The situation in inter-war Poland became worse and worse:
The economic health of Poland deteriorated with every passing year. Finally, the shared economic crisis occupied the entire country. The peasantry of all of Poland became very worried, as grain, butter, eggs and various livestock sharply fell in price at the markets. All of the factory- and plant-produced goods, such as shoes, clothes, threads, matches, nails, and the like – all of this became more expensive.
Work wages at the plants and factories, on the contrary, fell. The first unemployed people appeared. These people came to the towns and villages, moved from municipality to municipality, in order to find allowances. Every unemployed person received a document, which stated that the person lost a job. The authorities created the resolution that every unemployed person (with proper documentation) could collect allowances. In accordance to this resolution, every municipality was required to pay a one-time allowance of 2 złoty. This is why the unemployed traveled around the whole country in hopes of getting some sort of money. Defeat and discontentment began to prevail among the majority of laborers in the towns and villages. The gentry began to repress and terrorize those that were unhappy.
To overall economic troubles was added a kind of irritating micro-management by the Polish government, generating small fines. To the poor peasants, these amounts were large.
The Polish rulers produced one order after another. Every one of them made life for the poor even harder. For instance, every peasant was required to hang up a little bell before riding a sledge in the winter. Every person who rode somewhere with a horse and cart was required to hang up a sign with the name and address of the owner of the cart. Similarly, wells had to have signs with the words “Water for drinking”. Everyone had to regularly paint their homes, whiten their street-facing fences. Every homeowner had to have a bathroom. All of the violations were treated with fines. A fine was minimally 2 złoty up to 5 złoty and harsh warnings that everything had to be fixed immediately. These fines helped the police sustain themselves.
All of these requirements seem trivial in modern times. But during that time, for the poor, these were occasionally prohibitive. All of this was tied to money, which was scarce. Some of our people did not even have the means to pay taxes. And a person expected, every day, for the authorities to come and take away his meager assets in response to unpaid taxes; this would amount to complete ruin.
A savings bank opened in Divin -- but it was only for the use of Polish settlers, osadniks.
In our Diviner municipality a local Savings Banks opened. It was called Stefchik after its owner (Stefchik – reactionary, Polish cooperator). Only the Osadniks were allowed to use this local Savings Banks.
As a result of all these difficulties, an actual revolt erupted in a nearby village of the Kobryn region:
{
57} From the story of the uprising of peasants in the village of Novoselki, of the Kobryn region, 1933 – 1939.
The Polish gentry lived in a fever. The workers and peasants began the battle with their oppressors – capitalists and landowners. Workers’ protests were staged around the whole country. Peasants had uprisings in the villages.
One of these uprisings happened here, in the neighboring municipality of the village Novoselki.
The uprising was organized and took place under the direction of local communists. This happened at the beginning of August, 1933. Peasants of the villages
Novoselki and
Pavlopolya counting almost a hundred people gathered at the site and headed for the rural Police. They carried signs,
Long Live Soviet Rule. The rebels divided into several groups. Each group completed their own assignments. Some of the protesters took to the destruction of telephone connections to the cities of Kobryn and Brest. Another group took out the connection to Divin, and then attacked the police. A third group disarmed the
Osadniks.
The police locked themselves up in the building, shooting back at the rebels and tried to call Kobryn, but the connection was disrupted. The commander then reached Divin. He relayed that the Communists of Novoselki were staging an uprising. But here the connection terminated as the wires were cut. However, the police of Divin had heard the alarm. This transmission was immediately relayed to Kobryn and Brest, as well as the residence of the governor, Kostka-Bernadski, Polish executioner. One policeman of the Divin police, Konorovsky, incidentally happened to be at Novoselki at the time. He was shot and wounded by the rebels. He survived, having hidden in the bushes. He then became one of the main heroes of the uprising. He became famous all over Poland.
The Novoselki uprising was crushed. By August 4th, by an order of the Polish government, Brest and all surrounding areas have been placed under martial law. In the next few days, all of the laboring Poland, as well as all of Europe, found out about the village of Novoselki. The hard-working peasants, disdaining death, rose up against their oppressors. They did so in the name of brotherly solidarity with the peasants of the municipality of the city of Krakow. First, they rose up against their oppressors and were the first in this fight. The long-lasting fight of our workers was not fought in vain. Many participants of the Novoselki uprising were captured and imprisoned. However, after their release, these people were active fighters for the establishment and strengthening of Soviet power in these parts.
World War II came soon after. Some of those heroes went on to join the partisans, further supporting their Motherland.
In the years of the Second World War, all of the participants of the uprising joined with the national avengers, but not all of them lived to see the happy days of the liberation. Four of them died in the Nazi camps, many were killed in the fierce fighting at the front. The survivors take an active role in the creative work for the good of the Motherland.
