by Antoni Kroh

Antoni Kroh's two-part 1987 Carpatho-Rusyn American account
describes the open-air Lemko Museum (skansen) at Zyndranowa, Poland,
founded by Teodor Gocz to preserve the material culture of a Lemko
homeland emptied by the 1947 Operation Vistula deportations. A separate,
later virtual-tour piece about the same museum, translated by Richard
D. Custer from Fedor Gocz's own Ukrainian-language text, remains
uncaptured in this edition and is noted as a future candidate.

Part 1

A VILLAGE MUSEUM AND THE
PROBLEMS OF LEMKO CULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY POLAND

American**, Volume 10 #2, 1987
with permission*

The following article, written by Antoni Kroh, the curator of the
state-supported Regional Ethnographic Museum in Nowy Sacz, Poland, was first
published in the Polish journal Polska Sztuka Ludowa (Warsaw. 1985). Kroh is one
of a small group of contemporary Poles who sympathize with the current plight of
Lemkos living in their midst - Editor.*

Director Fedir Goc at the entrance to the Lemko Museum in Zyndranowa.
(Photo by Mykola Musynka, 1987)

The museum in Zyndranowa is unique. but not because of its wealth. In
reality, it is a modest establishment. What distinguishes Zyndranowa from many
other museums in Poland, including famous ones that have funds of several
millions at their disposal and that are visited by hundreds of thousands of
tourists every year, is the role it performs and the range of social needs it
tries to satisfy. For this is a museum greatly needed by both Lemkos and
Poles. The swarms of tourists brought by buses to other museums does not visit
here, but people seeking the truth about the past and present Lemko Region do
come. They come because they need this truth, and they hardly have any other
means of finding it.

The museum is modest, because it is completely supported by private funds
without any external financial, or organizational aid. When we realize this
fact, and at the same time observe the impact of the museum's work, we will
understand how very deserving of respect are the people who brought this
establishment to life and who bear the burden of maintaining it.

It seems that the example at the museum in Zyndranowa may be of interest
not only to lovers of the Lemko Region, but in general for sociologists of
culture, ethnographers, historians, and in particular for proponents of the
regional movement and folk culture all over Poland. The latter especially can
learn much here.

The village of Zyndranowa lies in the east-central Lemko Region, south of
the town of Krosno on the very border with the Slovak Republic and just a few
kilometers from the Dukla Pass. An important passage through the Carpathians,
the Dukla Pass was once one of the busiest trade routes of the old Polish
Republic. Famous markets were held in the nearby town of Dukla, which were
also visited by Rusyns traveling from northern Hungary. In other words from
what is today the Presov Region of eastern Slovakia. Thus, the area around the
Dukla Pass is a region where contacts between Rusyns from the northern and the
southern slopes of the Carpathians were for centuries very close and
multifaceted, exerting a strong influence on folk culture and especially on
ethnic self-consciousness. The feeling that the lands on both sides of the
mountains constitute a single unit and that its inhabitants are kinsmen was and
is continually alive. This was also favored by circumstances in which the Rusyn
population was surrounded by peoples of different languages, religions,
cultures. Poles, Slovaks, Hungarians, Jews.

During World Wars I and II, the front rolled through this area many times,
since the Dukla Pass constituted a key strategic point. Terrifying struggles
took place for control of the pass in which hundreds of thousands of soldiers
from different armies, as well as many local people, lost their lives. The
infamous "Valley of Death" between the Iwla and the Hyrowa Rivers,
one of the largest battlefields in this part of Europe, is located near
Zyndranowa. After 1945, the area became almost completely depopulated. First,
this was the result of military activities, then of repatriation of part of the
population to Soviet Ukraine, and finally as a consequence of the tragic "Vistula
Action" during which the Polish Government forcibly removed the remaining
Lemko population.

Beginning in the mid-1950s, when Lemkos began to return to these parts, a
legend of quite recent origin (yet already deeply rooted in Polish society)
arose. This legend spoke of the area as a land belonging to no one, a kind of "Wild
West" suitable for romantic experiences and manly adventures in the style
of Jack London. The whole area was considered a wasteland with a severe
climate, predatory game, and overgrown sites of former forest fires, cemeteries,
and mysterious graves. Unfortunately Polish literary works, films. and
newspaper articles, which were too often characterized by a kind of moral
color-blindness, contributed to the rise of this superficial, and therefore
false, legend. There was even a song in vogue about the Bieszczady Mountains
where one could "be a cowboy".

