1 The Myth of Poles Exploiting Ukrainians. The OUN-UPA Genocide of Poles (18 Books Reviewed by Jan Peczkis) “Poles Stifled Ukrainian Development”—A Myth [this page] “Ethnographic Boundaries”—A Bogus Issue [p. 16] The Ukrainian OUN-UPA Genocide of Poles [p. 22] “Poles Stifled Ukrainian Development”—A Myth ----- Minority Affairs and Poland Paprocki, Stanislaw J. 1935 "Ukrainians Oppressed in Poland" Soundly Debunked. Despite NUMERUS CLAUSUS, Jews Still Overrepresented at Polish Universities This work surveys Jews, Ukrainians, Germans, Muslim- Tartars, Karaites, Russians, and others. The most interesting details are on the Ukrainians. The facts on Ukrainian cultural growth are stunning, and soundly refute the premise that Poland was suppressing Ukrainian culture and trying to Polonize Ukrainians. Compare the pre-1918 situation (under Austria) and that of 1918-on, under Poland, with reference to Eastern Galicia. There were 52 Ukrainian periodicals in 1905 and 121 in 1935. (p. 83). The 557 Ukrainian cooperatives in 1912 had expanded to 3,261 in 1933/1934. (p. 89). The 112 village centers in 1927 had grown to 1,410 in 1933. (p. 91). And so on...As for the Jews, Paprocki details their many political organizations. Interestingly, in the academic year 1932-1933, Jews constituted 18.7% of all the students at universities and other institutions of higher learning. (p. 167). Jews were 10% of Poland's population. This means that, notwithstanding the numerus clausus, Jews were still over- represented at Polish academic institutions this late in the Second Republic!
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The Myth of Poles Exploiting Ukrainians. The OUN-UPA Genocide of Poles (18 Books Reviewed by Jan Peczkis)
Minority Affairs and Poland Paprocki, Stanislaw J. 1935 "Ukrainians Oppressed in Poland" Soundly Debunked. Despite NUMERUS CLAUSUS, Jews Still Overrepresented at Polish Universities This work surveys Jews, Ukrainians, Germans, Muslim-Tartars, Karaites, Russians, and others. The most interesting details are on the Ukrainians. The facts on Ukrainian cultural growth are stunning, and soundly refute the premise that Poland was suppressing Ukrainian culture and trying to Polonize Ukrainians. Compare the pre-1918 situation (under Austria) and that of 1918-on, under Poland, with reference to Eastern Galicia. There were 52 Ukrainian periodicals in 1905 and 121 in 1935. (p. 83). The 557 Ukrainian cooperatives in 1912 had expanded to 3,261 in 1933/1934. (p. 89). The 112 village centers in 1927 had grown to 1,410 in 1933. (p. 91). And so on...As for the Jews, Paprocki details their many political organizations. Interestingly, in the academic year 1932-1933, Jews constituted 18.7% of all the students at universities and other institutions of higher learning. (p. 167). Jews were 10% of Poland's population. This means that, notwithstanding the numerus clausus, Jews were still over-represented at Polish academic institutions this late in the Second Republic!
