History of one monument

Kobrin → Outstanding persons

In the Soviet Union liked to overthrow monuments. One of such stories happened in Kobrin and is connected with a name of great "litvin", the leader of revolt 1794 Mr. Tadeusha Kosciusko. It is known that "the hero of two continents" and the head of the national liberation movement in Belarus and the USA was born in Small Sekhnovichakh near Brest. After accession of the Belarusian-Lithuanian edge to the Russian Empire, the imperial administration tried to make everything "to erase" memory of Kosciusko from memory of inhabitants of these territories.

The XX century became fatal for the European empires. As a result of World War I the German, Austro-Hungarian, Turkish and Russian empires "died". On their fragments the national states appeared. Poland was one of again appeared countries. The authorities ІІ the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth brought Tadeush Kosciusko in a pantheon of the national heroes, having made his name a synonym of courage, patriotism and love for the country. In the territory of Poland monuments to the hero Vosstaniya of 1794 everywhere began to appear. One of such in the early thirties appeared also in the West Belarusian Kobrin.

In Kobrin Sacred Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, near the bridge through Mukhavets, on a granite pedestal has a figure of an eagle. This monument looked so not always. The symbol of the Russian statehood appeared on this place in 1912 – to the 100 anniversary of a victory over Napoleon. In the beginning there was a two-headed eagle. Upon termination of World War II on a pedestal other eagle – single-headed appeared. And very few people, except old residents of the city, know that on this sign place – on the same pedestal, about ten years in the 30th years of the 20th century there was a monument to Tadeush Kosciusko which was modeled by the local artist Balbina Svitich-Vidatskaya.

This monument to the legendary fighter for freedom of the people created in a modest workshop on Krasnoarmeyskaya St. in Kobrin was expected by the long road of glory and oblivion. In the 1940th years, after "overthrow from a pedestal", he was moved away in a utility room of the local museum (having set up on a pedestal of a single-headed eagle). From funds of the Kobrin museum the bust of the head of national liberation revolt of 1794 in the territory of modern Belarus and Poland was sent to the Brest regional museum of local lore. And only in 1988 it found the present haven in. Big Sekhnovichi of Zhabinkovsky district, at the building of local school.

The school was a few years ago closed because of low-completeness. But there was a memorial room devoted to Tadeush Kosciusko, and in May, 2011 the regional local history museum opened, one of halls of which is devoted to a family of note of Kosciusko-Sekhnovichsky. Now here a good selection of exhibits which is filled up by the numerous guests, including from Poland and Russia who wished to visit the former patrimonial estate of Kosciusko.


That bust to Tadeush Kosciusko. Our days

In Kobrin the house in which there lived Balbina Svitich-Vidatskaya still remained. Also people who remember it are living. It is known that the little Balbina Svitich who remained the orphan was taken on education by the distant relative – the lonely teacher Stanislava Vitkovskaya. She the first also noticed with what diligence the girl molds not only simple figures from clay, but also people. Having graduated from local school, the pupil went to study in a gymnasium to Brest. Once, having returned for vacation, saw the creations accurately placed in the most spacious room. In this gallery with love arranged with Stanislava, the audience came before the war.

Later talented Balbina graduated from the Krakow art academy and returned to Kobrin. "The lady professor" as she was validly called here, taught children drawing, painted portrait of eminent persons to order. Claim that its works had not only surprising similarity to characters, - she was able "to grab" character. Old residents tell that they on an old cemetery still find figures of the grieving angels which were made by Balbina.

In 1944 Balbina who by then married the local landowner Ivona Vidazcogo – the representative of one of the well-known local families, with the husband and two daughters moved on a residence to Poland. At parting the artist gave to neighbors the works as if wanted to leave a part of here.