Hence, adventurers, romantics, trappers, restless souls, and common
criminals from all over Poland came here, whether for profit, for biding their
time, or for colorful self-creation. Polish peasants from the lowlands,
generally driven by life's pressures, also settled down here, since for various
reasons there was no place for them in their own native regions. But nothing at
all grew for them in this foreign mountain climate, so after a few years of
drudgery they most often fled. Although there are many commendable exceptions
to this sad rule (for instance, the village of Kamianna splendidly managed by
its new Polish inhabitants), the general picture is not edifying. In the end.
many Poles have passed through the Lemko Region, but not many have remained.

From the beginning, it is only the Lemkos who have considered these parts
their home. They have done so without reservations, despite everything and
everyone. It may be a home which they did not choose, but one which they carry
in their hearts their whole life long. That is how it is for Lemkos this is
Lemko country, for Poles - post-Lemko country. That's the difference.

In this and other respects, the Poles settling down in the Lower Beskyd and
Bieszczady ranges were, culturally speaking, a none too active element. Even
the mountaineer Poles from Podhala. who came and settled in quite close-knit
centers in Banica near Izby, Czarna, Mochnaczka and other villages, and who
experienced the least amount of trouble in adapting to their new conditions,
even they -relatively speaking - lost in large measure their distinguishing
Podhalian characteristics.

On the other hand, the returning Lemkos began their cultural activity
almost immediately upon unpacking their bundles. One could see that they
considered it an essential element of their existence as a society. Already
in the fall of 1954 a folklore ensemble of thirty people, founded and directed
by Fedir Goc, came into being at the Solidarity Production Cooperative in
Zyndranowa. A spectacle, the "Lemko Wedding", was produced, and in
1955, Polish television recorded a program, "With the Lemkos in Zyndranowa,"
featuring this ensemble. At the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the
1960s, other song and dance groups came into existence in Bielanka, Komancza,
Grab, Olchowiec, Tylawa, and Polany near Dukla. Orthodox church choirs were
also active in a few villages. The villages of Bartne, Hanczowa, Konieczna, and
Zdynia stood out because of their cultural activity.

Looking at the history of eastern and southern Europe in the nineteenth
century, one can see that the energetic cultural activity of a small group of
people has more than once provided the beginnings of national consciousness for
many modern nations. Precisely in this way the Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians,
Romanians, and some South Slavic nations began to be transformed. Indeed, the
first stages were often modest and the sphere of influence small. For instance,
the first Czech awakeners used to gather in one small room, and a saying
circulated along the Vltava River in Bohemia that if the roof had collapsed on
this room, the further development of modern Czech literature would have been
questionable. The Sturites. a group centered around the first Slovak ideologue
L'udovit Stur, comprised only a handful of romantic youths, while the advocates
of the Rusyn Triad, who laid the foundations of modern Ukrainian culture in
Galicia, could also have been counted on the fingers of both hands. Similarly.
the Slovenians, called Illyrians at that time, began their modest activity by
publishing almanacs and bee-keeping handbooks.

Of course, in mentioning this, I do not intend to suggest that the Lemkos'
cultural activity can in similar fashion constitute a national consciousness.
After all, the processes which I have just recalled took place over a century
and a half ago in very different social, political, and governmental conditions.
I am only concerned here with drawing attention to the remarkably integrative
and representative function of collective cultural activity among regional and
ethnic minority groups which desire to protect their identity. For it is well
known that cultural activity serves a predominate and integrative function in
communities which do not exhibit national aspirations (Podhalians. Tyrolians),
but who only wish to preserve their distinct character. It is also well known
that local patriotism does not lessen national or state patriotism: quite the
contrary. one enriches the other and gives it life.

The East German government, for example, understands this by supporting the
Lusation Sorbian cultural movement. Even closer to them, the Lemkos are
impressed especially by the example of the Ukrainian Museum at Svidnik in
northern Slovakia, which has about 30 employees, a skansen, an icon collection,
rich ethnographic collections, and which publishes scholarly and popular works.

