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between villagers. As one Polish journalist observed as late as 1931, brawls between villagers in

75
Volhynia often occurred on Sundays, since vodka was available and “everybody likes a drink.”

Reports certainly indicated that the behavior of Ukrainian-speaking Orthodox populations

toward the state (as opposed to Ukrainian nationalist agitators who were seen in a different category)

was by no means nationally uniform. In some places, the economic interests of villagers appeared to

trump any sense of national solidarity, as was the case in the village of Międzyrzecz in Zdołbunów

county, which was situated right next to the unfortified border and from which inhabitants could

easily see the settlement of Slobodka that lay on the Soviet side (see Figure 3.2). Although the vast

majority of Międzyrzecz’s inhabitants were Ukrainian-speaking Orthodox peasants, the state police

report explained, their actions could best be understood in economic terms, while the prevalence of

theft in the area needed to be placed in the context of a combination of general ignorance and the

failure of the Polish state to adequately provide for peasants’ needs. Dynamics could also change

over time. By 1924, those same populations had already become significantly friendlier toward the

police than they had been just a few years earlier, and parents had even started to send their children

76
to the local state elementary school. From the perspective of the Polish authorities, then, it was

specific local conditions, rather than flattened national identities per se, that dictated the precise

nature of interactions between the police and local people near the border.

[INSERT FIGURE 3.2]

Figure 3.2: The unfortified Polish-Soviet Border on the Wilia river near Międzyrzecz. Source:
Mieczysław Orłowicz, Ilustrowany Przewodnik po Wołyniu (Łuck, 1929), 277.

75 “Trzeci list ze wsi wołyńskiej,” Przegląd Wołyński, April 5, 1931, 5.
76 “Raport sytuacyjny kwartalny za czas od 1/IV do 30.VI 1924r.,” DARO 147/1/5/64od.

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