In Poland she entered into Alliance of the Polish sculptors and created till last days (died in 1972). Modeled series of folklore heroes and unforgettable images of poleshuk – those that were lovely to her heart. Its composition the "Poleshuchka with the child" in 1941 exhibited at an exhibition at Moscow is in the museum of Józef Pilsudsky now. At Olshtynsky university the memorial board which was designed by the artist Ivita Vidatskaya, Balbina's daughter is opened for Balbina Svitich-Vidatskaya. On Krasnoarmeyskaya St. it is simple to find the house in which there lives Roman Iosifovich Ostrometsky knowing Balbina's family in Kobrin. "We lived in the neighbourhood with Stanislava Vitkovskaya, - he tells, – and carried them milk (our family held a cow). Usually it was entrusted to my sister Galya who was on friendly terms with Balbina. Going to Poland, she presented to Galya the boy's bust. It was Stefan, the red sad boy who also lived at Stanislava Vitkovskaya. About seven years ago I incidentally found this sculpture on an attic of the house and gave it to the local museum".

In the neighbourhood with Roman Iosifovich's house on Krasnoarmeyskaya St. showed us the big house with a sun blind. Here also there lived the sculptor who modeled a monument to the person who was called "The hero of two continents" and "the purest son of freedom" already during lifetime.

In Soviet period this big house which is about 130 years old was turned into a communal flat. Now there live four families. That part of the house where once there lived the sculptor, the pensioner Galina Martynyuk borrows now. "Our house, of course, changed, - she tells. – In due time his housing and communal services became stupid, and he began to resemble a barrack. But I buildings redeemed the part and I support in the previous form. You see this porch? It is "authentic", as well as a sun blind. Also the small extension which served Balbina as a workshop remained. The daughter of the former hostess Ivita who lives in Poland is interested in a condition of the house. She calls me occasionally, congratulates on holidays. It is happy that I do not do cardinal repair in the house".

Existence of a bust of Tadeush Kosciusko of authorship of Balbina Svitich-Vidatskaya – the fact little-known. In 2006, on the eve of birthday of the famous fellow countryman, the former ambassador of the USA in Belarus George Krall informed journalists that in the U.S. Embassy in 2005 the monument to the legendary liberator – the first in the history of Belarus appeared. It appears, after all not the first. And even not the second.

The Kobrin local historian Nina Marchuk prompted that one more monument of Kosciusko till 1939 was on the square in the settlement the World of the Korelichsky Region of Grodnenshchina. The museum of Mir Castle Complex confirmed this information. The photo of a monument (apparently, not remained) contains in the book "M_r. G_storyya myastechka that raskazal_ Iago Zhykhara" (authors Irina Romanova and Irina Makhovskaya). The book was published in Lithuania in 2009.

Here just right to put a question mark: whether there will be sometime Balbina Svitich-Vidatskaya's museum in Kobrin on Krasnoarmeyskaya St.? It seems that her daughter Ivita Vidatskaya-Solyarskaya living in Olsztyn cherishes such idea. According to Galina Martynyuk, she already collected more than 400 exhibits for the estimated museum. As for the present hostess, she is under certain conditions ready to concede the dwelling for this purpose.

In the Kobrin military and historical museum of A.V. Suvorov the sculpture of the boy of Svitich-Vidatskaya transferred there is stored in store rooms. There are no other prizvedeniye of the author here. Perhaps, they would fit into an exposition of the museum on the place of the patrimonial estate of Kosciusko in Big better Sekhnovichakh where there is the most known sculpture of Balbina Svitich-Vidatskaya? But it will be already another story altogether …

It is known that in September, 1939 the Western Belarus became Soviet. Then from the new authorities got to the majority of the "Polish" monuments. They were ruthlessly destroyed. But Kosciusko's bust in Kobrin, was not touched. Bolsheviks remembered it, only after war. In 1951 the monument to the general was "overthrown" and transferred to the Brest regional museum of local lore. There it also lay more than 30 years when in 1988 it was decided to establish a sculpture in the homeland of Tadeush Kosciusko in Small Sekhnovichakh.

Historical paradox: in today's Belarus there are practically no streets bearing a name of the national hero of Belarus Tadeush Kosciusko, and the monument to this person "is hidden" far away from human eyes. And here the cult of Suvorov who was at war against Belarusians and helping Catherine II to enslave the Belarusian lands at us in the republic, unfortunately, prospers. In this regard, it is a high time for Belarusian society to think of the one who for Belarusians the real hero? The imperial satrap who was at war for a serfdom and imperial ambitions of the Russian emperor or the hero battling for freedom and independence of the Belarusian power of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

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