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The Polish Captivity, Vol. 2 of 2: An Account of the Present Position of the Poles in the Kingdom of Poland, and in the Polish Provinces of Austria, Prussia, and Russia (Classic Reprint) Edwards, Sutherland 1860 A Fascinating Briton's Observations in 1860 Partitioned Poland. Poles Did Not Oppress Ukrainians. Embryonic Galician Ukrainian Separatism. The Vintage of Long-Repeated Anti-Polish Propaganda The author travelled extensively across foreign-ruled Poland, and provided the 2nd volume of this 1863 fact-filled account, along with a foreigner's mid-19th century perspective unclouded by later developments. Owing to the breadth of information presented, I can only focus on a few matters. To see the first volume and Peczkis review of: The Polish captivity: an account of the present position of the Poles in the kingdom of Poland, and in the Polish provinces of Austria, Prussia, and Russia (v.1 ) (1863). PARTITIONED POLES PUSH BACK AGAINST THE OCCUPANTS In 1861, the Polish inhabitants of Russian-ruled Warsaw issued a proclamation to all Poles. (pp. 351-356). It re-affirmed the criminality of the Partitions and the drive to restore a free and independent Poland. It complained that the occupation powers are sowing quarrels between peasantry and landlords, between Poles and Ruthenians (Ukrainians), and between Poles and Jews. (p. 352). It also complained about the suppression of the Polish language, of Polish religion, and of Polish institutions of learning, and of forcing Poles to serve as soldiers for the imperialists' causes. As for class differences, it stated (p. 354) that the landlord who strikes a peasant, and the peasant who listens to agitators, are equally criminal. (p. 354). It enjoins Poles to settle their differences amongst themselves, and never to resort to the perfidious ruling authorities. It urges Poles to unite and support national efforts. Finally, it affirms the fact that Lithuania and Ruthenia had become part of Poland of their own free will, and should not now allow the ruling powers to entice them against Poland. (p. 355). Now consider Prussian-ruled Poland. The German authorities were already hostile to the Polish language (p. 83) and were against the teaching of Polish history. (p. 84). [Ironically, today Polish authorities de-emphasize Polish history in favor of so-called Europeanism]. Poles and Germans tended not to associate in private life. (p. 86). EARLY POLISH PEASANT NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS The
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author touches on Polish peasant national consciousness in Austrian-ruled Galicia. He showed how Polish patriotism was manifesting itself in Krakow regardless of class interests, but only educated Polish peasants were reliably active. (p. 57). This suggests that overall "peasant passivity" towards Polish national interests was more apparent than real. THE 1846 JACQUERIE Edwards clarifies the peasant revolt of 1846 in Galicia. He talked to peasants and proprietors alike, including those who had lost loved ones, and they were unanimous in their position that the Austrians had ultimately instigated the revolt. (pp. 66-69). POLES DID NOT OPPRESS THE UKRAINIANS That Poles had been oppressing the Ruthenians, a modern "truth by repetition", is decisively rejected by Edwards, and is based on his personal observations. Thus, Poles offered not a word of protest about the establishment of Ruthenian primary schools (p. 63), and have otherwise left the Ruthenians to their own devices. (p. 65). Poles did not attempt to stifle the emerging Ruthenian language. (p. 114, 115). In the past, the likes of Michael Wisniowiecki and Jan Sobieski were Ruthenians (p. 112), yet they never complained about Poles being oppressive to Ruthenians, and found no separatist national distinction between Poles and Ruthenians. [Note that the longstanding GENTE RUTHENUS NATIONE POLONUS did not imply a lack of Ukrainian national consciousness. It implied the lack of a SEPARATIST Ukrainian national consciousness. These are two different things.] Thus, Ukrainian national consciousness was long compatible with some kind of association with Poland. Far from resenting Polishness as something imposed upon them by Roman Catholics and "Polish imperialists", Ruthenians, for the longest time, had been happy to be educated in Polish language and culture. (p. 112). In Galicia, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic clergy played a major role in driving the new separatist Ruthenian movement. (p. 114). Already the Greek Catholic Archbishop (in this case, Jachimowicz) was protesting the spirit of Polishness in Austrian political life (p. 114). [Decades later, Poles would complain that Bishop Sheptytsky (Szeptycki), himself now self-identified as a separatist-oriented Ruthenian though coming from a long self-Polonized Ruthenian family, was "transforming good Ruthenians into anti-Polish Ukrainians".] To avoid confusion about various and changing manifestations of Ukrainian national consciousness", I, for purposes of this review, divide it into the following overlapping stages: 1). Ruthenian as a language, and not just a peasant
