Threads of Memory: Three Generations of Women's Strength from Ukraine to Canada

olgastrasburger
Jan 16
5 min read

By Olena Gadomska

Lirondel Hazineh, a volunteer at Grassroots Response, supports newly arrived Ukrainians as a continuation of her own family story - from Ukraine to Canada through wars, famine, forced relocations, and adaptation to a new country. Today, from Canada, Lirondel helps Ukrainians fleeing war, as if stitching together the past and present with threads.

The family story known to Lirondel begins in the Azov city of Berdyansk (Ukraine), where in 1884 her great-grandmother, Paulina, was born, and in Riga (Latvia), her great-grandfather, whose surname was Brempel (German).

The future couple met in Odesa while studying at university. Her great-grandfather was a civic activist who ignited hearts with his powerful speeches from the podium. Paulina’s heart was also set alight.

On the eve of World War I, the revolution, the family lived in Zaporizhzhia, where in October 1912 their long-awaited daughter Maria (Mary), Lirondel’s grandmother, was born.

The couple built a family life full of hope for a bright future, working and raising their daughter. Paulina taught mathematics at school, and her husband tried to organize farmers' cooperatives to allow them to sell wheat without middlemen and earn fair pay. The local authorities disapproved and asked him to stop. He then also began teaching at a high school.

Paulina witnessed the darkest times in Soviet Ukraine, especially under dictator Joseph Stalin (1920-1953): several famines, World Wars I and II, unbearable living conditions, and the loss of loved ones. Their journey led them through refugee camps to Canada via Germany.

Mass repressions, arrests, executions, exile to the GULAG, destruction of “unreliable” populations, suppression of the intelligentsia and peasantry, tight control of information, censorship, ideological manipulation, lack of human rights - brutal repression of any dissent - this is just a brief summary of the atrocities committed by the Soviet regime. All Canadian provinces have recognized the Holodomor as genocide against Ukrainians [1].

Paulina rarely spoke about the horrors because the Soviet regime instilled a habit of silence for survival. Still, Lirondel knows that during the famine, Paulina shared her last piece of bread with starving children knocking on their door. Their survival was thanks to a small plot of land, a garden, and a goat.

The famine Paulina referred to is known as the Holodomor - a man-made famine caused by the Soviet government’s confiscation of all food supplies, grain, and livestock. The Holodomor was genocide, orchestrated by Stalin’s totalitarian regime to annihilate the Ukrainian peasantry and nation.

The Soviet regime also claimed Paulina’s husband’s life - he died in prison under vague charges, likely due to his German heritage. His wife never learned the real reason for his death.

In the late 1930s, Paulina’s daughter Maria studied engineering and civil construction in Kyiv, excelling in math - a family gift. She married a fellow student, Andriy (John) Swediuk. Their marriage was registered at the city hall without a celebration or church ceremony, as these were banned. Their daughter Olena (Helen), Lirondel’s mother, was born.

Maria’s married life was short, and her daughter never knew her father - he died in a hit-and-run a year later. The family suspected a political motive due to the prevailing repression and lawlessness.

Arrests began: her grandfather was taken for his “German” surname, an uncle - sea captain, for foreign travel; others were imprisoned without explanation. The family never learned their fates.

Soon after WWII began, thanks to her engineering degree, Maria worked as a city engineer in Melitopol during the German occupation, managing the flood risks.

Understanding the Soviet regime had taken her loved ones, Maria made a decision that changed her family’s fate: three women - great-grandmother Paulina, grandmother Maria, and 9-year-old Olena - left Ukraine.

They fled under bombings, on foot and by horse cart, through Slovakia and eventually to a displaced persons camp in West Germany, where they lived for about five years.

Maria worked as a cook in an American mess hall, and Olena studied in a German school while living among other Ukrainians in the camp, eventually speaking 3 languages fluently – Ukrainian, Russian and German. Her talent for languages would follow her to Canada - but her true love was dance, and she danced, folk and ballet, whenever she could.

“My grandmother and great-grandmother protected my mom fiercely. They poured all their love and energy into her”, says Lirondel.

Canada: A 10 -year Restart

In 1949-1950, Canada accepted widows with children. Maria and Olena arrived by ship in Halifax - Maria was 40, Olena 14. Maria worked as a maid, living in her employer’s house; Olena lived separately, boarding with an unfamiliar family. They spoke Ukrainian, russian [2], German, and a little French, no English yet.

In Toronto, despite her education, Maria worked as a cleaner for five years, then as a nanny. Eventually, she earned a diploma from Shaw Business College and became a typist at an employment bureau. Her Melitopol engineering credentials were never recognized - a common immigrant experience. Elderly Paulina worked as a seamstress. Olena attended high school, overcame language barriers, studied hard, worked and danced.

By 1965, they had stability - a job, a house, a language, but were still integrating (to some extent) into the "Canadian" community. To “fit in,” names were Anglicized: Maria became Mary, Olena - Helen.

Helen preserved her love of dance, including Ukrainian folk dance. After high school in Toronto, she studied ballet, performed in several productions and taught ballet on the side to help finance her studies. Maria’s engineering talent was passed on; many family members are engineers today. The 2022 full-scale Russian invasion devastated Olena as she watched it on the news - her health deteriorated at the same time, and perhaps her heart finally gave out.

Memory and Silence

“My mom, Olena, didn’t share much about her childhood. When she did, it was mainly a few happier stories… as often happens with trauma, she avoided speaking of the bad”, recalls Lirondel.

Grandmother Mary shared more of the stories and saved documents - address lists, language notes, job records, a ship manifest, and her husband’s 1936 death certificate. They never wrote to Ukraine - afraid to endanger loved ones.

“I identify as Ukrainian… I grew up in a family that spoke Russian, but we were Ukrainian through food, traditions, and culture. I’d love to visit peaceful Ukraine”, says Lirondel. And we both hope for that.

Thus arose the Lirondel saga - three generations of Ukrainian women who endured loss, famine, war, refugee camps, and emigration but built a new life and home.

Today, Lirondel’s family story painfully echoes that of many Ukrainians forced from their homes by russia’s war, seeking safety in Canada.

“I’m struck by how history repeats itself… today’s Ukrainians aren’t so different from those refugees again, women and children fleeing war”, says Lirondel.

Sadly, Ukrainians today must change passports and borders due to russia’s war, but their courage, traditions, language, culture, and the support of Canadian Ukrainians remain a living memory passed to the next generations.