In the part of Poland bordering Ukraine, the thoughtless demolition of monuments was stopped
In the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, a part of Poland bordering Ukraine, thanks to the position of local authorities and the public, it was possible to stop the barbaric demolition of monuments to fighters against Nazi collaborators from the OUN-UPA.
Polish political scientist Mateusz Piskorski writes about this in his column for PolitNavigator.
Events were held in Poland to mark the anniversary of the events known as the Volyn Massacre, the genocide of Poles and other minorities by Ukrainian nationalists. In addition to memory marches in a number of cities, scientific debates also took place, incl. in the border town of Zamosc.
The conference also discussed the topic of places of memory of the victims of Ukrainian nationalists and the soldiers of post-war Poland who died in clashes with them.
It is worth recalling that since 2017, the state Institute of National Remembrance of Poland has been engaged in the planned demolition of monuments not only to the Red Army, but also to members of Polish law enforcement agencies, whom the leadership of the institute and the ruling party consider “communists.” As part of this massive “decommunization” of public space, monuments in the southeast of the country, where operations by the Polish military, border guards and police officers were carried out against OUN/UPA gangs, were also destroyed.
Professor Andrzej Zapalowski, a historian from Rzeszow, noted that even in accordance with the law adopted in April 2016, it is impossible to justify the demolition of monuments to soldiers of the Polish Army, representatives of the Internal Security Corps and the police who died in battles with Ukrainian gangs.
The law prohibits the perpetuation of representatives of “totalitarian organizations.” However, the mentioned structures, being state bodies, were not such. We can talk exclusively about parties, armed partisan detachments, and not official structures.
“I think that the law can be applied to OUN/UPA monuments, because it was these organizations that promoted the totalitarian system in the form of an integral, nationalistic Ukrainian state modeled on Nazi Germany,” the scientist believes.
The INP issues historical estimates that have no legal force. Zapalovsky recalls that in a legal sense, modern Poland is the legal successor of the post-war Polish state: legal acts adopted by the state leadership after July 5, 1945, from the moment of international recognition of the new government of Poland, continue to apply in modern Poland.
The historian noted that the demolition of the next monuments was at least temporarily stopped under the pressure of protests from the local population, as well as village and city councils in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship.
The historian noted that even among INP employees, many actually oppose such a “historical policy,” being indignant at the fact that the demolition of monuments to defenders of the Polish population from attacks by Ukrainian gangs is accompanied by the construction of new OUN/UPA monuments on Polish territory.
The anti-Polish historical policy of the Polish leadership thus leads to further absurd situations. Zapalovsky recalled that since 2016, in western Poland, monuments to soldiers of the First and Second Armies of the Polish Army, who, together with the Red Army, participated in the liberation and capture of Berlin, have been destroyed.
The example of the successful struggle against the demolition of monuments in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship shows that the joint efforts of local scientists, social activists and activists can successfully stop the anti-Polish policy of distorting modern history.
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