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dialect, 2). Ruthenian as a nationality, and not just "locals", 3). "Ruthenia" and "Ukraine" having connotations of ethno-nationality, and not just place names, 4). The separatist entitlement of Ruthenians (sensu #2 and #3) to their own independent nation. (Edwards does not mention stages #3 and #4, at least not directly, and these are probably later developments.) As for #1, Ruthenian, as a modern literary language, was yet to be invented. (p. 114). The Ruthenian priests, who influenced the Ruthenian deputies, invariably spoke Polish among themselves. (p. 114). Ironically, as for #1 and #2, at least some of the Ruthenian deputies sitting in the Galician Diet, and giving support to the champions of the Ruthenian "nationality", did not even know the difference between the Ruthenian and Polish alphabets. (p. 58). In fact, while protesting the making of Polish the official and educational language of Galicia, Ruthenian deputies spoke Polish, as did all educated Ruthenians--in much the same way that the educated classes in Brittany spoke French. (p. 63). Edwards also contends that, given a choice, the Ruthenian peasant would prefer that his child be educated in Polish instead of the popular idiom (Ruthenian). (p. 63). [All this helps explain why Poles [notably the Endeks], had, for a long time (and without lapsing into chauvinism), sincerely believed that Ruthenians would readily accept re-Polonization. Dmowski, noting the advanced state of separatist-oriented "Ruthenianism" by his time, was ambiguous about this.] Edwards considered "Ruthenian nationality" a nonsensical term. (p. 71). In fact, he believed that "Ruthenianism" (that is, Ukrainian separatism, especially its anti-Polish variety) was a "curious and newly-invented thing", and that Ruthenian peasants (who, of course, comprised the overwhelming majority of Ruthenians) were much more interested in acquiring land in the wake of the emancipatory measure of 1848 than they were in "Ruthenianism". (p. 58). After Jachimowicz made his statement expressing hostility to Polishness, a large body of Ruthenians assured the Austrian Emperor that they considered their interests identical to that of the Poles. (p. 61). [One can reasonably suppose that, were the Polish state resurrected in 1860 instead of 1918, the vast majority of Ruthenians would have been loyal to it.] [Even when looking at the matter retrospectively, with the Ruthenians/Ukrainians having unquestionably becoming a separatist nationality, the premise of "contrived nationalities", as a strategy of DIVIDE ET IMPERA, should nevertheless find appreciation. As recently as WWII, the German conquerors and occupants of Poland were trying to convince
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the Kaszubs [Kashubs] and Gorale [GORALENVOLK], that they were separatist-oriented nationalities, thereby to set them against Poles and Poland.] THE OLD VINTAGE OF FOREIGN PRETENSIONS AGAINST POLAND One striking feature of the book is the antiquity of the bogus imperialist arguments against Poland--many of which assumed the status of "truths" by the 20th century. For instance, Russia was already making claims to Galicia by enlisting Ruthenians as Russians (although the two peoples had diverged long ago: pp. 109-110), and because "The Poles were oppressing the Ruthenians", thereby giving Russia a right to intervene (p. 62, 71). [Anticipating the propaganda of 1939 USSR]. This was doubly ironic because subjugated Poland did not even exist, and was in no position to oppress anyone even if she had wanted to, and because the Russian wolf was protesting the tyranny of the Polish lamb. (p. 62; see also pp. 18-20). Austria was already using the Ruthenian movement as an anti-Polish tool. (p. 61). The Russian and Austrian governments [like their modern counterparts] were faulting Poles for "mixing politics and religion” to try to silence the voices of Polish patriotism. (p. 158). Russia [and, not mentioned, also Germany] was already claiming that all territory that had once been linked with her--no matter how tenuously, creatively, or long ago--rightfully belongs to her (p. 139), (meaning, of course, that there could not possibly be room for a Polish state of any size!) Russia was also already asserting that territories, where Poles are a minority of the total population, rightfully belong by default to Russia [As at 1943 Teheran] and that, furthermore, those not of tribal Polish origin, who nevertheless consider themselves Poles, are not. [Nowadays, some Lithuanians claim that the Poles of Lithuania somehow are not "real" Poles, because they (correctly or incorrectly) are the descendants of Polonized Lithuanians.] In rebuttal, Edwards defends Poland's claims to territories (including those that, in modern parlance, do not have an "ethnographically Polish" majority), as he writes, (quote) Whatever dialect the peasants may talk, and whatever the ancient history of the country may be, it would be difficult for a Russian writer to persuade us that the land of Mickievicz (Mickiewicz), Kosciuszko, and Sobieski is not Poland. (unquote). (p. 139). Now consider this silly business of "real" Poles. Edwards comments, (quote) To say that Wilna [Wilno, Vilnius] is not Polish is like saying that Burgundy is not French...however distinct its origin...It is also quite true that it [Wilno] is not Polish in an ethnological point of view, just as Normans are not Saxons, nor
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Saxons Britons, though the descendants of all these races in England are all Englishmen. (unquote)(p. 141). Touche!
