Carnage by Sokal

Abwehrkampf einer MG-Abteilung. Maschinengewehrabteilung II des Infanterieregiments Nr. 4
"Hoch- und  Deutschmeister" auf der Höhe Gora Sokal am Bug, 20. Juli 1915. 
Karl Friedrich Gsur.

Sokal is the first place where Švejk would have seen any fighting if he had ever got that far. In Karel Steklý´s film he actually arrives at the front and k.u.k forces are being shelled by the Russians. In this film which has been twisted towards comedy and slap-stick, Lieutenant Dub hides from the shells in a wooden shit-house. This scene has nothing to do with the novel, although some inspiration might have been drawn from Karel Vaněk´s continuation. So, with Švejk now finished, let us therefore return to what the author himself took part in and surely would have found place for in the novel. It is a tale of horror ...

From VÚA (Central War Archives), Prague. History of
the 91st regiment (author unknown).

Hašek and the 12th march batallion had arrived in Łonie near Gologory on July 11. They had left Királyhida on June 30 and were at arrival commanded by Oberleutnant Wenzel. At least until Sanok the transport was by train and thus corresponded precisely to the route described in Švejk. How they moved onward from Sanok to Lonie is less obvious, but we must assume that at least the final part of the 150 km trek was on foot. In Łonie the march battalion replaced the losses the 91st regiment had suffered during their advance in Galicia from early May onwards. The troops of the march battalion complemented field battalions II, III and IV of the regiment. Hašek was assigned to FBtn III, 11th company. The 91st regiment consisted of 4 battalions of which number II, III and IV were fighting on the Galician front. The 3rd field battalion was commanded by Hauptmann Sagner and the 11th Feldkompanie by Oberleutnant Lukas. Note the similarities with Švejk, but also how the author freely moved formations and people around to create his plot. In the novel the number of Švejk's march battalion is unclear, and Švejk's 11th march company seems to have its number and even some of its staff borrowed from Hašek's 11th field company, post Gologory. IR 91 was part of the 17th infantry brigade (IBrig 17) which again belonged to the 9th infantry division (ID 9). To complete the army Schematismus: this division belonged to the Armeekorps VIII which in turn was part of the k.u.k Second Army, the so-called Heeresgruppe Böhm-Ermolli.

Situation by the Bug on July 15 1915.
(from Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg).

After capturing Lemberg (now Lviv) on June 22, Verbündete forces soon soon reached the river Bug where they consolidated their positions. But by mid-July High Command had ordered a new offensive. The objective was to cross the river Bug, recapture the parts of Galicia that were still on Russian hands and push into enemy territory before the winter set in. Böhm-Ermolli ordered the 9th infantry division (they had been fighting by Gologory) to move north behind the lines into positions by Kamionka Strumiłowa where he planned an attack across the river Bug towards Radziechów (now Radekhiv). The division reached the area on July 17 after breaking up from Lonie on July 13. It was during this march they on July 16 passed Żółtańce and had a two hour Rast north of town, near the railway station. This break was however too short to provide material for the final chapter of Švejk, so it is likely that the author simply picked this spot from the map and filled in with facts (and fiction) from elsewhere. Otherwise his description of the fighting along the Bug is remarkably precise. After a few more stops the regiment arrived by Obydów on July 19 and it was from this spot they were to cross the Bug. They even started to build a bridge but were hampered by heavy rain. The attack was planned for July 21.

In documents in the Central War Archives Hašek is listed as Zugsordonnanz, where his duty as a messenger was to connect the squads within his company. This is a function he also assigned to Švejk, but at a much earlier stage. Here we have one of several indications that the author mixed a number of facts, people and experiences from this time in the 11th Field Company into Švejk's time in the 11th March Company.

Description of the situation by Sokal on July 20.
(from Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg).

Further north by Sokal, units from the First Army had in the meantime crossed the Bug and a bridgehead was established on the eastern bank of the river. Amtliche Berichte from Vienna show that the battle by Sokal had been raging at least since July 16 when the Bernardine monastery on the western shore of the river had fallen. On July 18 German and Austrian troops crossed the river, occupied Sokal the strategically important Gora Sokal and dug themselves in around the town. Russian commander Brusilov however soon recognized the vulnerability of the enemy bridgehead and ordered counter-attacks to destroy it.  Gora Sokal (trigonometrie 234, 237 and 254) was recaptured by the Russians on July 20, and Paul Puhallo, commander of the First Army, realized how serious the situation was and asked for assistance that same day. This was to provide decisive for the fate of IR 91. With the complete 9th division they were ordered northwards to strengthen the bridgehead and General Böhm-Ermolli had to abandon his plans for an offensive towards Radziechów. Instead the Second Army were left to "clean up" the area west of the river Bug.

The situation in Sokal on July 23,
 the day the 91st regiment arrived.

At 4:30 in the morning of July 21 the 91st regiment left their quarters near Obydów where they had spent the last two days. Two days of arduous marching awaited them. They marched through Mosty Wielkie where they met Reichsdeutsche units, an event which might have inspired Hašek's description of German troops in Švejk. The weather was very warm those days after weeks of heavy rain. In the evening of the 22nd they arrived in the Sokal area and on July 23 Hašek's III. batallion was amongst those who replaced German troops south of Sokal by Poturcyza. With the newly arrived reinforcements, a renewed attempt to capture Gora Sokal was planned, and it duly started in the afternoon of July 25. Heavy fighting continued for the next few days and the losses were terrible on both sides. In name lists, around half the names on the 11th Field Company have been ticket off as either verwundet, vermisst or gefallen. Amongst the casualties were three out of the four company squad leaders (Zugsführer), only Kadett Johann Biegler came through it unhurt. The 91st regiment managed to reach Kote 234 on the 26th, but Russian counter-attacks pushed them back and July 28 and 29 were black days. The numerical superiority of the enemy started to count. IR 4 (Hoch und Deutschmeister) had to give up Kote 254 and IR 91 had to withdraw to a new line of defense further north by Babiniec. The k.u.k forces were in a desperate situation. Losses were huge, half the 91st regiment were either killed, wounded or missing. Fortunately for them the Russians unexpectedly  started to withdraw on  July 31.

Sokal and surroundings on a k.u.k military map from
1910. The contested kote 254 is clearly visible.

The Russian pull-out had little to do with the achievements of the k.u.k forces by Sokal. The foe was still controlling Kote 254, but events further north dictated the outcome. German forces had broken through (general Linsingen), and the Russians decided to withdraw to the river Ługa for fear of being outflanked.

Several of the officers who later lent their names to characters in Švejk were present at Sokal: Oberleutnant Rudolf Lukas, Rechnungsunteroffizier Jan Vaněk, Kadett Johann Biegler, Oberleutnant Wenzel, Hauptmann Vincenz Sagner. Some of them had striking similarities with their counter-parts in the novel, and they may or may not have been pleased when their names appeared in Švejk! Another vaguely obscured real-life model was Feldkurat Jan Evangelista Eybl, called Ibl in the novel.

