Swamp culture: about de-Soradization, ecocriticism and fires in the book of bog scientist Andrii Sahaydak – Publications

Dust storms, floods, and smog in cities due to peatland fires are still considered by many to be coincidences, temporary nuisances, and not an alarming sign of systemic changes.

However, there is a chance for a better understanding and, therefore, a more responsible attitude towards nature. And it consists in changing the perception of… swamps. Yes, yes, exactly the swamp – in their revival, in the development of the culture of swamp tourism – on a par with mountain or sea tourism. The book was a sure step in this direction “The Lost World of Polissia. Nature and People of the Great Swamps” guide, forester and founder of the Mizhrychynska Pushcha Nature Center Andrii Sahaydak.

Literary columnist UP. Culture Arina Kravchenko tells about this extraordinary book in more detail.

De-urbanization of swamps

Thinking about swamps probably evokes something between disgust and fear in most people. It is also likely that most of us contrast barren swamps with the world-famous rich chernozems.

Well, then the news is bad – so did the Soviet authorities, mercilessly draining swamps, destroying peatlands and creating agricultural land instead. We are reaping the consequences of such a blind attitude towards the real, irreplaceable functions of the swamps, because no rude intervention in the natural order of things can go unnoticed.

By the way, swamps have many functions. Here are just a few of them – and all of them are related to the recently experienced environmental exacerbations:

Swamps contain excess precipitation. Thus, after a heavy downpour, all the water does not immediately enter the reservoirs, provoking destructive floods, but is retained in the swamps. However, a significant decrease in the number of swamps threatens to increase flooding.

Marshes are home to many species because they provide the moist environment they need. Therefore, peat is an organic rock that was formed as a result of the dying and decomposition of the remains of swamp plants.

Blooming thyme in Mizhrychynska Pushcha

Photo: Photo from the Facebook page of Andrii Sahaydak

Mass drying of swamps is one of the main reasons for the ignition of peat, which is mineralized and emits carbon monoxide and methane. In addition to the fact that drainage already causes the release of carbon that has accumulated over thousands of years, fires only worsen the already difficult situation with air quality and the overall impact on the climate.

But that’s not all. Peat fires are especially difficult to deal with, as the source of the fire can be located deep underground and burn for weeks, releasing clouds of soot smoke – and how to breathe under such conditions, it seems, everyone has already learned well. The tradition of burning leaves, grass and garbage in autumn only provokes more and more fires.

Restoring nature after the 2020 fire.

Photo by Andrii Sahaydak

Andrii Sagaidak, together with other ecologists, emphasizes that there is an international practice of restoring swamps and maintaining them in proper condition, a practice that has nothing to do with the destructive Soviet management of these lands.

Such treeless sand dunes stopped the fire from spreading. These desert areas should be protected as natural fire barriers

Photo by Andrii Sahaydak

Ecotourism and ethnic ecology

During the times of the Soviet Union, the bog had another, no less important function. Appearing to be “barren” and therefore “wasted” lands, they were also a place of resistance. Andriy Sahaydak writes: “In the hard-to-reach swamps, they hid from persecution by the authorities for a long time. Rebel units gathered here and whole partisan units hid here after daring raids. Here, almost on an industrial scale, moonshine was driven during the times of state vodka monopolies and prohibitions. Here, secretly from the collective farm superiors, kept pigs to feed their families.”

An apple tree has now blossomed in the yard. We consider this to be a bad omen, to put it mildly. But we are not superstitious. So the skull, which has been hanging on a dry snag for several years, happily smiles at the flowers.

Andriy Sahaydak

But times are changing. Now such realities can and should become the object of research of the so-called “ethnic ecology” – a science that studies how natural conditions influence the formation of a certain ethnic group:

“The culture, traditions and way of life of a particular community are the result of its adaptation to local natural factors. At the same time, people partly changed the environment to suit themselves, forming characteristic ethno-ecosystems. This also happened in the swamps.”– notes Andriy Sagaydak.

All this knowledge today also becomes the basis for controlled ecotourism, which can take various forms, including the form of bushcraft, whose supporters, according to Dave Cantenbury, “relearning to live alone with nature”while in the wilderness with minimal modern equipment. “Elements of tourism, camping, natural history, historical reconstruction and ethnography are combined here”– adds the author.

Nature Center “Mizhrychynska Pushcha”

An attempt at ecocriticism

Another extremely interesting aspect of Andrii Sagaidak’s new book is its ecocriticism. “In short, ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the environment”– explained literary critic Cheryl Glotferlty in the 80s. Since then, ecocriticism has developed and expanded, becoming more multidisciplinary and reaching far beyond literature to encompass culture in general.

To understand how ecocriticism works with cultural objects or phenomena, it is worth learning to ask questions like an ecocritic. For example: Are writers responsible for the climate crisis? It was under this title that Aaron Matz analyzed Flaubert’s prose on the pages of “The New York Review of Books”.

The purpose of these questions is often much larger than it may seem at first glance: not to condemn or shame readers less involved in environmental issues (although, without a doubt, such texts also exist – and not in vain -), but to draw attention to the natural environment as a place that, in fact, becomes overgrown with culture, and, accordingly, determines the nature of this culture.

“The Lost World of Polissya” by Andriy Sahaydak is in this sense a unique collection of such material, because the author seems to understand that the swamps have something to tell about their culture.

Visitors of the Mizhrychynska Pushcha Nature Center

Photo from the Facebook page of Andrii Sahaydak

Have you seen the movie “Braveheart”? So the researcher notes that the heroes of the film have blue battle paint due to the blue swamp ore that the Scots traditionally used as paint.

And the same blue swamp ore can be seen in the first, still student, works of the Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko, who grew up in Kyiv Polissia, so she had enough of this natural color.

Also, it turns out that if you fry lichen in oil and add spices, you can get it “chips with yagel” – a curiosity of Finnish cuisine.

And you must have read a lot about swamps, even if you didn’t really notice it – when you were flipping through Stevenson’s “Heather Corpse” or “Woodcocks” by Khvylovy, who could have called his novel much less romantically, namely “Wanders”, since it is about interchangeable the names of this bird common in marshes.

And if you ever had the chance to taste Irish whiskey, then you should know: the “smoky” taste is the taste of swamps, or rather peat, which was traditionally used to heat not only homes, but also smoky rooms.

Polissia swamp

Andriy Sahaydak

The author obviously did not intend to write an ecocritical study about how swamps, in particular local flora and fauna, became defining for local communities, how, eventually, seeping into literature and other forms of human understanding of their own existence, they turned into “culture”. However, Sagaidak, in the best traditions of ecocriticism, blurs the line between “nature” and “artifice”, showing their interrelationship, proving that the swamps are filled with a myriad of cultural contexts that cultural researchers have yet to take a closer look at.

Changing policies

All these stories are gathered under one cover not by chance, they have a certain extremely important mission, and the recent aggravation of the ecological situation only proves it.

To prevent burning of peat, to restore swamps, to develop ecotourism, as well as to generate interest in researching how exactly such a landscape influenced the culture and history of the inhabitants of this area – perhaps it is worth recognizing such tasks as priorities for today’s environmental and cultural policy.

Education – and no matter how rustic this word sounds today, it is still appropriate for the Polissia marshes – it is the first step towards change. Because it’s about “a world that is steadily disappearing and needs our protection. And if, after reading this book, someone wants to get to know the swamps more closely, goes on a journey to Polissia or seriously thinks about the preservation of Wild Nature, the goal will be achieved”.