Historian publishes new findings about 1947 "Akcja Wisla" (02/23/97)

Historian publishes new findings about 1947 "Akcja Wisla"

by Marta Dyczok
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

TORONTO - While many talk about the need to re-examine Soviet-era history and fill in the blank spots, some are actually doing it. Historian Yevhen Misylo, who published a collection of documents on "Operation Vistula" (known in Polish as "Akcja Wisla") was in North America in November-December 1996 to gather funds for continuing research and to touch base with supporters in the scholarly community and the community at large.

Dr. Misylo's book, titled "Akcja Wisla" (Warsaw: Archiwum Ukrainskie, 1993), was the result of 10 years of archival research in his native Poland. Its 524 pages tell a harrowing tale about an event in the history of Ukrainians that has received little attention to date.

Document 42, a top secret memorandum of the Polish Internal Affairs Ministry dated April 16, 1946, demonstrates that "Operation Vistula" was designed as Poland's "final solution" to its troublesome "Ukrainian problem." (Zadanie: Rozwiazac Ostatecznie Problem Ukrainski w Polsce).

Dr. Misylo has labeled these events the ethnic cleansing of over 150,000 Ukrainians from Poland's eastern borderlands in 1947. Some 20,000 Polish military personnel were used to deport all ethnic Ukrainians, including members of mixed Ukrainian-Polish families, from their ancestral homes, ostensibly in retaliation against the operations of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

Ukrainians were forcibly resettled in western territories newly acquired by Poland from Germany, known as the Zemie Odzyskanie, and ethnic Poles, many of whom had been expelled westward out of Ukraine by Stalin immediately after the second world war, were settled in the formerly Ukrainian areas. The documents of the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs now show that Akcja Wisla was a Polish initiative, supported by, but not launched, in Moscow.

"We need to speak about the full truth now, but based on documentary evidence," said Dr. Misylo during his visit to Toronto. Talking about the situation of Ukrainians in Poland today, he added, "Pseudo historians and politicians continue to play a role in shaping public opinion, and Ukrainians cannot feel like full-fledged Polish citizens while they continue to be stigmatized and targeted as the enemy of the Polish people."

All discussion of the Vistula deportations was officially silenced until 1990, when the Polish Sejm recognized the action as a historical injustice perpetrated against Ukrainians. However, the victims of the deportations have yet to be compensated for their losses, as have other victims of Stalinism in Poland.

According to Dr. Misylo, Ukrainians are also still denied the right to commemorate places where their relatives were massacred. Three months after the Akcja Wisla book appeared, Dr. Misylo was fired from his job at the Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Research on Literature where he had worked for 15 years.

The Warsaw-based scholar's initial work was on the Ukrainian press in Poland. During his research in government archives he came across documents on the operations of the UPA and Akcja Wisla. Although some Polish scholars welcomed Dr. Misylo's work, others did not.

Undeterred, Dr. Misylo has been able to follow his line of work thanks to the Warsaw-based publishing house Archiwum Ukrainskie, which he co-founded. There he is energetically pursuing his belief that publication of archival documents will serve as the basis for objective historical research of Ukrainians in post-war Poland.

Ten books have already been published and another 10 await publication, pending the availability of funds. Among those waiting to go to print is a collection of documents on the history of Ukrainians held in the concentration camp at Jaworzno, Poland, in connection with Operation Vistula during the years 1947-1949.

Dr. Misylo was invited to North America as part of the local community's preparations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Akcja Wisla deportations and to draw attention to the topic. The Toronto-based Zakerzonnia Association, whose membership consists primarily of Ukrainian émigrés from Poland, arranged a monthlong visit to major cities.

Dr. Misylo's itinerary included stops in Toronto, New York, Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Detroit, where Dr. Misylo met with scholars, the Ukrainian community and schoolchildren to speak about the little-known tragedy. In Toronto, he also delivered an address sponsored by the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Center. In Edmonton, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies organized a talk for him.

During his travels Dr. Misylo collected further materials for his ongoing projects; he conducted interviews with survivors of the deportations who now live in North America and viewed documents at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa.

Dr. Misylo returned to Warsaw to continue his historical research, visiting archival repositories that are slowly making documents available to the public. In addition to seeking out details on depopulated villages and individuals who were thrown into concentration camps during the deportations, he maintains regular contact with the Zakerzonnia Association. Together they are seeking to publicize this little known chapter of the history of Ukrainians and are preparing an exhibit on Operation Vistula to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The exhibit is scheduled to open in Toronto in May 1997.

For further information contact Dr. Yevhen Misylo, Oficyna Wydawnicza "UKAR," ul. Kosickiego 16 m. 84, 01-581 Warszawa, Poland; tel/fax; (011-48-22) 39-87-73; or Zakerzonnia Association, 4572 Tribal Court, Mississauga, Ontario, L4Z 2R9; telephone, 905-501-0167; fax, 905-602-9928.

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