a tale of the opryshky set down by Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv of Holovy, from Volodymyr Hnatiuk, Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (1910)
The opryshky were the outlaws of the Carpathian highlands. This account of who they were was written down on 13 September 1907 at Holovy, a Hutsul village in the Kosiv district, by Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv, and printed by Volodymyr Hnatiuk in 1910. Yurishtan, named in it, was the ataman of the pushkars, the armed guards who hunted the opryshky in the mountains. It tells how a gazda could become an opryshok by night, why the wronged turned to the outlaws, how young men fled the army into the forests, and it ends by naming the opryshky of Holovy.
Translation
In the old days it wasn't the way it is now. In the old days a man would be a gazda by day, and at night he'd trim his hair short underneath and tie up the top, stuff it under his hat, and there he was, a shorn man. He'd smear himself with soot, a gun on his shoulder, a bartka in his hands, knives and pistols in his belt, and there was your opryshok, ready. He'd go out of the house, rob, come back in the morning, change his clothes, smooth his hair out, and there he was, a gazda again.
For no opryshky ever robbed without a tip-off. But they had people they knew in every village, sworn brothers, who knew all the ways in and out, whether at a Jew's or at a lord's. For how else could opryshky have done anything? And so: if a man was wronged by a lord, or by a Jew, or even by a rich man among his own, then the man could get no other justice, for there was no way to, for the law was in the lords' hands. So the opryshky were his only stay.
A man who'd been wronged would find a band of opryshky and start begging them to take revenge on this wrongdoer or that. The opryshky would agree to it, and the man would even point the wrongdoer out to them, and help them rob him, too.
The opryshky never robbed their own people, only strangers, the lords and the Jews. And of their own, the opryshky robbed only those who went after the opryshky, or informed on them, or laid information against them. People speak well of the opryshky to this day. And they hold them as their defenders against every wrong. They'll say, for instance: “Oh, if only there were opryshky now, we'd give Poland a proper fright, and stand up for the wrongs done to us!”
In the old days you couldn't say a thing about the opryshky, nor sing of them. For as soon as anyone dared to praise the opryshky for their good deeds, or made up a song, then Yurishtan, the moment he found out, would pack him off to the dungeon for a few years, and beat him as much as he liked. That's why even today the old people won't tell of it, because they're afraid some trouble may come of it to them. And so all the good deeds of the opryshky are being lost among the people, through that old fear.
Men became opryshky not for the sake of robbing, but only so as not to let themselves fall into bondage. For in the old days they took all the young lads off into bondage. The posse comes, surrounds the house, seizes the lad, ties him up, and off to the army, for twenty-four years, so they said, but that meant till his death. They drive him to the army, they start beating him, and he's off to the mountains, and he deserts. The deserter hides in the forests, finds sworn brothers to stand with him, and goes to the opryshky, for there was no other way out. If any opryshok had dared to sit at home, the posse would have caught him. But this way, once he's run off, what can they do to him? All they can do is blow into his backside!
When the opryshky went out robbing, they'd say among themselves: “We have to rob the ones who caught us for the recruiting, because it's through them that we aren't free.” The opryshky were men from Holovy; those who went to the opryshky were Hrytsio Kozmyn (Koznek), Tsilychiuk (Koznek), Pleskun Kozmyvskyi (Koznek), Makohyn, Mykhailo Kliam (Boichuk), Dmytro Vasyliukiv (Ponypalek), Hrytsio Bahan, Mishko Fediukiv, Protsio Tumaniuk (Sapriianchuk), Foka Tumaniuk (Sapriianchuk), and a great many others. The Hutsuls remember the opryshky with great respect.
Colophon
Translated from Volodymyr Hnatiuk (ed.), Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (Etnohrafichnyi zbirnyk 26; Lviv: Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka, 1910), no. 3, pp. 2–3. Hnatiuk gives it as recorded (zap.) at Holovy on 13 September 1907 by Petro Shekeryk-Donykiv, and names no other teller. The text was transcribed from the page images of the Internet Archive scan. Hnatiuk's glossary at the back of the volume settles several words: a zvid is a denunciation, and robyty zvody is to inform, so the opryshky robbed “only with a tip-off” and spared none who “laid information”; the rovta is a band of men raised under the pushkars to catch opryshky, rendered “the posse”; the katush is the prison where people were tortured, rendered “the dungeon”; nekrutatsiia is the recruiting levy; tymun’ is “therefore”. The pushkars were the guards whose duty was to catch opryshky in the mountains (Hnatiuk's glossary), and Yurishtan was their ataman, as a later section of Hnatiuk's book is titled. The printed ny mykh inshoho prava dostupyty is read with mykh as the Hutsul form of mih, “could”. A stryzhek, “a shorn man”, is read from the context and from no. 4 of the book, where the disguised gazda passes for a shorn army deserter. Hudzytsia is read as “backside” from its other uses in the same volume, where a woman bares hers to mock God and a man is shot in his; khiba v hudzytsu naduiut, “all they can do is blow into his backside”, is read as the teller's mocking way of saying that they can do nothing to him. Retunok, “rescue, way out”, and poshenovanie, “respect”, are words borrowed from the Polish. The house-names in brackets are the families' nicknames; the first is printed Kovnek and the next two Koznek, and the English gives Koznek for all three. The bartka is the Hutsul hatchet carried like a staff.
