Dubossary, March, 13. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Ethnic Czechs from Dubossary carefully protect their traditions and culture. There is no Czech community in town yet, but the representatives of this nation - people from the Czech villages of Ukraine - respect their ancestors` customs.
Sisters Maria and Emilia Polyachek are ethnic Czechs, they have been living in Dubossary for more than 30 years. Over the years, they have created families, raised children and now help raise their grandchildren.
The sisters are teachers by education. They came from the Ukrainian village of Bohemka, Nikolaev Region, founded by Czech settlers in 1905. The history of the native land is being well remembered and passed on to their children and grandchildren.
“Our great-grandfather was among the first who came to the village. He is considered to be one of its founders. In our family we spoke Czech, and families in the village were mostly built between Czechs. I am the eldest in the family. There are 3 sisters. Parents and the older generation gave us love of folk art. Czech is my first language, then, when I went to school, I learned Ukrainian and Russian,” Maria Polyachek-Kulidobrova said.
Maria Yaroslavovna Polyachek-Kulidobrova devoted all her life to the education of preschoolers, working in Dubossary kindergartens.
Children and grandchildren of Maria and Emilia Polyachek are getting their education in Russian language, additionally mastering their Czech and Ukrainian.
“We sing Czech folk songs, dance, read poems. Folk traditions are already of particular interest to our grandchildren. We are telling them about how holidays were celebrated in their native village, what our mothers and grandmothers taught us. In the upbringing of girls, it is very important to teach them to work, to teach how to cook and to respect their elders, to take care of them. We have been working from an early age. One of our grandmothers taught us how to embroider, the other one taught us folklore,”- Maria Polyachek-Kulidobrova said.
Emilia Yaroslavovna Polyachek-Savchuk is known in Dubossary as a teacher with a capital T, a teacher of the Ukrainian language, one of the founders of the national ensemble Chornobryvtsi and the Ukrainian culture community Promin.
The Ukrainian diaspora in Dubossary was being born during the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic formation. Polyachek sisters took an active part in the struggle for independence of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic; they traveled to the cities of Ukraine and Russia to get humanitarian aid for Pridnestrovians, telling how the Moldovan authorities imposed the Romanian language by means of weapons and reprisals.
“We applied to the Embassy of at that time Czechoslovakia for help. Our families were offered to move, but we refused, since it was our Homeland and our children had been born in Pridnestrovie. We wanted peace and respect for people of all nationalities. In our republic, they are respected. Here, representatives of different nations live together. If a community of Czechs is formed in Pridnestrovie, we will join it with pleasure,” Emilia Polyachek-Savchuk stressed.
The families of the Polyachek sisters are international: Maria’s husband is Bulgarian, and Emilia’s husband is Azerbaijani. They are very friendly with each other and carefully preserve the culture and traditions of their peoples.
