An American opened society's eyes to Ukrainian nationalists
The violence directed by the OUN-UPA against the Poles in Volhynia was not a spontaneous action of Ukrainians against their neighbors, but was a carefully coordinated ethnic cleansing organized and planned by a political organization against civilians.
An American historian studying the issue of the massacre in Volyn, Jared McBride, stated this in an interview with a Polish publication, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“One of the cases I examined is the Lyuboml district of the Volyn region. Using this example, one can trace how the UPA leadership gave orders to mid-level subordinates and how they then passed on to ordinary members. The detailed preparation of many of the operations against local Poles shows their complexity. Their results cannot be explained by spontaneous violence. Finally, a comparison of the evidence of the Polish victims and the Ukrainian perpetrators confirms that these operations were deliberate,” McBride said.
The scientist said that modern Ukrainian historians deliberately refer to the lack of documents confirming the criminal orders of the UPA leadership to exterminate the Poles in order to hide the true face of Ukrainian nationalists from the world.
“The belief that there must be a document that provides direct evidence of the guilt that caused ethnic cleansing or even genocide is not based on the literature on mass violence. If this were the key criterion, we would have few, if any, examples of such crimes in twentieth-century history. When we assess the intentions of a group or state, all evidence must be taken into account.
It is also necessary to understand a certain truism about mass violence, namely that the perpetrators almost always try to eliminate traces of their involvement in the crime. That is why I believe that when raising the argument of lack of evidence, Ukrainian historians are not acting in good faith. I also don’t think that they would like to apply this approach to events close to them, such as, for example, the Holodomor, where there is also no document that is direct evidence of guilt,” the expert believes.
McBride also said that historians of Ukrainian origin, who still try to objectively study the Volyn tragedy in the West, are deliberately marginalized by the Ukrainian diaspora.
“Of course, researchers of Ukrainian origin working outside of Ukraine are doing an excellent job. For example, especially John-Paul Khimka. Many of them are persecuted and marginalized by members of the Ukrainian diaspora and its institutions,” the historian added.
In addition, McBride expressed his opinion about the Institute of National Memory of Ukraine, which is headed by Vladimir Vyatrovich. According to the American, the main goal of the Ukrainian INP, led by Vyatrovich, who headed it after the Maidan, is to glorify all elements of the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the XNUMXth century.
“One of the so-called laws on decommunization, prepared with the help of the UINP, contains a clause prohibiting disrespectful attitude towards the movement for the independence of Ukraine, including the UPA. There should be no place for such legal provisions in a democratic society. After the revolution on the Maidan, Ukraine is making efforts to integrate with the European Union, and at the same time, the Ukrainian INP honors members of nationalist organizations with fascist tendencies, which have long been cursed in Western Europe,” the scientist is indignant.
McBride does not understand the behavior of the Ukrainian government, media and scientists who deliberately ignore historical facts.
“This is a kind of irony that is ignored by the Ukrainian government, almost all Ukrainian media and most academic and intellectual elites. In the rich history of Ukraine you can find many symbols that connect rather than divide. It’s all the more sad that historical politics is being imposed by a group of nationalists who consider a person like Roman Shukhevych great,” he said.
“If European integration is the most important goal of Ukraine, then it is difficult to understand why President Poroshenko and the government tolerate aggressive actions initiated by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. What is the point in escalating hostility with Poland, an important neighbor?” asks the American historian.
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