Oleksandr Bilytskyi, Head of the Zvanivka Village Military Administration in the Donetsk region, an ethnic Boiko, about the history of his ancestors’ forced relocation to Donbas, the community’s heroic struggle against the occupiers and the return of people to the area

By Dmytro Syniak

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The Zvanivka community in the Donetsk region lies at the heart of the Bilohorivka ledge, which has confidently defended itself against the invasion of the russian thugs since the start of the full-scale invasion. The locals have played an important role in this defence. These people are not ordinary – their ancestors were forcibly resettled here from western Ukraine in 1951. At that time, the Soviet Union transferred part of the ethnic Boiko land to Poland in exchange for a similar piece of Polish territory. Thus, in the heart of the Donbas, three villages of genuine Boiko heritage emerged. These villages still stand out with their rich Ukrainian language, strong national traditions and deep religious beliefs. As soon as the ban on the Greek Catholic Church was lifted in 1990, several Greek Catholic churches and a monastery appeared in the Boiko villages. In 2022, the Donetsk Boikos joined the ranks of many military units and defended their homes from the enemy. Oleksandr Bilytskyi, Head of the Zvanivka Village Military Administration, who was also Head of the Village Council from 2016 to 2020, told Decentralisation how the community lives today.

 

Three Boiko villages in the heart of Donbas

 

This story seems unbelievable. In 1951, the governments of the Soviet Union and socialist Poland suddenly agreed to a mutual exchange of territories covering almost 0.5 million square kilometres. Stalin once again wanted to redraw Europe and ‘level the borders’. He launched an informal initiative to exchange part of the Lviv-Volyn coal basin, then Polish territory, for the USSR-controlled Nizhne-Ustrytske oil fields. The exchange was conditional on the complete eviction of the local population. The ‘leader of the nations’ was not interested in the fate of the people.

As a result, about 32,000 Ukrainians were forcibly deported from the Boiko region to other regions of Ukraine within six months. The population of the large villages of Liskuvate and Korosno, which are now on Polish territory, 3km from the Smilnytsia border crossing, were sent to three villages in the Bakhmut district: Verkhniokamianske, Zvanivka and Rozdolivka. Zvanivka received the largest number of families: about 360. Therefore, in 2017 it became the administrative centre of the community, which also included the Verkhniokamianske village council. (Rozdolivka later joined the Soledar community). In total, the community encompasses six villages.

 

Map of the territories exchanged between the USSR and Poland in 1951

 

‘One day, my grandmother and her family were loaded onto freight trains with all the belongings they could carry and were brought here, to the banks of the Bakhmutka River,’ says Oleksandr Bilytskyi, Head of the Zvanivka Village Military Administration. ‘No housing was built for them, and they were forced to crowd into the homes of local residents, who were also not asked for permission by the Soviet authorities. Each family was simply ordered to take in a certain number of displaced persons. So, the family of my ancestors on my father’s side lived in one room for several years until they built their own house...

As time went on, the other Boiko families also built their houses and began to play a central role in the life of all three of the villages in the Bakhmut district to which they had been sent. The main feature of all three Boiko villages was the Christmas vertep (Christmas amateur theatre). In all Bakhmut district they were only in Zvanivka, Verkhniokamianske and Rozdolivka. The Boiko people managed to carry this tradition through 40 years of life in the Soviet Donetsk region, where any manifestation of religion was mercilessly fought against. And with Ukraine’s declaration of independence, the verteps returned to what they were before the Soviet regime came to power: vibrant. They began to be overwhelmed by satire, and each year the scripts of the plays were rewritten to reflect the current situation. Thus, in the last years before the full-scale invasion, the constant characters in Boiko’s vertep plays were Putin (King Herod), Metropolitan Kirill (Pharisee), and ‘apalchentsy’ (soldiers). The All-Ukrainian Festival of Christmas Carols, which took place in the community in 2020, brought together more than 30 creative teams and several thousand spectators.

