Uhrynivka Museum named after the Marchak family, Kalush

The villages of Staryi Uhryniv and Serednyi Uhryniv appeared on the map of Ukrainian lands almost simultaneously-the first written references date back to the mid-15th century. Some scholars derive their name from the name of the Ugrian tribes. It is believed that the name could have come from the surname of the nobleman Uhrynivskyi.

During the celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the OUN leader, National Hero of Ukraine, and native of Staryi Uhryniv, Stepan Bandera, an ethnographic room-museum named after the Marchak family was opened in the previously empty room of the village club, where various utensils, cookware, embroidered towels, napkins, shirts, blouses, and family relics of many generations of Uhryniv residents were collected. Prior to that, interesting artifacts from the past of the Uhryniv community were accumulated and stored in village libraries, whose heads Halyna Vorobets and Olha Perehiniak also recorded memories and made albums on the history of Uhryniv. The village head's initiative to establish the new institution was supported by local cultural workers, local residents actively participated in the collection of future exhibits, and the village council members unanimously approved the decision.

Serednyi Uhryniv is known to the patriotic community thanks to the activities of the priest Fr. Volodymyr Marchak, the rector of the local Greek Catholic Church of the Archangel Michael in the 1930s. The Marchak family made Serednyi Uhryniv famous far beyond the Carpathian region. Therefore, the newly created museum was named after the Marchak family by the village council.

о. Volodymyr Marchak (born in 1884 in the village of Bila, Stiiskyi district - 1942 in the village of Nyniv Dolishnyi). He graduated from the Theological Academy in Rome. He was a priest in the villages of Balychi and Hirne, Stryi district (1907-1910), and the village of Uhryniv (1910-1935). He maintained close ties with the family of Fr. Vasyl Marchak (1909, Balychi village, Stryi district) - Ukrainian public figure. He graduated from the Lviv gymnasium. He was the founder and conductor of village choirs and youth societies at the "Prosvita" reading rooms in Ser. Uhryniv (1928-1935) and Niniv Dolishnyi (1936-1939). In 1939-1941 he lived in Krakow. Volunteer of the Ukrainian Division "Galicia". He emigrated to Germany and then to the United States. Soloist of the Ukrainian Choir in Detroit (conducted by V. Kolesnyk), activist of the People's House, UGCC community.

Roman Marchak (1912, Ser. Uhryniv village - March 1942, Zhytomyr) - regional leader of the OUN in Zhytomyr region (nicknamed "Morgun"). He graduated from a trade school in Lviv. He studied at the Law Faculty of Lviv University. A member of the OUN Northern marching group (1941).

From a historical point of view, Uhrynivka is an extraterritorial phenomenon, because in addition to Uhryniv itself, there are Uhryniv centers all over western Ukraine, where more than ten thousand people live. It is not easy to comprehend this "Uhryniv phenomenon," but we will try, perhaps for the first time, to analyze numerous testimonies and sources on this unexpected and therefore all the more interesting topic for our deeper self-knowledge of our roots.

In the modern sense, Uhrynivia is a territory (60 thousand square kilometers) located in the south of Kalush and north of Rozhnyativ districts, Ivano-Frankivsk region. It is home to villages that are (or used to be) called Uhryniv: Staryi Uhryniv, Serednyi Uhryniv, formerly Novyi Uhryniv, Uhryniv-Sloboda, Vyzhnii Uhryniv (present-day Petranka), which are linked by a common origin of the population, which currently numbers almost 5,000 people.

In recent years, contacts between the Uhryniv communities have significantly intensified. A number of joint large-scale cultural events have been held (for example, the annual Uhryniv Festivals, mutual exchange of delegations, sports competitions, etc.), and a number of promising projects for the socio-economic plan for the future have been launched. One of the most important joint activities was the opening of a museum room in the premises of the Srednyi Uhryniv People's House, which has already grown into the Uhryniv Museum named after the Marchak family (a patriotic priest family). It contains interesting local antiquities: rare photographs, documents, church attributes, and household items that testify to the original historical path of the Uhrynivka microregion. The museum's collections are also being replenished with materials from the twin villages, which will make it possible to turn this institution into a real center of revival of a unique historical and ethnographic community in the future.

The Uhrynivka Museum is to receive a new impetus for development in the course of implementing Natalia Drapula's project "Creating a Youth Tourist Center in S. Bandera's Native Village," which was one of the winners of a nationwide competition and received support from President Viktor Yushchenko. Part of the museum organizers' goals were also achieved in the course of projects funded by the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration's Tourism Department and the West Ukrainian Resource Center in 2009.

The museum organizers invite local historians, researchers, students, and pupils to cooperate in collecting memories, photographs, and documents with evidence of repression by the occupation regimes and the heroic struggle of Kalush patriots for Ukraine's independence. Contact persons: Natalia Tymkiv, Ihor Vynnyk, Tetiana Fedoriv.

The first heads of the museum were Olha Perehiniak and Natalia Tymkiv. Since its official state registration (October 2010), Khrystyna Petrych has been appointed director of the museum. With the participation of the museum, a number of cultural events were prepared and held in honor of prominent countrymen: Stepan Bandera and his family members, Hryhoriy Perehyniak, commander of the First Hundred of the UPA in Volyn, Roman Marchak, leader of the OUN in Zhytomyr region, Vasyl Kostiv ("Verkhovynets"), an outstanding folklorist and composer, Mykola Sayevych, an educator, scientist, UGA centurion, and others. Materials on the history of Uhrynivka have been collected and published, several issues of the Uhrynivka Chronicle have been published, the community symbols (coat of arms, flag, anthem) have been developed, and the monuments and landmarks in the villages have been registered, and work is underway to popularize them.

It is planned to create branches of the museum in each of the villages named Uhryniv in different regions of Western Ukraine, as well as to hold a scientific and practical conference.

The materials of the Uhryniv Museum named after the Marchak family can be viewed daily from Tuesday to Friday from 12 to 16 hours in the premises of the People's House of Serednyi Uhryniv (123 Shevchenko Street, 2nd floor).