On August 2 IR 91 moved to Żdżary 15km to the north and spent nearly four weeks in the reserve there. Hašek was from August 1 promoted to Gefreiter (lance corporal). On August 18 he and many others were decorated for bravery demonstrated during the battle by Sokal. According to eye-witness accounts by Rudolf Lukas and Jan Vaněk (Večerní České Slovo, September 1924) he  had single-handed captured a large number of Russians. These were men who were glad to leave the war behind anyway, so at best Hašek “guided” them into captivity.

Sources:

• Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg, Band II, Teil I
• Das Infanterieregiment Nr. 91 am Vormarsch in Galizien. Machine-written document from the Central War Archives (VÚA). Prague.
• Jaroslav Hašek v revolučním Rusku. Jaroslav Křížek.

Marching on without Švejk

“With the Bezirkshauptmann we always used to say: Patriotism, fidelity to duty, overcoming one’s self, those are  the real weapons in war! I am reminding myself of  it especially today when our military troops will in foreseeable time cross the borders.”

In an abandoned vicarage in Klimontów, these final passages of the Švejk novel were uttered by the perennially moronic Lieutenant Dub, a caricature of a Czech monarchist, albeit one with a certain position in society. His final words makes one think of Samuel Johnson’s famous sound-bite: “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”. Whether Hašek here was building up to a Johnson-like ridicule of patriotism in general we will never know. The likelihood is that it was the Austrian patriot in particular he mocked, not the dis-united patriots of (the rest of) the  world. Hašek was himself a Czech patriot but was not adverse to shitting in the nest of other patriots (or in anybody's nest  for that matter).

After this abrupt and tragic end of Švejk it was time to wonder: What is the likely direction the novel would have taken if the author had lived on? Hašek did leave some clues. The advertising posters for the first instalment of Švejk reveals that the plot was also to take place in Russia during the civil war, so we can safely assume that Švejk would continue to follow his creator’s journey, more or less accurately. Another important indication is the farewell scene in Királyhida between Švejk and Vodička. Here it is clear that the author intends his hero to return home safely. An even more direct statement is found in the introduction to Book One. Here Hašek writes that “Nowadays, you can run into a shabby man in the streets of Prague who himself has no idea of the significance he actually has in the history of the great new era”. So Švejk had obviously returned. But where apart from Prague did the author intend his hero to appear? There is only one other place that is mentioned explicitly: Sokal. This is stated both in the chapter header “From Bruck an der Leitha to Sokal” and also later when the soldiers are skinning the “unskinnable” cow in Liskowiec (chapter Marschieren Marsch). This is, however, only part of the story; the pure geographical direction the plot. Just as important (or even more so) is: Who would have been at the receiving end of the authors biting satire hereafter? He had almost left his bête noire Austria-Hungary and there were still nearly three more volumes planned ...

Naturally Sokal was to become my next stop although I didn´t follow Hašek´s route in detail. That would have meant quite a cumbersome detour via Holohory to Kamianka-Buzka and several smaller places the soldiers stopped at when walking from Holohory to Sokal between July 11 and July 22 1915. The battle by Sokal raged from July 15 to July 31 and Hašek's regiment arrived in the region on July 22 (more on the battle itself in the next blog entry). The route is described in some detail in Jaroslav Krížek´s Jaroslav Hašek v revolučnim Rusku, but I didn't have the information available at the time.

Ivan and Maria Strilets.

Instead of trying to retrace too much of this chequered journey, I did a short-cut. From Lviv´s Автостанція 2, I took the by now familiar mini-bus route 80 km north to Sokal. Along the roads there were signs to a few places which readers of Svejk might recognize: Rava-Ruska, Velyki Mosty, Kamionka Buzska and Sokal itself. When I arrived in Sokal that baking hot afternoon I even managed to jump off at the wrong bus-stop. But with remote assistance from Munich (and a huge phone bill), I found my destination in the end. It was Petruševska 47 and the good people receiving the visitor there were Ivan and Maria Strilets. This was my third visit to their home. The first was in 2004 on my make-shift Švejk-trip. Their house is on the southern outskirts of town, right by Sokal Hora where some of the fiercest fighting took place in July 1915. I even had a room with a view across to the former battlefield. Although the name suggests a mountain, it is actually a low hill which reaches 254 metres above sea level. The fact that I was staying in this particular house had everything to to do with Pavel Gan who I had visited in Munich back in early May (see More important than Lonely Planet). Maria and Ivan are in fact his parents in-law. The lady in Munich who had guided me there by phone was their daughter Larissa.

Sokal hora

Sitting there watching cooling rain-showers sweep across Sokal Hora, it was time to ponder the improbable chain of events that led me to this spot on earth in the first place. These are important events as they also (partly) explain why I’m doing this six-month trip at all. I don't remember exactly when I got it into my head to do a Švejk-trip, but I recollect how I was inspired by maps in Cecil Parrott’s translation of Švejk. Preparing for the trip in 2004 I set about locating the spots I found on Parrott’s map. This proved to be an enormous challenge, particularly in Galicia. I was at the time unaware of the misspellings in the novel, and I knew little about name changes that had taken place since. Places in the Ukraine (names written in Cyrillic) further complicated the issue. I started off by Googling, but without much luck. Still, the omnipresent search-engine led me to the web-sites of Zenny Sadlon (zenny.com and svejkcentral.com).  I sent Sadlon an e-mail and although his geo-awareness didn’t extend to Galicia of 1915 he kindly forwarded what was to prove an immensely useful e-mail address; that of Pavel Gan. I wrote to Pavel and although I didn't get the specific geographical information I asked for, I got a lot more: photos, the story of his own research on Hašek and an invitation to visit his wife and in-laws in Sokal during the course of the journey. So I did, and this invitation indeed had a lot to do with my stay at Petruševska 47 now in July 2010. It was also from Larissa and Pavel  I heard that the Hašek family had taken over Česká koruna at Lipnice. On hearing that I decided to pay the venerable hostelry a visit. Without that visit I would never have been invited to the 2008 Hašek-conference, and would never had got the inspiration to carry out this journey. The circle was completed.

Pavel Gan by Sokal hora, a few years back

Pavel Gan also has another connection to Sokal. The following information is extracted from his book “Osudy humoristy Jaroslava Haška v říši carů a komisařů”, (epilogue) where he explains how he got so captivated by Jaroslav Hašek. Gan’s father was born in nearby Borjatyn and was a serving soldier in the k.u.k Army. Just like Hašek he was a one-year volunteer, but apart from that his career took a different course. He was loyal to the Dual Monarchy to the very end, and Gan puts in a good word for Austria-Hungary in this section. According to Gan his father and his fellow Ukrainians were far better off than in Imperial Russia where a decree from prime minister Stolypin (1910) stated that no Ukraine or Ukrainians existed. Instead there were was the interesting entity "Little Russia", which was incidentally inhabited by “Little Russians”. It should be noted that the term Little Russia was commonly used at the time, even by Ukrainians (JH). Gan also describes the Dual Empire’s enlightened rule of law which compared favourably to both contemporary and future regimes in the region. After the war, Gan’s father emigrated to Czechoslovakia, where Pavel was born in 1933. Due to their Jewish roots, the family had to move several times from 1938 to 1945. Gan’s interest for Hašek started in the fifties during his studies in Brno. One of his main themes is how the communist authorities filtered information about the author to make him fit the image of a good communist. Gan has himself dug out a lot of information that contradicts this view. This is evident both in his book and also in the papers he has published.

