My unforgettable Korchyn! My native village is a small piece of the great Ukrainian land, where I was born to Ivan and Maria from Lebedevych Shmorgai in house no. 13, which my father tried to change to 17, because such a number should be happier. And I was happy throughout my childhood and youth years.
But that happiness was shattered in the 17th year of my life, when a German gendarme pointed the butt of a machine gun at my chest.
The day of June 3, 1944 was the end of my life in Ukraine and the beginning of wandering abroad.
My mother, whom I never saw alive again, gave me a prayer book then, which I keep to this day. And 300 German marks were hidden in the prayer book.
When they started to drive us east, in the direction of Vytkov, my sister caught up with our column and handed me five eggs and a piece of bread in a handkerchief.
When we began to approach the forest, I looked back, saw my mother and sister from afar, and looked for the last time at my beautiful Korchyn, drowning in the green of gardens and orchards, whose eastern part adjoined the massif of a dense forest, where my father was then. In the same massif of forests – as I learned much later – on April 28, 1945, three divisions of the UPA, which took part in the raid on the district center of the NKVD in Radekhov, were surrounded by an influx of 4,000 Bolsheviks. Although the enemy forces had a huge advantage in people and weapons, the Upis with the song “Ribbon by Ribbon” went for a breakthrough under the command of the hundredth Victory, who really led them to victory.
The village of Korchyn is in the Lviv region; located approximately 85 km in the north-eastern direction from the city of Lviv, and belongs to the Radekhiv district. Earlier, the village of Korchyn belonged to the Sokal district. It is located 19 km west of Radekhov and 14 km east of Krystynopole, which the Soviet Russians named “Chervonograd”.
Korchyn borders on the east with the previously mentioned Vytkov, and on the south with the village of Gogoliv. To the west is the village of Pozdymir, and to the north is Rozhdzhaliv, with which Korchyn created a joint Greek-Catholic parish, the pastor of which in my time was Fr. Hryhoriy Kulinych.
In Korchyn, the old Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, built in 1821, still stands. There are two crosses on the south side of the church. The single-arm was made in 1938 at the western end of the village, called “Mochuly”. The name comes from the fact that hemp was soaked there on the lake. That cross was carried on their shoulders by many Korchy men in a procession through the village to the church, where it was placed on the occasion of celebrating the 950th anniversary of the baptism of Ukraine. And the second cross, three-armed, – I guess – was erected on the occasion of the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine. I don’t know how those second celebrations took place.
On the north side of the church was a monument “Falled for the freedom of Ukraine”. And I well remember how in the second half of the 1930s solemn ceremonies took place there. I can still hear the mighty singing of the choir:
“Sleep, fellow falcons,
We are sharpening our weapons
And we are waiting for the call to battle…”
The call to battle did not have to wait long, because it sounded already in the first half of the stormy forties. Already in the spring of 1944, a battle between a small unit of the UPA and German military intelligence took place in the village.
In the north of Korchyna flows the Bily Stik River, which flows into the Bug River. There is a road through the village that connects Radekhiv with Krystynopole. According to my memory, it was a stone road called “burok”.
History of cities and villages of the Ukrainian SSR. The Lviv region (published in Kyiv in 1968) submits: “Korchyn is a village, the center of the village council. The population is 1,270 inhabitants. The villages subordinate to the village council are: Volitsa, Gogoliv, Radvantsy. There is a high school in the village. There is a club and a library. The first documentary mention of the village refers to the year 1426”.
The village of Korchyn is also mentioned on p. 155 in the Josephine and Franciscan metrics published in Kyiv in 1965.
Schematism of the Peremysk Diocese since 1879, authored by Fr. Dr. Yuliyan Nikorovich, on p. 343-344 reports that the subsidiary Greek-Catholic parish in Korchyn had 774 souls. And the motherhouse in Rozhdzhalov — 983. The parish priest then was Fr. Dr. Valeriyan Yaminsky, born in 1844, ordained in 1866.
Before I was born, during my time and later, the director of the school in Korchyn was my relative, on my mother’s side, Toma Melnyk, who is mentioned in the previously mentioned History of Cities and Villages… While visiting Uncle Stepan Melnyk’s guest house, I looked closely at the picture of Fr. Luky Melnyka, who died very young before I was born. And Ivan Melnyk died in a battle with the NKVD in 1940; his picture is placed on the 124th page. The 2nd volume of the collection Nadbuzhanshchyna.
In the same volume, on p. 455 it is written: “According to the statistics of Dr. V. Kubiyovych, on September 1, 1939, … Korchyn had 1,420 inhabitants, including 1,330 Ukrainians, 40 Poles, 30 Latins and 20 Jews.” I have a reservation regarding “ZO Latinniks”. There were no such in Korchyn. But there was a small handful of Orthodox who called themselves “Russian” or Ruthenians. The Orthodox Church in Korchyn was established in 1912 as a result of a vigorous campaign by Muscophiles and with the financial assistance of the tsarist government. In 1936, that church burned down. Since then, the Orthodox worshiped in the house of one parishioner. After World War II, the Bolsheviks liquidated the Greek Catholic Church and handed over the Church of the Assumption to the faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church.
During my childhood, the “Prosvita” house was built in Korchyn, which was popularly called the “reading room” because the library was located in the central part of the house. On the left side was a large hall with a stage where various concerts and theatrical performances took place. Korchyn had its own choir and theater group. On the right side of the reading room was the Gospodarska Torgivlya cooperative and a store, and later also a dairy.
I know that there was a “Union of Ukrainian Women” in Korchyn, because my mother belonged there. But I do not have more detailed information about his activities. And my father was a member of the Supervisory Board of the cooperative, which was developing quite well. In the report for 1927, it was submitted that at the beginning of the year the cooperative had 83 members, and 26 arrived. By the end of the year, there were 109 members. The total turnover of the cooperative is PLN 34,250, the stock of goods is PLN 1,136, the reserve fund is PLN 561, shares are PLN 476. The profit at the end of the year is PLN 736.
In Korchyn there was also a circle (Kruzhok) of the “Rural Master”. There was also a reading room of the “Kachkovsky Society”, but only on paper.
I never even dreamed that I would write something about Korchyn. And I am very sorry that I cannot provide more information. And I wanted to collect as many of them as possible in order to document them for future generations.
Therefore, forgive me, my dear Korchins, for writing so little about us. And my parents, grandfathers, great-grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers were born, lived, worked and died in Korchyn. Therefore, for me, the most valuable place in the universe was, is and always will be Korchyn.