It all started when Volyn regional detectives decided to set up a recreation spot on Svityaz for capital-city people with high-ranking insignia. The regional department of internal affairs, headed by its chief Oleksandr Kmita, chose 5,000 square meters of land for itself to construct a supposedly health-improvement base for local militia officers who had suffered in the line of duty. But that land belongs to the village council of the village of Svityaz and is located on the shore of the lake, where any construction is categorically prohibited. Not to mention that 20 meters from the boundary of the desired plot stands the Peter and Paul Church — an architectural monument of the 19th century. Therefore, the matter was entrusted to people who know how to solve problems: the head of the Shatsk district department of internal affairs, Volodymyr Domaretsky, and the head of the local district-city administration, Volodymyr Naida.
Avoid meetings with random people
The head of the village council of the village of Svityaz, Viktor Pleitukh, had seen a lot in his life, had repeatedly felt pressure and angry glances from all-powerful officials, and therefore anticipated a possible conflict with local parishioners. He proposed to the militia officers land of non-agricultural designation on a plot farther from the lake, but still with the calculation that from the window of the future cottage the blue waves of the pearl of Volyn would be visible. The clients immediately rejected the proposal, insisting on the allocation of the previously chosen site.
However, the deputies at the session of the village council for some reason gave consent to allocate the desired plot to the militia officers. This, as the parishioners of the local church explained, was facilitated by the position of the priest Father Arseniy, also a deputy of the local council. He, by the way, cast his vote "in favor," but warned that he would consult with the church community. The parishioners received the news with great indignation...
During the next session of the village council, upon repeated discussion of the issue, the deputies did not give their consent.
Subsequently, after massive educational pressure from Volodymyr Naida on Father Arseniy — and the head of the district-city administration demanded only silence from the latter — and after a heart-to-heart talk with each deputy of the village council individually, permission for the allocation of the site was nevertheless granted. The only one who did not vote for the allocation of the land plot, fearing popular wrath, was Father Arseniy. After the session, he asked representatives of the community to make three oak crosses and, in the dark of night, bury them on the plot of land allocated for the militia. All the believers of the village walked in a religious procession to the unfortunate territory, consecrated the crosses, hanging black ribbons on them.
After that, Father Arseniy went to Kyiv to seek justice, and one of the district newspapers warned local residents "...about avoiding meetings and communication with random people..." Thus the press "hinted" at the undesirability of their contacts with Father Arseniy.
In Kyiv, one of the deputy ministers of internal affairs promised the pilgrim with a cross on his chest not to go against the will of the church, after which the Volyn militia officers apparently left the local flock alone. There were also casualties — the head of the Shatsk district militia department, after what had happened, was urgently sent on leave and never returned to the position he had held.
Cultural improvement, Ukrainian style?
Back in the old days, on the beach adjacent to the village of Svityaz, a state rescue station had been equipped, whose premises came right up to the water line. During the swimming season, strong and brave lads were constantly on duty there. In independent Ukraine, the local authorities decided that vacationers should save themselves, and the district administration leased the station's premises to the "Femida-Inter" company. And... in place of the temporary barrack for rescuing the drowning, there rose, like the fairy-tale Phoenix bird, a palace of a modern type. True, it does not yet have columns of malachite, like in St. Isaac's Cathedral, nor coats of arms on chandeliers, nor painted doors — that is, a Hermitage in miniature. But, as local workers reported, rooms are being furnished that could give a head start even to the apartments of luxurious Kyiv hotels. On the beach there are already signs with the categorical inscription: "Swimming is strictly prohibited! Small vessels pass by." The only question that arises is: on what grounds did the formidable "Femida-Inter" company put up such signs? After all, it is only leasing the premises.
However, this is not all the holdings of the aforementioned company. In the well-known Svityaz lake tract "Hryada," which in the summer season attracts hundreds of thousands of vacationers, there stands a cottage that noticeably differs from the others in the quality of the construction work performed. A good beginning is half the battle — another luxurious house is being built nearby.
Much that is interesting can be seen on Svityaz while wandering its autumn beaches. Here, for example, on the coastal strip several decades ago the Lviv Physico-Mechanical Institute named after Karpenko-Kary settled. And it is interesting not at all because the famous playwright and master of the stage had nothing in common with either mechanics or physics. The territory adjacent to the institute has turned into a veritable jungle of wild shrubs and self-seeded trees. On the shore of Lake Piskove, many buildings of Lviv's higher educational institutions are located on the territory of the coastal strip, and the fence of the base of the Lviv Forestry University has been extended by five meters, which was not provided for in the technical documentation of the structure. On the territory of the base, two houses are being built just ten meters from the water line. The rector of the Volyn Technical University, Volodymyr Bozhydarnyk, did not shortchange himself either. He expanded the university's sports and health camp by 10,000 square meters at the expense of the park's territory. The plot is enclosed by a fence resembling that of St. Petersburg's Summer Garden. According to what the park directorate explained to me, the rector does not react in any way to letters and orders.
The company "Prodtransservis," well known in Volyn, according to the head of the village council Viktor Pleitukh, in 2001 bought 1,400 sq. m. of land near the "Shatsk Lakes" boarding house, and took 7,000 sq. m. (right up to the lake) on lease. (The smaller plot, the head of the village council reported with pathos, costs the client about 14,000 hryvnias (sold without a competition, as at a bazaar), while the lease payment for the use of the coastal strip amounts to 3,500 hryvnias annually.) It would not be superfluous to report that the company immediately cut down all the trees belonging to the national park on the coastal part of the strip allocated for lease, which is prohibited by law. The head of the village council explained in layman's terms: "Prodtransservis" improved the coastal strip with the permission of the national park's directorate. It is interesting — will anything remain of the park in ten years after such "improvement"?
