By the roads of Mykolaivshchyna By the roads of Mykolaivshchyna | Page 34

Financial support was provided by the
daughter of Kyryl Osmak, President of
the Ukrainian Main Liberation Council,
Natalia Osmak.
Insurgents, who stayed in kryivka,
used that time for intensive studies. They
studied the basics of military science,
the art of conspiracy; special attention
was paid to the ideological and political
training. Here are the words of Mykhaylo
Dyachenko, one of the insurgents’
leaders:
“It is easy to turn black from fear. You
keep remembering that an earthen cave
can become your grave any time. If Van’ka
throws a few grenades inside, it is virtually impossible to get out of there alive.
However, it is not only fear – it is dark
everywhere – wherever you cast a glance.
There’s a black covering on the wall. Guess,
why is it here? Because water runs from
the ceiling as if it were a sieve. And it’s not
a great fun at all when water runs straight
into your collar. The floor is also black.
There’s enough water but the problem is
that dirty water is in abundance. So, if the
things with the floor are such, the state of
our faces is not much better. They’re also
all black; literally you can peel off layers of
dirt with your hands.”
Kryivkas became the last resting
place for many insurgents. On disclosing
a shelter, the NCVD members encircled
it right away. At first, they offered
insurgents to surrender, and after the
latter refused, a battle started. NCVDists
shot upon a kryivka and threw grenades
inside. Sometimes, in order to capture its
dwellers alive, a special gas was used. In
most cases, a battle ended with the last

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bullet that insurgents kept for themselves.
However, there were occasions when they
managed to get out from the enemy’s
encirclement.
In January-April, 1946, 2,517 bunkers
were revealed and destroyed by Soviet
secret services. That information was
presented in the report by Ministry
for State Security of USSR regarding
operative and military activities
against the UPA. Only in the present
Rozhnyativsky Rayon of Ivano-Frankivsk
Oblast, kryivkas were found at 44 houses
out of 105.

Cholera cemetery

This place reminds us about the
victims of cholera – one of the most
powerful enemies of humanity in the
19th century. But how did this terrible
disease, caused by bacterium Cholera asiatica, which dwells in the sacred waters
of the Ganges river, get into Galicia? The
first cholera pandemic occurred in the
Bengal region of India starting in 1817
through 1824. The disease dispersed
from India to a number of courtiers,
in particular, to southern Russia. Most
likely, the agent of this incurable at that
time disease appeared in the drinking
water at the territory of Russia in 1830,
in the city of Orenburg, located at the
border of Asia and Europe. Thus, the
largest in the 19th century pandemic
of cholera erupted in Europe. In Russia
alone, about 250, 000 people perished
within two years. At that time, severe
quaran