Ukraine

Born in 1994 in Zboriv, Ukraine
High school student (“Roman Zavadovych” High school; Zboriv)

"The migration of Ukrainian people in 1944-47" (2010)

The Lemkos are a quantitatively and territorially small Ukrainian ethnic group inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains. After World War II the majority of Lemkos living in Poland were either resettled from their historic homeland to the prеvious German territories in the North-Western region of Poland or to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.This competition entry deals with the repatriation of Ukrainians from Poland to the Soviet Union between 1944-47. The author documents the events by relating to the personal experience of her family members, who, at their arrival in Ukraine, got nothing more than bread as compensation for their deportation. Interestingly enough, Lyuda Stukalo also presents the reverse side of the story, in which Ukrainian nationals migrated to Poland, due to change in marital status. Their fate was not a far cry from what the Lemkos hat to put up with at their arrival in Ukraine.