In the general development plan of the Shatsk National Park, a development project for the aforementioned "Hryada" has been drawn up and approved by a session of the regional council. It states that no construction whatsoever should be carried out on the built-up territory near the lake. And yet, in place of old buildings, dozens of cottages grow up every year. Here are just a few companies and organizations that this year violated the nature of Svityaz with unauthorized construction, without coordination with the directorate of the Shatsk National Park: the "Femida-Inter" company, "Feniks" LLC, "Hermes" LLC, "Matekh" private enterprise, PrivatBank, the Truskavets "Karpaty" sanatorium (as you can see, it did not have enough space in picturesque Truskavets), dozens of "sharks" of local business. Over the past two years, the Volyn state administration of ecology and natural resources conducted more than 200 inspections on the territory of the Shatsk National Park, issuing 150 orders to eliminate violations...
Volyn Venice
Over the past three years, about 400 land plots have been allocated from the fund of the Shatsk settlement council and the Pulmo village council. All the plots are located 300–400 meters from the water line. The rate at which landowners are multiplying on the park's territory is also eloquently evidenced by the fact that a development project is currently being drawn up for the village of Pulmo, which will "receive" another street in the direction of Lake Svityaz. A sort of "Volyn Venice" is taking shape. In the next two years, under pressure from "cool" developers, trees will be destroyed in the "Akatsiya" tract — the pride of the Shatsk National Park. Land privatization is proceeding at a rapid pace on the territory of the former experimental farm of the village of Svityaz, which will undoubtedly be sold later and will go under construction.
And quite recently, the regional newspaper "Volyn" received a signal that on Lake Piskove (the closest to Lake Svityaz), Kyiv officials plan to withdraw 60 hectares of land along with forest from the park's circulation and begin construction of something epochal. They liked the best corner of the national shrine, with berry and mushroom spots, gentle sun, warm water, and a unique shore-beach whose sand resembles corn grits. Residents of nearby villages confirmed that people with theodolites and maps had already come here several times. One of the surveyors let slip that the "epochal project" would begin here no later than 2005. What other plans the "privatizers" of Volyn's unique natural complex are hatching is as yet unknown.
It should be recalled that in 1983, with the aim of preserving the unique Polissian nature and one of the largest natural lake complexes in Europe, at the cost of great efforts by local and capital-city scientists, the Shatsk National Park was created. And three years later, a general plan for its development until the end of 2005 appeared. The plan envisaged the allocation of several tens of millions of karbovantsi for the arrangement of the sewage system of Shatsk and the villages neighboring the lake, for the supply of gas, and the construction of paved roads. For this very purpose, already in the years of independent Ukraine, the Shatsk district was created.
So what do we have today? Nothing but noise and dust. And Shatsk very quickly turned into a district that constantly begs for money on account of poverty. And it succeeds easily. After all, thanks to its unique nature, this zone has turned into a sort of Mecca for capital-city and local officials. There is no doubt that today's "cool" people will develop it. Evidently, they will easily reach a mutually beneficial compromise here, moreover at the expense of not only nature.
And one more excursion into history. In the spring of 1882, a comprehensive expedition of specialists led by Dokuchaev arrived in the hot, deeply ravine-carved Kamiany Step. The pioneer researchers created here a system of forest-protective plantings, ponds and reservoirs, and afforested the gullies and ravines. All this turned into a unique oasis — a man-made forest-steppe where the microclimate fundamentally changed and harvests became guaranteed. In the 70s–80s of the last century, on Brezhnev's orders, hydro-ameliorative and water-management construction was launched. Specialists arrived in Shatsk, as once in the Kamiany Step, only no longer creators. In Volyn, 350,000 hectares of swamps were drained — exactly as much land as all the former collective farms of the region had.
The ameliorators of Volyn, having destroyed the swamps, gave space not to plowed fields at all, but to barren wastelands, which are actively being overrun by willow and low-grade shrubs. The complex of Shatsk natural lakes, which became part of the national park, has become shallow, many species of fish, animals, and marsh birds have disappeared, and the shoreline of Svityaz has retreated by tens of meters. Is this really not enough to draw the proper conclusions?
In Europe today, ecologically destructive human activity is taxed and strictly halted. Of the Volyn powers that be, no one dares to stand up for the wronged nature.
Nor is anything being done in this field by militia general Anatoliy Frantsuz, who came to Volyn to take the post of head of the regional administration.
In 2001, before his arrival, the regional authorities began a fundamentally new arrangement of "Hryada" and the reconstruction of recreation bases. Then, as now, the issue of sewage was especially acute, so money was found for the construction of sewage treatment facilities in Shatsk. However, about forty owners of recreation bases did not contribute money to finance further work — the arrangement of central water and energy supply. There is no talk of establishing elementary order — on "Hryada," as before, arbitrariness flourishes. The land market in the region is free only for a small handful of players, and what is happening with land in the Shatsk National Park cannot be called a market. But there is corruption, and officials, as its main protagonist, create the impression among the people that the market is evil. The local authorities have forgotten that they are secondary to society. And to Volyn nature as well.
Petro Checheliuk