Читать книгу The Women of Janowka - Helmut Exner - Страница 8

– Chapter 1 –

“Friedrich, get out of the water! You’re supposed to deliver the butter to the Jew.”

Ten-year-old Mathilde stood on the bank of the small river to bring her brother home as her mother had instructed. After a hard day working on the field, black-haired and wiry-slender Friedrich, eighteen years of age and the oldest son of the Exner family, had waded into the almost dried-out river to cool down, along with the other boys and men. The water level was too low for anyone to consider swimming.

“Turn around then, I’m coming out now. Or do you want to see your brother in the nude?”

The girl put her hands in front of her face, while the other boys made deriding catcalls.

Their parental home, a rather simple, but solid stone building, was only about 200 meters away. On the ground floor, there was a spacious kitchen and a small parlour. A precipitous stairway led up to three bedrooms.

“Well, have you washed your dirt away in the river?” asked Christine, the mother of the family, while she prepared dinner at the stove. “Take the horse and ride over to Solomiak, so that young Salomon gets his butter. Make sure he pays you today. The month is over and I’ll find a good use for that money.”

“Why must I ride to Solomiak? Isn’t Gottlieb here yet?” Friedrich countered.

“He’s still at the Hinzes. He might be late since they’re mowing today. Come on, please go now. Remember, once you’re back, dinner will be waiting for you.”

Gottlieb was Friedrich’s sixteen-year-old brother. He was helping out their neighbours at the moment. The father of that family had fallen off a horse a few days earlier, and was still recovering. Beside Friedrich, Gottlieb and Mathilde, Karl and Christine Exner also had eight-year-old Martha. Several children had died early.

The Exners made their living off the land, like almost everybody else in the small German village of Janowka by the river Slusz. Christine, the undisputed head of the family, which of course no one expressed loudly, was a woman in her early forties, dark-haired, small and thin, with brownish-green eyes which could look directly into one’s soul. She was a brilliant organizer assigning all the family’s work, even that of her husband Karl (without him noticing), and administering the housekeeping money. When the – mostly Jewish – grain merchants or cattle dealers came into town, she would determine the deal by either nodding or discreetly shaking her head at her husband. Aside from the housework, she looked after the cattle and the big garden, assisted with hay-making and the grain. Thus, she made it possible for her husband to earn a bit extra as a craftsman. They did not have a hard life.

Of course, there were also poor people in the area. There were poor Germans who – like anywhere else in the world – could never get off the ground. There were poor Ukrainians, Poles and Russians who weren’t able to seize opportunities with both hands, even after serfdom had been officially abo-lished in 1861. And, of course, there were people just living from hand to mouth. Some families had no choice but to live in mud huts.

Anyone who could no longer work due to poor health, and had no family to support him would be in a bad situation. The most effective social net was a big family which also included more distant relatives. Of course, the parish was res-ponsible for charity and neighbours were always there with practical help. But for effective and lasting support, one counted on one’s family. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising that often whole clans either emigrated entirely or little by little. Almost everybody in the village had a large number of relatives in the area which constantly increased through marriage.

People considered themselves first as Volhynians, and then as Germans. Volhynia, located in the northwest of Ukraine, had been Polish for a long time. In 1792, after the third Polish division, the Russian Tsar took over the region. His subjects, however, didn’t have much reason to complain. As early as the 19th century Germans had already settled here. Immigration increased in the 1860s, as many of the former serfs had run away from their landowners. Nevertheless, there were only a few willing to work as farmhands, because this they could do in Germany. Those who came here wanted to be their own masters, no matter how small the piece of farmland was or how hard one had to work for it. There was nothing the big landowners could do but lease or sell vast pieces of their land. Besides, there was still much land waiting to be broken. Settlers cleared the land and drained the swamps. All this made the Tsar regard his new subjects with great favour.

Volhynia bloomed with the arrival of the many German colonists in the 1860s and onward. The economy flourished. In the bigger towns, there were all kinds of tradesmen and also the first industries, and, of course, a lot of shops that offered everything one’s heart desired. Houses were built and had to be furnished enabling carpenters to earn their daily bread. Cloth was needed to sew clothes, which gave business to the textile manufacturers, who, in turn, required raw material from the farmers. Everybody needed clothes and footwear. Tools were required. Production and trade was booming. An optimistic spirit ruled.

While prosperity in this province grew, bitter poverty was prevelant in many other areas of the gigantic Russian empire. This phenomenon, however, when many people enter a thinly populated area, get settled and boost the economy, had been already known in Russia for centuries – for example, in the Volga region or in the Black Sea region. In 1890, there were about 2.5 million Germans living in the Russian tsardom, 240,000 of them in Volhynia. Of course, Germans were not the only ones who had come from faraway to live here. Driven by the desire to build a new and better life in Russia, people from many other countries were setting off. Apart from Russians, White Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, there were also Dutchmen, Czechs, Slovaks, Lithuanians and Hungarians attracted to Russia. In addition, they were joined by several single adventurers from many other countries who were also longing to achieve some degree of prosperity. Numerous people who were victims of religious persecution in their home countries, had come here, too. Religious freedom had been granted to Mennonites, Hutterites, Baptists and others.

The immigrants had an inspiring influence on the whole empire, but then things changed. Tensions grew between the Tsar and the German emperor. Many privileges the Germans had been given were suddenly cancelled. These privileges included the freedom from taxes, the exclusion of military service or the right to speak German at school. Under the rule of Alexander III the lives of Germans as well as other minorities in Russia gradually got worse. Jews, in particular, were despicably treated. In the Schtetls there were certain Jews who were doing well, some even very well, but most Jews were facing bitter poverty. Under Tsar Nicolaus II the situation worsened. To add to this, unrest was growing within the Russian population. Both the autocratic rule of the Tsar and the privileges of aristocracy were defended with an iron hand. After the revolution of 1905, an informer network, with the intent on exposing politically conspicuous persons, was installed. A careless remark made under the influence of alcohol could be enough to send one to a Siberian penal camp.