Danylo Shumuk
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| Danylo Shumuk Данило Шумук |
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| Occupation | Poet, writer, and political activist |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
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Influenced
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Danylo Lavrentiyovych Shumuk (Ukrainian: Данило Лаврентійович Шумук, last name pronounced shoo-mook) - b. December 30, 1914 in village Boremschyna, Russian Empire, now in Volyn Oblast, Ukraine - d. 21 May 2004 in Krasnoarmiisk, Ukraine - was a Ukrainian political activist who served a total of 42 years imprisoned by three different states, Second Polish Republic, Nazi Germany and Soviet Union.
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[edit] Living in the Second Polish Republic
In 1918 in what now is western Ukraine, the Ukrainian forces fought in the Polish-Ukrainian War, but the Ukrainians in Galicia were alienated after what they saw as a compromise in the Paris Peace Conference with Poland. The Ukrainian People's Republic delegation could not gain recognition at the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the World War. The forces of the exiled government of the Ukrainian People's Republic fared poorly during Polish-Soviet War where they formed a late alliance with Poland and supported the latter's unsuccessful Kiev Offensive. According to the Peace of Riga which ended the war, the combined territories of the Ukrainian and West Ukrainian People's Republics end up split again between the Ukrainian SSR in the east, and Poland in the west (Galicia and part of Volhynia).
The ethnic policies in the inter-war Poland were directed towards the Polonization and cultural assimilation of ethnic minorities contrary to the international obligation Poland had to grant the autonomy to ethnic Ukrainian territories[1]. Hence, it was no surprise that significant tensions between Poles and Ukrainians could only increase in such climate.
When he was 17, he began his struggle against the Polish control of the area. In 1933, he was arrested by Polish police four times and held for short terms. In 1934, he was arrested by Polish police and held in jail in Kovel until he was sentenced in 1935, to eight-year term for his role in the underground Communist Party of Western Ukraine. He served his term in a prison in Lomza. In 1938 under an amnesty for political prisoners, his sentence was reduced by a third. In the spring of the following year, he was transferred to a jail in Bialystok, and on May 24, 1939, he was released.
[edit] Living under Soviet Government
On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany, taking the allies by surprise. The two governments announced the agreement merely as a non-aggression treaty. As a secret appendix reveals, however, they had actually agreed to partition Poland between themselves and divide Eastern Europe into Soviet and German spheres of influence. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which has been described as a license for war, was a key factor in Hitler’s decision to invade Poland
Initially, the Soviet rule gained much support, of the non-Polish population largely alienated by the nationalist policies of the Second Polish Republic. Much of the Ukrainian population initially welcomed the unification with the rest of Ukraine[2] which wasn't achieved in 1919 when their attempt for self-determination in areas contested with Poland failed, while the rest of Ukraine fell to Bolshevik forces, forming the Ukrainian SSR, the constituent republic of the Soviet Union.
During the round of repressions that followed the Soviet takeover, Danylo's older brother Anton was arrested as "enemy of the people" since he worked for the Polish National Railway.
On 15 May 1941 the Soviet authorities arrested Danylo Shumuk as a brother of an enemy of the people. From the prison he was sent into one of the Red Army Penal military units, the formations assigned some of the most deadly tasks.[3]
[edit] Living under German Occupation
His unit was disarmed by the Soviet Command and, being unarmed, Shumuk was taken prisoner. He was kept in a POW camp in the town of Khorol in the Poltava Oblast, but he managed to escape.
[edit] Living under Ukrainian SSR government
In 1953 when Stalin died, Shumuk was one of the leaders of prison revolt called the Norilsk Uprising. Outbreaks like these throughout the GULAG led to a wide-ranging release of prisoners[4].
In 1970 Shumuk shared a prison cell with Eduard Kuznetsov for five years.
When Andrei Sakharov accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 he said:
Here in this hall I should just like to mention the names of some of the internees I am acquainted with. As you were told yesterday, I would ask you to remember that all prisoners of conscience and all political prisoners in my country share with me the honor of the Nobel Prize. Here are some of the names that are known to me: Plyushch, Bukovsky, Glusman, Moros, Maria Seminoova, Nadeshda Svetlishnaya, Stefania Shabatura, Irina Klynets-Stasiv, Irina Senik, Niyola Sadunaite, Anait Karapetian, Osipov, Kronid Ljubarsky, Shumuk, Vins, Rumachek, Khaustov, Superfin, Paulaitis, Simutis, Karavanskiy, Valery, Martshenko, Shuchevich, Pavlenkov, Chernoglas, Abanckin, Suslenskiy, Meshener, Svetlichny, Sofronov, Rode, Shakirov, Heifetz, Afanashev, Mo-Chun, Butman, Lukianenko, Ogurtsov, Sergeyenko, Antoniuk, Lupynos, Ruban, Plachotniuk, Kovgar, Belov, Igrunov, Soldatov, Miattik, Kierend, Jushkevich, Zdorovyy, Tovmajan, Shachverdjan, Zagrobian, Arikian, Markoshan, Arshakian, Mirauskas, Stus, Sverstiuk, Chandyba, Uboshko, Romaniuk, Vorobiov, Gel, Pronjuk, Gladko, Malchevsky, Grazis, Prishliak, Sapeliak, Kolynets, Suprei, Valdman, Demidov, Bernitshuk, Shovkovy, Gorbatiov, Berchov, Turik, Ziukauskas, Bolonkin, Lisovoi, Petrov, Chekalin, Gorodetsky, Chernovol, Balakonov, Bondar, Kalintchenko, Kolomin, Plumpa, Jaugelis, Fedoseyev, Osadchij, Budulak-Sharigin, Makarenko, Malkin, Shtern, Lazar Liubarsky, Feldman, Roitburt, Shkolnik, Murzienko, Fedorov, Dymshits, Kuznetsov, Mendelevich, Altman, Penson, Knoch, Vulf Zalmanson, Izrail Zalmanson, and many, many others.
[edit] Living in exile to Canada
In 1987, having spent a total of 42 years in Soviet and Polish prisons, Nazi concentration camps, Soviet penal colonies and forced exiles Shumuk was allowed to leave the country. He moved to Toronto, Canada, where his memoirs "Life sentence : memoirs of a Ukrainian political prisoner"[5] were published in English by the Canadian Institute of Ukranian Studies (1984).
[edit] Living in an independent Ukraine
On 28 November 2002 he returned to Ukraine, independent by then, and moved to Krasnoarmiysk of the Donetsk Oblast (province) in the east of Ukraine. He died there on 21 May 2004 at the age of 89.
[edit] Works
By Danylo Shumuk:
- Life sentence: Memoirs of a Ukrainian political prisoner. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Study, 1984, 401 pp., ISBN 978-0920862179.
- Za Chidnim Obriyam -(Beyond The Eastern Horizon). Paris, Baltimore: Smoloskyp, 1974, 447 pp.
[edit] References
- ^ Western Ukrainian National Republic at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- ^ Tadeusz Piotrowski, "Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife: Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947", McFarland & Company, ISBN 0786403713, p. 199
"How are we ... to explain the phenomenon of Ukrainians rejoicing and collaborating with the Soviets? Who were these Ukrainians? That they were Ukrainians is certain, but were they communists, Nationalists, unattached peasants? The answer is "yes—they were all three" - ^ In Memory of Danylo Shumuk, Prava Lyudyny, 13.09.2004
- ^ "UKRAINE REPORT 2003"
- ^ CIUS Press
