The statement below was issued on July 27 by the press service of Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
On July 22, the Polish Sejm passed a resolution to commemorate July 11 as a National Day of Remembrance for the Poles and remember the victims of the genocide committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, having acknowledged the Polish-Ukrainian military conflict during World War II as a genocide committed by the Ukrainians against the Poles. The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance has commented on this resolution.
The resolution of the Polish Parliament was an unpleasant, yet natural, result of the unwillingness to deal with the complicated history and the rise of anti-Ukrainian hysteria in Poland provoked by political forces represented, in particular, in the Parliament. It has nothing to do with the commemoration of the victims, but is only an instrumentalization of the past conflict to gain political dividends.
The head of the institute, Volodymyr Viatrovych, regretted that the resolution of the Sejm is not going to break the anti-Ukrainian wave which has been rising in Poland for the past several months. In autumn, a propaganda film, “Volyn,” will be released only to support a distorted vision of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict in the war.
“Sadly, there were too few smart and brave Polish politicians (none voted against and only 10 abstained from voting) who could have been able to stop useless political disputes about the past taking place against the background of the growing military threat from the east,” said Mr. Viatrovych.
“I am not ashamed of the Ukrainians’ participation in this debate. Public and political leaders have pooled their efforts to ensure that the memory of the past conflict does not become a source of a new one. The formula ‘forgive and ask forgiveness’ proposed by the Ukrainians again and again is actually the only format of healing the wounds of the past. But this time a hand extended by the Ukrainians has just hung in the air,” said the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
To a large extent, the resolution of the Sejm negates the previous achievements of the Polish-Ukrainian dialogue, but this does not mean that it becomes less important, the Ukrainian side is convinced.
Moreover, Mr. Viatrovych, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, hopes that despite the change in the Polish policy and owing to the efforts of the Institute of National Remembrance, the dialogue between the historians established last year at the Ukrainian-Polish Forum will continue. “This dialogue will help not only to understand the past conflict, but also to avoid the mistakes of our predecessors,” says the Ukrainian historian. “I am sure that the historians will thoroughly analyze the newly opened Ukrainian archives and prove the absurdity of this political decision in particular, and the practice of writing history in the parliament in general.”
For reference: The second Polish-Ukrainian War of 1942-1947 escalated during World War II. The war was waged to claim the Ukrainian territories which up to 1939 belonged to Poland (Chelm region, Volyn, Halychyna); the Ukrainians wanted to establish their national state there, while the Polish wished to restore pre-war boundaries. However, the issue of boundaries was settled after World War II without the participation of either Ukrainians or Poles, with the Communist authorities of the Soviet Union and Poland forcibly changing the ethnic configuration of the western Ukrainian and eastern Polish territories.