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The Ruthenian Question In Galicia Lutoslawski, Wincenty 1919 Well-Substantiated Facts: Ukrainian Backwardness; Proofs of Austrian-German (Then Soviet) Intrigue in Turning Ukrainians Against Poles; OUN-UPA Genocide Implicitly Prophesied! This short book is packed with information. Far from being some kind of Polish propaganda, the data is from Austrian sources. These indicate that 59% of the population of Eastern Galicia was Ruthenian (Ukrainian), and that Polish majorities existed not only in Lwow and other cities, but also in many large enclaves north of the Dniester (Dnister) River, especially in the Tarnopol (Ternopil) area. (pp. 3-5). POLES NOT RACIST AGAINST UKRAINIANS In no sense was the Polish-Ukrainian relationship one of imperialism and racism. The rate of mixed marriages between Poles and Eastern Galician Ukrainians hovered around 30%. In contrast, that between Germans and Poles in Poznania (Posnania), in an overall relationship that was clearly imperialist and racist in nature, did not exceed 1.5%. (p. 7). THE "POLES EXPLOITED UKRAINIANS" MYTH Against the perennial tale of "wealthy Polish landlords exploiting Ukrainians", the reader learns that there were 3,000 large Polish estates, in Eastern Galicia, against 100,000 small Polish land holdings. (p. 6). Although Ukrainians outnumbered Poles by nearly 3:1 in Eastern Galicia, Poles overall paid 74% of direct Austrian taxes and, even from among the small estates (owned chiefly by Ukrainians), the Polish ones accounted for 42% of the direct taxes. (p. 11). PERSISTENT UKRAINIAN BACKWARDNESS The respective Polish and Ukrainian illiteracy rates were 26.3% and 62.0%. (p. 9). There were, in 1913, 370 local Polish publications and 56 Ukrainian ones. (p. 9; see also p. 30). The average Eastern Galician Pole had savings of 47 Kronen against 12 Kronen by the average Ukrainian. (p. 10). According to the Austrian statistics, the following percentages of peoples were still engaged in agriculture in 1910 (p. 29): Germans (30%), Czechs (38.5%), Italians (47.5%), Poles (60.1%),
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Slovenes (67.6%), Serbs (84.4%), and Ruthenians (91.2%). By this measure, the Eastern Galician Ukrainians were the most backwards people in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire. What's more, even in agriculture, Poles outperformed the Ukrainians. Where Roman Catholics were only 15% of the population, 40% of the total area was cultivated, and the agricultural productivity was 150 kg of grain per person. In sharp contrast, the corresponding figures for higher Roman Catholic presence were 30%, 58%, 230 kg/person, and 45%, 67%, and 270 kg/person. (p. 10, 29). DO NOT BLAME THE POLES FOR "DISCRIMINATION" Lutoslawski and Romer refute the argument that Poles caused the Ukrainian backwardness. For instance, in the Boryslaw-dominant oil industry, less than 1% of the engineers were Ukrainians. This could not possibly be the result of Polish discrimination, as foreigners had been the primary owners of the Eastern Galician oil industry, and they strongly preferred Polish workers because of their capabilities. (pp. 11-12). GERMANS, AUSTRIANS, AND THEN SOVIETS DRIVE UKRAINIAN SEPARATISM The authors provide detailed evidence of German influence