Źródła do dziejów Łemkowyny w latach 1917‑1921: stan poznania, kierunki poszukiwań, aneks dokumentacyjny

Abstract

SOURCE MATERIALS FOR THE HISTORY OF THE LEMKO REGION IN THE YEARS 1917‑1921: CURRENT STATE OF KNOWING, DIRECTIONS OF RESEARCH, DOCUMENTATION ANNEX

At the beginning of the 20^th century, the Lemko region was culturally active and documented its existence in writing, but the spoken word still played a major role in the social life. The course of history – even in such turbulent years as those between 1918 and 1921 – remained mainly in human memory. The generation of Lemkos who then co‑ created history and experienced, remembered and were to pass it on, suffered a traumatic fate – uprooting (Ukrainization), dispersion (economic migration, war and post‑war displacement to Ukraine), and finally exile (the “Wisła” action). Under these circumstances, not only did memory fail, but also documents were destroyed – these few literal traces of those times. None of the institutions created or managed by the Lemkos in the period analyzed survived for a long time. Although we know that they produced documents, these were not collected nor archived in the right way by these very institutions. Searching for the remnants of this documentation in private home archives in Poland, Ukraine and in the Lemko diaspora countries is an action necessary to recover the original documents, appeals and correspondence of the Lemko councils. It would be advisable to locate and catalogue ephemeral prints regarding the Lemko case – Rusyn, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Ukrainian. Some of the events and probably all the persons involved in them were photographed, but access to iconographic sources is very fragmentary, as these photographs often remain unrecoginsed. Apart from one archive (the collection of Zygmunt Lasocki in the National Archives in Krakow), own archives of non‑Lemko participants of events have not been found nor investigated – individual persons and institutions such as state organs, churches or political parties. Polish and Czech press, especially local press, has not been well‑ researched, apart from the Carpatho-Rusyn diaspora newspapers in the United States. It is of great importance to prepare a printed selection of basic sources for the history of the Lemko region in such an important period. It should contain basic declarations of Lemko councils, memorials addressed to state and international bodies, documentation of court proceedings against its activists, basic documents prepared by other forces active at the time in the Lemko region, and major press publications. The documentation annexed here (20 source texts) is just a sample of such a collection.