Social Anthropology of filling the Void: Poland and Ukraine after World War II, Interview

Social Anthropology of filling the Void: Poland and Ukraine after World War II

The central concept of the research project is «social void», a phenomenon that was characteristic of Central and Eastern Europe during and immediately after World War II as a result of mass ethnic cleansing, political revolutions, forced displacement and migration. The project focuses both on the material dimension of post-war social change (e.g. acquisition of property) and the subjective sphere of social practices and relationships. His goal was to examine the processes of replacing the missing elements of social life with local communities of Poland and Ukraine. The interviews conducted as part of the project show how the void was filled after the social groups (e.g. landowners, wealthy peasants), representatives of ethnic communities (Jews, Poles, Ukrainians) and professional groups (e.g. shoemakers, pharmacists, doctors, or more broadly – craftsmen, intelligence) were evicted by the war and post-war changes. The analysis concerns changes in the ownership structure, economic dysfunction, transformations of social and cultural practices, as well as changes in relations and social norms. The conversations archived at the Center were recorded in a dozen of locations in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions by an interdisciplinary team of Polish-Ukrainian researchers. The research was carried out in small towns and villages, combining the methodology of microhistory and biographic interview as part of oral history. In total, almost 150 interviews were collected in Ukraine, of which 40 are currently available in UStories collection. The conversations recorded in Poland as part of this bilateral study are preserved in Warsaw at Archiwum Historii Mówionej. The project coordinator is Anna Wylegała, a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Project is financed by the National Humanities Development Program, registration number 12H 13 0584 82. Galyna Bodnar worked with the materials before their publication.

Female, born 1932

An interview with a native and permanent resident of the town Tovste coming from an Ukrainian-Polish family. The focus of the interview is shifted towards the post-war life of the narrator at the end of the 1940ies and 1950ies.

Female, born 1934

An interview with a native resident of the village Tataryntsi, now Lanivtsi district of Ternopil oblast. The interview provides much information about education at the medical and obstetric school in Kremenets, adaptation of the girl in the new place, post-war arrangements, and work at a hospital.

Female, born 1927

An interview with a native resident of the village Vyshnivchuk, now Terebovlya district. The narrator tells in detail about the missing Jewish section of the city and focuses on the aggravation of the Ukrainian-Polish opposition during the war and the demographic changes after it.

Female, born 1927

An interview with a woman born in the village Ushnya Olesko, now Zolochiv district. The woman was born to a Ukrainian-Polish family; she told about the pre-war village community, numerous Polish and several Jewish families in particular. She recalls the eviction of fellow villagers, forced collectivization, post-war repressions of the Soviet government.

Female, born 1923

An interview with a native and permanent resident of the village Barysh, now Buchach district of Ternopil oblast. The interviewee’s daughter was present and constantly joined the conversation.

Female, born 1931

An interview with the resident of the village Barysh, now Buchach district of Ternopil oblast, contains a detailed history of the interviewee’s family and fellow villagers.

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