THE GULEVICH IN CANADA AND RUSSIA: REUNITED AFTER 30 YEARS

Being large and numerous the Gulevich family is spread all over the world. It is not an exaggeration but a fact. If try to count all the Gulevich we should inevitably look at many countries – Germany, Israel, Serbia, Poland, the United States, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, etc.

As for me I have found my distant relatives in Canada, Ontario province. They were the members of our large family we have heard nothing about during the last 30 years. By a stroke of luck our pictures were placed near each other on the Gulevich Family Club page. But anyway a couple of years elapsed before I have realized we could be somehow related. Not once I entered the page and not once I have seen the picture of our Canadian relatives but refused to believe that the smiling women on the picture could be the members our family whose ancestry came from Kemerovo region (Siberia, Russia) and after long vicissitudes was brought to the Canadian soil. It happened during WWII when a Soviet soldier Anton Gulevich got a concussion of brain and was captured by the Nazis. Then he had to overcome horrible ordeals to survive and bring his children to the world. Now we can say we are proud of him because he is honored in his motherland. His name can be found in Kemerovo memory book where are enumerated all WWII veterans. Under Anton`s photo is written “Lost in action”. But he was not lost. He managed to come through.

Anton Gulevich with his grandson Frankie.

Unfortunately, not all of us can enjoy communicating with them. Much time has passed and the oldest have already left us. It is a real pity because their memoirs could help us a lot and bring more light to the days when our family has split. Nobody is to be blamed because we are not omnipotent and not everything depends upon us. Now except the long distance we have another barrier – language difference. French and English spoken in Canada are of no avail in continental Siberia as well as Russian is of no use in Canada. Living in different countries and having the Atlantic between us we are now two different but still related branches of one and the same family which is becoming rather exotic while now we have not only Russians and Canadians among us but also people of Chile origin.

The most important and touching though is the fact that after 30 year long silence we managed to find and hear each other. This event changed my life somehow. I began to realize more cutely the importance of such phenomena as human memory, spiritual inheritance and the subtle feeling of speeding time.

Unfortunately, more often the opposite happens. People stay indifferent, lazy or too easy going to take care for such things as searching the relatives. The whole layers of family inheritance are thrown into oblivion having no chance to revive. It means a great part of family legend is forgotten for ever and a great part of family roots are lost.

A tree without roots does not survive. A human being is sometimes stronger and can survive even without family roots. But is such way of life spiritually useful for us and not only for us but also for our children who depend on us not only financially but spiritually as well? It is a rhetoric question. No answer needed.

Modern life does not help us to go deep into our ancestry notwithstanding the technological tools we have at our disposal. On the contrary, our civilization makes us more inclined to separate from others because this civilization is a civilization of individuals. In Latin individum meant not divided. And we are real individuals because we prefer not divide our feelings or our memories with the others. We are all alone.

There is only 1% of all Gulevich registered on the web site. I hope it is only the beginning and more Gulevich will come. The sociologists say archaic folks are more dedicated to their ancestry memories and used to know their ancestry hundreds years back. The same do the Mormons in Utah state.

I would like to believe that the Gulevich will set them an example how to follow ancestry back more than hundreds years. For that we need just a trifle – being more active and more scrupulous.

Vladislav Gulevich.