On Wednesday, the ultimate Council of Ukraine adopted a bill which formally recognises Ukrainians forcibly displaced from southeastern Poland from 1944 to 1951 as victims of deportation. 284 MEPs voted in favour of the act, no 1 opposed it. The Act grants these persons the legal position of deportees, introduces the anticipation of obtaining one-off financial assistance and provides for the protection of memory of these events. Can you wonder where the bankrupt state will get the money for the ordered aid? Isn't it from Polish taxpayers?
This decision sparked mixed reactions in Poland, where the memory of those events is more complex than was suggested by Ukrainian resolutions. First of all, the case concerns the shares of the Vistula – a political-military operation carried out by the authorities of the People's Poland in 1947.
What the Vistula Action Was?
The Vistula Action (ukr. Операція « «, among Polish Ukrainians Акція « Вісла) was a double-minded operation: political and military. It was officially intended to destruct the structures of the Ukrainian Insurgency Army (UPA) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (CNS), operating in the south-eastern Poland. The real reason was to cut off the UPA troops from the social base — the local population, who knowingly or knowingly provided them with shelter, food, information. The operation began on April 28, 1947, without prejudice to the local population. The displacements included full villages and settlements from regions specified as Bieszczady, Beskid Low, the area of Przemyśl or Sanoka. The resettlements included Ukrainians, Boyks, Dolinian, Lemków and mixed Polish-Ukrainian families.
It is estimated that between 137 000 and 150 000 people were displaced. They were settled on the alleged Recovered Lands — Lower Silesia, West Pomerania, Warmia and Mazury. They were distracted on purpose: it was about preventing reconstruction of the Ukrainian community, limiting social contacts, breaking down possible underground structures. There is no denying that the form of action was brutal. People sometimes only got a fewer hours to pack their belongings. They were transported in freight wagons. The conditions were difficult, there were deaths. any displaced people went to transition camps, including Jaworzno camp, where about 2,700 people were interned according to IPN. The surviving conditions in Jaworzno were severe, hunger reigned, cold, mortality was high.
From the Polish perspective, Wisła's action was not cultural in the strict sense of the word. It was part of the armed conflict in the south-eastern areas of Poland from 1945 to 1947. UPA troops led many attacks, murders, attacks on the Polish population and state officials. The Polish state, coming out of the war and rebuilding its structures, had to react. However, this does not mean that all decisions by the PRL authorities were right. In the 1990s and later the Polish legislature and presidents, including Aleksander Kwasniewski in 1997, officially apologized for the form and consequences of Operation Wisła. Modern Polish authorities recognise the right of the Ukrainian number to cherish the memory of these events.
Some Ukrainians were resettled to the Soviets. The displacement of Ukrainians from Poland to the USSR from 1944 to 1946 was the consequence of an agreement signed on 9 September 1944 between the Polish National Liberation Committee and the Ukrainian Socialist Republic of russian Republic. Formally, it was to be voluntary repatriation, but in practice the action was forced. It mainly included the southeastern areas of Poland, specified as Chełmszczyzna, Podlasie, Lemkowszczyzna and Nadsanie, inhabited by Ukrainian population and Russian minorities. any 480,000 people were displaced, depriving them of their homes, land and life. The population was transported in hard conditions by rail, and the property left was taken over by the Polish state or fresh settlers. The action was part of a larger plan to unify the nationalities of People's Poland and subjugate the Ukrainian community to russian structures. The operation was conducted by the Polish Army, Civic Militia, NKVD and civilian agendas.
What the Ukrainian bill says?
Ukraine in its resolution of 2025 recognizes displacement as illegal actions of totalitarian regimes of the Polish People's Republic and the USSR. The Act grants the position of deportees:
- persons of Ukrainian origin forcibly displaced from Zakersonia,
- their families, children, spouses,
- people displaced besides as part of the Vistula action.
It provides for the granting of one-off financial assistance to be determined by the Council of Ministers of Ukraine. It besides introduces symbolic forms of compensation: memory protection, social rights, access to public benefits.
Zakerzonie is simply a word utilized by Ukrainian historiography for areas west of the alleged Curzona line, which after planet War II were within the borders of Poland. It's Chełmszow, Lemkowszow, Nadsanie, Podlasie, Lubaczowszow, and Bojkowszow. By 1947 these areas inhabited a crucial Ukrainian minority.
In Poland, the decision of the ultimate Council of Ukraine is assessed alternatively with a reserve. It should be remembered that Ukraine in its resolution completely ignores the context of fighting with UPA, which play a key function in Polish historical memory. Part of the technological community points out that recalling only the thread of deportation without remembering the causes leads to a simplified and incomplete imagination of history. Nor is it possible that the bill was passed shortly after the anniversary of Bloody Sunday of 1943.On the another hand, it is impossible to deny Ukrainians the right to commemorate their own victims. In this sense, the Polish side emphasizes the request for joint research, historical commissions, open debates, alternatively of making unilateral political statements.
