Alexandra Basalyga and Sedor Mysliwy were born in tiny, neighboring villages located in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the southeastern corner of today's Poland. Their beautiful, remote homeland, filled with majestic forests, flowery meadows, grassy slopes and picturesque landscapes, is now part of Poland's Jaliski Scenic Park.
For hundreds of years, the people living in this region spoke an East Slavic language, used the Cryillic Alphabet and belonged to the Eastern branch of Christianity. Scholars say that these Byzantine-Rite Slavs were a Carpatho-Rusyn group that was not Russian, Ukrainian, Polish or Slovak. They believe, instead, that these people were descended from Ruthenian and Wallachian nomads, who were themselves descendants of ancient Thracians.
The Thracians were Indo-Europeans who, from about 7,000 BC, lived in an area between the Ukraine, northern Greece and north-western Turkey. They were said to be warlike, ferocious and savage. Spartacus was a Thracian-style gladiator.
Later, the people in Alexandra and Sedor's homeland were known as Rusyns or Rusnaks and around the time of World War I they were given the ethnic name Lemkovyna or Lemko. The word lem means only. The Lemkos are considered to be a tribe or clan. They speak a separate dialect that is different from their Carpathian neighbors' and is based on the Old Slavic language.
In the late 1800's Snietnica and Stawisza were tiny rural villages nearly hidden in the rolling hills. Cart tracks wound through meadows, tilled fields and orchards of plums, pears and apples. Cows, sheep and goats grazed in the pastures. The farmhouses and small thatched huts were without plumbing or electricity. Most villages in this region had s smithy and maybe a weaver's or potter's hut and every village had an ornate wooden church.
Although no one in Snietnica or Stawisza could be considered well off, a few independent peasants, known as Hospodars, owned large farms and could afford to hire farmhands. Most of the Hospodar obiystsias, or farmsteads, included fields, pastures, water mills, stables and barns. Though the soil was poor and often rocky, the farmers grew hay, corn, barley, flax, beets, potatoes and cabbages and raised cows, sheep, pigs, ducks and chickens. Their farmhouses, made of fir, river stones and clay, had wood shingled roofs and dirt "fruit" cellars underneath. Flower gardens, vegetable gardens and small orchards were planted in the fenced yards. Water came from a well.
The Basalyga's of Snietnica were (possibly) Hospodars and Alexandra grew up on her family's farm. Years later she told stories about helping the other women make cheese and barrels of sauerkraut to be stored in the cellar. In the hot summer months, she and her sister (and/or cousins) carried jugs of water to the hands working in the fields. One of these farmhands may have been Sedor Mysliwy, who we've always heard, worked on Alexandra's father's farm.
Sedor Mysliwy's family belonged to a group of semi-independent peasants who made up most of the population of Snietnica and Stawisza. These peasants had small land holdings averaging about four acres, in many instances divided into one-half or one acre plots interwoven with similar plots belonging to other families. With too little land to support everyone, the children would help out by working on larger farms. No one looked down on this practice and the employers treated their workers as members of the family and worked beside them in the fields.
Life in Snietnica and Stawisza meant hard work, but the people had great strength and stamina. Two popular proverbs from Sedor and Alexandra's time are "Boha vzyvai a ruk prykladai" (Call on God, but also use your hands) and "Khto v liti kholodnyi toiv zymi holodnyi" (He who stays cool in the summer, goes hungry in the winter).
Amidst all the work, there were good times. Young people could meet at markets and fairs. Weddings lasted for days and involved the whole village. The best things about these special occasions were the music and dancing. Everyone in this region loved music, dancing and singing accompanied by guitars, fiddles and accordions. The people didn't need a special occasion to sing. They sang in the fields and while doing every kind of work. In America, Alexandra sang folk songs while doing housework. Here's one:
Shedding her tears, sobbing was Hanchusha
From Tokaj she didn't get an apple from Andrusha.
Don't cry Hanchusha, don't be sad,
I'll bring you apple from Nowy Sacz.
The villagers made their own clothes from linen, cotton, felt, leather and fur. Before the turn of the century, folk costumes were worn daily by most peasants. Rougher clothing was worn to work while more elaborate dress was reserved for special occasions such as church, festivals and weddings. Most people had only one or two sets of "good" clothes which were skillfully made and highly ornamented. Many women spent months sewing elaborate embroidery on their dresses and vests. Out of doors, men wore long Cossacks and, in doors, tunics to the knee. Married women wore blue or white kerchiefs, while unmarried girls wore braids wrapped around their heads. Poor people went barefoot from spring to fall. In winter shoes were homemade or bought at the market.
The peasants of this region were close to their church and faith and on Sundays they all put on their best clothes and hurried to church. The married priests, who acted as fathers, teachers and advisors, worked in the fields along with everyone else. Some churches were Russian Orthodox and some were Greek Orthodox (Greek not as in Greece, but as in the Eastern Rites). Lemkos could be both.
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