Zalishchyky tragedy. Ukraine's thorny way to independence

Hello everyone everywhere! Today I want to tell you a very serious and tragic story. I don't want my blog to be just entertaining reading but make people think and learn things about the world. My story will tell you about horrible times that my country had to go through on its way to independence. I bet all of you have heard about soviet intelligence service KGB. In all Hollywood action movies, you could see a confrontation between FBI agents and brick-like looking russians with a horrible accent. If there was a villain in a movie most likely he or she was a soviet KGB agent. I can tell you that such a choice was not accidental. The reason behind it was not just the fact of the Cold War. I will try to explain to you why and not bore you too much. To do it I will use a historical event that took place in the town where I have lived for more than 30 years. Soviet KGB was created in 1954, well, not literally created but renamed into KGB. This agency is a successor of such organizations as Cheka (Bolshevik security agency, formed to identify and eradicate counter-revolutionary activity), OGPU (or secret police), NKVD (The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the interior ministry of the soviet union) and MGB (ministry of state affairs). All of the above-mentioned organizations and ministries were created to control behavior of soviet people inside the soviet union and to spy after political leaders in other countries. When I say "to control behavior of soviet citizens" I mean the application of all thinkable and unthinkable methods one can imagine. The thing is that after the revolution of 1917 and the fall of the Russian Empire a lot of countries that were forcibly united under the russian tsardom aspired to become independent and gain back their sovereignty. It comprised of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Finland, the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), the Baltic Republics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), and significant parts of Poland and Turkey. All of them dreamt about independence and Ukraine was not an exception. However, the Bolsheviks that overthrown the tsar Nicolas II did not plan to let all these countries go and build their states. On the contrary, they strengthened their grip by creating all these above-mentioned organizations to control and punish those who had different views and beliefs. Ukraine had always fought for its independence, but, unfortunately, either our oppressors were stronger or our allies were cowards and would give up on us. As a result, thousands of Ukrainians ended up in prisons and were either executed or repressed to remote areas of Siberia. One of many tragedies that happened right before World War II flooded the European continent unfolded in the town Zalishchyky. Right before Stalin understood that Hitler was not going to stick to any of their agreements and the soviet-nazi war was about to break out the prisons all over the soviet union were overcrowded with political activists. As of the beginning of June 1941, there were 72 768 prisoners on the premises that were meant for 30 753 detainees. The majority of prisoners in Western Ukraine were people that participated in the movement for liberation and independence and were captured by the red army during raids in the 1939-1940s. Since the soviet authorities were in a rush in June 1941 all prisoners were supposed to be divided into two big groups - those who were supposed to be executed and those who were subject to repressions. 23 236 people were meant to be transported to GULAG camps (the Soviet network of forced labor camps) but the soviets didn't have 778 cargo rail cars and the lightening-fast offensive of the German army turned all this operation into chaos. The "evacuation" of the detainees was fulfilled only in a handful of towns and the majority of prisoners never made it to their destination. The town of Zalishchyky sits on the bank of the river Dnister. Due to the landscape of the canyon both bridges across the river a pretty tall constructions. The railway bridge looks really impressive.

At the beginning of July 1941, this bridge was destroyed by the soviets in fear of quickly approaching German troops. And then to both edges were brought cargo rail cars, 14 on each side with 50-70 prisoners in each of them. They were mostly young people from Bukovyna, Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. The NKVD officers doused the cars with petrol, set them on fire and pushed them off the ruined bridge ends. Dnister rapids made it impossible for anyone to survive. In Moldovan town of Vadul lui Vodă, miles down the stream, local inhabitants collected bodies of the assassinated whose hands were tied behind with wire. There is a mass grave that commemorates the people and the events of those horrible times. Today, we have our independence back and we can freely talk about the events of the past. People of my town try to remember about those events and crimes of the soviet regime.

A sign pointing in the direction of the commemoration spot for the victims of Zalishchyky tragedy

The cross to commemorate the victims. Every year a special memorial service takes place next to it.

Events like this should always be in human memory because if we remember about them there is chance we will try to prevent them in our future. Stay safe!