Relaxing in Lviv

I can take about a week of intense family research before my mind starts to go blank. Therefore it's very nice to be at this modern hotel, chilling out. They have a pretty good business center and I had wonderful, historical family photos scanned and emailed to me.There's an interesting set of pics of Marko's wife in her coffin and being carried to the cemetery. There's also a great picture of the Hubici Collective during Soviet times.

Slav told me that farming is actually a capitalist system and that it never worked as a socialist experiment. I knew that Stalin starved millions of Ukrainian peasants in a false famine during the 30's in an attempt to break their spirits and force them to accept collective farming. My people were not effected because their land, fortunately, belonged to Poland at the time. After the war, however, these peasants were forced to join Soviet collectives. Maria's mother told me how badly treated the farmers were and how hard they worked, almost like beasts of the fields. They were refused passports so, in fact, they lived almost like the serfs had before 1850. Maria's mom related the good child care she was privy to while raising 3 children and working as an internist. She said the farmers were not given child care-the children were raised by the old people- and the schooling was minimal at best, just 3 or 4 years. Eventually this Soviet mindset changed and the USSR realized it needed more educated people in Western Ukraine. That's when Michael, the youngest child, received a free education to be trained as a doctor. It was impossible for Catherine to get a good education-it was just too expensive.

I decided to stay in Lviv today and went to the Art Museum which has an excellent collection of religious icons. The Ukrainians were very good painters as early as the 15th century. I was tickled to see how much I understood just by sounding out the letters. Words like apostle, Mark, Paul, etc. sound the same as English.

It's quite upsetting to think about how much priceless art was destroyed by the Soviets who were trying to wipe out religion as well as Ukrainian culture. I saw a breathtaking exhibit of Carpathian religious sculpture at the Ukrainian Museum in New York City. It is owned by the current president of Ukrain and he is generous in allowing it to be displayed-although I believe it should be in a museum for everyone to see.

I'm missing the political scene at home. Eastern Europeans are interested in our elections and keep asking me about Barack Obama. It's funny that every time they bring up Bill Clinton they also mention Monica Lewinsky-even the teenagers know about the scandal. Ah, Bill, what a foolish man you were!