In contrast, the Lemkos living in Poland have at present only two
extra-religious cultural institutions serving them in a representative and
integrative capacity. These are the Lemkovyna Song and Dance Ensemble based in
Bielanka (Nowy Sacz district) under their artistic director Jaroslav
Trochanovs'kyj, and the Regional Museum of Lemko Culture and War Memorial in
Zyndranowa (Krosno district) founded by a group of activists, among whom Pavel
Stefanovs'kyj, Michal Dons'kyj, and Fedir Kuzjak were prominent, and whose
director is Fedir Goc. In this context, it is interesting to note that
Stefanovs'kyj ran a Lemko Regional House in Bielanka for many years, although it
has had to struggle to survive. This house is presently inaccessible to
tourists and it was decided to move its collections to Zyndranowa as soon as
conditions for exhibiting them are provided.

The Lemkovyna Ensemble and Zyndranowa Museum have a common feature which
constitutes the source of their strength, and at the same time is the cause of
unending troubles, vexations, and a feeling of uncertainty. Namely, they are
not supported by state funds (as most other cultural institutions in Poland),
but are maintained by a handful of people whose dedication and hard work
sometimes creates the impression of hopelessness and other times of heroism.
The single driving force behind these people's activities is faithfulness to the
Lemko tradition. They are simply fighting desperately for their lives, for
their community existence, for their right to group pride. Others may not
understand this, but Poles should.

These Lemko institutions, however. are not connected with the so-called
vertical structure of culture. The vertical structure is a closed system devised
and administered from above, just like health service, for instance. Here
everything has its place, hierarchy, budget, work plans, and posts of
employment. Everything is foreseen, grasped, and then realized and summed up
in reports. This system can successfully tolerate superficial activity and can
support it even for an extended period of time, just so long as that activity is
properly categorized. But it cannot incorporate into its structure a phenomenon
which is not sufficiently named and classified. And, looking at the museum in
Zyndranowa and the Lemko cultural movement in general, neither can be classified
in official terms.

This is because the Lemkos are not officially recognized as a separate
national minority, but are included with the Ukrainian nation. For various
reasons, which I will not write about here, this situation does not suit many
Lemkos, since they feel strongly about their separateness both from the
Ukrainians as well as the Poles. Although the Ukrainian Socio-Cultural Society
(USKT) active in Poland takes into account the cultural needs of the Lemkos (in
accordance with its statute), a situation has arisen in which the Lemkos do not
enjoy all the conditions necessary for their development within the framework of
that society - simply put, Lemkos do not feel completely at home there. I do
not intend to write at length on Lemko-Ukrainian relations in Poland, especially
since they have taken on different shades during the last forty years:
nevertheless, it is a fact that many Lemko activists have remained outside the
Ukrainian Socio-Cultural Society. Therefore, the museum in Zyndranowa,
operating independently of the Society, is - officially speaking - not a museum
of a national minority.

At the same time, it is also not a museum of an ethnographic region, such
as Podhale or Orava, since one of the most difficult of Lemko problems is the
question of self-definition. Despite their distinct character, Podhalians are
Poles, and no one questions this. Some Oravians are Poles at heart. others
Slovaks, yet there is no Oravian national problem. On the other hand and for
obvious reasons, Lemkos do not consider themselves a part of the Polish nation,
whereas belonging to the Ukrainian nation is for them a complicated and often
painful issue. Hence it is difficult to treat the Lemko Region exclusively as
just another region of Poland. In this sense, the museum in Zyndranowa is not a
regional museum, it is something more.

How. then, can this establishment be classified?

When encountering a phenomenon which we do not fully understand and which
destroys our established mental patterns, we can approach it in one of the
following ways: (1) ignore it and simply not take note of its existence: (2)
squeeze it into a compulsory framework, that is. "draw it Into" known
established patterns: or (3) attempt to destroy and annihilate it. Fedir Goc,
one of the founders and the director of the museum from its beginnings, learned
perfectly all three of these ways at his own cost during the sixteen years of
the museum's existence. Let us hope that one day he will write down and publish
his experiences it will certainly be an extremely interesting document from
which we will learn many surprising things.

Continue on to part 2

Part 2

A VILLAGE MUSEUM AND THE
PROBLEMS OF LEMKO CULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY POLAND - (Part 2)

American**, Volume 10 #2, 1987
with permission*

But how can one help the museum in Zyndranowa? How can one solve the
question of this institution's further development? I assume it is not
necessary to prove that help is indeed necessary. The Lemkos are fellow
citizens of Poland and they contribute to the creation of the country's wealth;
hence they obviously have the right to benefit from this wealth and to watch
over their own culture as do all of us. However, the help which is essential
will only make sense if it does not disturb the very nature of the museum, that
is, its social character.

