Part 5 - Tanas and Leftera's Story

May 2005

by Risto Stefov
rstefov@hotmail.com

Leftera, the sixth of seven children of Risto and Sofia, was born in 1932 in the village Oshchima. As a child, Leftera attended school up to the third grade, before the schools were closed as a result of the 1940 Greek-Italian war.

In her early youth, Leftera worked on the Oshchima homestead helping out on the farm, fetching water from the Oreshky spring, feeding and tending the livestock and doing house chores.

Later, after the start of World War II and the rise of the Partisan movement, Leftera was recruited to serve the Partisans as a courier and to guard Oshchima against spies and Greek Royalist bands.

In 1947 during the Greek Civil War, Leftera was again drafted by the Partisans and sent to Bukovik for military training. Afterwards she was transferred to the cavalry division and sent to tend horses and pack animals. Her first assignment was to go to Kolumnady, acquire pack animals and transport feed from Psodery to Smrdesh. About two weeks later, after completing that assignment, she was sent to Rula for reassignment. The commander Karathimio, after interviewing her, thought she was too young and frail to do lifting and that sort of work so she was transferred to the courier office delivering dispatches from command post to field offices in Posdivishcha and Kolumnady.

Three weeks later, due to enemy advances, the command post was relocated to Senitchko and Leftera was transferred to Bapchor. While in Bapchor she ran into German, Dafina’s (her sister’s) husband. This was the second time she met up with him while on duty before German was killed. The first time was in Kolumnady when Leftera was acquiring the pack animals.

Dafina was Risto and Sofia’s first child, born in 1911 in the village Oshchima and died at age 78, in 1989 in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.

Dafina married German, from Oshchima, in 1931and had three sons with him: Ilo, Gotse, and Vasil, and two daughters, Florika and Lena.
Like many other men from Oshchima, German was drafted by the Partisans and tragically, was killed in combat in 1948.

As the Greek Civil War escalated, Dafina, being a widow of a fallen Partisan, qualified for assignments to assist with the refugee children evacuation. She took part in evacuating children from Oshchima to Yugoslavia. When her assignment was over she moved to Bitola where she lived with her brother-in-law Kole for a while. From there she moved to Skopje where, some time later, was reunited with her children. Dafina worked in Bilka, an herbal medicine laboratory in Skopje, for most of her life.

Soon after her assignment in Baptchor was over, Leftera was sent to Breznitsa and when that assignment was over she was sent back to her training camp at Bukovik. In Bukovik she met Odisea, a Partisan officer and friend of the family whom she persuaded to give her leave of absence so she could go home and look after her aging parents. By now all of Leftera’s siblings were involved in the Greek Civil War and there was no one left to look after Risto and Sofia.
Her leave unfortunately lasted only a couple of months (summer of 1948) and she was again recalled to report for duty in Zhelevo.

Upon her arrival in Zhelevo she was dispatched to P’ply for re-grouping and retraining. There she was assigned to an all girl battalion in the 103rd brigade. Leftera proved to be an exceptional soldier demonstrating bravery and courage during training. She was promoted to Sergeant and assigned trainer duties to train new recruits at a camp located in Turska Polena in Oshchima.

When training was over, Leftera and twenty-four other girls from the 18th brigade were transferred to Kolumnadi to prepare for the battle at Surovich. This would be Leftera’s first battle against the well trained battle hardened Greek Royalist army.

Leftera survived Surovch and much more. She recalls returning from battle, in April 1949, with blistered and swollen feet when she was confronted by aerial attacks. Her feet were hurting and she was unable to outrun her aerial attacker as she became an easy target for his machinegun fire. She tried to run as the airplane circled around but she fell. It caught up to her again and taunted her with a shower of bullets. Fortunately she was not hit. Two of her comrades were killed that day.

Before the end of the Greek Civil War, Leftera was sent to Trnaa where she was visited by her younger brother Alexander. This was a memorable visit because, among other things, Alexander gave her a copy of the Macedonian alphabet and taught her how to read Macedonian.

From Trnaa, Leftera was transferred to Malimady. By this time the Partisans were losing ground and were operating in the safety of the mountains. She remembers it was Easter and there was nothing to eat. She celebrated Easter with one Easter egg which she shared with her friend Ristana.
Eggs are customary Easter treats for Eastern Orthodox Christians. However during the civil war, food, especially eggs, were very scarce.

While in Malimady, Leftera met Tanas who, in a few years, would become her husband.
Tanas was also a Partisan, a demolitions expert, specializing in laying mines. Tanas at the time was working with Vasil from Oshchima. Vasil knew Leftera from home and introduced her to Tanas.

Tanas was born in 1932 in the village Tiolishcha and served with the Partisans in 1948 and 1949. Tanas was sent with the refugee children destined to leave the country, but along the way he and a friend decided that they would be better off if they stayed home and joined the Partisans. Their intention was to join a local brigade near their village. Unfortunately, after they departed from the refugee children camp and headed for home, they were captured by a Partisan patrol from Thessally and were taken to Epirus. Tanas was trained in demolitions and sent to Vitcho and Gramos on assignment.

