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Tango of Death
executions, “My Ukrainian
people! Listen to the voice of
your faithful sons! At some
time in the future you will
pay back for us! Long live....”
The enemy’s bullet cut him
off in the middle of his last
word and knocked him over
into the grave. Several voices
struck up with the anthem
“Ukraine is still alive!” An
entire chorus joined in with
everyone singing: Ukrainians,
Poles, twodozenRussians, the
Jews Yakiv Krutokop, Joseph
Yendryk, Zahar Atnabunt, the
German Joseph Krantz, the
Belarusian Mikhail Malevich,
and even the Chinese Mon
Za Lit. Our fathers also sang,
bravely putting out their
chests under the swarm of
machine-gun bullets, and
then they – both the dead
and still living – were covered
with earth, and the villagers
long afterward mentioned
how the earth kept stirring.
The tragedy at Bazar was
described in many Galician
periodicals, it was included
in school readers, where the
executions of the unpacified
Kozaks were also illustrated,
and we remembered in detail
how and what happened back
then, and we looked at the
picture, guessing where each
of our father’s was, and even
later, when we learned that
the artist painted this painting
from imagination and just
could not know what these
heroes really looked like;
anyway, everyone managed
to choose “his” father, who
at least looked a little like
misty childhood memories
and like those photos that
remained for us, but we
could not come to terms with
the fact that our fathers had
not resorted to guile to save
their lives, did not agree to
cross over to the side of the
Reds, though not for real, but
only temporarily, and at the
earliest opportunity escape
and join up with the rebels of