Today, the people of the Zvanivka community are scattered all over the world. Just like 70 years ago, the Boikos were forced to leave their homes and travel to far-off places. We began our conversation with Oleksandr Bilytskyi with the fate of the displaced families.

 

Mariia Styrynets’ resettlement card from 1951. Photo: National Museum of the History of Ukraine in WWII

 

A sign commemorating the deportation of Ukrainians in 1944-1951. Photo taken on 6 September 2019, when the 75th anniversary of the deportation was commemorated in Zvanivka

 

Carollers in Zvanivka. January 2022

 

A desert in place of a thriving community

 

How many people has the community lost?

Our community was rather small, but capable: there were 2,500 inhabitants in 6 villages. Most of them were ethnic Boikos. They spoke only Ukrainian, kept their traditions alive, and celebrated Christmas with verteps. I am a Boiko myself, and my grandmother, my father and I used to make verteps. People used to come from all over the Donetsk region to see our performances. Now there are no verteps anymore because there are no people, because our community has been in the zone of active hostilities for three years. Almost everyone has left, and not more than a hundred residents, mostly pensioners, remain. And it is becoming increasingly difficult to take care of them.

Why is it more difficult? Because of the increased shelling?

Not just because of that. The flow of humanitarian aid from various international organisations is decreasing every year. Recent changes in the legislation and policies of charitable organisations often deprive people of the right to receive payments and humanitarian aid. For example, if a family has UAH 9,500 per person per month, if one of the able-bodied family members is unemployed, or if school-age children in the family study offline rather than online, the IDP status is lost. And people who have lost everything receive nothing. So, compared to the first year of the full invasion, it is much harder for everyone. The community does not have enough financial resources to help everyone, because we are heavily subsidised due to the full-scale invasion. These hundred pensioners live solely on the humanitarian aid we bring them. It usually consists of bread, food parcels and cooked breakfasts. We have to get all this from somewhere and without the help of charitable organisations, we are struggling. We have almost no tax revenue: we have only one entrepreneur left who has already relocated his company but continues to pay taxes here.

What is the extent of the destruction?

I will not give any specific figures, lest they be used in one way or another by the enemy. I will only say that active hostilities have resulted in the almost complete destruction of the private sector and municipal buildings. There are hardly any intact buildings left. The shelling does not stop for a single day, it goes on around the clock. If we are lucky, there is a break for a few hours. This has turned our once thriving community into a desert. It is impossible to live in such conditions, so most people have left.

Why have the pensioners you mentioned not done so?

Because of their age, they do not really value their own lives and rely on fate. ‘Whatever happens, happens.’ On the other hand, they are afraid of going into the unknown, afraid of being alone and not being needed. They say that ‘it is better to die at home than to wander the world’. Of course, we tell them that we will support them in every way we can, and the conditions in the various shelters are very good. But those who, despite everything, have not yet left, do not listen to us very much. And that is a pity, because russian missiles and shells have already taken the lives of many of our residents and left others crippled. Meanwhile, all this could have been avoided if they had managed to leave for safer territory in Ukraine in time.

How does the military administration help its own people who have agreed to relocation to areas which are relatively safe?

One of our most urgent tasks is to care for and support people in difficult situations. We are trying to solve this problem as far as we can: we are travelling everywhere, meeting with colleagues and representatives of international organisations. We are actively looking for modular houses that could bring our residents together. Thanks to our efforts, many residents of the community receive food parcels and household chemicals, as well as financial support through our programmes. We also look for available rooms in old people’s homes throughout Ukraine to accommodate our elderly residents. This search is part of our daily work.

 

A seminar in the youth space of the Zvanivka Club. 2021

 

Interior of the Zvanivka Club

 

Children performing on the porch of the Zvanivka Club at the Independence Day concert, 24 August 2021

 

Remains of the club after the russian missile attacks

 

‘We help the army, no matter how hard it is for us...’

 

Does the community help the army?