Leftera and Tanas met again at Malimady in a more casual atmosphere and got to know each other a little better. The third time was at Gramos when Tanas was sent on a dangerous mission to plant mines. During this encounter Tanas gave Leftera his duffel coat for safekeeping and for good luck. She was instructed to hold his coat until he returned or keep it for herself if he did not make it back. Luckily Tanas survived the mission and returned to Malimadi safe and sound.

In August 1949, as the war was coming to a climax, orders were given to abandon camp and re-group in Albania.

Before entering Albania, all Partisans were disarmed and placed in camps. They were assigned sleeping quarters outdoors, in tents made of folded blankets. After all the Partisans had arrived they were regrouped, rearmed and dispatched to Gramos to stop the advance of the Greek Royalist Army. Leftera recalls being assigned a dirty old rifle, all soaked in grease, emitting a very unpleasant odor.
At Gramos the Partisans endured aerial attacks and artillery fire from the advancing Greek Royalist tanks and many were killed during the ensuing battles. Leftera fortunately escaped by fleeing to Albania.

On her return to Albania, she avoided the camps to minimize her chances of being captured. Separated from her brigade, deep in Albania, Leftera and her friend Ristana found themselves alone, cold and hungry. In their search for food and shelter they came across a house and saw a woman with children out in the yard. Leftera knew a few Albanian words which she had learned from her father and along with some sign language, was able to let the woman know what they wanted. The Albanian woman was obviously poor, but being kind, she gave Leftera and Ristana what little food she had. Leftera and Ristana were just as poor and had very little to offer in return. So in gratitude for the food they received they each gave the woman their sewing needles, their most prized possessions.

The Partisans had already lost the war when Leftera and Ristana caught up with their brigade, which was ordered to disband and leave the country.
Leftera recalls being shipped by train from the camp to the port of Durresi and from there by ship to Russia. It was a long and unpleasant trip which lasted seven days. To avoid capture by patrolling ships and by the authorities in Istanbul, Partisans were transported in cargo ships registered to carry planks of lumber. People were literally buried in the lumber and told to keep quiet, not even to cough, while crossing critical points in their journey.

After arriving in Russia, Leftera and Tanas, who happened to be on the same ship, were transported via train to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Upon their arrival, they were placed in quarantine for a month and a half.

After quarantine, Leftera and Tanas joined the workforce in Tashkent. Leftera had two months of training and was responsible for assembling the steering truss and control mechanisms of Russian military aircraft. Initially, Tanas was in construction, building houses for the aircraft plant employees, but later was assigned to a job assembling the outer casing of aircraft wings. Tanas also attended two years of school to upgrade his education and language skills.

In November 1949 Tanas married Leftera. They had two children: Dimitry (Jim) born in July 1953 and Sofia born in February 1959.

Due to lack of housing, Leftera and Tanas lived in a single room apartment, together with a Greek couple, for five years. Later, when more housing was available, they moved to a more spacious apartment.

After fifteen years of life abroad, lonely for their homeland, the couple decided it was time to go home. In October 1965 the family arrived at Tanas’s home in Tiolishcha and Tanas reclaimed his ancestral place in the village. After three years of village life, Tanas and Leftera took another leap of faith and in October 1968 came to live in Toronto, Canada.

In Toronto, Leftera joined her sister Sevda and brothers Vasil, Nikola and Alexander.

Sevda was Risto and Sofia’s third child, born in 1923 in the village Oshchima and died in Toronto, Canada in 1998.

At age seventeen Sevda married Alex, also from Oshchima who was born in 1920. Alex and Sevda had two daughters, Maria born in 1941and Florika born in 1944. They also had a son Risto bornin 1956 in Toronto, Canada. Maria and Florika were born in Oshchima.

Sevda’s wedding was without the usual Macedonian festive celebration. The outbreak of the Greek–Italian war made it, according to Macedonian tradition, inappropriate to have festivities while there was death and suffering.

Sevda too was drafted by the Partisans in 1948 and was given light duties because she was a mother of a young child (Florika). She served as an assistant to the medics at the Gramos and Vicho fronts. As a field nurse Sevda was responsible for patching wounds, transporting dead and wounded to the field hospitals, and providing moral support to those suffering.

Sevda’s first child Maria, along with her uncle Alexander (Leftera’s brother), left Oshchima in April 1948 with the first wave of refugee children. Maria was sent to Brailovo, in the Republic of Macedonia, while Alexander was sent to Romania. Florika, who was escorted by her aunt Dafina, lived in a different camp in the Republic of Macedonia.

After losing the final battle in 1949, the Partisans disbanded and Sevda left for Albania (Elbasan camp) where she met-up with her father, mother and brother Alexander. From there Sevda was sent to Poland.

Alex, Sevda’s husband, was mobilized and drafted by the Greek Royalist army soon after World War II ended and served as a Royalist soldier to the end of the Greek Civil war.

As soon as his draft was over, Alex left Oshchima for Toronto, Canada.
Alex’s family had departed for Canada sometime earlier and had made arrangements for him to join them as soon as he was released from the military.

Alex arrived in Toronto in 1950 and started making arrangements to reunite his family.
Maria and Florika, both living in Yugoslavia, in separate camps, met at Bela Tsrkva and departed for Canada, arriving in Toronto in the spring of 1952.
Sevda remained in Poland where she worked in a restaurant until the spring of 1955 at which time she departed for Canada to be with her family.