The monuments of Serednyoveretskyy Pass

I do not know why, but the media, exactly like ordinary people, vaguely familiar with the geography of our region, do not popularize a quite correct name of the pass in Volovets region, which, over the past few years, has become one of the places of claim in Transcarpathia. I'm talking about Serednyoveretskyy pass, on which at one time, before the construction of bypass roads, the main road passed in the nearby region. Here the confusion begins. People are known for their associative thinking, and once there is Serednyoveretskyy pass, then necessarily there is Veretskyy pass somewhere nearby. The closest pass is that on which the freeway of international importance passes. But it is not Veretskyy but "Latirskyy". It is named after the village near which it is situated. The confusion arises.

What are the claim and the resonant of this pass? Yes, it is in that some monuments are situated on it, and the forces "standing" for each of them, saying it mildly, do not quite encourage each other. One monument which is right on the road, on the top of the pass, is a monument to the soldiers-liberators – the patrimony of "aspiring communists". The monument to the liberators is the part of the monument to "the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom and prosperity of Ukraine". The second monument to the events of 1939 is the patrimony of Ukrainian Nationalists. The third monument is the monument to "Panonia", the patrimony of Hungarians. According to good old human tradition, it is decided, at least sometimes, the monuments to subject to vandalism. And as three monuments are located on the Seredyoveretsyy pass within a few hectares, the probability and frequency of vandalism is higher in such a place. Further we continue with the illustrations.

I should say the desire to collect photo material made us to go to the pass exactly two weeks ago when white flowers had already shed in the town and it was 18-20 degrees Celsius during the day. About a mile to the pass the car stupidly got in a rut of 30 cm depth. Yes, yes, there was a dense layer of snow on the pass. Its upper crust was melted with the sun and it made the surface unimaginably slippery, even for winter tires. With grief in half, regularly going out and pushing the car, we entered the top point of Serednyoveretskyy pass in the first gear. It was cold wind, abandoned buildings of tourist and recreational topics on the sides, and the meter of snow in the forest. It was not the most pleasant time for a visit. Nevertheless, the visit had to be done. Recently, an incident took place on this pass that caused the response of the international scale. According to the media, vandals had a good fun of the "Hungarian monument".

Arrived, parked. The monument to the Heroes… is right beside the road. As I understand, it is a completely new build or properly restored. Do you see a sign on the furthest "triangle"? It says who and under whose leadership created the monument.



And this is a part of the composition - a monument to the soldiers-liberators, on which vandals have worked "in passing" - have painted the Soviet soldier's helmet in the colors of the national flag of Ukraine.



It is a memorial stone with inscriptions in both languages. It is written so political correctly and abstract as it was possible.



We passed a dozen of meters and saw a quite old monument in memory of the events of 1939 at the fork of the road. Some phrases are constantly written on its pedestal, which have to be whitened then. Now the signs of the vandal’s pen are almost invisible, but, believe me, they sometimes appear.



There is an old bus stop with the stroke of Hungarian – speaking graffiti immediately behind the monument "1939". The phrase is intended to indicate affiliation of the bus stop to Berehovo bus community.



There is the famous monument "A shepherd with a trembita and a small sheep" immediately behind the stop. The trembita was broke off many years ago. Pay attention to the pedestal. There are a lot of effaced inscriptions in several languages. The most noticeable and fresh out of them once very often flashed in the news. Do you see "1000" at the bottom on the left? This part of the inscription «A miénk volt 1000 évig», translated as "This was our own for 1000 years". Here is someone’s picture, found in the network a few minutes. If you look closely, it is seen that the phrase has already been erased, and someone's caring hand again "outputted" it with nitro enamel.



Looking around and not finding "the most resonant monument" I had to become a Ranger. I assessed the number of tracks, walking on different paths, in different directions, I chose the well-trodden one. I went on. In 500-700 meters we saw a monument in a glade. I must say, the posh place has been chosen for a monument. It is a treeless peak of the mountain, lonely trees standing, and huge boulders on the ground around the monument. It is stylish.

Here are some facts, I do not pretend on their reliability, but Uzhhorod historians told me about them. What I heard - then write. The monument stands here for a long time. Once upon a time it was the inscription «Magyarország». Then someone has attributed to it the prefix "Here the Great begins". "Here the Great Hungary begins" - turned out. At the dawn of independence of Ukraine the monument was dismantled. Now it is restored. This caused a great resonance among the radical Ukrainian nationalist organizations. Rumor was hold that the monument would be restored with an old inscription. And it went away. As a result, in March 2009, the finished monument subjected to vandalism. This "action" coincided with the anniversary celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Carpathian Ukraine. The president of Ukraine was supposed to arrive in Transcarpathia (and still came), who, in his time, supported the desire of Hungarians to erect this monument.

The monument consists of 7 blocks stacked one on another in the form of arches, representing 7 tribes of Ugros which went through this pass in the Danubian plain in 896 under the leadership of Almoshi, and thus gained their new homeland.



Here is a spectacle that's appeared before our eyes as we approached the monument. The whole monument was painted with paints. There were black spots – signs of fire. As I remember, there were not signs of fire on the picture which went through the network immediately after the incident. I may be wrong, but, in my opinion, the inscription was burned. There is a snow-capped peak of the mountain Pikuy on the left, in the distance.



Boulders on the territory of the monument look in such a way now.



It is the monument on the background of mountains. It is a sad sight – all is in the paint and grime. The blue swastika is on top. There is also a yellow swastika on the other hand, and a yellow-blue trident. The inscription, which was burned with the fire, was: "Budapest, repent for the Carpathian Ukraine". There was the date - «1939.III.15» near it.



And this is - a central element of the monument - a marble cube with a cross. There is the stone which was chipped with sledgehammers from the lower tier of blocks, around it. The stone is covered with paint.



. This is how the corners of blocks of the lower tier look.



The marble cube is with broken-off angles and it is poured with paint ...



It is one of the ends of the monument. The inscription "Glory to Ukraine" is made with a blue paint.



Lastly, here is the panorama (472 KB), which opens from the point of gaze of the monument to defuse reader’s potential tension. It is truly beautiful. As I’ve already said, there is the peak on the right; it is Pikuy (1408 m. above sea level). There is a series of peaks on the left, it is Borzhavskyy chain.

03.03.2011. 08:59

This article hasn't been commented yet.