No English translation of this narrative is known to us.
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Source Text: Хто то були опришки?
The Hutsul text as printed by Hnatiuk (1910), no. 3, transcribed from the page images; line-end hyphens are joined, and Hnatiuk's first paragraph is divided here at the same place as the English.
Давно ни так було, єк тепер. Давно ґаздував у днину, а в ночі пидстрих собі волосє з долини, а верхне пидезав, забив пид крисаню тай уже стрижєк. Вимастив си сажев, кріс на плечя, бартку у руки, ножі тай пістолєта за ремінь, тай готовий опришок. Пишов з хати, грабував, рано вернув си, перебрав си, волосе розправив, тай уже ґазда.
Бо жядні опришки ни грабували без зводу. Лише вни мали у кождим селї знакомих, побратимив, котрі знали ци то в Жида, ци в пана всї входи тай виходи. Бо инак би єк могли би опришки шо вдїєти? А так чьоловіка скривдив пан, Жид або таки и свий богач, то чьоловік ни мих иншего права доступити, бо ни було єк, бо право було у руках панив. То лише одиноков пидпоров були опришки.
Чьоловік скривжений найде ватагу опришків, зачьне їх просити, аби опришки си пимстили на тим або тим кривдителю. Опришки си на це згодє, тай навіть тот чьоловік їм покаже на того кривдителя, та и поможе єго обграбувати.
Опришки николи ни грабували своїх людий, лиш чюжих, панив та Жидив. А своїх грабували хиба лиш тих, опришки, котрі опришків зачьйпали, або на нї доносили, або робили зводи. Люде и до сегодне згадуют про опришків добрими словами. И мают їх за оборонцїв перед усєков кривдов. Приміром кажут: Ий коби тепер були опришки, ми би гет пригрозили Польшю, та вступили си за нашими кривдами!
Про опришків давно ни можна було ничьо говорити, анї співати. Бо скоро би хто був важив си похвалити опришків за їх добрі учєнки, або склав співанку, то зараз Юріштан, єк си дизнав, впакував у катуш на кілька років, а набив, тілько схотїв. Тимунь и до сегодне старі люде ни хотє розказувати, бо боє си, аби їм ни було єкої біди. Через то усї добрі учєнки опришків пропадают серед народа через тот давний страх.
Опришки си робили ни через то, аби грабувати, а лиш через то, аби ни дати си упасти у ниволю. Бо давно заберали у пиволю всїх молодєків. Прийде ровта, обскочі хату, име, зєже молодєка и гайда до войска нїби на 24 роки, але то вже до свої смерти. Приженут до войска, зачьнут бити, а вип гайда у гори тай здизинтерує. Ховає си дизинтир лїсами, найде до себе побратимив тай иде в опришки, бо инакшего ретунку ни було. Єк би був котрий опришок важив си сидїти в хатї, то би го имила ровта. А так, єк утече, то шо му зробє, хіба в гудзицу надуют!
Опришки єк ходили па грабунки, то собі казали: Ми мусимо грабувати тих, котрі нас ловили до некрутациї, бо ми через нї ни є вилні. Опришки то були люде з Голов; в опришки ходили: Грицьо Козмин (Ковнєк), Цїличюк (Кознєк), Плескун Козмивский (Кознєк), Макогин, Михайло Клям (Бойчук), Дмитро Василюків (Понипалєк), Грицьо Баган, Мішко Федюків, Процьо Туманюк (Сапріянчук), Фока Туманюк (Сапріянчук) та бо́гато других. Про опришків згадуют Гуцули з великим пошєнованєм.
Source Colophon
Volodymyr Hnatiuk (ed.), Narodni opovidannia pro opryshkiv (Etnohrafichnyi zbirnyk 26; Lviv: Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka, 1910), no. 3, pp. 2–3. Public domain. Transcribed from the page images of the Internet Archive scan (identifier etnohr_26). Hnatiuk's phonetic spelling is kept as printed, with є, ї and the stress mark in бо́гато. Four letters are kept as they stand although they look like misprints: пиволю for ниволю, вип for вин, па for на, and Ковнєк for Кознєк.
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