Polish cemetery in Lviv at center of bilateral relations (02/01/98)

Polish cemetery in Lviv at center of bilateral relations

by Yevhen Hlibovytsky
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

LVIV - Although the most recent meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and Poland, held in western Ukraine on January 3 and dedicated to the opening of a new border pass between the two countries, showed that relations between them are sound, one issue still could change the mutually shared good feelings.

After the official opening of the border crossing, Presidents Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Alexander Kwasniewski of Poland traveled to Lviv, where their agenda included a vist to the historic Lychakiv Cemetery, the resting place of many renowned Ukrainians, including the writer Ivan Franko. The cemetery also includes burial sites of Polish war dead.

The restoration of the Cmentarz Orlat, the burial grounds of Polish soldiers who died in the Ukraine-Polish war of 1918-1919 (the war of independence for the Western Ukrainian National Republic), has become a point of controversy between Poles and Ukrainians.

Destroyed by the Soviet Union in 1971, the Cmentarz Orlat has significant historical and cultural value to the Poles. After Ukraine renewed its independence, plans to rebuild the burial grounds were overshadowed by other Polish-Ukrainian religious and cultural problems.

But the issue, of whether the site should be rebuilt according to the original plans laid in the 1920s when Poland occupied western Ukraine obtained presidential-level visibility when it became part of the Polish-Ukraine presidential talks.

As a result of the talks, according to Volodymyr Sereda, the director of Nadsiannia, a non-governmental cultural/historic organization in Lviv, the Kuchma administration is putting pressure on the Lviv City Administration to resolve the matter. "Numerous phone calls from Kuchma's administration were made to Lviv's mayor insisting on a compromise with the Poles," said Mr. Sereda.

The Polish Military Burial Society, a cultural/historical organization in Poland, insists the grounds should be renovated according to the architectural plan developed in the 1920s, which was to include a variety of Polish military symbols. Due to lack of funds, the cemetery was never fully completed.

According to Mr. Sereda, among the plans to which the Ukrainian side is opposed, is inscription of grave markers with patriotic Polish slogans and symbols, which many Ukrainians consider offensive (the Poles see their fallen soldiers as innocent victims of a Ukrainian rebellion).

The compromise into which President Kuchma is pressuring Lviv municipal officials has caused friction of its own. The director of the cemetery, Ihor Havryshkevych, insisted that the matter should remain a local affair. "There is no point for the president to be bothered by a local issue," he said.

Lviv city residents feel that Kyiv cannot fully understand the depth of the emotions involved in the issue because the Ukrainian capital did not feel the oppression of Polish rule over western Ukrainian lands between 1920 and 1939. They believe history could be betrayed in the process of normalizing Ukrainian-Polish relations and the settling of outstanding issues.

At least one Lviv resident also noted that the sides should discuss a parallel issue: the renovation of gravestones of members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) who died in Poland during and after World War II. "It should be part of the bargain - one (grave marker) for you, one for me," said a Ukrainian pensioner living in Lviv who preferred to remain unnamed.

According to Andrzej Czubar, press secretary of the Polish Embassy in Ukraine, there is no outstanding issue concerning grave markers for UPA soldiers buried in Poland. "The gravestones read 'warrior for a free Ukraine,'" he said, "and that is the result of a Polish-Ukrainian compromise on this touchy issue of our history."

The Polish side said the problem over the grave markers for Polish soldiers in Cmentarz Orlat also is settled. "It seems that the question of the inscriptions is basically resolved in favor of the Ukrainian side [Polish patriotic inscriptions will not be used], but a lot of other questions remain," said Eugenius Jablonski, consul-general of Poland in Kyiv.

He added that the cemetery is a plus for Lviv because it will attract Polish tourists and bring funds to the local economy.

In Lviv the issue remains alive. Lately roundtables have been held by interested Ukrainian cultural/historic organizations to discuss a solution. The Polish Military Burial Society visited the Polish gravesites in Lviv. And negotiations continue between the Polish Consulate and Ukraine's regional administration over other aspects of the cemetery restoration, among them what to do with two large lion sculptures that were originally at the entrance to the cemetery but now are the gateway to Lviv on a road at the Lviv city limits.

Government officials in Kyiv and Warsaw and city officials in Lviv are all closely following the issue as it is resolved. No one wants the Cmentarz Orlat issue to become another headache in Ukrainian-Polish relations as did events in Peremyshl over the dismantling of the the dome of a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, the dismantling of Polish World War II monuments in Volyn and the prohibition of a Ukrainian festival in Peremyshl.

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