behind, and financial support for, Ukrainian separatism and the eventual 1918-1919 Polish-Ukrainian War. (p. 13). Documents from the fanatically anti-Polish OSTMARKENVEREIN (or HAKATA) prove the foregoing. There were repeated meetings between involving many prominent Ukrainians (including Janyckij and Archbishop Szeptycki) and many HAKATA officials. (p. 13, 15-16). CONVINCING PEASANTS THAT THEY HAVE BEEN WRONGED--A HANDY TOOL: THE 1939-1947 OUN-UPA GENOCIDE OF POLES PROPHESIED IN 1919! The anti-Polish tactics of the Soviet Communists and German-Austrian inspired Ukrainian nationalists were very similar [and would continue to be so, culminating in the eventual WWII-era OUN-UPA genocide of the Poles, and subsequent Soviet expulsion of the remaining Kresy Poles.] The authors comment: "The uneducated peasant was assured by the Bolshevists in Russia, that he would become rich without toil, and that all the large estates would be divided among the Ruthenians, to the exclusion of the Poles, who were to be exterminated or exiled. Such promises created an artificial pseudo-national movement, which was nothing but a social upheaval of the unproductive lower classes against the successful and productive classes of the country. Such movements are possible for a short time in any country, and they have been known in France as Jacqueries. If they are not
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suppressed by force, they lead to the destruction of all accumulated wealth, as in Russia, but never to a real improvement of the condition of the lower classes which have generally to pay dearly for the credulity and greed which makes them follow unscrupulous leaders." (p. 15). Also: "It is easy to awake envy and hatred in uneducated peasants, who consider themselves wronged only because they are unable to produce as much as their neighbors. The Rutheno-Ukrainian movement has not the character of a national struggle for independence, but is merely an outbreak of class hatred, artfully organized by the Germans in order to weaken the Polish Republic, because the mere existence of the Polish State puts a limit to the expansion of Prussianism." (p. 18). The authors add: "The Germans have therefore availed themselves to the social difference which exists between Poles and Ruthenians in Eastern Galicia and have preached among the Ruthenians a war of extermination against the Poles, promising them great spoils if they get rid of the entire upper classes which are chiefly Polish and of the Polish peasants who in Eastern Galicia are generally better off than the Ruthenians. The Rutheno-Ukrainian movement is nothing else than a variety of Bolshevism. We see among the Rutheno-Ukrainians the same contempt for international law, and for justice, as among the Bolshevists." (p. 19). All this was, of course, to continue, in interwar Poland, in the form of the German-financed Ukrainian-fascist OUN "permanent revolution", and in the extensive WWII-era Nazi use of Ukrainians to exterminate the Jews, and, indirectly or directly, in the OUN-UPA genocide of the Poles. The annexation of the Kresy by the Soviet Union, and the de-Polonization of the Kresy by the Soviet authorities, all led to the impoverishment of Ukrainians and their loss of liberty. The authors' perceptive analysis proved to be prophetic!