The two days in Sokal were spent walking around town and not the least eating! I felt I never had the slightest chance to even get slightly hungry. Maria complained I was too skinny and when I was starting to get full I heard the the words “ješč” and “davaj” and I understood that I was supposed to be hungry still, and had to make it good by another portion of vareniky, salat and kura. 

The ruined synagogue

I had plenty of time to visit the former synagogue where IR 91 had their HQ in July 1915. Nowadays it is a sad sight and another chilling testimony to the Holocaust. Of interest is also the Bernardine Monasterry which now serves as a prison. On July 16 1915 k.u.k forces captured the monastery, an event which was reported even in official Berichte from Vienna. Kote 254, the summit of Sokal Hora, is still there of course. The hill is mainly scrub-land and was a very peaceful spot early that July morning in 2010. It was hard to imagine that this was hell on earth exactly 95 years ago, a carnage which killed and maimed thousands of young men, mainly from Vienna (IR.4 "Deutschmeister") and Bohemia (IR.91 "Papageienregiment"), not to mention the Russian 8th Army. Jaroslav Hašek was amongst the lucky ones who survived, but unfortunately he didn't lived long enough to tell his story.

Meta-text about a meta-text

Every major literary creation produces secondary literature which in sheer volume often surpasses the original text many times over. These meta-texts (text about the text) can roughly be separated in two categories: interpretation and fact-finding. The first discipline is generally carried out by literary experts whereas the second is more the domain of historians, both professional and amateurs. I consider myself belonging to the latter group and I have spent endless hours digging into the historical and geographical facts and pseudo-facts on which backdrop Jaroslav Hašek created his epic satire. The result is a web-project which is far from finished. The database will in the end contain over 800 geographical entries and nearly 600 biographies on real as well as fictive persons. Švejk also contains other items that could be categorised: literary references, food and drink, ethnic groups, military terms, obsolete terms, historical events, just to name some of the possibilities.

Literary historian Antonín Měšt'an

One of my most important sources for my web-based “factography” on the novel Švejk was written by Antonín Měšt’an of Universität Freiburg in 1983 in connection with the 100 years anniversary the of author's birth. It is an impressive study titled: Realien und Pseudo-realien in Hašek's Švejk. It filled out many of the holes in my own data, and also gave valuable insight into the novel's misspellings, and how it could be fruitful to start working from the facts given about a certain item, rather than using the written name as the starting point.

Hans-Peter Laqueur had then already made me aware of another of Měštan’s studies, Ještě jednou o Švejkovi. in: Proměny (Washington) 19 (1982) Nr. 1, 25-28. With this paper Antonín Měšt’an provides a detailed study on the chronology of The Good Soldier Švejk. Although the paper also covers other themes, I will spend the rest of this blog entry commenting Měštan's analysis of time-related aspects of the novel. I hope this blog entry can complement Měšt'an's study.

Accuracy of quotes

As much as I had appreciated Realien und Pseudo-realien, the bigger was my disappointment with Ještě jednou o Švejkovi. It starts off worryingly as early as the summary of the plot: at times it seems that Měšt'an hasn’t read the book properly. There are a surprising number of mis-quotes, for instance that Bretschneider led Švejk directly to the Salmova ulice police station, and that the regiment walked all the way from Palota to the front. A further problem is that many historical facts of significance have been overlooked, leading to the erroneous conclusion that the plot in Švejk is chronologically consistent with historical events.

From Sarejevo to Mödling via Střelecký Ostrov

The analysis works its way from the few dates quoted in the novel: 20 December 1914 and 23 May 1915 and also draws on cited and verifiable historical events that run parallel to the plot. Amongst these are 28 June 1914 (Sarajevo assasination) and 29 July 1914 (declararation of war on Serbia). Up to December 1914 the study is convincing. Still it could have been noted that Dr Bautze had already served 10 weeks when Švejk appeared at Střelecký ostrov, and we could from that assume that he was called up in October 1914. Another odd timing discrepancy occurs (unrelated to the plot): Obrlajtnant Witinger ran 40 km Vienna-Mödling in 1 hours 48 minutes, a pseudo-marathon record that has yet to be broken.

Wendler and Lukáš

Hašek moved the events at Klosterhoek back at least
four months.

The next date is December 20 1914 when Lukáš and hop-trader Wendler have their conversation which involves an impressive array of references to places, breweries, battles and real historical events. Lukáš informs Wendler that Liman von Sanders has been appointed commander of the Dardanneles army. This only happened later, in March 1915. Wendler then reels off the names of places related to battles where  breweries have been destroyed: Klosterhoek, Coimbres, Woevre, Niederaspach, Lamarche, Mulhouse, Vosges. Official war bulletins from early April 1915 all mention these places. My assumption is that Hašek simply copied the names from newspapers or other material he had at hand, mixed them into the pot and freely moved the events back a few months. It seems unlikely that he remembered such details 6 years after: details from Wendler's desperate tirade are almost word for word identical to weekly war summaries printed in Národní Politika on April 4 and April 11 1915. There is another anomaly in this part of the novel. Wendler exclaims: "What about San Giuliano? Is he asleep or what?" Count San Giuliano died on October 16 1914 so he was clearly “asleep”. Was this a deliberate pun by Hašek or simply careless use of facts?

Mishaps on the train

On the train from Prague to Tábor there is a further chance of hooking the plot up to real life, which Měštan fails to notice. Lukáš reads in "Bohemia" about the German submarine 'E' which has great success in the Mediterranean. Here he would have discovered that there where no German U-boats in the Mediterranean in 1914, and if there had been any they would have been called something starting with 'U' and followed by a number (Hans-Peter Laqueur).

Anabase

Švejk was in Putim twice on his anabasis.

The "Švejkova budějovicka anabase" has no reference to concurrent historical events so there is no problem whereas to when it started and ended. The problem is more it's duration. Měštan concludes that our hero walked 200 km (Jaroslav Šerák estimates 160). I did a retrace of the route in 2010 and there is no way that it could have been done in 72 hours as Měštan concludes. It is possible to walk 67 km in 24 hours of course, but Švejk also slept in the Schwarzenberg shep-house and spent a long time at Putim gendarmerie station. Back in 2010 my aching feet made me painfully aware of Hašek's disregard for time and space. Měštan's three day estimate is logical based on the description in the novel, but he and Hašek have ignored the physical limitation of Švejk's undertaking. Nor does he note that the route described in the novel does not correspond to what Švejk later claims during interrogation. The departure from České Budějovice seems to be related to a specific event: there is talk about the execution of Josef Kudrna, which happened on May 7 1915. This indicates that the author already has aligned Švejk’s journey with his own. Hašek left for Királyhida on May 9. As we shall see this chronological “alignment” was briefly cancelled in Budapest. Radko Pytlík also mentions this anomaly in his book Kniha o Švejkovi. Měštan fails to notice any of this.