It seems that the best solution would be the creation of a Society of
Friends of the Lemko Museum of Zyndranowa, an organization that would enjoy
legal status. Such an organization, which would become the formal owner of the
museum (up to now the question of ownership has not been completely resolved),
would hire the necessary employees: guides for the tourist season, specialists
for conservation work, etc. The activity of such a society should be subsidized
by the state, as is usually the case with other cultural establishments. The
proposed society of friends should also institute a scientific council and a
publishing division. Operating this way would not disturb the social character
of the museum and would place it on a professional level by running it in
accordance with the principles of modern museology.

Many precedents for such a solution have existed in the past as well as the
present. For example, the Jan Kasprowicz Museum at Harenda in Zakopane belongs
to the Jan Kasprowicz Society. The Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw also owns
a museum (aside from other activities), naturally benefiting from state
financial aid. As is well-known, the museums founded by the Polish Sightseeing
Society, the Polish Tatra Society, and next their successor, the Polish
Tourist-Sightseeing Association, have played a considerable role in the history
of Polish collectorship. One can multiply the number of such examples in fact,
the Zyndranowa Museum has since 1968 had an advisory board formed with the
consent of the local authorities but not recognized as an official body. It
seems obvious that in order for the museum in Zyndranowa to develop, it must
obtain a statute and legal status in order to benefit from, among other things,
systematic state subsidies. Yet at the same time it must continue to be itself,
that is, to preserve its social character and autonomy as a center of
information about the past and present Lemko Region, thereby satisfying the
cultural needs of the Lemko community in Poland.

If such decisions were made, one could expect that right away the museum
collections would increase significantly. News of the birth of a representative
Lemko institution would certainly induce the many Lemkos scattered throughout
Poland and beyond its boundaries to be generous. We would then be able to see
mementos now kept in private homes and shown only to family and close friends -
mementos often possessing great historical and emotional value. Our country,
ravaged by so many wars and not rich in relics, would have one more active
cultural institution to fill that painful gap in Poland's consciousness, at the
same time that it would be a source of proper and long overdue satisfaction to
the Lemkos.

At present the museum operates under very modest conditions. It is located
on an old, though well-preserved small farm, very few of which remain in the
area (The small farm is entered in the registry of historical monuments by the
Custodian of Historical Monuments for the district of Rzeszow, now in Krosno ).
The main building, which houses under one roof the living quarters, cow barn,
and stable, Dates from 1860. An ethnographic exhibition consisting of more
than 1,500 items is set up there. These include a recreated traditional Lemko
living room with relics mainly from the turn of the twentieth century.
Originally it was a chimneyless cabin; in 1901, a stove with a hood was built in
it. Furniture, pictures, utensils, small kitchenware and other elements of old
interior furnishings are displayed with respect for their original function,
and they create a natural impression that speaks volumes about the life of Lemko
farmers several decades ago. One of the chromolithographs, the Heart of the
Blessed Mother, has some bullet holes in a few places, providing thereby a
discreet and at the same time very expressive symbol of the fate of the Lemkos.

Beyond the living room is a second, smaller room, the so-called "second
chyza". It once served as the chief villager's office during the Dukla
campaign in World War II. A Soviet general in command of this section of the
front was stationed in it. At present one finds there a modest exhibit of
costumes, publications on the Lemko Region (including some very rare and
valuable printed materials), and a few photographs among which is a youthful
portrait of the painter Nykyfor (See his biography in the Lemko Index). There
are also coins, documents, and amateur pictures portraying churches, some no
longer in existence, painted by Fedir Kuzjak of Bartne.

The continuation of the ethnographic exhibition is found in neighboring
rooms once used for farming (a stable, threshing-floor, and coach-house).
Implements for soil cultivation and cattle raising, and processing of farm and
livestock products characteristic of old mountain farms are there. A small
exhibit of liturgical utensils and religious objects, at times rescued in
dramatic circumstances, also exists. The visitor is particularly impressed by
the gripping beauty of an Eastern Christian cross beautifully wrought in iron.
The work of peasant artistry, it is bent as if in pain. having fallen from the
roof of a burning church in the village of Czeremcha; Ceremcha (Krosno
district).