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The Problem of Eastern Galicia Skrzypek, Stanislaw 1948 The Myth That Ukrainians Had it Bad in Interwar Poland (1918-1939): Fascinating Facts Nowadays, Poland's onetime possession of the Kresy is portrayed as something intrinsically unworkable that was inevitably doomed to failure. This book features seldom-told corrective information: THE ANCIENT POLISH PRESENCE IN THE KRESY
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Poles had been living in what became eastern Galicia since time immemorial. This is proved by the very old towns whose names are of Polish origin (such as Lacka Wola, which is located east of the post-WWII Polish-Soviet, and now Polish-Ukrainian, border.)(p. 20). Later, multitudes of Ukrainians moved into this territory in the wake of the Tatar invasions of Kievan Rus. (p. 2, 19). LOCAL MINORITY OR NOT, IT WAS THE POLES THAT BUILT EASTERN GALICIA Skrzypek discusses the Poles' developing of eastern Galicia. For instance, he writes: "Tarnopol [now Ternopil] was founded in 1540 by Hetman Jan Tarnowski; Stanislawow [Ivano-Frankivsk] in 1654 by Hetman Potocki; Zolkiew [Zhovka] by the family of the famous Hetman Zolkiewski; Brzezany [Berezhany] by the Sieniawskis; Zbaraz [Zbarazh] by the Zbaraski family, etc." (p. 2). HOW MANY POLES AND HOW MANY UKRAINIANS? The author defends the authenticity of the 1931 census. (pp. 23-27). According to it, 41.7% of the population of eastern Galicia used Polish as their mother tongue; but only 30.6% of it was Roman Catholic. Interestingly, 16.2% of the marriages contracted in eastern Galicia, in 1927, were between Poles and Ukrainians. (p. 23). UKRAINIANS HAD CULTURAL AUTONOMY IN PRE-WWII POLAND It is fallacious to charge Poles with refusing to give the Ukrainians autonomy; No such promise had ever been made. (p. 52). However, Ukrainian freedoms were so extensive that a de facto autonomy already existed. For instance, the educational and cultural RIDNA SZKOLA ("Native School") had 51 branches and 4,298 members under Austrian rule in 1910. As part of Poland, it had, in 1936, exploded to 1,980 branches and 92,000 members. (p. 50). Similar growth was shown by PROSWITA, SILSKI HOSPODAR, and other Ukrainian institutions. DISENGENUOUS UKRAINIAN DEMANDS FOR A UKRAINIAN UNIVERSITY IN LWOW (NOW LVIV) The Ukrainians wanted a Ukrainian university in Lwow; the Poles, fearing an accentuation of Ukrainian separatist impulses, proposed Cracow, but were turned down by the Ukrainians. (p. 50). Still, the Ukrainians got a number of chairs at the Universities of Lwow, Cracow, and Warsaw. (p. 49). POLAND DID NOT SYSTEMATICALLY DISCRIMINATE AGAINST UKRAINIANS The Polish government did not abrogate its commitment to minority rights when it denounced the so-called Minorities Treaty in 1934. The USSR and Germany were not bound by this Treaty, yet had used it as a tool to meddle in Poland's internal affairs. (p. 55). Nor is it true that Poland
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kept Ukrainians out of administrative positions. There were Ukrainians in the Seym. (pp. 46-47). Also, the Ukrainians, in 1934, held 36,300 out of 70,600 seats in local government elections. (p. 52). The backwardness of the Ukrainians relative to Poles, rather than Polish discrimination, explains the under-representation of Ukrainians in administrative positions. For instance, even by 1931, 89% of Greek Catholics were still engaged in agriculture as against 69% of Roman Catholics. (p. 28). UKRAINIAN-POLISH COOPERATION IN RAISING THE STANDARD OF LIVING IN EASTERN GALICIA The Ukrainians made great strides with their agricultural cooperatives. In addition, the sugar-refining works PODOLE, founded by Ukrainian and Polish capital, was managed jointly by Ukrainians and Poles. (p. 54). THOSE BIG BAD POLISH LANDLORDS Both Ukrainian-separatist and Soviet-Communist propaganda had misrepresented Poles in eastern Galicia as privileged landowners of vast estates. In actuality, the overwhelming majority of the Poles owned small tracts of land. (p. 29). Still, some 872,000 acres of Polish-owned landed estates were parceled out from 1919-1939, with over half of the total given to Ukrainians. (p. 54). THE FARCICAL SOVIET PLEBISCITE OF 1939 After the German-Soviet conquest of Poland, the Soviets tried to legitimize their conquest through the sham plebiscite of October 1939. A plebiscite conducted by a conquering power has no legality whatsoever, and this one was reminiscent of the ones conducted by Catherine the Great in order to justify the Partitions. (p. 18). THE SOVIET CONFISCATION OF THE KRESY BECOMES PERMANENT The Churchill-Roosevelt giveaway of these territories to the USSR at Teheran (1943) led to the expulsions of millions of Poles from these lands. This book, although of historical interest even when first written (1948), therefore, stands as a monument both to Soviet and western injustice.