The War Grave Commission

Siedliska

The next discrepancy between the timing of the plot and historical events takes place in Budapest. The date here is exactly given: May 23 1915 and Italy has just declared war on Austria-Hungary. The company were given post-cards with war grave motives from Sedlisko (Siedliska) instead of the promised 15  deka of Emmental cheese. The war cemeteries are made by the "shirker one-year volunteer Scholz" (Heinrich Scholz). The snag is that the cemeteries at Siedliska didn't exists at the time. Siedliska had just been liberated, and the war grave commission was only instigated in November 1915. The post-cards may have been printed even later, probably in 1916. This is another example of Hašek not bothering with aligning his "realia" with reality.

The long trip to Sanok and Marschieren Marsch

In Sanok it is reported that they are 150 km behind the lines which stretch from Brody to Bug and onwards to Sokal. This was the situation at the front in early to mid-July, not the end of May. So somewhere between Budapest and Sanok five weeks have disappeared without a trace.

Not exactly the Galician flat-lands.

Onwards from Sanok the timing impossibility from the anabase repeats itself. To start at Sanok 17:30 and arrive in Liskowiec (Liskowate) the same night is physically impossible for anyone but a marathon runner. The company had horse-pulled carts, the roads were bad, they could not possibly have done it like the novel describes. (Also, they had been sitting on a train for about a week and had to get used to marching again). A further note of interest from Liskowiec is that the cherries are ripe, very unlikely at the end of May. This chapter also contains anomalies with respect to geography. There is talk of the "Galician flat-lands with mountains to the south" just after Sanok, but the area is actually very hilly. The soldiers are said to have followed a stream down to Liskowiec, but the village is right on the watershed. The catholic vicarage didn't exists, at least not around 1890. There is also a reference to a zamek (chateau) in Krościenko, but none seem to have existed. This opens the speculation that the chapter may have been moved not only in time but also is space. Jaroslav Křížek claims that Hašek's company actually took this route, but there are some questions that still need to be answered. Did the author actually take inspiration from his experiences further east in Galicia where the landscape is flat with the Carpathians to the south and get the geographical detail for the chapter from a map? To further support this hypotheses it should be noted that in "The good soldier Švejk in captivity", the 12. march battallion go all the way to "Sambom" (Sambor) by train. This version is actually more credible as the author presumably had less material  available when he wrote it and thus relied more on his own experiences (and memorry).

Švejk captured

Švejk can not possibly have been in Przemyśl on June 3 like Měštan concludes. The city was on Russian hands until that very date. He has also ignored the report from Przemyśl that Švejk was captured on “the 16th this month”, presumably meaning 16th of June. The latter date could have been possible, the area around Felstyn (Skelivka) was reconquered already in mid May.

Did Hašek intend to let Švejk catch him up?

When preparing the wretched cow in Liskowiec it is clear that the plot is going to catch up with the real world at Sokal, i.e from July 22. Hasek himself arrived at Żółtańce on July 16. We must assume the Švejk and his author by now are "synchronised". One of the chapter headers also read "From Bruck an der Leitha to Sokal", a further indication of the intended direction of the plot.

Conclusion

Antonín Měšt'an attempts at analysing the information of the time sequences in the novel is appreciated but far from convincing. He concludes that the plot is logical and coherent from a chronological point of view, which is clearly not the case. This conclusion further cements Hašek's reputation as an author who paid extreme attention to accuracy and historical facts.  His reputation in this respect is probably  excaggerated, something that Cecil Parrott pointed out in his his book "The Good Soldier Švejk and the short stories": Hašek wrote carelessly and hardly bothrered to proof-read his own manuscripts. My main impression is that Hašek didn’t care much about chronology at all, and that Měšt'an fails to notice this. The plot is hooked up to specific dates only three times, whereas there are around eight hundred geografical references throughout the novel. This speaks volumes about the author's priorities. Hašek would surely also have ridiculed Jomar Hønsi and other meta-text authors who tend to interpret his satirical tour de force as more of a historical document than it really is. Analysing people and places in Švejk is difficult enough, attempting the time-line can only partly make sense. There are just too many contradictions. Still Antonín Měšt'an's paper is an interesting contribution to the studies of the "realia" behind Švejk.

Orange flags

This blog-entry is off-topic. It refers to events that took place in Western Ukraine during WWII. An excellent introduction to this part of history appeared in New York Times in 1992. Jaroslav Hašek never lived to experience the OUN/UPA underground fighters, but from his time in the Red Army he would have been familiar with NKVD’s predecessor, the Cheka. In the final chapter of Švejk, Hašek touches on the ethnic conflicts in Galicia which were later to lead to the tragedies described in this blog entry.

A mystery solved

Василь Пазиняк in 2010.

One morning in July 2010 I sat down with Vasyl Pazynyak (Василь Пазиняк) who I had met six years earlier in this same city, in Lviv. That morning Vasyl took me to a mahasin, bought some horse-meat and we sat down in the garden of a pub behind my hotel to enjoy the meat and a few Ukrainian Staropramen. Six years ago I had taken part in a very special celebration, and for six years I had been in the dark where I had been that day in 2004. Now the answer was revealed, finally. The place was called Pyriatyn (Пирятин), a tiny village near Rava-Ruska (Рава-Руська) by the Polish border. Sixty years ago an atrocity had taken place in that village. For nearly six years I had searched the internet for information, browsed maps, asked experts, all in vain.

August 19th 2004

Пирятин memorial chapel.

That date is imprinted on my mind forever. I was on my first Švejk-trip and was spending a few days in Lviv. I had been put in contact with Vasyl and Anna Korol who both had been busy most of August 18, showing the tourist their city. I didn’t know their language, so it was a mostly limited to a visual experience. It was mentally exhausting  to try to concentrate and listen to a language when most of what was said was guesswork, but I still appreciated the generosity and friendliness. It was also clear that I had been invited to some happening the next day, unknown what. I duly turned up by the Львівська обласна рада (Lviv Regional Council) the next morning. Dr Pazynyak was a council deputy and I was led to a chauffeur-driven white Volha limousine where we all took our place. Off we went out into the unknown. I was dressed as a tourist and suddenly became acutely conscious of it, sitting in my shorts and sandals in an official limousine from Lviv oblast, being transported at the expense of Ukrainian tax-payers. After about an hours drive we took off onto a minor road and ended up by a small chapel in an opening in the pine forest. I still didn’t know where I was, but judging by the number of people there (and how they were dressed) it was an official and solemn occasion.