In 1969, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the battle for the Dukla
Pass, the museum director Goc installed an exhibit of war souvenirs in the barn
on the other side of the yard. This is the second section of the museum in
Zyndranowa, where there are Polish, Soviet. and Czechoslovak uniforms (in each
of which armies Lemkos fought), rusted arms found to this day in the fields
nearby, a few publications, and some pictures. It should be mentioned that the
village of Zyndranowa was decorated by President Ludvik Svoboda (Czechoslovak
general during World War II) with the Order of the Czechoslovak Red Star for
aiding Czechoslovak soldiers during the Dukla campaign.

Objects that once belonged to I. R. Plechov, a soldier in the Soviet Army
who, dying from his wounds on Suchanja Mountain near Polany, left a letter to
his family in a bottle create a particularly strong impression on visitors.
The letter was found 25 years later in some brush and brought to the museum.
Director Goc sent it to Plechov's widow in the Soviet Union who in this way
discovered only in 1969 where and how her husband had died.

A large plot of land next to the small farm also belongs to the museum. A
willow with three trunks grows there. Goc perceived the symbolism, called this
place the "corner of brotherhood" (the inscription being in Polish and
Lemko), placed a bench under the tree, and on the three branches which join
together right near the ground, he mounted tablets which read: Lech, Rus',
Czech. About a dozen steps from the "corner of brotherhood~ - a monument
several meters in height to the Soviet soldiers fallen in the battles for the
Dukla Pass was built by a group of combatants from Poland, the Soviet Union, and
Czechoslovakia with the cooperation of the local museum committee and circle of
the Society for Polish-Soviet Friendship War veterans from nearby Slovakia
presented carefully chiseled granite tablets in Russian, Polish, and Slovak.
This monument no longer exists, and all that remains are the partially damaged
tablets and a folder of correspondence. At present. another, much more modest
monument is found in this place.

A small obelisk raised in honor of the victims of the Talerhof camp (a place
of internment for the Lemkos during World War I) stands between the small farm
housing the museum and the monument to the Soviet soldiers. It was first raised
in 1936 at Banica near Bartne, a village which ceased to exist after 1947.
When a road was built there a few years ago the monument was in danger, so Goc
transferred it to Zyndranowa.

A few dozen meters from the museum buildings stands the magnificent new home
of the Goc family, pleasing to the eye with its fresh red brick. The home
itself is a symbol of the Lemko's moral strength, their attachment to their
native land, their resilience, and their victorious battle with the adversities
of fate.

To found a museum, to gather mementos, and to take care of them is a lot of
work. However, an even greater task is the arduous welcoming for the last
seventeen years of more and more guests - and always with a smile, graciously,
unselfishly. The guests vary, from those who only in Zyndranowa discover to
their amazement that national minorities actually exist in contemporary Poland,
to those who have come from the other side of the globe with tears in their
eyes. People who are not free of anti-Lemko attitudes come as well. It is
necessary to know how to respond to all of them quietly and with dignity. Many
visitors (especially Lemkos from the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, the United
States, Canada) wish to sit around and talk. Director Goc must find the time
and patience for this, precisely at the period - the tourist season - when there
is most urgent harvest work in the fields.

Maintenance of the museum costs not only much time and nerves but money as
well. Apparently, in 1985, the museum in Zyndranowa is to receive a subsidy
from the Ministry of Culture (for the moment. however, this is only a
noncommittal rumor). If this becomes reality, it would be the first concrete
aid on the part of the government in seventeen years. In the meantime, the
museum survives under the self-sacrificing leadership of its director Fedir Goc,
who in his ..spare time, also sews the folk costumes for the Lemkovyna
Ensemble. For all his efforts, Goc is universally recognized by Lemkos
throughout Poland, and he has received many official awards and congratulatory
letters (ironically more from Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union than Poland)
for his activity.

Antoni Kroh
Nowy Sacz, Poland

Return to Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base's Lemko
Index

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Antoni Kroh's two-part article "Lemko Museum in Zyndranowa," curator of
the Lemko Museum (Carpatho-Rusyn American, Vol. 10 #2, 1987, copyright
1987, used with permission), is hosted at carpatho-rusyn.org
(Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base). Captured 2026-08-05 from
http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/lemkos/goc.htm and goc2.htm. Published
here under permission held by the New Tianmu Anglican Church for this
material, recorded 2026-08-05; all rights remain with the original
author, Antoni Kroh, and Carpatho-Rusyn American.

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