Description

A personal memoir, written in English, describing events that occurred in the village of Karlykiv (located in the Sanok powiat in the eastern part of the Lemko region) between 1939-1947 and represent the larger history that affected the Lemkos. Karlykiv became a scene of military engagement in the fall of 1944, when the Red Army clashed with German forces. These battles left the village in ruins, but it was events that occurred after the war that would have the most profound and devastating effects on the Lemkos.  After resisting resettlement to Soviet Ukraine between 1944-1946, Dr. Rapawy and his family were eventually deported and resettled to northwestern Poland as part of “Operation  Vistula” (Akcja Wisła). From his unique perspective as both an eyewitness and a historian (Ph.D., Soviet and Russian area studies, Georgetown University, 1977), Dr. Rapawy reconstructs the events through a combination of his own experiences, interviews with other survivors, and secondary research.