Religion and politics

The place was called something like Pyriatyn and people in national customs appeared everywhere. Blue and yellow Ukrainian flags were flying and to my surprise there were also many elderly men in uniforms. Several other flags were waved, and particularly conspicuous was a red and black one. Then there were orange banners decorated with for me incomprehensible slogans. In the scorching heat a religious service got under way (I assume it was Greek Catholic). I understood that it was a special event, as there were tears in the eyes of the old babušy and the uniform-clad veterans. I was told that the men in green were patrioty and that the black and red flags was that of UPA, another unknown for me unknown entity.

After the service ended there were speeches by politicians, first Vasyl and then a deputy from the national parliament in Kiev. The deputy soon became agitated and I picked up the the words kriminalny banditsky klan. It was by now clear that the religious service had metamorphosed into a political gathering. The orange banners appeared in numbers and I was explained the meaning of the slogans, the most common one was Tak! Ющенко (Yes! Yushchenko). Who the latter was I still didn’t know but it was obvious that the criminal gang of bandits was the regime of Leonid Kuchma in Kiev, and that this Yushchenko who we were saying Yes! to was an opposition politician and an altogether cleaner man. The rest is history but I didn’t know the significance of it at the time …

Vasyl speaking by Пирятин, August 19 2004.

As the speeches ended, another transition occurred. The Горі́лка (vodka) flowed, huge amounts of food appeared and people were sitting in groups in the forest and singing songs about “Ukrainske lesy”, “Naše Ukraina”, and “Volyn”. An older man, also called Vasyl, ended fully in the grip of patriotism and horilka, to such a degree that he stepped onto the tomatoes and eggs on the blanket in front of him, declaring his love for his dear motherland. The Ukrainian hospitality which I since have learned to appreciate was on full show. The guest was treated like a king even though a lady wondered why he was so “nirepresentantny” dressed. In the forest there were groups of people enjoying themselves, eating, drinking and singing. A man told me that drinking mead would make you mad, make you sing and even make you fart. For me as a first time visitor to the Ukraine it was an experience of a lifetime.

I still had things to ponder; it wasn't clear to my why a religious service and political gathering was held in such an unlikely place. That it had to do with events 60 years ago I had grasped, but not exactly what. During the service the grim faces and the tears in the eyes of the old babušy and dědušy said more than a thousand words. Some terrible tragedy must have happened on August 19 1944. Amongst the people there were survivors of an atrocity, almost all of them had lost relatives, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters.

Ignorant tourist dragged into politics.

We were soon taken to a banquet in the village hall, and for I while I feared that I would drown in a sea of horilka (vodka) and hospitality, but thanks to copious amounts of food and pickled gherkins I survived. There were more speeches and Vasyl presented the unlikely guest from Norway, and induced me to hold a short speech. I was petrified, standing there nirepresentantny dressed, but obliged. I thanked my hosts for the hospitality and was given a hint that I ought to round it off with a few choice expressions: Slava Ukraini, Za svobodnu Ukrainu a za Yushchenko. I had no problem in praising a free Ukraine of course but I still didn't know who this Yushchenko who I brought a toast to was...

The return of NKVD

The list of victims.

The whole day had been a genuinely moving experience and there in the village hall I finally understood why we were there. On the wall there was a exhibition commemorating the tragedy that took place 60 years ago on this day. The Red Army had driven the enemy out of western Ukraine and Pax Sovietica was reintroduced. But not before the NKVD-troops following in the rear of the regular army had performed their “clean-up operations”. That meant punishing anyone who was suspected of co-operating with the enemy, whether it be the Nazis, the Ukrainian Insurgence Army (UPA) or even the Polish Home Army, Armia Krajowa (AK). The village didn’t know what horrors were in store for them that day. The men were rounded up and executed, branded  as counter-revolutionaries and bandits. Only those who were out on the fields survived. The number of victims totalled 68. This was to teach UPA-sympathizers  a brutal lesson and it is just one of many atrocities NKVD-troops committed during the re-conquest of western Ukraine.

Banderovtsi

UPA veterans at Пирятин, 2004.

Even there in the village hall I didn’t know what this organisation UPA with it’s black and red flag was, an organisation who is obviously held in high esteem in Western Ukraine even today. On my return home I started to investigate who the people with red black and red flags were. Slowly a rather complex and sinister picture appeared. The Organisation of Ukrainian  Nationalists (OUN), was created as a reaction to Polish repression and discrimination during the inter-war period. They carried out acts of sabotage and assassinations, both against prominent Poles and moderate Ukrainians. The aim was a Ukrainian nation state. The Polish reaction was heavy-handed; collective punishment hitting whole communities, an act that further fuelled animosity between the two peoples. OUN obviously were in conflict with the Soviet Union as well, but were less effective against the more ruthless Stalinist regime. After the Soviet invasion of Galicia in September 1939, the OUN leadership, headed by Stepan Bandera fled to Kraków and for the next two years they co-operated with Nazi Germany.

The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 led to another twist. Bandera and ONU declared an independent Ukraine, but were immediately arrested and deported to Germany. Bandera himself spent the next three year at Spandau prison and in Sachsenhausen. The Nazis would not tolerate a rival centre of power and Ukrainian nationalism was brutally suppressed. In 1943 UPA, the armed wing of the Bandera faction of OUN, was formed. Armed resistance against the Nazis became widespread, but Banderovtsi were also carrying out massacres on Poles in Volyn and Galicia. There were armed encounters with Armia Krajowa, who in turn killed many  Ukrainians. Czechs were also amongst the UPA victims in Volyn, so were many Ukrainians. The Polish question is perhaps the darkest chapter in OUN's history. It’s members also took part in persecution of Jews, although the organisation also had Jewish members. It adds up to a tragic and confusing picture, with shifting and opportunistic alliances, where your enemy’s enemy is your friend, but a friend who the next day may have turned into en enemy.

Polish victims of UPA at Lipniki.

In 1944 the Red Army drove the enemy out of the Ukraine and NKVD troops were left fighting UPA, inevitably killing civilians in droves like they did in Pyriatyn. From now on UPA again co-operated with the retreating Germans. They also started to work with their arch-enemy Armia Krajowa against the even greater NKVD evil. There could have been no clean hands in this tragedy, which has some similarities with concurrent events in Yugoslavia. The outcome was by now given, whoever UPA aligned themselves with. The organisation was slowly liquidated by Soviet and Polish forces, but scattered groups were active as late as the early 1950’s. The final chapter was written in 1959 when Stepan Bandera was killed by the KGB in Munich. His grave is still there.

OUN had no natural allies, as none of the powers at the time shared their goal of an independent Ukrainian state. The Bandera group still has few sympathisers outside theUkraine and certain emigrant circles in North America.  Bandera and his followers are a highly divisive force in the Ukraine, where he by many in western Ukraine is regarded a hero but is equally reviled in the Russian speaking Eastern and Southern Ukraine. One of the last acts of former president Yushchenko was to declare Bandera a hero of the Ukraine. This happened in face of protests both in the Ukraine and abroad. A court even declared the nomination illegal. His successor Viktor Yanukovych revoked the nomination soon after he came to power.

