When Marcel Glavieux was born in 1944 in Mondicourt (Pas-de-Calais) not far from Doullens, it has only been six years since Katherine Jakim, his mother, fled Ukraine to find work in France at 19
Katherine, Ukrainian immigrant in Mondicourt
“Like many people from Eastern countries at that time, my mother left a very poor life in the Kiev region of Ukraine to find work in France, as her sister Maria had done a little earlier. She arrived in Mondicourt to work on farms. And when today I see these images of many children and their mothers leaving the country, I think of my mother when she arrived in France in 1938 with just a small suitcase, a few clothes, her little missal and her rosary.“
A modest and difficult childhood
In his “baggage” also, Katherine transmitted to her husband Roland, a farm worker, and to her three sons the human valuescourage, fighting spirit, perseverance, and humility in which Marcel Glavieux (77) is still recognized today. “I knew a very modest and difficult youth, I stopped studying after the BEPC (Brevet des Collèges), I too worked on all the farms in Mondicourt to earn four cents, we had nothing at all , I must have had my first bike when I was fifteen… but my mother, often lonely and who didn’t speak French very well yet, always made great efforts so that her children could live as well as possible and I am happy to have climbed quite a few ladders thanks to the spirit that mom instilled in me: with a certain motivation one can succeed, while knowing how to live simply!“Marcel Glavieux, former PTT inspectorhas spent his entire career at the Post Office in Doullens (Somme).
– Glavieux family
the great regret of Marcel Glavieux remains of never to have seen his mother push back his native soil before his death in 1984.”For a long time, we were never able to pass the “iron curtain” to offer my brothers this trip to mum, my enmity towards communist countries comes from this Russian roadblock. And when later it was possible, I don’t know why she finally never wanted”
Tense memory of Kiev
Marcel Glavieux him was able to travel to Ukraine twiceas president of the Somme Football District during the matches of the French team in Donetsk during Euro 2012 then in Kiev in 2013 during the jump-off to the 2014 World Cup. The atmosphere and the relations with the police were already very tense. “It was a few days before the conflict broke out. The police were very present and very aggressive. We couldn’t move much and deviate from the official circuit of the delegation. I even had myself called to order for overcoming an obstacle, but I was able to negotiate with the police to exchange my tricolor scarf with a Ukrainian scarf. I could not see myself leaving my mother’s land without returning with an object that belonged to Ukraine and it remains a highlight in my life.“
“Ukraine will not die!”
Glued for a week in front of the news channels, Marcel Glavieux therefore shares the pain of a people from a distance who is close to him with the conviction, despite the exodus of thousands of civilians and Putin’s relentlessness, that Ukraine will be able to recover. “Even if I certainly don’t have a lot of family there, this painful conflict revives this Ukrainian spirit that I have in my blood. I feel Ukrainian! They are a deserving and courageous people who are not going to capitulate and will fight to the death! Putin is going to annex Crimea and Donbass, and even if he seems ready to do anything, including using military means which risk being very serious because he did not expect such resistance, he will not defeat the people. Ukrainian. In history, any invaded country has always seen its population resist and return, so for sure, Ukraine will not die!“
The exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes
Despite the Olympic values he upholds as historical president of the Somme Olympic Committee Marcel Glavieux, approves the decision to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes of the Beijing Paralympic Games because “radical measures must be taken at all levels to reason with Vladimir Putin, even if I am unhappy for these athletes caught in this gear. But this decision was unavoidable in the face of such a worrying international situation. And then I tell myself that part of the Russian population may also be behind Putin…“
While keeping hope with his brother Bernard to be able to repel his mother’s native UkraineMarcel Glavieux intends to participate modestly in certain gatherings in support of the Ukrainian people and make a donation to the Red Cross.