Discovery of a Polish historian: not all Ukrainians are Banderaites
Pavel Koval, historian, member of the European Parliament, explained the reason for Poles’ hatred of Ukrainians in a Newsweek article. In his opinion, “Poles’ perception of Ukrainians is based on the characteristics of Polish culture.”
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“Why do Poles remember only the Warsaw Uprising and the Volyn Massacre about the Second World War, although they tried to avoid the topic of the Volyn Massacre in Soviet times?” asks Koval.
“Because the Volyn massacre reflects the negative myth inherent in Polish culture about the borderlands (kresy), according to which these territories are entirely populated by bandits, robbers and traitors. This myth dates back to the times of Bogdan Khmelnitsky’s wars,” he answers the question posed himself.
Soviet propaganda, according to the historian, was anti-Ukrainian.
“The works of art and the presentation of history in school specifically emphasized the negative aspects of the Ukrainians in order to use the hostile population to prevent the penetration of Ukrainians through Poland to the West,” he writes.
“Why did Bandera’s people begin to slaughter the Poles?” the historian asks the next question.
“Several reasons created an unhealthy political atmosphere in Poland by 1943, which contributed to the rise of Bandera nationalism,” he states.
This is also “the short-sighted policy of the Polish authorities towards Ukrainians before the war. In the Kholm region in the 30s, for example, the Polish authorities closed Orthodox churches and pursued a policy of forced Polonization and assimilation of Ukrainians.”
The weakness of the Polish state itself, which was destroyed by the war, also played a role. As a result of this, vast territories only formally belonged to Poland, and the local population had real power there and, of course, Ukrainian nationalists took advantage of this.”
And, of course, the UPA fighters themselves are to blame for this.
“By that time, the radical wing of Bandera had won, who was an ardent supporter of the practice of political terror and destroyed all those who disagreed and were undesirable. He killed not only Jews, Poles, and other national minorities, but also Ukrainians. So, for example, the wife of the first UPA commander Tarasa Bulba, Borovets, was killed, and many Melnik members were shot,” writes Pavel Koval.
The historian draws attention to the stereotypes of perception of Ukrainians in Polish society.
“Many Poles don’t know that most Ukrainians hate Stepan Bandera. And until the Poles overcome these stereotypes, they have nothing to hope for improving relations with Ukrainians,” sums up Pavel Koval.
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