OLENA BULAT

Date and Place of Birth: 1955 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Date of Interview: August 4, 2015

Place of Interview: Toronto, Ontario

Interviewer: Sophia Isajiw

Length of Interview: 02:17:59 (raw)

Mother (Survivor): Nina Bulat, b. 1922 in Kystolovo, Novi Sanzhary, Poltovska Oblast, Ukraine;

Father (Survivor):  Yurij Bulat, b. 1915, in Vesele, near Khortytsia and Bilenky, Ukraine.

(Excerpt):

I: And do you know of any family traditions, jokes or stories that got handed down?

OB: Well, every Christmas and Easter my dad would get noticeably sad because I think it reminded him of his youth and the traditions that he never got to experience after the family was destroyed. So, I mean, we had some discussions about Ukrainian rituals around these traditions. Christmas, Easter, or whatever it may have been, but really nothing in particular because – that is something to point out, I think whether, growing up with parents who experience this, and in particular my dad, I think there was probably some survivor, if not a lot, of “survivor guilt” that came to the forefront, for those events that defined his youth, right? Because those are sort of the deepest, that’s the subtext of it all that can’t really be rationalized, right, it's just this profound loss, so I can’t say that any of these – it was just always kind of an uncomfortable time, for me, as a kid growing up, not that we didn’t, you know, celebrate. But there was always this feeling of unhappiness.

CROSS REFERENCES:

1. •Olena’s father, Yurij Bulat: “Розповід - свідчення про голод в Україні 1929-1933 років” [“Stories - evidence of famine in Ukraine 1929-1933”], 6 pages photocopied, attached in file.
   

1. •UCRDC Archive File #15B, “Soldiers of the Soviet Army” series (01:30 video tape, Batrukh series), April 21, 1989.
   

1. •UCRDC Archive File #484, audio tape (02:30), April 21, 1989
   

1. •Olga Ilczenko, aunt. UCRDC Archive File #537, Tape #537 (58 minute audio) Interview by Mykola Chaban
   

1. •Nadia Stasiw (maiden: Hawriliuk), godmother. UCRDC Archive File #414, audio.