A Study of Sacha Zaliouk

As noted in his biography, Sacha joined the French army during the First World War.

For the first part of his service, he was based “internally”. There was a publication called ‘Bulletin des écrivains’ which had a section at the back. It contained columns listing the location of writers. Sacha was included in these columns for several months, and so we can trace where he was placed, at least roughly. Example:

Sacha’s military record shows that his placement in France changed as follows:

In the East from 23 September 1917 to 27 March 1919.

Now it becomes a little harder to find Sacha. However, I was fortunate. I reached out to Getty Library Reference in search of a book entitled ‘Ukrainian Artists in Paris: 1900- 1939’ by Vita Susak. I wanted to see the biography given for Sacha (it is very short and based on his own writing in ‘Paris Montparnasse’, published on 15^th March 1929 (source)). While the biography in the book did not offer anything new, Getty Library Reference kindly shared drawings by Sacha inside this book, which included the sketch of Moussa Koné Beyla. It includes Sacha’s signature, B.T.S and Macédoine (Macedonia) 1918.

There is also a word above Macedonia which sent me searching for a long time, including staring at Google Maps in this general area…but I had another bout of good fortune by contacting the Museum of Macedonia in the hopes they might help (and they did!).

According to the publication “The Settlements in Aegean Macedonia, 2” by Todor Hristov Simovski, published in Skopje in 1998, pages 168 and 422, the place referred to is the village Vakuf Kjoj of Papazhani (Pop’zhani, Popolzhani) – Papagiannis (Παππγιάννης), in the Lerin district, which today is located within the territory of Greece. The village is situated twelve kilometers northeast of the town of Lerin, along the railway line from Thessaloniki to Lerin and Bitola.“

As I described in my own biography about Sacha’s life, B.T.S refers to the Bataillon de Tirailleurs Sénégalais, a group of soldiers who fought in the war (not only the Great War but many of France’s wars), as France had colonised several African countries by this time. The B.T.S were also on the front lines at Macedonia, where Sacha was stationed for a portion of the war. To note, being a soldier within the B.T.S did not mean you were necessarily from Senegal. Beyla is a town and prefecture in Guinea – the positioning of Beyla also makes it look more like a place than part of a name or anything else, in my opinion.

Finding more information about the man in Sacha’s sketch has proven a little difficult, but I continue to try. I am grateful to Getty Library Reference and the Museum of Macedonia for providing the sketch and the village respectively to allow me to keep searching for more about Sacha’s service during WW1.