Dr Jarosław Hryckowian (1931-2022) belonged to the strict elite of the Ukrainian community in Poland from the second half of the 1950s until the second decade of the 21st century. He was a recognisable figure in all the areas of his activity. He came from the Western Boyko region, from the village of Wola Matiaszowa in the Lesko district, his family was resettled in the Bytów district, he studied in Kraków, often visited Warsaw, and spent most of his adult life in Koszalin.
Jarosław Hryckowian was born on 24 April 1931 into the family of Michał and Katarzyna (née Biłanycz). Wola Matiaszowa was not a large village, before the war it had about 300 inhabitants, almost all of Greek Catholic faith. Little is known about what happened here during the German occupation (1939-1944). Relatively more information is available about the events of 1944-1947, the time of many clashes between Ukrainian partisans and Polish officers and soldiers in and around Wola Matiaszowa. The Hryckowian family avoided deportation to the USSR, which took place between 1944 and 1946, but they did not escape deportation in 1947 to Central Pomerania, to the village of Trzebiatkowa in the Bytów district.
Jarosław Hryckowian began his education before deportation. Until the outbreak of the war in 1939, he studied at the Polish school in Berezka. During the occupation, a school with Ukrainian language was organised in the village. Interestingly, he also studied at the school in Baligród, which had its own dormitory. In 1948, Jarosław Hryckowian started learning at a pedagogical secondary school (there are two versions in the sources – in Bytów or Wejherowo). After graduating from high school and passing his matriculation exam, he worked as a teacher at a general secondary school in Zawiercie. According to communist secret police materials, he started studying at the Faculty of the Higher School of Pedagogy in Kraków. From 1955, he studied Russian philology at the Faculty of Philology at the Jagiellonian University. In 1958, he defended his master’s thesis entitled: "Идейное и художевтенное значение фантастики в творчестве Гоголя", written under the supervision of Professor Wiktor Jakubowski.
During his studies in Kraków, Hryckowian joined social movements: initiated the creation of a youth student group and, from 1956, became a member of the Ukrainian Social and Cultural Society (UTSK). In the UTSK, he was later often elected to the leadership bodies of the organisation – the main board or the presidium of the main board. In 1957, he participated in the Youth Festival in Moscow. Here he made numerous acquaintances with Ukrainians from the Soviet Union, but not only.
As in the case of many other Ukrainian activists in the Polish People’s Republic, Hryckowian very quickly attracted the interest of the security organs of the communist state. From September 1958 to March 1959, the Security Service made intensive attempts to recruit him for cooperation under the codename "Saturn", whose so-called figurehead (person under investigation) was Ołeksa Horbatsch. The SB repeatedly summoned Hryckowian to meetings and demanded, among other things, that he disclose the content of the letters he had received from Horbatsch. As we read in the source documents left behind, despite the pressure exerted for many months, Jarosław Hryckowian eventually "expressed […] that under no circumstances would he go into closer cooperation with us". This could have cast a shadow over his further academic career; among other things, he was not accepted to work at the UMCS in Lublin as well as at the WSP in Słupsk.
After graduation in Kraków and due to unsuccessful attempts to find work in major academic centres, Jarosław Hryckowian became associated with Koszalin. Here, he worked, among other things, as a methodologist and inspector for schools with Ukrainian as the language of instruction, and from 1973 as a senior researcher at the Koszalin Branch of Teacher Training. In 1977. Hryckowian defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Wrocław entitled. "Ukrainian Literature in Polish Translation and Criticism 1945-1965", which he wrote under the supervision of Professor Marian Jakóbiec.
From 1957, Hryckowian published (also under the pseudonyms Wasyl Perczenko, Hryhorij Bojczuk) his articles and studies in UTSK publications – the weekly Our Word, the almanac Ukrainian Calendar and the anthology Homin. Furthermore, his works were issued in other publications, also abroad – in the USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. In addition to scientific studies, columns and reports, Hryckowian was also the author and co-author of textbooks for studying the Ukrainian language and methodological materials (e.g. together with Aleksander Tomkowicz, he developed "Auxiliary materials for teachers preparing students for competitions and Olympiads in the Russian language"). He published a number of works, also on historical topics, devoted to his hometown and the Ukrainian community in Central Pomerania. In total, the bibliography of works and studies by Jarosław Hryckowian counts several hundred items.
In the 1980s Hryckowian became involved with the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia operating in Koszalin. He was also a member of the Solidarity movement. Together with other members of the local Ukrainian community, and above all the local Greek Catholic parish priest Fr Włodzimierz Pyrczak, he undertook a number of initiatives related to the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus-Ukraine. In 1989, he became a member of the Solidarity Provincial Civic Committee in Koszalin. After the political changes of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hryckowian continued to take an active part in the life of the Ukrainian community in Poland. In 1992, he became the first chairman of the Ukrainian Teachers’ Association in Poland. He was a member of the Ukrainian World Association of Professional Educators.
Jarosław Hryckowian was accompanied on his life’s journey by his wife, Helena (née Hirna). Jarosław Hryckowian died on 29 October 2022. He was buried in Koszalin.
Jarosław Syrnyk
Sources:
Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, Ref. BU 00945/677
М. Зимомря, І. Зимомря, М. Талапканич, М. Паук, Животворназмагальністьосвіти. Життєвийшлях, науково–педагогічнадіяльністьЯрославаГрицковяна, Ужгород 2000.
Я. Грицковян, Шкільництвосталомоїмжиттям, "Наше слово" №5/2020
Я. Грицковян, Безвинивинуваті. МоєжиттяаукраїнськийстудентськийрухуПольщі 1955-1965, Koszalin 2010.
Я. Грицковян, ЗісторіїкошалінськогогурткаУСКТ (з 1991 рокуОУП) – 1956-2004, "Український альманах" 2005
J. Hryckowian, Z historii wspólnoty greckokatolickiej w Koszalinie (1971-2010), "Rocznik Koszaliński" no 37 (2009)
Грицков’ян Ярослав Михайлович / С. Заброварний // Енциклопедія Сучасної України [online] / Редкол. : І. М. Дзюба, А. І. Жуковський, М. Г. Железняк [та ін.] ; НАН України, НТШ. – К. : Інститут енциклопедичних досліджень НАН України, 2006. – Source: esu.com.ua.
cmentarz.koszalin.mpcms.pl
"This is how I go back in my memories…" radio programme by Anna Winnicka, prk24.pl