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OUR LIFE Monthly, published by Ukrainian National Women’s League of America vol . XLVIII NOVEMBER 1991 Editor: M arta Baczynsky CHRISTINE SONEVYTSKY FIRST VISIT TO UKRAINE “Timing is everything” — there is no better way of describing our plans and the historic events that occur red as we paid our first family visit to Ukraine which my husband had left, as our “ liberators” the Soviet Red Army, overtook Western Ukraine in 1944. Our plans were to take the night train out of Vienna on the 19th of August and to enter Chop on the border of the Ukrainian SSR early on the 20th. However, it was not to be. On the morning of August 19th the world learned about the upheaval in the Soviet Union and the take over by forces that seemed to spell an end to any democratization. To enter the Soviet Union at such a time was just to much to risk. My husband’s hopes of visiting Ukraine after 47 years evaporated into thin air as the radio and TV commentators informed the waking public of what had occurred during the night. We sat glued to the television set and slowly became thankful that we had not left the day before. Were it not for my plans to visit Bratislava on behalf of Global Relief that Monday, we may have entered the USSR on the day of the putsch. As history has now documented, the attempted overthrow failed and three days later the opportunity to visit Ukraine presented itself once again. I must say that it was our ten year old daughter’s determination to see Ukraine which made us stick to our original plans, oth erwise we may have returned to the United States. Last minute travel arrangements are almost impossible to make for visiting the Soviet Union. One has to be pre pared for the unknown or not attempt it at all. We rented a car which took us from Munich to Vienna, and purchased tickets for Lviv with no guaran tee that there would be space aboard the train for a ride that was to last some 21 hours. As we waited for our train, another alternative presented itself. A train for Krakow, Poland was also leaving that evening, and we could get seating on it. Quickly plans were redrawn, and happy as clams were boarded the train for Krakow. This turn of events was most satisfying to me, as I very much wanted to stop by at the Ecological Center in Krakow and present our Global Relief materials to the people working there. We arrived in Krakow at 6 a.m. Friday and were advised to catch the next available train for the Soviet Union immediately. We boarded a crowded train and arrived in Peremyshl on the Polish Ukrainian border in the early afternoon. The scene which greeted us there can best be des cribed as one from Dr. Zhivago! The crowds, the filth, the luggage, the crying children — is a scene not soon to be forgotten. How we managed to get on that train which would finally take us into the Soviet ’’Paradise” I still don’t know. This was a train used predominantly by natives and the cars were in terrible shape. As we learned on board, Peremyshl is the boarder town through which thousands of Soviet citizens cross with their wares which they bring into Poland to exchange for other items and to acquire hard currency. Sometimes people sit on the border for more than five days, without accommodations, without life’s basic necessities in order to earn some money which would allow their families back home to live a slightly more comfortable life. With us were returnees, young professional people who were coming home from such a stint after three days of trad ing. They had left their children at home with their par- 71 democratic president for democratic Ukraine
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