Executions at Bazar recalled 80 years later (12/09/01)

Executions at Bazar recalled 80 years later

by Danylo Kulyniak
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

BAZAR, Ukraine - Eighty years ago, on November 21, 1921, in the city of Bazar in the Zhytomyr Oblast of Ukraine, Bolshevik troops executed 359 prisoners of war, members of the Ukrainian Army of the Ukrainian National Republic who were part of the winter campaign against the Communist invaders.

The Ukrainian soldiers chose death over a compromise of their priniciples and beliefs, and turned down a deal that would have saved their lives by refusing to transfer to the ranks of the Communists.

The tragedy was remembered this November 21, at the site where the men were butchered, today marked by two large communal graves ("bratski mohyly"), a large monument and several crosses. Eight decades later some 1,000 Ukrainians who have not forgotten their heroes came by bus from cities across Ukraine - Kyiv, Odesa, Uzyn, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Lutsk, Ternopil, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk and other cities - to pay their respects.

The monument was erected only last year thanks to contributions by Ukrainians living in Great Britain. The names of the 359 heroes are engraved in gold on the large black marker.

The moleben, attended by many young people as well as gray-haired veterans of past freedom campaigns, took place amidst a sea of blue-and-yellow and red-and-black flags. All 359 martyrs for independence were mentioned by name during the prayer service, but the moleben was for all who gave their lives over the generations for an independent Ukraine.

From the perspective of history it is now obvious that the military situation at the time was such that there was little chance the second winter campaign led by Lt. Gen. Yurii Tiutiunnyk of the Ukrainian National Republic would be successful.

Thousands of poorly armed, underdressed and underfed men went forward in the last days before winter to confront the Bolshevik Red Army, which had amassed tens of thousands of troops for battle against the partisans. Merely two weeks after the campaign began, the contingent was destroyed by the Soviet Second Red Cavalry Brigade of Gen. Hryhorii Kotovsky.

Hundreds were killed and hundreds more taken prisoner before the battle ended. The 359 imprisoned were escorted to a field outside the village of Bazar on November 21 to be executed, but first Gen. Kotovsky gave them the chance to cross over and join the Red Army. None agreed to do so and all were shot as they sang the Ukrainian national hymn "Sche Ne Vmerla Ukraina."

Only four years had passed since a similar tragedy had taken place at Kruty, just outside of Kyiv, pitting a force of college and high school students at the beginning of the war against the Bolsheviks. The battles of Kruty and Bazar both ended in tragedy, with the execution of imprisoned Ukrainian patriots. During those four years a whole epoch of Ukrainian history passed; the Bazar tragedy was the finale.

But the tragic history of Bazar does not end there in 1921.

In 1941, after Ukrainian patriot and nationalist Oleh Kandyba Olzhych, organized 20th anniversary commemmorations of the event at the site of the executions, German Nazi authorities, who by that time had occupied Ukraine, arrested some 721 people who had taken part in the memorial services. They were executed by the Nazis several days later in Zhytomyr.

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