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ZAYIKA V. V. Diary of August 1943 (From the private records by V. M. Zayika)

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       Confusing of the Ukrainian history in numerous questions is an evident fact. Lost archives, ideological nature of political interests, inaccurate witnesses’ knowledge are rather common things. That is why it is extremely important to involve the wider circle of sources for the investigations.

     The complex of the local historical materials of Hlukhiv district is enriched by the information from the daily records of Volodymyr Mykolayovych Zayika started on January 1, 1943.

      Volodymyr Mykolayovych Zayika (1921 – 1994) was 18 at the beginning of 1943 when he began to keep his diary under the nazi occupation. It contains many private records: with friends, on relations in the family where he had to become the eldest and responsible man (his father Mykola Kostyantynovych Zayika died in 1934), almost daily on the weather, stories about state events at the front, rumors. An important place is occupied by describing events in the town of Hlukhiv. Only in 1943 the memory of the town occupation on September 8, 1941 was recorded. Domestic problems of Hlukhiv district, the work of the specialized agricultural school, expectations of removing youth Hlukhiv to Germany were fixed in the diary.

   Parents of Volodymyr Mykolayovych were educators. Father Mykola Kostyantynovych (1882 - 1934) studied at Hlukhiv gymnasium for boys, later graduated from Pavlo Halagan College in Kyiv, entered the Bezborodko Institute of History and Philology in Nizhyn, transferred to the St. Volodymyr University in, but after the fourth year he had to stop training and later he worked at educational institutions of Hlukhiv.

      The mother Nadiya Ivanivna (born Hryshanova) (1891 – 1979) after graduating Hlukhiv gymnasium for girls devoted the rest of her life to primary education, first in the local self government educational establishments and later in the Soviet ones. Before the was she began to work at the library of Hlukhiv teachers training institute and in early September of 1941 before the German occupation she participated in saving the institute library.

      Volodymyr Mykolayovych studied at Hlukhiv school #3, attended agricultural school during the occupation where young people were trained for working at the German farms. After liberating the town he entered the natural sciences department of Hlukhiv teachers training institute.

    In 1945, for excellence in learning, he was awarded Stalin scholarship and in 1945 after completion of training, he was suggested the work at the Institute as an organizer of the Young Communist League. But in 1946 he was sent to work in Lviv region, then he was transferred to Kyiv region but since 1949 he started to work in Hlukhiv district first in Chervone village (then district center) and later he worked as the inspector of Hlukhiv district education department. He was among the first educators of the district to get the of ministry award "Excellence in education of the Ukrainian SSR."

   In 1963 Volodymyr Mykolayovych  was transferred to work at the comprehensive school #1, where a year later he became a head teacher. And the last position was at secondary school #4, where he taught history and geography and was also a head teacher.

     The diary consists of 11 exercise books of different formats and three small notebooks (where impressions of trips to Berdyansk, Transcarpathian and Leninhrad were fixed). The most systematic records relate to the period between 1943 - 1947, then there are breaks in record time, and for 1950 and 1951 there are just several pages of summary, estimating impressions, notes.

    More space is given to just to family problems or estimating the closest surrounding. Although, of course, it is important to read the impressions of effects of 20th Party Congress of dethroning Stalin's personality.

     Detailed description of life in the liberated Hlukhivis presented, restarting the work of Hlukhiv teachers training institute in October 1943, students’ life, the characteristics of teachers, the joy over the message of the victory over Germany and thoughts of declaring war against Japan are also included into the diary.

     The diary was kept not regularly but practically to the last days of life.

     The suggested publication covers the records of the late August-early September 1943 – the days on the eve of liberating Hlukhiv and the days when the German aircrafts severely bombed the town.

Кey words: World War II, occupation, Hlukhiv, liberation, diary