I remember. Because I was constantly waiting, my grandmother always prayed and waited. And health... And so on. And when, when she returned, and as she had to stop at “one hundred and first kilometer”, it was called like that, that is, Lviv was the furthest. And Drohobych, it was considered a different [region] - Drohobych region, well, even if it was only 50 kilometers away, she had no right to go there, not closer to home than Lviv. So we got together and went. When you go through the mountains to the train... That was the first time for me. I thought a lot about how we would meet. I didn't want to sit on the train, I was looking at the train, I waited, I was thinking something. The only thing is, the moment when I got out and started running, I don't remember it well. Maybe I had emotions that strong. When I came to my mother, she asked, “Who are you meeting?” So I started telling her who I was, told her she was my mother, and so on. Because I was constantly, well, I've seen [her] photos, there were small photos left.
"Oh, I remember. I say that while we were still... Several brothers lived with us. Clearly, I have this photo where I'm 1 year old, with curls, then in the morning, they took me, and I went around the village with those girls. They were brushing me, doing my hair. And yes, of course, I always followe my younger brothers. My mother's [...] wanted them to take me with them. Sometimes they took, sometimes they didn't. I went to relatives, there were many relatives. As they say, Volodia came and sat at the door. They told me later, if no one asked anything, then I just got up and left. And of course, it was clear why I came. I was coming to... For them to give me something to eat because I didn't have much. I didn't have enough clothes too. I have a photo, but it's not in... On that photo, I remember I was 4 years old, and I'm showing my fist. They didn't want me to... Of course, no clothes. Where could I... I still remember how angry I was at them. So that's why I have this expression on the photo."
"Do you mean the photo that was sent to your mother, right?"
"No, no, not that. There is a photo from the 1953. This is one button, panties. Like that."
So he was, as I'm saying, he was in the OUN security service, but, so it's clear he rarely appeared in that place, because my father rarely appeared with his [other fighters], because they knew that there would an ambush… so I started talking, and they couldn't interrupt me... I don't remember well, were those people in the uniform or in civilian clothes with weapons and they asked me “Do you know who your dad is? And where is he now? Huh? Show us.” I say, once a man came up to me, he was tall, and he said: “If you are asked, Volodia, if they ask, tell them your dad drowned in the swill and they, he said, would stop bothering you.”
Well... It may be a little difficult to talk about that because my father was then in the underground movement, the OUN-UPA security service. Clearly, he met my mother, then got married. Well, and then it began, say, a little persecution of my mother by the NKVD or by... That's when I was on… Rather, my mother was in her seventh month of pregnancy, then she was arrested for the first time. Clearly, apparently, I also suffered from them, because during the interrogations, she said, they beat her using “the fifth corner” technique. That is, they got into this... put my mother in the middle and beat her. They beat her so badly that they broke her nose and after Inta, when she returned from the camp, after when she was released and her criminal record was revoked, then she underwent surgery. And, of course, she used to have a think nice nose, and later it looked like potato, boneless. Well, first, the obvious question was, although apparently everyone knew but it had to be officially signed - who would be indicated as my dad. I don't know for sure whether my mother signed it or not, but the fact is that she was released.
He was born on March 3, 1949, in the village of Hostyntseve, Mosty district, Lviv region (Drohobych at that time), 9 months before his mother’s imprisonment and exile. Already pregnant, Petronelia Shvets, at the end of 1948, was interrogated in prison in Drohobych. The interrogations consisted of finding out the whereabouts of her husband and the child’s father, Stanislav (Stakh) Malanchuk. In November 1950, when he was 9 months old, his mother was arrested and convicted under Articles 20-54-1a of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR. She served her sentence in a correctional camp in Inta, Komi Republic, RSFSR, and was released on May 14, 1953. His father, Stanislav (Stakh) Malanchuk, was arrested during a raid in Hostyntseve village in the summer of 1942. He was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. Volodymyr’s mother returned in 1953, but he never met his father. He studied at the Lviv College of Radio Electronics. In 1969 he was drafted into the army. Now he is retired and looking for his father’s files in archives.
Family photo. The first row from left to right - Petronelia, Volodymyr, and Anastasiya Shvets, in the second row - brother Mykhailo and sister of Petronelia Shvets.
Family photo. The first row from left to right - Petronelia, Volodymyr, and Anastasiya Shvets, in the second row - brother Mykhailo and sister of Petronelia Shvets.
