🕒 Date of last update of the article: 11.11.2024 at 2:29 p.m | 🖋 Author: Viktor Shatrov
Надсилайте актуальну інформацію та отримуйте більше цільових клієнтів. Ми розмістимо ваш об’єкт у нашому каталозі та покажемо поруч із локаціями, а також у загальному каталозі, це безкоштовно!
🕒 Date of last update of the article: 11.11.2024 at 2:29 p.m | 🖋 Author: Viktor Shatrov
The sculpture of the last Transcarpathian opryshk (participant of the peasant insurgent movement) Mykola Shugai was installed by Mykhailo Kolodko on January 31, 2015 on the railing of one of the oldest coffee shops Uzhgorod “Under the castle”, address: 3 Ivan Olbrakhta Street (GPS: 48.620629, 22.303882).
The real name of this Transcarpathian Robin Hood is Mykola Petrovych Syugai (Sugai in Czech). His romantic biography became the basis for the creation in 1933 of the novel “Mykola Shugai, the Robber” by the famous Czech writer Ivan Olbracht. In 1947, a popular Czech film was made based on the plot of this novel.
Mykola Shugai was wanted by the Hungarian, Romanian, and after the entry of Transcarpathia into Czechoslovakia, the Czech police. He was arrested several times, but the cunning Shugai always managed to escape. But it all ends with betrayal. Be it friends or a loved one. As a result, Mykola Shugai and his brother Yuriy were killed.
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| 🗺 Location | N48°37′15″ E22°18′14″ |
| 🗽 Opening date | 01/31/2015 |
| 🧑 Sculptor | Mykhailo Kolodko |
| 🧭 Distance from the center of Uzhgorod | Near |
| 🚙 Road for | Car, on foot |
| 🏕 Stop with a tent | No |
| 🏡 Housing nearby | Uzhgorod |
| ☕ Cafes and shops | Uzhgorod |
Mykola Shugai was born in Kolochava on 3 April 1898. He was the eldest son in the family of a woodcutter. He was illiterate and did not go to school. His fellow villagers remembered him as a cheerful boy, but considered him a bully. In 1917, he deserted the army. Soon he was caught and sent back to the army, from where he managed to escape again. One day, Shugai killed two Czech gendarmes who were trying to catch him. Since then, the forest became home for Mykola and his younger brother Yuriy. Soon after, Mykola’s pregnant wife Erzhia was arrested, and a 15,000 koruna contribution was imposed on the Kolochava village of Lazy. An access control regime was introduced in the village’s vicinity, and all villagers were issued with personal identification cards. All crimes in the neighbourhood were automatically attributed to the Shugai. At the end of 1920, Mykola was suspected of murdering a Kolochava gendarme, in February 1921 he was accused of killing a fellow villager, and in March – 4 Jews from the village of Soimy. The investigation proved that Shugai killed his neighbour Ivan Derbak and burned down his house.
Mykola Shugai was offered a substantial reward for his life or death: 3,000 koruna from the government and 30,000 koruna from the Jewish community of Kolochava. Later, the authorities increased the reward to 10-20 thousand koruna.
In the early summer of 1921, a hundred gendarmes arrived in Uzhhorod and were immediately sent to search for Shugai. His last days were approaching. In the middle of the summer of 1921, Mykola Shugai committed a large robbery of a Jew in the village of Dragovo.
On 15 August 1921, Mykola and his brother Yuriy were found dead on Mount Zhalobka (near Nyzhnia Kolochava). Who killed the brothers remains a mystery. A gendarme patrol allegedly took on a heroic role and shot the robbers. However, the corpses bore axe wounds in addition to gunshot wounds. There were rumours that it was the revenge of the family of Shuhai’s murdered neighbour Derbak.
According to the plot of Ivan Olbracht’s novel, Shugai was killed by three accomplices in 1921. Historians have proved that the people who called themselves Mykola Shugai’s killers corresponded with the authorities until 1934, hoping to receive the promised reward, but did not receive a penny.
The figure of Mykola Shugai was almost immediately glorified in fiction. In 1921, the Transcarpathian poet Hrendzha-Donskyi dedicated a poem of the same name to him. And the most famous work about the Transcarpathian rebel was the novel ‘Mykola Shugai – Robber’ by the Czech communist writer Ivan Olbracht. In the 1930s, the writer often visited Kolochava, so he made Mykola Shugai famous all over the world.
Today in Kolochava there is a sculpture dedicated to the last Carpathian opryshok.
An interesting legend about this mini-sculpture is told by Nadiya Popadiuk in her book “Uzhgorod – the world capital of mini-sculptures”. According to legend, Shugai’s main hiding place, where he kept all the loot, was in Uzhgorod in secret passages under the castle.
In 1988, Yury Rusnak, a native of Tyachiv Oblast, founded the “Under the Castle” snack bar in Uzhgorod, in the very place where the legendary Mykola Shugai once hid his treasures. According to Mr. Yuriy, in the cafe premises, after dismantling the wall above the stove, he found a secret storage, but unfortunately, there were no treasures there. However, in a pile of dust he found a bronze mini-sculpture of a man with a rifle. As it turned out, it was a mini-replica of Mykola Shugai with an M95 military rifle, which was found next to his dead body on August 16, 1921. The owner of the cafe-museum “Under the Castle” installed this mini-sculpture on a small fence in front of the entrance to the cafe.
| 🔰 Start | From the mini-sculpture of Prince Laborets |
| 🚶 Walking distance | 260 m |
| 🕐 Approximate time | 3 minutes |
| ⬆ Rise | Mostly without ups and downs |
Author of the article: Viktor Shatrov
Number of articles: 1100+
Knowledge of languages:: Ukrainian, English
Favourite quote: “Travelling – the only thing that makes you richer“
He was born and lived all his life in Uzhhorod. He graduated with a gold medal from Uzhhorod School No. 1 named after Taras Shevchenko (now Uzhhorod Lyceum named after Taras Shevchenko). He studied at the History Department of UzhNU, graduating with honours in 2009. He worked as a senior researcher at the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, a lecturer at the East European Slavic University.
