In October 2021, Larysa Goryacheva contracted coronavirus and died, a shattering loss for her family, colleagues, and friends. My husband Walter and I first met Larysa in 1994, while researching and developing possibilities in the Zaporizhzhia region for the Mennonite Heritage Cruise. At the time, we had no way of knowing how important she had been and would be to the ongoing discovery of the Mennonite story in Ukraine. Nor did we know what a close bond and friendship would develop between us over the next twenty-seven years.

Larysa was born on May 3,1940, in Zaporizhzhia, to Elena Litsenko, a kindergarten director, and Vladymir Goryachev, a soldier in the Soviet Army. Sadly, her father died in 1941, during the Second World War, leaving her with no memory of him. In 1962, she graduated with honours from Zaporizhzhia Pedagogical Institute, having specialized in literature and languages in the Department of Russian and English. That same year she started work as a guide and English interpreter for Intourist, the Soviet state tourist company. She remained involved in tourism until she died on October 11, 2021. There was a brief hiatus of seven years when her husband accepted a job in the city of Norilsk, north of the Arctic Circle. She joined him with their family of three boys (a son and two stepsons), and took a position as deputy head of Norilsk’s External Relations Department. In 1982, they returned to Zaporizhzhia, where Larysa soon became head of the Department of Guides and Interpreters at Intourist. In 2003, Larysa and several partners founded their own company in Zaporizhzhia, calling it Intourist Travel Agency.

Larysa was introduced to Mennonites when assigned to guide a group for Gerhard Lohrenz in 1967. She was intrigued with the maps and information they brought with them, and how they ran in every direction in search of particular houses or landmarks. Larysa would later say, “I adore Mennonites, they don’t forget their roots.” She was devoted to them. Over the years, Larysa tirelessly did research for inquiring tourists, approached local officials when necessary, helped arrange conferences, developed valuable contacts in the archives, trained the guides, arranged transportation, and was the ultimate fixer for any problem tourists encountered in Ukraine. The Mennonite Heritage Cruise benefited enormously from her knowledge, creativity, and commitment.

On the 2010 Mennonite Heritage Cruise, Larysa reflected on her decades of work with Mennonites seeking a connection with their ancestral past: “Thinking of Mennonites, I see the coloured lines of automobile and railway roads on the map of Ukraine and blue line of the Dnieper River. From the pilgrimage tours in the late ’60s of the last century to the Mennonite Heritage Cruises of current century; from the pioneer tours started by Gerhard Lohrenz to the pioneers of Mennonite Dnieper cruise started by Walter and Marina Unger – between these landmarks lies my whole life.”

The escalation of the war would be heartbreaking for Larysa. When interviewed by film director John Morrow on the last Heritage Cruise in 2018, she stated emphatically, “I hate war.” She respected the pacifist position of Mennonites and acknowledged she had been deeply influenced by a book Gerhard Lohrenz gave her on Nestor Makhno and the Eichenfeld massacre. Larysa was quick to say she was from Odesa and her heritage was Russian, but she considered herself Ukrainian and supported Ukraine as a nation.

Talented, energetic, creative, loyal, kind, wonderful sense of humour, loving mother and grandmother – all this and more could be said of Larysa. Mennonites can be grateful to have had her as part of their destiny. I will always miss her, but her warm, honest, and generous spirit is a gift that will remain with me.

Marina Unger was born in Kitchener, Ontario, to Russian Mennonite immigrant parents. She and her husband of fifty-three years, Walter Unger, founded the Mennonite Heritage Cruise, which played a pivotal role in reconnecting Mennonites with their ancestral roots in Ukraine. Marina is still committed to supporting Ukraine.