Senjov Family

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In 1948, Katerina married into the Senjov family, who was part of the second wave of Ukrainians from Galicia. The family was offered a free parcel of land, which was suitable, fertile land for agriculture and herding animals.

 

Her husband, Peter Senjov, was born in the former Yugoslavia. He was born on 15 May 1926 in Rakovac, Serbia to Michael and Anna (nee Javni). He grew up on a homestead owned by his father, Michael, who inherited this land from his father, Ivan. The Senjov family migrated over 120 years ago, in 1898, from Sernyky, Serednee (today Dibrova near Rohatyn) in Ukraine.

 

When Katerina married Peter, she had to live with his family while he was conscripted to the new Tito regime’s army for 18 months. In that same year, 1948, the Tito and Stalin dispute, the Yugoslav economic crisis and the opposition to land collectivisation by Yugoslavs all occurred (Wilson 1979). This affected Ukrainians, since they owned their land from the beginning of their migration into Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. Ukrainians, similarly to other minorities, were encouraged to repatriate or resettle abroad, even though these lands were the lands of their ancestors, who inhabited them since the 1890s and 1910s. Once again, some Ukrainians became mobile, including Katerina and Peter Senjov with his siblings and mother, except this time they migrated to Trieste, Italy.