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Our neighbors were Ukrainians; they were nice people. We spoke in their native language with them. Sipot and Banila [today Banilov] were villages of Ukrainians. There were also villages of Romanians in the vicinity – like Krasnailski [today Krasnoilsk]. The region had been under the Austrian administration until 1918. It was only in 1920 that they started to use Romanian as the official language. In out village, the gendarme, the priest and the teachers were Romanian. The mayor’s office had Romanian and Ukrainian employees – but the latter could speak Romanian too.
The traces of the Austrian administration were clearly visible in the education that people had received. They were simply more cultivated and more polished than the inhabitants in Walachia and Moldavia [3]. Sometimes I would hear the Ukrainians telling my grandmother: “We were better off under the Austrians”. Life wasn’t bad under the Romanian administration either, but they didn’t like the fact that the gendarmes would prevent them from keeping their old holidays. They celebrated Christmas 13 days later than the Romanians and the gendarmes would beat them if they caught them caroling. This tradition wasn’t Austrian, but Slavic. I remember this quite well – I was old enough to remember these things.
The village had a Christian-Orthodox church. Ukrainians had basically the same holidays as the Romanians, only they celebrated them 2 weeks later. There were also Adventists, but they were very few. They held a service every Saturday in a private house.
The traces of the Austrian administration were clearly visible in the education that people had received. They were simply more cultivated and more polished than the inhabitants in Walachia and Moldavia [3]. Sometimes I would hear the Ukrainians telling my grandmother: “We were better off under the Austrians”. Life wasn’t bad under the Romanian administration either, but they didn’t like the fact that the gendarmes would prevent them from keeping their old holidays. They celebrated Christmas 13 days later than the Romanians and the gendarmes would beat them if they caught them caroling. This tradition wasn’t Austrian, but Slavic. I remember this quite well – I was old enough to remember these things.
The village had a Christian-Orthodox church. Ukrainians had basically the same holidays as the Romanians, only they celebrated them 2 weeks later. There were also Adventists, but they were very few. They held a service every Saturday in a private house.
Period
Location
Sipot [Dolishniy Shepot]
Chernivetska oblast
Ukraine
Interview
Samuel Eiferman