Lviv, sixty-six years later

GULAG, the fate of millions, including Vasyl's relatives.

As I was sitting there with Vasyl and having pin-pointed the place where we went that hot August day in 2004, he told me about the fate of his father. When the archives were opened in the 1990’s Vasyl finally found out. His father and other family members had been arrested and deported to Siberia. Their crime was that they were kulaks, they might have had one cow too many to be classed as worthy peasants and prospective model Soviet citizens. Thus they landed in the category “class enemies”. Whether the arrest had happened after the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 or on the return of the Red Army five years later wasn’t clear to me. Their destination was a village by the town of Zima in the Irkutsk region. They journey had taken one month, on the carriages was written “Ukrainian bandits” and the wagons were pelted with stones and whatever was at hand for the on-lookers at the stations. They had been away for 10 years. Vasyl had visited the village by Zima recently and had met many  chorosyoe ljudi (good people) there, emphasising that moskali were as much victims of Stalin and Beria as anyone else. We were soon joined by another member of the delegation to Pyriatyn in 2004; Dr. Anna Korol. I was even invited to her hospital but soon got tired of worn corridors, pretty nurses, and sick people and went back to my favourite spot Hasova Lyampa to do some work with my dearest friend, my Asus net-book.

Moskali

In the afternoon I met Vasyl and Anna again for a meal in a most unlikely place. Opposite the town hall we went through an unmarked door and there was a soldier in UPA uniform asking if I was a moskal and communist. “No”, I said, “I am a Norwegian spy”. Then he brusquely asked for the haslo (password). I had been told earlier by Vasyl what to expect and obliged with Slava heroii!, Slava Ukraini! and Smrt moskalam. Hailing the Heroes, the Ukraine and declaring  ‘Death to the Muscovites’ did the trick. A book-reel opened and we were let into the hideout cum restaurant in the basement. One the menu were interesting items like jazyk moskala (tongue of a Muscovite) which was an enormous sausage. The guest could also have ordered drunk carp-looking moskal and a wider assortment of highly political dishes. This theme restaurant is called Криївка (Kryivka), a term for an underground bunker.

Kaiser dreimal hoch

Franz Joseph I, portrait in a cafe in Lviv.

That sausage with the unlikely name rounded the day off. I had enjoyed myself yet again in Lviv but also had a few more things to think about. In retrospect the fall of Austria-Hungary proved to be a disaster for this part of the word, a disaster it has only recently recovered from (some would say it still hasn’t). Skoropadskyi, Piłsudski, Stalin, Khrushchov, Brezjnev, Gorbatchov, Kuchma and Yushchenko: Long live Emperor Franz Joseph I! By the amount of Habsburg memorabilia and nostalgia found around Lviv it seems that quite a few are ready to go along with that archaic slogan.

Today the wounds between Poland and Ukraine have healed considerably. When Bandera was declared Hero of the Ukraine the Polish government diplomatically referred to it as an internal matter. Voices from Russia, Jewish spokesmen and even the European Parliament were less conciliatory. Poland and the Ukraine are soon to host the EURO 2012 football championship together. One of the host cities is Lviv...

Konec Švejka

“Konec Švejka” is Czech for “the end of Švejk”. It was an end that was never meant to be, but sadly happened already in Klimontów. Jaroslav Hašek had planned the novel in six volumes, but had just about started the 4th when his untimely death put his pen to silence forever. It is obvious that he still had a lot to tell his readers, and it  is a great loss for admirers of his masterpiece that he never managed to complete it. We can only assume that he intended to more or less follow his own route, and fit in a mosaic of his own experiences as he had done to great effect so far. In fact he had done enough already to secure his hero world fame, and the novel now ranks as the most translated book written in Czech ever.

From the K.u.k military survey map from 1910.

Jaroslav Hašek was terminally ill when he dictated the last chapters of Švejk in his house at Lipnice nad Sázavou. We should therefore not be surprised that there are a few geographical mysteries towards the end. The Klimontów where the novel ends can not be traced. Places with that name existed, but in parts of Galicia far from here. His description of Żółtańce seems more accurate, and from this it is generally assumed that the Klimontów in question was Kłodno, which is located 3 km east of Żółtańce.  Another  discrepancy occurs when he describes Uciszków, Busk and Derewlany as being to the west and then there is the final mystery: according to the Austro-Hungarian Military Survey Map from 1910 there was no railway here, although Hašek explicitly states that Švejk arrived by train. This latest enigma was solved when  Evžen Topinka, chairman of Česká Beseda in Lviv, confirmed that the railway was opened in 1910, and extended north to Krystonopol (now Červonohrad) in 1914.

At this stage we must assume that the Good Soldier and the author’s journeys have caught up, even time wise: that the lag of more than a month which had existed since the end of Book One now was cancelled out. Somewhere between Budapest and Felsztyn the author let five weeks disappear without trace. Chronological accuracy was not as high on Hašek's agenda as geographical precision. Between Sambor and Żółtańce the12th march battalion of the 91st regiment took a route which is not described in Švejk. When our hero was taken prisoners by his own troops they were looking for billeting at Stara Sól (this is also mentioned in the novel), and then continued via Sambor and Szczerce (now Щирець) to Gologory (now Гологори) where they replaced the losses the 91st regiment had suffered the week before. Hašek arrived with the 12th march battalion and joined the 3rd field battallion, 11th field company on July 11. Then the whole brigade turned sharply northwards and arrived in Żółtańce on July 16 1915 (VÚA archives, Prague).

Zhovtantsi uniate church

On a scorching hot July day I set off for Avtostanitsja II on the northern outskirts of Lviv to take a minibus 30 km north-east to Zhovtantsi. The name of the place of course has changed since the era of the Dual Monarchy when Polish was the main administrative language of the region. I opted for the frequent minibuses as there are only two trains a day on this line, and even at inconvenient hours. The bus ride was quick and other passengers helped me get off at the right place. The heat was so intense that I sought refuge in a pizza cafe where I had a dubious Pizza Zhovtantsi. But the air conditioning more than made up for the miserable lump of dough and the even more depressing topping.

Zhovtantsi welcomed the visitor with a gleaming new church. I have never anywhere seen so many new churches as here in the Lviv oblast. The contrast to the general decay is striking, and I many times asked myself: where does the money come from? Filling in the numerous pot holes seems a much larger task than building hundreds of beautiful onion domed churches. Zhovtantsi can hardly be called a town. There is a post office, a church, a school and that's about it. The houses are spread out, the centre is little more than a crossroads with the mentioned buildings. 

