Nie zamykać.
If you walk around the old town of Krakow, Poland, you might see a small nie zamykać plaque attached to the door. Usually it is above the door handle.
Similar small plates can also be found in Vienna, Austria, but there the text is in the form schliesst selbst or nicht zumachen.
The shields were probably attached before the First World War. They forbid closing the door, because a mechanical shutter was installed on it – a novelty of the early 20th century, which was just being learned to use at the time. Nowadays, there is such a pump in almost every door.
Nie zamykać tiles have been bonked from the street scene by an American-Ukrainian Areta Kovalska. He likes to be popular Forgotten Galicia -blog, where you look for traces of the lost world, the forgotten province of Galicia.
– It all started 12 years ago, when I moved from Chicago to Lviv, Ukraine. I marveled at the old wall writings, which were not only in Ukrainian, but also in Polish, Yiddish and German.
Kovalska talks about the so-called Ghost signs, old advertisements and other texts that had been drawn on the walls of houses and that had faded, but had largely survived for another hundred years.
When Kovalska began to look more closely at her surroundings, she found other messages from the past: boot cleaning irons, drain covers, water taps, electrical cabinets, address plates, wedges to prevent urination built into the corners of the house. All of them told of the time when western Ukraine and southern Poland were multicultural and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
– I wanted to learn to understand the history of the region with the help of these small signs, says Kovalska.
The buildings tell of the past, but the people have disappeared
But what is this Galicia that has disappeared from the maps?
Kovalska gives an interview from Krakow, where she has arrived from her hometown Lviv. On her way, Kovalska has crossed the border between Ukraine and Poland, but before the First World War they belonged to the same kingdom and the same province of Galicia.
Galicia was born in 1772, when the great powers Russia, Austria and Prussia divided Poland. The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was formed from the southern parts of Poland, with Lviv as its capital. At that time, however, it was called by the German name Lemberg, because Galicia became the easternmost province of Austria.
Galicia’s story ended when Austria lost the First World War and the empire collapsed. The northern and western parts were annexed to Poland, the Lviv region first to Ukraine and then to the Soviet Union.
However, a period of about 150 years was left in between, which Areta Kovalska tells about in her blog.
– There are quite a lot of traces from that time. For example, many new residential areas were built around the medieval center of Lviv during the Austrian period.
The historical center of Lviv is today UNESCO World Heritage Site.
On the other hand, there are hardly any people with a long Galician history. Kovalska says that, for example, only 10–20 percent of the inhabitants remained in Lviv after the Second World War.
Before the war, Poles and Jews lived in Lviv. Ukrainians were the third largest group.
– During the war, Jews were taken to concentration camps, Poles were deported to Poland, and the majority of Ukrainians either fled or ended up in Soviet prison camps, Kovalska says.
Galicia remained in Chicago
Areta Kovalska’s grandparents also had to flee Galicia.
– When the Red Army arrived in 1944, my grandparents realized that they had to leave. They were nationalist Ukrainians and intellectuals, and they would probably have been shot, Kovalska explains.
His grandparents traveled through Slovakia and Austria to Germany and from there to the United States. Areta Kovalska was born in Chicago.
Although the connections with the old home region were broken, Ukrainian culture lived on strong. A Ukrainian neighborhood was formed in Chicago, where there were – and still are – Ukrainian schools, restaurants, churches, shops.
– Because my grandparents were afraid that Ukrainian culture would disappear from Ukraine, the content of their lives was to cherish it in their new homeland, says Kovalska.
Areta Kovalska grew up in Ukrainian culture and was basically well equipped when she decided to move to Ukraine 12 years ago. Still, he experienced something of a culture shock.
– I noticed that I had grown up in a Galician cultural circle. I spoke a slightly different dialect, our food was more reminiscent of Polish and Austrian cuisine, the majority of Ukrainians were Orthodox, not Catholic. I realized that my knowledge about Ukraine was quite limited. It was a much more multidimensional country than I had imagined.
Kovalska’s first name also distinguished him from modern Ukrainians.
– Areta is an old Ukrainian name and quite common among American-Ukrainians. Almost no one recognized it in Ukraine.
However, in Lviv, where Kovalska settled, people had some idea of the city’s Galician history.
– You can find Galician vodka and Galician wine in the shops. People are perhaps in some way proud of the fact that the region has had a strong connection with the West.
“I waited in line for Poland and thought of my grandparents”
On February 24, 2022, what Areta Kovalska had feared, but did not believe would happen, happened. Russia invaded Ukraine.
At first, Kovalska did not believe that the war would extend to western Ukraine, but soon noticed that Lviv was also the target of an air attack.
– I realized that maybe it’s better for me to leave.
Kovalska traveled with a few friends by car towards the Polish border. However, the trip soon got boring, because there were many people who wanted to go west.
– We queued for 24 hours before we got across the border. I kept thinking about my grandparents. How similar they had been. They too fled for the same reason, the same enemy.
Although Kovalska had grown up in a community where Russia was viewed with suspicion, she would not have believed that she would have to flee the war.
– In a way, I was prepared because I knew what kind of neighbor Ukraine has. But still, I never thought that I would have to experience the fate of my grandparents.
Kovalska ended up in Krakow. However, he soon began making short visits to Lviv and finally returned completely last spring.
– Of course, the war is still going on. Airborne alarms and the sounds of sirens are constantly heard. However, I did not want Putin to prevent me from living in Ukraine.
All the while, Kovalska has continued to keep her Forgotten Galicia blog. Recently, he has written about Galicians, among other things of folk songs, about national costumes and of urban fashion as well as small visible memories such as nie zamykać -from signs and Ghost signof them.
According to Kovalska, conveying these stories in English is now even more important.
– There is not much information available in English about the history, architecture and culture of Ukraine. It is important to share it with the world, because it is because of our own culture that we go to war.