Summary:

The objective of this paper was to make a special set of photographs of the former Polish Eastern Borderlands available to the public. Those photographs belong to a private collection of Mr. Ignacy Rabczuk, As. Prof., M. Sc., Engineer; he took all the photographs in the interwar period. The author of this photo portfolio was a graduate of the Lviv Technical University. He studied from 1927 to 1934 and completed the Faculty of Civil and Water Engineering, Department of Surveying. As a licensed geodesist, he started his professional activity in the Institute of Applied Geophysics of the ”Pionier” Company in Lviv. Then, he was employed with the Treasury Chamber in Brześć on the Bug River, at the beginning as a county, and, then, as a provincial (voivodship) surveyor in the field of soil classification in the Polesie Province. As soon as he accomplished all the tasks appointed to him, the Treasury Chamber sent him to a town called Navahrudak (or Novgorodok or Novogrudok), to the Branch Office of the Chamber. Here, he had the same position. His duties involved supervising land surveying projects, collecting and updating maps, and developing photoplans. By the end of 1938, the Treasury Chamber moved him again, this time to Kielce, also to its branch office. The area of the Eastern Borderlands, in particular the route of the eastern borders of Poland changed many times over the course of history. The history of Poland was very turbulent, as was the history of this specific region known as the Polish Easter Borderlands. Many experts in this field counted this historic and geographic land among the Polish provinces. Furthermore, quite a lot of the presently living Polish citizens who have their roots in the Polish Eastern Borderland deeply believe that those regions remained the heritage of their ancestors and of Poland until now. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 and the Nazi occupation caused fundamental changes to occur. Huge human loss of life, totally demolished building complexes, and wholly destroyed, entirely spoiled natural environment were the horrific consequences of WW II. After the end of WW II, the route of the Polish borders was changed. At the conference in Yalta in 1945, three superpowers: Soviet Union, USA, and Great Britain were represented, but no representative of Poland was present. The western Allies decided the Polish eastern border to run along the Curzon Line. The Eastern Borderlands were incorporated into three Soviet Republics: Belarussian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian Republics. From those Soviet Republics, new independent countries emerged: Lithuania (in 1990), Ukraine (in 1994), and Belarus (in 1997).Ignacy Rabczuk had been connected with the Eastern Borderlands for thirty four years. Family ties connected him with the Province of Stanisławów (Stanyslaviv or Ivano-Frankivsk), his studies and his first employment connected him with the Lviv Province. He had independent positions in the Province of Polesie and Navahrudak. Already as a student, he began to take photographs and, also, to let be photographed. He collected old photographs, postcards, tourist guidebooks, literature on sightseeing and maps. From his many sets of photographs presenting the Eastern Borderlands, abundant fragments survived. The whole collection comprises more than four hundred photographs taken by Ignacy Rabczuk and by other persons, as well as several dozen postcards representing the issues discussed in this paper. Student life is shown on early photographs. The author of the photo portfolio documented facts linked with the university, with the trips of the Elian’s Choir and of the Academic Choir of the Lviv Technical University (he was a member of those two Choirs), and with his work during the summer vacations. The subsequent photographs are a sort of photographic bulletins/reports created when he worked professionally in the regions of the Provinces of Lviv, Polesie, and Navahrudak, i.e. there, where he performed field survey projects; some single photographs were taken in the places occasionally visited by him. In the photo portfolio of Ignacy Rabczuk, there are photographs containing diverse contents. There exists no quantitative or qualitative equivalence, nor theme similarity. This is why each of the sets survived has been developed and worked out so as to retain its individuality. The photographs have been divided into three new sets with each set referring to one Province, in a chronological order. In a few cases, the authors of this paper have departed from the basic principle of arranging the photographs with respect to time and region. A comparative analysis of spatial and landscape changes occurred in this region was possible owing to the fact that the photographs in the three new sets were taken from the same direction of landscape or of object photographed at various time intervals. In the case one set contained only one thematic group, the authors have attached single photographs from another set. The contents of photographs in the Ignacy Rabczuk’s photo portfolio involve landscapes with original habitats of plants, natural landscapes, and heritage countryside. Landscapes of rural settlements, small towns and big cities, photos of unique buildings and structures, of secular and sacral objects of architecture that were in good or in bad technical condition, sometimes in ruins. In those photographs, the diversity of various objects serving multiple purposes has been stored. The photographs depict farm-buildings of industrial and craftsman’s functions, tools, genre scenes, inhabitants during their everyday work, or rest time, or holidays. When analysing the Ignacy Rabczuk’s photographs survived, the conclusion may be drawn that he took those pictures merely for himself. He recorded views and panoramas depicting the environment in which he lived and worked. He attached no significance to artistry of his photographs, to any posed photos. He took live-photographs, acting upon impulse, intrigued and inspired by a momentary impression. The photographic collections compiled by Ignacy Rabczuk date back to the interwar period. The photos taken by the Author of the photo portfolio discussed are about seventy five years old. A long time has passed since they were taken. Many structures, buildings and objects classified as small architecture were destroyed during WWII or devastated by natural calamities, or simply disappearedbecause they reached their end-of-life level, some other objects were purposely removed. The natural and settlement landscapes were thoroughly changed owing to political, social, and economic transformations, intense urban processes, development of technical infrastructure and technologizing of life. The entirety of the environmental components decides on the social, economic, and aesthetic values of natural landscape. It is shaped, both positively and negatively, by human activities in the field of town- & country-planning, and spatial planning. Additionally, any actions in the field of economics and engineering substantially impact any natural landscape since they employ and directly use landscape resources. Such projects modify the entire landscape: natural, cultural, and even the devastated landscape. Publishing the photo portfolio of Ignacy Rabczuk and making it available can represent a valuable contribution to the studies on historic landscapes of the Eastern Borderlands since the history of both the land and the residents living there have been inscribed into their landscapes. Those photographs are unique because they present a world that does not exist anymore.