This is our first priority! I will not go into detail about how we are helping, but believe me, we are doing everything we can: we are building defence structures, transferring funds, and donating our assets. We have also sent the best men and women to the army: many of our residents, both young and old, have volunteered to join the army. Our people have hot Boiko blood: they are tenacious, stubborn, tough and usually good fighters. However, we understand that in order for our fellow villagers to fight well, they need help: both with food and ammunition. No matter how difficult it is for us, we do it. All of our residents who wear military uniforms receive annual financial support from us – both active military personnel and veterans. New recruits receive money when they sign a contract. The community also supports the families of the military, and when we find an opportunity to send children to a summer camp for recreation, the children of the military are always a priority. Last year, we organised three ten-day trips to western Ukraine and one abroad, and we received very positive feedback. However, it is much more difficult to organise such trips than it used to be as our children are now scattered all over Ukraine.

Do you have any plans for the restoration of the community that can be implemented after the end of the war?

There are no specific plans, because one cannot plan much under shelling. We need the hostilities to stop, then we will discuss the restoration. Besides, the budget is no longer enough for anything. We are now fully subsidised and can only rely on the state. The farms are not working. We spend all we can on defence.

Do you participate in the Shoulder to Shoulder: Cohesive Communities Project?

Not yet, although we are planning to. Perhaps this is not as relevant to our community as it is to others, because even without this project, we have 16 memoranda of cooperation with other communities in Ukraine. And we receive very specific assistance from them, primarily humanitarian, but also legal, professional, and material. First of all, I am talking about help for our residents who are internally displaced. In partner communities, they have the opportunity to receive all administrative services, to use certain infrastructure, to receive humanitarian aid, to name just a few.

What challenges are you facing as a community leader?

One of the most important issues is the funding of social programmes for internally displaced people. I would not single out vulnerable groups among them, but would help everyone, because people have lost everything they have accumulated over a lifetime. Another problem is the bureaucracy involved in getting international aid. You have to register in certain registers, you have to file reports. What is the point of all this? I am all for openness, but the bureaucracy can be reduced by at least half. Otherwise, there will be unnecessary delays.

 

Almost all houses in Zvanivka community now look like this

 

‘We are a community that people want to return to...’

 

In your opinion, how can people be brought back after the end of hostilities?

This will not be as difficult to do in our community as in others. Because most of our residents want to come back. We are constantly analysing this and carrying out surveys. But the most important thing is that the entrepreneurs, especially the farmers, are ready to return. They are even willing to demine the fields at their own expense, if necessary. And if we also have funds to rebuild infrastructure and housing, people will definitely come back. So, it all depends on financial resources, that is, on government support... After we joined the decentralisation reform, our community literally blossomed. So, we already have experience of restoration.

What do you mean by that? What did you restore?

As I was the head of the community from 2016 to 2020, I was one of the initiators of the amalgamation. Now I am proud of it. In villages where nothing had been done for a long time, large infrastructure projects began to be implemented. People no longer travelled to Bakhmut to get their documents done: everything was done on the spot – our administrative service centre issued not only certificates but also passports! We had our own outpatient clinic, renovated a kindergarten and three of our schools, and improved their facilities many times over. We connected Zvanivka to the central water supply and restored the supply to Verkhniokamianka. This included replacing 16km of water pipes in Zvanivka and 8km in Verkhniokamianka. Our public utility company received new equipment and started to collect rubbish and remove illegal dumps. We had a tourist route set up by an IDP from Donetsk: tourists could go rafting on the Bakhmutka river, ride bicycles, and taste traditional Boiko dishes. A lot of things were done. And we can do it all again. If only we had the resources to make it happen, and if only there were victory! I also believe that communities like ours should be included in a separate register when it comes to restoration. After all, we have very little left here, and almost everything needs to be restored. Many other frontline communities are in a much better situation. But people do not want to go back to all communities. They want to come back to us. This means that the Boiko villages should remain on the map of Ukraine!

 

The last residents of the Zvanivka community with the food parcels they received from the military administration