"Why didn't Belarusians protect us?" Shukelovich told a little-known story of Bahushevich's family

One of the strongest memories she carried throughout her life was a grievance: why didn't Belarusians protect them?

Shukelovich himself grew up in Ašmiany region, not far from places associated with Bahushevich. He says that even in childhood he heard about the poet not as a canonical classic, but as a living person.

"I was raised by two sisters, our women from Zhupry, older women. The husband of one of them was a neighbor of Frantsishak Bahushevich in Kushlyany. They knew many stories about Bahushevich himself, they told me a lot about him. They also told about the uprising; their grandfathers or great-grandfathers remembered Kastuś Kalinoŭski's uprising. How people hid in the forests, how it all lived. How, it seems, Bahushevich, although they say it was his brother, in Župrany during Kalinoŭski's uprising spoke in the market square, agitating people to support the uprising, to oppose the Russian Empire."

Already living in Warsaw, Shukelovich found Bahushevich's descendants via Facebook and met Kristyna Shmanda. She was born in 1932 near Smarhon. Her mother Stanisława Tomaszewska was the daughter of Tamash Bahushevich — Frantsishak Bahushevich's son.

"She held a grudge against Belarusians"

In 1940, the family was taken to Siberia. Kristyna was seven years old, her brother was three. Shukelovich says that the childhood trauma stayed with her for life.

"She is a very interesting person, a noblewoman, a teacher for many years. But I felt in her such a trauma, a grudge, because at the age of seven, she, along with her mother and brother — her brother was three years old — was exiled to a settlement in Siberia, where they lived through very difficult times. She held a grudge against Belarusians for allowing this, for not defending them. She had a child's perception that Belarusians did this, that they came and arrested her mother and them — the people they lived next to. Why didn't they see that these were children? Why didn't they see it? Where was the empathy of these people? I'm not judging anyone, I'm just describing how it was."

According to Shukelovich, Kristyna's most vivid memories of Siberia were not about politics and repression, but about hunger. The family lived in a dugout made of turf. The girl searched for wild carrots in the meadow, ate half-rotten sauerkraut, and for the rest of her life remembered a candy given to her by another exile.

Wrote letters to Belarusian writers

Shukelovich separately mentions Kristyna's mother's story. According to his account, she wrote from Siberia to Belarusian writers and asked for help, at least for the children. She received no reply. But the family itself didn't know then what was happening to the Belarusian intelligentsia at that time.

"The mother wrote letters to Belarusian writers asking them to intercede, to at least free the children from there, from that famine. And no one replied. But, probably, those same Belarusians couldn't reach them, had no influence. Half of the Belarusian writers themselves were in Siberia — either shot or buried in Kurapaty. But she didn't know this, she had no way of finding out, no one told her about it."

Later, Kristyna's mother was arrested, and for some time the children remained without her in an orphanage. In 1942, the family managed to leave the USSR during the formation of Anders' Army. Their path went through Persia — present-day Iran, and then India. The family returned to Poland in 1947.

Shukelovich says that this family story made him think not only about the past. He involuntarily compares the fate of the Bahushevich family with the situation of modern Belarusians, some of whom cannot return to their homeland due to the threat of political persecution.

"This shows how Poland then protected its compatriots, its citizens. I involuntarily compare it with present-day Belarus and how Belarus treats its own citizens. We cannot renew our passports, we cannot return to Belarus, this country will still seize us and not only not protect us, but also punish us."

After the war, Kristyna Shmanda lived in Poland, graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry, and worked as a chemistry teacher in Warsaw. She died in 2023.

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