Liberation came in the summer of 1944. War damage was severe. The people, with the assistance of the Soviet authorities, immediately began reconstruction.
In the summer of 1944, the Kobryn district, as well as Divin, was freed of the German Nazi invaders. The liberation’s participants included the forces of the 61st Army. It was comprised of the 9th Guards Rifle Corps, the 212th Infantry Division, and the 12th Guards Rifle Division.
Divin was liberated from the Germans on the 26th of July, 1944.
In the period of the war from 1941 – 1945, our Divin was greatly hurt. The center of town was completely burned down. At the sight of former homes were left conflagrations, the remains of brick walls. Former vegetable gardens, courtyards, and gardens were overgrown with weeds.
At the full end of the war, our Diviners, as all of the people of our homeland, began to treat the wounds brought about by a cruel enemy. The wounds turned out to be many, in the form of physical, bodily injuries, soul-morale harm, and material and economic harm.
Shortly after the liberation of Divin, with the assistance of the Soviet authorities, restoration work commenced. The construction of a building to house the Soviet district agency and institutional authorities commenced. The local, district newspaper Call of Lenin began to emerge, and to report information of the victories, of the liberation of cities and villages from the enemy.
The liberating army unit received recognition:
Through a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, on the 25th of July, 1944, 12 Guardsmen of the 212th were awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Through the decree of the Commander in Chief on the 25th of July, 1944, a number of units, divisions were awarded the honorary title of being “of Kobryn”.
Local political divisions were reorganized:
As I predicted early on, that from the fall of 1939, the Soviet forces transformed our town into the center of the district, which included eleven village councils. In 1954, in the summer, the village councils
Chemersky and
Yagminovsky were abolished, and turned into {
67} one of Divin’s village-councils, and
Lelikov was included in the
Povit village-council. Presently, all of the settlements of the village
Lelikov and its surrounding settlements are included in the Divin village-council.
Through a decree from the Supreme Council of the Belarusian SSR, in August of 1959, our Divin’s district was also abolished and included into the Kobryn district of the Brest Province. Divin was located 33 kilometers from the district center of Kobryn.
At the time, there were more than 900 peasant farms in Divin. The total amount of land consisted of 5,480 dessiatines [Ed. Russian units of land measure, each consisting of 2.7 U.S. acres, or 1.1 metric hectares].
In October of 1949, three farms were organized on the territory of the Divin village-council. Organized in the center of Divin was {
68} a farm under the name
Dawn, in
Chemer, one under the name
New Life, and in the village
Lipava-Or, another under the name
70 Years of Stalin [Stalin was 70 years old that year].
After this, the two farms in
Chemer and
Lipava-Or were folded into the Divin farm, under the name
New Life.
The period of transition from private farms to collective farms turned out to be difficult. The system of operation and use of private farming had existed for hundreds of years in these parts. Several generations of people have lived and have gotten accustomed to the private use of their own lands and their own farms. This all passed from one generation to the next through inheritance. People were used to this, this was in their consciousness.
Therefore, the transition to the collective management of the farms and the rejection of the private farm system encountered many difficulties. This was not surprising. All innovation and progress has its opponents.
The authorities led a great and difficult advocacy campaign with the population. Their arguments included life examples and facts to show the advantages of collective farming.
In the summer of 1943, the Germans had formed squads of Ukrainian UPA [
Ukrainian Insurgent Army] nationalists, armed units they called
Бандеровцы [
bandе́rovtsy: approximately: Banderites, after their leader,
Stepen Bandera.] which acted in opposition to the Soviet regime.
During their retreat, the Germans supplied weapons and ammunition to the Banderites, who –with good intentions– opposed the establishment of collective firms with
propaganda. These included some Diviners.
After some time, the Banderites were eliminated by state security. This occurred not only in our Divin but all over our western region of Belarus.
But along this route, the rich owners tried with all of their might to create obstacles. They did everything to interfere with the job at hand. There were provocations, threats, arson, and even murders. They were just like autumn flies, which, before the end of their lives, get angrier and bite painfully. But nothing could stop the job at hand, the organization of the collective farms. Opponents of the collective farm system encountered failure in all of their plans.
Poor rural families’ entry into the collective system was markedly easier.
The collectivization process was gradual, and not without flaws:
The collective farms began to slowly grow, gather strength and grow stronger.
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69}
Initially, the work of the collective farms had large flaws and there were difficulties with the organization of the work. Leaders of the collectives made mistakes in their work, not having the necessary experience. It was hard to work with people. Many members of the collectives pretended to work honestly. In fact, there was a lot of damage done. Some people, opponents of the collectives, awaited an opportune moment, to bring harm to the collective.
But, over time, the situation changed. The collective farmers of our Divin collective New Life labored earnestly and honestly.
Currently, all of the fieldwork is being carried out by agricultural machinery. In the collective there are: 20 freight trucks, 12 tractors, 4 bread harvest combines, 3 mowing machines and other agricultural machinery. There are several potato harvesting machines and other machinery, which very much reduce the labor of the collective farmers.
In the collectives there is a lot of shared livestock: large and horned cattle, sheep and pigs.
There are also shared enterprises and workshops: motor mill, sawmill, blacksmith shop, carpenter’s shop. There is a large shop that handles repairs of agricultural machinery.
Our Diviners received many useful specializations. This allows people to work in a profession at the collective farms. The collective New Life built several apartment houses with their own amenities for its collective farmers. The plan is to continue these constructions. There is a constructed bathhouse in the collective, in which the installation of internal equipment is being finalized. All of the work is set to be completed by the 50-year anniversary of Soviet rule (in 1967).
One of the most significant achievements of the post-war period: draining the large swamp areas of the region and subsequence use of the land for agriculture:
Our town is located in an area with swamps. They occupy a large area around our district. This is why a large amount of work has been conducted to drain the swampy areas. Currently, in the place of former marshes are additional areas of land for planting crops. At these sites, sugar beets are grown as well as various grasses to feed cattle.
The drainage of the swamps continues. Every year there are new fields that are used for certain prescribed purposes.
The result: one very large collective farm for Divin:
At present, our Divin has one collective farm with a total land area of 12,089.34 hectares. This land, through Government Acts No. 474138, from the 28th of February, 1956, and No. 481244, is designated for perpetual use by the farm New Life (formerly Dawn). The Acts include a land-use plan, which defines the boundaries of the land ownership.
