Minister Dmytro Kułęba presented Ukrainian historical policy at a gathering with the Campus participants in Olsztyn. An occasion for this was the question of 1 of the participants: erstwhile will Poland be able to carry out exhumations?
Judging by the Minister's words erstwhile we Poles: – we will equal the genocide in Volyn with the Action “Wisła”. – we will compare Polish victims of genocide with Ukrainian victims of retaliation actions. – we will leave past to historians and we will not submit to Russian provocations. The youth gathered at Campus and Minister Sikorski witnessed the ostentatious insolence with which Ukrainian officials have long been working without fear of being brought to order. After all, as president Duda put it on hard issues historically "we will not run with pitchforks" especially since "running with pitchforks" is the specialty of our partners.
Let us remind that the genocide in Volyn was a deliberate demolition of the Polish population due to its national affiliation. The aim was to physically destruct Poles in order to make Volyn and Galicia east "clean" ethnically. These crimes were characterized by utmost brutality, including the killing of children, women, and old people, and the usage of torture. The “Wisła” action was in turn a repressive operation aimed at breaking UPA structures and eliminating its back office. The intention of this operation was to disperse and assimilate the Ukrainian population in Poland, not to physically destruct it. By eliminating the Ukrainian armed underground, the ticking bomb of Ukrainian panic was effectively disarmed in south-eastern Poland. In consequence to the crimes of Ukrainians, the National Army, the Peasants Battalions and smaller guerrilla troops organized retaliatory actions, directed against both the UPA and Ukrainian civilian population, suspected of cooperating with this formation. The number of victims of these shares is estimated at respective to respective thousand. While the genocide in Volyn was an organized extermination, reprisal actions were a reaction to these crimes, frequently chaotic and spontaneous. Under no circumstances can they be compared to both scale and intent. The Polish side was not aimed at the genocide of Ukrainians, while for the Ukrainian side the genocide of Poles was the main goal. However, attempts to equalize these events are a lasting part of Kiev's policy. erstwhile president Viktor Yushchenko went so far that speaking in Warsaw he put a sign of equality between UPA and the National Army.
The words "let us leave past to historians" became almost a cult slogan of Ukrainian authorities as well as Polish "useful idiots". Among influential politicians, only Minister Kosiniak-Kamish did not accept Kuleba's perspective. "Without exhumation, without commemorating our victims, there is no good future. This is not a substance of history. This is simply a substance of curing a wound that has been open for many years," said the head of the MON. Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz understands well that for Ukrainian authorities the slogan about leaving past to historians is simply a screen for which they build their own identity and a nationalistic version of their history. It's not just what our neighbors did during the war, it's what they do today. Currently, by their will, murderers have become heroes, and nationalism has become an authoritative trend and sanctioned by the state. To find out, just take a walk in the Kiev prospectus of Stepan Bandera. In Lviv you can see the monument of Roman Shuchewycz. In the ultimate Council, 1 can find a resolution commemorating the combat actions of the Nazi Knight of the Iron Cross, Colonel Petra Diachenko, who commanded Ukrainians who took up Warsaw insurgents. You can besides see the celebratory combatants of the SS-Galizen division.
Finally, you can read the tens of resolutions of local authorities glorifying the legacy of Bandera, Doncov or Shuchewycz. The war on Russia has nothing to do with it. The turn towards nationalism followed the Kiev Maidan. On February 25, 2010, the European Parliament adopted a resolution expressing "deep regret" as a consequence of the decision by then Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko to give Bandera the title of Hero of Ukraine. Bandera lost this title by a decision of the court which considered that it could only be awarded to Ukrainian citizens, and Bandera died as a consequence of the 1959 bombing before Ukraine became an independent state. The performance of Minister Dmytro Kułęby at the Olsztyn Campus will be remembered for a long time. The silence of government representatives present there against the minister's arguments will besides stay in mind.
Leszek Miller
For: profile ‘X’
photo of Campus Poland Future
