Description
Following World War II, the communist government of Poland forcibly relocated the country's Ukrainian minority by means of a Soviet-Polish population exchange and then a secretly planned action code-named Operation ""Vistula."" In Scattered, Diana Howansky Reilly recounts these events through the experiences of three siblings caught up in the conflict, during a turbulent period when compulsory resettlement was a common political tactic used against national minorities to create homogenous states.
Born in the Lemko region of southeastern Poland, Petro, Melania, and Hania Pyrtej survived World War II only to be separated by political decisions over which they had no control. Petro relocated with his wife to Soviet Ukraine during the population exchange of 1944-46, while his sisters Melania and Hania were resettled to western Poland through Operation ""Vistula"" in 1947. As the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought resettlement, the Polish government meanwhile imprisoned suspected sympathisers within the Jaworzno concentration camp. Melania, Reilly's maternal grandmother, eventually found her way to the United States during Poland's period of liberalisation in the 1960s.
Drawing on oral interviews and archival research, Reilly tells a fascinating, true story that provides a bottom-up perspective and illustrates the impact of extraordinary historical events on the lives of ordinary people. Tracing the story to the present, she describes survivors' efforts to receive compensation for the destruction of their homes and communities.
About the Author
Diana Howansky Reilly has a master's degrees from Johns Hopkins University, in international affairs, and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Reviews
'Reilly's narrative, written in short vignettes, is clear and balanced, and she successfully weaves the wider history into a rich fabric containing details of everyday life, stories of individual characters, and the rhythms and texture of Lemko speech. The result is a short, but skilfully crafted synthesis of family memoir and micro-history that is as interesting for its uncovering of a neglected tragedy as for its portrait of a little-known culture.' - Uilleam Blacker, Times Literary Supplement
Awards
Commended for Independent Publisher Book Awards (History (World)) 2014.
Book Information
ISBN 9780299293406
Author Diana Howansky Reilly
Format Hardback
Page Count 144
Imprint University of Wisconsin Press
Publisher University of Wisconsin Press
Weight(grams) 354g
Born in the Lemko region of southeastern Poland, Petro, Melania, and Hania Pyrtej survived World War II only to be separated by political decisions over which they had no control. Petro relocated with his wife to Soviet Ukraine during the population exchange of 1944-46, while his sisters Melania and Hania were resettled to western Poland through Operation ""Vistula"" in 1947. As the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought resettlement, the Polish government meanwhile imprisoned suspected sympathisers within the Jaworzno concentration camp. Melania, Reilly's maternal grandmother, eventually found her way to the United States during Poland's period of liberalisation in the 1960s.
Drawing on oral interviews and archival research, Reilly tells a fascinating, true story that provides a bottom-up perspective and illustrates the impact of extraordinary historical events on the lives of ordinary people. Tracing the story to the present, she describes survivors' efforts to receive compensation for the destruction of their homes and communities.
About the Author
Diana Howansky Reilly has a master's degrees from Johns Hopkins University, in international affairs, and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Reviews
'Reilly's narrative, written in short vignettes, is clear and balanced, and she successfully weaves the wider history into a rich fabric containing details of everyday life, stories of individual characters, and the rhythms and texture of Lemko speech. The result is a short, but skilfully crafted synthesis of family memoir and micro-history that is as interesting for its uncovering of a neglected tragedy as for its portrait of a little-known culture.' - Uilleam Blacker, Times Literary Supplement
Awards
Commended for Independent Publisher Book Awards (History (World)) 2014.
Book Information
ISBN 9780299293406
Author Diana Howansky Reilly
Format Hardback
Page Count 144
Imprint University of Wisconsin Press
Publisher University of Wisconsin Press
Weight(grams) 354g
