Poles by all means took care of the destruction of any remnants that would indicate that there were once Ukrainian settlements or Ukrainian churches. Bandits attacked those village people who remained; broke down houses for fuel; they destroyed farm buildings, drilled fences, took down even piles of wood on roads and demolished road signs and brought them to their Polish estates. [...] This is how the Poles took revenge on the Ukrainians, expelled from their native lands by Kremlin executioners, who turned their homes into the ashes and desert. And we must know that nothing is endless in history. Therefore, the Poles will pay a great price for Ukrainian ruins» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, pp. 122-123).

Summarizing his study of the immediate and delayed consequences of the Lemko genocide, Y. Tarnovych noted: «Nowadays, without any connection with the native land, it is difficult to give a complete picture of the moral and material losses caused by Polish- Moscow hands in the whole of Zakerzonia; one thing is incontestable: material losses can always be fixed, but as for moral ones - no human help will do better. The very fact that the Poles and Muscovites killed the defenceless Ukrainian population in Zakerzonia causes the greatest moral losses of Ukraine and brings the eternal shame to Poland and Muscovy» (Yuliian Beskid, 1954, p. 3).

Conclusions

The conducted research makes it possible to conclude that the richness of Yu. Tarnovych's creative heritage is a problem of Polish-Ukrainian relations. At the same time, it is obvious that a prominent publicist covers this difficult topic not from a narrow national position, but from the standpoint of universal values. He has demonstrated in many examples that ignoring the ordinary human rights of the weaker side by the stronger side, in the long run, destroys t he latter, because barbarity towards one's neighbour produces the energy of self-destruction. Recreating the tragedy of the Lemkos in the 1930s and 1940s, the researcher does not hide the actions of Polish friends of the Ukrainian people, who at the cost of their lives saved their neighbours from the horror of the recent genocide. Even though such testimonies were rare, they are the ones, as Yu. Tarnovych rightly highlighted, that give hope for a Polish-Ukrainian consensus at the cost of restoring historical justice and honouring the memory of innocent victims. The analysis shows the prospects of the further appeal to the international discourse of the creative heritage of Yuliian Tarnovych - a prominent Lemko personality, which should become a key component of his intellectual biography.

References

1. Bida z lemkamy... [Trouble with Lemkos...]. (1936). Nasz Lemko - Our Lemko, 14, 8 [in Ukrainian].

2. Chytalnia zahrozhuie publichnii bezpetsi [Reading room threatens public safety]. (1936). Nasz Lemko - Our Lemko, 22, 9 [in Ukrainian].

3. Dytyna, yak i zhyttia, ne dast sebe oshukaty [The child, like life, will not be deluded]. (1935). Nasz Lemko - Our Lemko, 24, 4 [in Ukrainian].

4. Halych, Ya. (1936). Storinka nashoho nedavnoho mynuloho [The page ofour recent past]. Nasz Lemko - Our Lemko, 3, 3 [in Ukrainian].

5. Harni slova i nasha diisnist [Good words and our reality]. (1934). Nasz Lemko - Our Lemko, 18, 3 [in Ukrainian].

6. Kostarevych, O. (1934).'. Nasz Lemko - Our Lemko, 1, 3 [in Ukrainian].

7. Lemko. (1934). V oboroni istorychnoi pravdy [In the defense of historical truth]. (1934). Nasz Lemko - Our Lemko, 7, 4 [in Ukrainian].

8. «My ne khochemo bukvariv» [«We do not want the primers»]. (1934). Nasz Lemko - Our Lemko, 20, 3 [in Ukrainian].

9. Nakonechnyi, V. (2017). Rusynska spilnota mizhvoiennoi Polshchi u vysvit- lenni «Nashoho lemka» [Ruthenian community of inter-war Poland in the view of «Nash Lemko»]. Skhidnoievropeiskyi istorychnyi visnyk - East European Historical Bulletin, 5, 129-137 [in Ukrainian].

10. Savka, M. (1999). Tarnovych Beskyd Yuliian [Tarnovych Beskyd Yuliian]. Ukrainska zhurnalistyka v imenakh - Ukrainian journalism in names, 6, 327-330

11. Telvak, V. (2008). Tvorcha spadshchyna Mykhaila Hrushevskoho v otsinkakh suchasnykiv (kinets XIX - 30-ti roky XX stolittia) [Creative heritage of Mykhailo Hrushevsky in the estimations of his contemporaries (the end of the 19th and the 30th years of the 20th century)]. Kyiv- Drohobych [in Ukrainian].

12. Yuliian Beskyd [Tarnovych, Yu.]. (1954). Na zharyshchakh Zakerzonnia [On the backlashes of Zakerzon]. Toronto [in Ukrainian].

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