Velyke Kolodno

After my pizza delight I set out into the heat again, and walked towards Velyke Kolodno which is what Švejk's final stop is generally known as today. This is also a track our  diligent soldier took, he had first asked about the whereabouts of his marškumpačka in Żółtańce but there he was directed to Klimontów. I crossed the railway line, just as my predecessor had done, and there was the highlight of Velyke Kolodno, the now ruined former Roman-catholic church, pitcuresquely set on a hill beyond a small lake. In the novel Hašek lets the officers have a Schlachtfest in a vicarage, which had been empty after the Greek-catholic vicar had been hanged in a pear-tree in the garden of a school by the returned troops of Austria-Hungary. He had been accused by a Polish teacher of collaborating with the Russian occupiers, totally groundless. Behind all this was Polish-Ukrainian ethnic strife and a stolen hen. The rank and file were quartered in the school, the only decent building in the village.

Before my proto-type Švejk-trip in 2004 Pavel Gan sent me a picture of the vicarage and I set out looking for it. It was to no avail. All the larger buildings in the village appeared to be of a newer data, including the school. Around the Roman-catholic church there was nothing obvious, it all seemed to be post-WW1. The ruined church was actually built in the 1930's. I walked on and saw another church, a gleaming new one. The builders were stunned that some tourist had come to this corner of the world, and they were not aware of the connection between Švejk and Kolodno, although they of course knew him and his author. The church was pravoslavna (i.e. Russian Orthodox) so this wasn't it either. I gave up, sat down for a beer in a mahasin which served draught beer, and concluded my mission on the tracks of Švejk. I phoned my friends Richard Hašek and Jarolsav Šerák in Prague and Dutifully Reported that the first part of the journey was absolved. 

Former vicarage in Zhovtantsi

I also rang Pavel Gan to verify excactly where the mysterious vicarage was. To my great surprise he directed me back to Zhovtantsi. I was puzzled because Hašek clearly located  the final scene to Klimontów, so I hastily concluded that Pavel hadn't read Švejk properly. That 91st regiment actually had a pig slaughter party in the vicarage, is mystification by the author. The regiment only had a two hour break here on July 16 1915. Nor do I know if the story of the executed Greek-catholic priest is true.

From Synek edition 1930, with Karel Vaněk's  continuation.

Vaněk completed the remaining 3 parts of the novel, but this

piece is regarded inferior and has rarely been translated.

Whether Jaroslav Hašek invented the episode with the priest or not is beside the point. Injustices like these could have happened, they did happen and the author may just have shifted time, place, people and circumstances. Together with his satirical genius  this method of collage was at the heart of his master creation, later to be become famous as Švejk. There is in this novel to my knowledge not a single person, name, place or historical event taken out of thin air. Most of is derived from his own unusual experiences in life. Exaggerations abound of course (Bretschneider could not have been eaten by his own dogs), but by and large the descriptions in this novel relate to tangible points in history, geography and literature. And not to forget human life, human stupidity, and inhumanity, including the senseless slaughtering of innocent people for some political aim.

Švejk survived the madness by using has wit, just as his creator did. Their survival left the world with an unforgettable satirical novel which inspired this tourist/web-master  to spend six months on their tracks. The first part of the odyssey was solemnly concluded with two Stare Misto beers in the only cool place in Zvontantsi, on an ubearingly hot day in July 2010. I am sure Jaroslav Hašek would have approved. At this time 95 years ago he was was here, and he and his fellow sufferers had worse things than heat, bumpy roads and the flies to contend with... 

The pearl of Western Ukraine

The Colonel was also smiling and then issued these orders: “Prepare for Švejk a military fare-card via Lvov to the Zóltance station, which his march company is to reach tomorrow, and issue to him a new government-issue uniform from the warehouse, and 6 crowns and 82 pennies in place of the mess for the road.” (from Švejk, translated by Zenny Sadlon).

As mentioned in the previous blog entry: Lviv (Львів) hardly merits a stop because of it’s significance in Švejk. It is mentioned eight  times, but as can be seen from the above quote: the plot never actually takes place here. The Good Soldier quickly passed through on his way from Vojutyči to Žovtanci where he re-joined his company, eager as he was to serve his emperor until his body was torn to pieces. But as stated in my ‘Motivation’ for this journey: this trip was not all about one theme and in beautiful Lviv I allowed myself a pause on my trek. That said; Lviv also served as a perfect base for a day-trip to nearby Žovtanci where the great novel ended due to Jaroslav Hašek’s untimely death.

By the time Švejk passed through Lviv the city had already changed hands twice. On September 6 1914 it fell to the Russians after the collapse of the k.u.k army in Galicia. There was little fighting and war damage as the Austro-Hungarian forces hurriedly abandoned the city. The scenario was similar on June 22 1915 when the Central Powers returned. Again there was little fighting in the city itself and the Russian’s hadn’t started to apply the scorched earth tactics they used later that summer.

Lemberg erobert

Wien, 22. Juni.
Amtlich wird verlautbart:
Unsere zweite Armee hat heute nach hartem Kampfe Lemberg erobert.

---

Der Stellvertreter des Chefs des Generalstabes.
v. Hoefer, Feldmarschalleutnant

This was my third visit to Lviv and will not be the last. It is a city which feels Central European despite the Cyrillic alphabet and visible remnants of Soviet times. Still many things have changed since Austrian rules ceased in 1918. At the time it was a multi-ethnic city made up mainly of Poles, Ukrainians, Jews and Germans. The Poles were the largest ethnic group and maps from the era often show the city named as Lwów. The German name Lemberg also appears, mostly on older maps. The Russian name Lvov for obvious reasons became wide-spread after the Soviet Union grabbed the area in September 1939. This is also the Czech name of the city and obviously the one Hašek used.

Testimony to Lviv's Jewish past

During the interwar Polish rule, the ethnic diversity of the city was maintained although Polish dominance became more pronounced at the expense of the other nationalities. WW2 and it’s immediate aftermath turned everything upside down in this part of the world. The relatively enlightened Habsburg rule made way to the more nationalistic Polish rule, but worse was to come. The Holocaust tragedy is well known, but less known are the mutual massacres and ethnic cleansings Polish and Ukrainians subjected each others to during the same period. This left Lviv a predominantly Ukrainian city although Russians and other former Soviet nationalities still make their mark.

Arriving on an early morning train from Sambir, I found myself in a for me totally unknown place, the “primiski voksal” (suburban station), which I had no clue where was. Fortunately I immediately discovered that it was next door to the main station. From there it is a half hour walk down to the centre and with a heavy back-pack and 30+ degrees it was tough. I had not arranged any place to stay, and the first hotel I found was nice and expensive, so I walked on, increasingly budget-conscious. Very central, very ugly and very cheap was Hotel Lviv, a perfect choice it seemed. It reeked of dreary "socialism” in every corner; from the grumpy staff, the creaky lifts, the general shoddiness and even the “minder” on the ground floor. But with a perfect location and miniscule rates it served its purpose. Without hassle I got a hot and stuffy room on the 8th floor with a perfect view of “stare misto”, the old town. As it goes I regard hotels as places to sleep and nothing more.

