Паннонське чудовисько

The novel by Mykola Shanta, a representative of the oldest Ukrainian diaspora – the Bachvan Ruthenians living on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, presents a panoramic picture of the life of this community in the stormy 20th century; through the prism of the Ruthenian community, the reader has the opportunity to see the historical background of the wars in the Balkans and ask himself age-old questions about human dignity and morality, about the fate of an individual who, not of his own volition, found himself between two fires of warring nationalisms.

What will happen when the Croatian army begins to surrender? Croats do not trust me because I am not a Croat, and Serbs, again, I will be suspicious because I am not a Serb. Eh, such is the fate of the Rusyns. You are not at home anywhere, no one considers you their own. They always see you as a spy, a traitor, an enemy. Both one and the other. Why did those unfortunate ancestors of ours move to this Balkan cauldron? What one generation runs away from, the following generations catch up with. Grow where you were sown - and let God's will be done.

The God-fearing and hard-working Rusyn, who flees from the military uniform like the devil from the cross, interfered with both. And now the Ruthenians were divided by sons-in-law, because if in one Ruthenian family the son-in-law is a Serb, then the family belongs to the Serbs, and if the son-in-law is a Croat, then the family belongs to the Croats.