lost childhood

Lavrentiya Khariv

“As a child, I was deported to Siberia. As an adult, I help others through volunteering”

Lavrentiya (Lavra) Khariv, maiden name – Talanchuk, was born on January 30, 1944, in the town of Olesko (now Busk district of Lviv region) in the family of Roman and Sofiya Talanchuk. In addition to her, the family also raised an older daughter, Bohdana (born in 1937). The family was fond of music, the father even had his own ensemble.

Repression of family members

 

Her family was actively involved in the activities of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. One of her father’s brothers, Konstyantyn Talanchuk, served in the Nakhtigal Battalion and the Ukrainian People’s Self-Defense (UNS). In 1943, he was deported to the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. After the war, he emigrated to Canada. Another brother, Teodor Talanchuk, worked for the OUN underground in the Sumy region. While serving in the Red Army on fictitious documents under the name of Petro Korolenko, he was arrested by the NKVD in 1943 and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1944. On February 17-21, 1943, the 3rd OUN conference took place in the house of her maternal grandfather, Andriy Turchenyak, in the Voluyky small village near Olesko. Her mother’s sister, Halyna Turchenyak, became the wife of OUN regional leader Roman Kravchuk. In 1948, she was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. Another mother’s sister was also sentenced to a similar term.

In 1949, Roman Talanchuk was accused of embezzlement and sentenced to 2 years in prison. He was kept in prison in the town of Zolochiv (now the district center of Lviv region). Her mother was also taken for questioning: “When my father was imprisoned for two years, my mother, as she said, was taken to Lontsky prison. They tortured her and wanted her to confess and tell them everything she knew, but the mother did not do it”.

Deportation

 

In May 1949, Sofiya Talanchuk and her daughters, grandparents Andriy and Maria Turchenyak were arrested and taken to a transit point operating on the basis of a transit prison in Lviv: “I remember that fleas stung us a lot. And I remember we made crosses out of bread, and also dolls. They gave us good bread, and we sculpted it like plasticine and played with it. Because we had nothing else to do. There were many children in the cell”. From that place they were deported to Siberia for some time: “It was a long way. It was very hard because of the heat. There was one small window, and we (children), almost everyone who was there, were hanging out of that window”. During 1949-1958 they were in a special settlement in the town of Baley (now the district center of the Trans-Baikal Territory of the Russian Federation). In November 1953, the grandfather died.

Life at a special settlement

 

In Baley, Lavrentiya went to school and finished 6th grade. There she was forced to join a pioneer organization: “I used to leave the house without a pioneer tie and put it on only before entering my school. Then I used to leave school, reach the house: and put a tie in my pocket when I entered my home”.

After his release from prison, her father also joined the family. They were released from a special settlement in June 1958. After returning to Ukraine, Lavrentiya graduated from high school in Olesko, then from the dental school in Lviv. She worked as a dentist. Lavrentiya is currently retired.

During the Orange Revolution in 2004, she began volunteering. She is still active in ATO-JFO volunteer projects, for which she was awarded.