The old town in Lviv is a delight, and I spent my time sightseeing, and being on-line in some excellent cafés and pubs. One of them was “Hasova Lampa” (Гасова Лампа), with good beer, inventive design, good rock music, decent food and a relaxed atmosphere. The music was clear and loud, particularly in the toilets. Slightly pricey but there was no sight of any Soviet surliness on any face. It seemed to be popular with students. Another favourite was “Bar Dominik”, but this one was without Wi-Fi so I slipped into deep thinking and sublime beer instead The “Černihivske bile” wheat beer is as good as it’s model Hoegaarden, a pure joy, a reason for any beer lover to go to the Ukraine. Both brews are incidentally owned by ABInBev. Big companies don’t necessarily make crap beer, big can also be beautiful. That said said, ABInBev does make some incredibly poor brews too. Due to my natural politeness I shall refrain from mentioning any particular brand. But if you are curious, here is a clue: one of them is named after the city which is mentioned most often in my favourite novel...

With Vasyl and Švejk

Not to be forgotten: Švejk is well-known in Lviv, it is the only place in the world with TWO statues of him. One of them is on a bicycle, a world which is hardly mentioned at all in the novel. The other statue is of him sitting, and he has little in common with the figure known from Josef Lada's drawings. This soldier is slimmer and less of a caricature. That said; Jaroslav Hašek only ever saw one drawing of Švejk, and this one was totally different from the small and chubby figure that spread across the world later. In 1925-26 Lada made a series of drawings for the newspaper České Slovo and it was those who have become associated with Švejk ever since. Translator Zenny Sadlon and scholar Martina Winkler are amongst those who argue that Lada's drawings have cemented Švejk's reputation as clown. For people who have read the book properly, this should be less of a problem. It ought to be completely clear that this is no comic strip, it is a novel about human stupidity and surviving it all. And much more...

Lviv has undergone marked changes since I first visited in 2004. A lot of repair work has been done and the city also hosts a few football games during Euro 2012. This has led to much needed investment in infrastructure. The abolishment of visa requirements has drawn the tourists, and this gem of a city deserves every tourist it can get!

Švejk back with his company

Sambir railway station.

The unfinished Book Four of Švejk deals with the good soldiers return to his company after his ordeals in Przemyśl. After a narrow escape from the gallows, he was escorted back to the brigade HQ at Wojutycze  near Sambor (now Sambir). Here he had the dubious pleasure of reuniting with his adversary Lieutenant Dub. Another old acquaintance, Cadet Biegler, also reappeared. He had had  a tortured journey from the cholera wards in Tarnów, stopping at all (the no doubt smelly) railway toilets along the way, to get rid his “cholera” germs.

My own journey in 2010 again had to adapt to political realities, and that meant disregarding Švejk’s route back to his company. I had to return to the Ukraine via Medyka and Šehyni, and then by minibus down to Sambir, changing at Mostyska. Crossing the border again went smoothly; there was no three-hour wait like it was when I first visited the Ukraine in 2004. Leaving the EU, I was in an ambivalent mood; I don’t mind bus travel, but the Ukrainian maršrutky are not for those who believe in the positive effects of fresh air. The bus setting off from Šehyni for Mostyska was a prime example. The temperature soon soared and a Czech-speaking Pole with a 100 kilo suitcase resolutely grabbed a screw-driver to break open a window. It was a huge relief for everyone on board who weren’t afraid of a slight waft of air. The bus onwards from Mostyska was less crowded and the trip could even be classed as comfortable.

In Sambir I was directed to the towns hotel, right on the rynok. It  was comfortable enough, and the staff were welcoming. When he saw my passport the receptionist even related from his ordeals in arctic Norilsk from the time of the Soviet Union. It was getting very hot now and might have thought that I was already missing my own latitudes and climate. Самбір itself was quite pleasant with a large square as a centre and focal point. The railway station is modern and this is where I set out for Wojutycze (now Воютичі) from, after having enjoyed a few good Stare Místo draught beers at the station. On the train I soon became a curiosity, both between the staff and the other passengers. After a few minutes they called out for Vojutyči, and off I stepped, in the middle of a field. There was no station building and not even a sign so this is a place I would never have found without help. I walked along the tracks into the large village.

On the way to Vojutyči.

I found it odd that the “Eiserne brigade” (Iron Brigade), the unit to which the 91st regiment belonged, would have set up HQ here in this small place. The 91st regiment were heading for Sambor when Švejk got lost and the historical fact is that Sambor also for a while even housed the divisional HQ. I didn’t even see any buildings in Vojutyči that would have been natural candidates for any army offices. Still, Hašek wrote a satirical novel, not a historical reference work, so a degree of mystification and inaccuracies should be accounted for. It could also be that Vojutyči was larger than it is today; the events described in the novel took place before the disastrous wars, population displacements and genocides of the 20 century decimated Galicia.

On this trip I have discovered that the author was far less accurate with facts than I had previously thought. There are numerous spelling mistakes and some place he mentions are not identifiable at all. That said, the amount of details he DID get right is still impressive, despite being seriously ill when the wrote the latter parts of Švejk. The unexpected shoddiness does not detract from the greatness of the novel unless you read it as a fact-file rather than the satirical master-piece it is.

Another author, also familiar to readers of Švejk, knew this area and reported from events very closely related to the theme of the novel. Ludwig Ganghofer reported from the front in Galicia in May and June 1915 and in early June he visited Przemyśl and Sambor. The latter had been re-conquered already on May 15  but the Russians had defended Przemyśl until early June when it finally surrended. Ganghofer had a totally different perspective than Hašek. He was a German nationalist and a personal friend of Kaiser Wilhelm. Still that didn’t make him an outright bigot and in his “Die Front im Osten” he throws glowing reports not only on the victorious Central Powers but also on the local population, particularly the female part of it! So deep down he must have found the Rusyns and Ukrainians far more attractive than his own Bavarian stock and even today one could safely agree with his observations! On June the 1 he relates from a stay in Sambor as a guest of Austrian staff officers, just before the final assault on Przemyśl is about to start.

Jaroslav Hašek arrived in Sambor in early July 1915 and at this stage the Russians had already been pushed beyond the river Bug. The 91st regiment had been badly decimated during fighting by Gologory and Hašek was one of those filling the ranks, getting ready for the next round of slaughter. At Gologory he joined the 11th march company (11.7.1915) and in this respect his own story differs from the one he created for Švejk, who had joined the company already in Királyhida. Švejk had also started the journey to the front around May 22 1915 whereas the author himself only left on June 30.

I only spent one night in Sambor. It was hot, and the mosquitos were a nuisance and very early the next morning I set off for Lviv, the attractive centre of Western Ukraine. It is just about mentioned in Švejk but such a beautiful city can’t be ignored just because it doesn’t feature in a certain novel! Švejk only changed trains in Lviv, and the major part of the plot from Wojutycze onwards concentrates on his adversaries: Lieutenant Dub's and Cadet Biegler's common auto mobile trip to the front...