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Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist's Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine Snyder, Timothy 2005 Henryk Jozewski. Ukrainians Had It Bad in Poland Myth: The Many Ways That Poland Benefitted Ukrainians. OUN Separatism, and Planned Genocide, and the Necessary Polish Pacification Response The
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life of Henryk Jozewski spanned much of modern Polish history. It included the pre-Independence period, WWI, the Polish-Bolshevik War (1920), Jozewski's attempts to promote Polish-Ukrainian understanding in the Kresy and to unite both peoples against the Soviet Union and Communism, his WWII and post-WWII hiding from Nazis and Communists for a prolonged period of time, his trial and release, and his eventual death, at age 88, just as the Solidarity Movement was blossoming (1981). Jozewski was not religious, and was a Freemason. Jozewski had been closely involved with Ukrainians before and during the ill-fated Pilsudski-Petliura (Petlyura) alliance of the 1920 Polish-Soviet War. In fact, this Ukrainian-speaking Pole was to have been part of the independent Ukrainian government. (p. 8). He was close to Pilsudski, and became the postwar governor of Poland's Ukrainian-majority Volhynia (Wolyn). "POLISH IMPERIALISM" IN SOVIET COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA: AN IRONY During the interwar era, Soviet Communist propaganda warned of a Polish invasion of the Soviet Ukraine. Ironic to this, eastern Ukrainians actually longed for such a development--even before the Holomodor! (p. 99). Poles continued to spy on the USSR, and the Soviets strongly promoted Communist agitation among Poland's Ukrainians. POLES DID NOT OPPRESS UKRAINIANS: POLES UPLIFTED UKRAINIANS Snyder unmasks many of the myths and exaggerations that have been advanced relative to the Polish presence in the Kresy. Ukrainian backwardness was not the result of Polish rule: It had preceded Polish rule. At the start of Polish rule, the respective urban and rural illiteracy rates were 31% and 60.5% for Roman Catholics (almost entirely Poles); against 55.6% and 84% for Orthodox (almost entirely Ukrainians). (p. 61). Far from being oppressive to Ukrainians, the Polish authorities actually played a very beneficial role in Volhynia. Snyder comments, "In 1921, no Volhynian town had a regulated street network...In the first decade of Polish rule, Polish authorities built 114 elementary schools and a high school, as well as three hospitals and ten public buildings. All important towns were electrified, and telephone service was introduced." (p. 61). Snyder realizes the fact that, although most of the nobility in Volhynia were Polish, most Poles living there were not nobles. (p. 5). The products of land reform, although not distributed among Poles and Ukrainians in proportion to their relative numbers in the Volhynian population, were nevertheless not trivial in scope, and were of benefit to the Ukrainians. Snyder writes: "By 1937, the state
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had taken 230,883 hectares from Polish landowners in Volhynia, and 174,717 hectares from non-Polish landowners. Of these 404, 270 hectares, 198,195 hectares (48.9%) were granted to Poles (16.7% of the population) and 203,417 hectares (50%) were given to Ukrainians (68.1% of the population)." (p. 285). As for the much-exaggerated interwar military settlers (OSADNICY), there were only 3,800 of them in Volhynia and a comparable number in other major parts of the Kresy. (p. 11). Compared to the millions of non-Poles living there, this was a drop in the bucket--much too small to noticeably alter the ethnic composition, and therefore hardly a significant attempt at "colonization" or Polonization. Jozewski's policies eschewed attempts at Polonization of Ukrainians. Snyder writes: "By 1936, more than two-thirds of Volhynian elementary schools had some Ukrainian component...The inclusion of a Ukrainian component in Polish schools replaced rather than complemented actual Ukrainian schools, of which there were extremely few." (p. 68). Clearly, then, the lack of Polish support for all-Ukrainian schools had been an anti-separatist tactic, not an anti-Ukrainian one. After Jozewski's removal following the death of Pilsudski, his successors planned to Polonize the Kresy through massive investment and modernization, leading to a massive migration of new Polish settlers. (p. 165). There was a revindication of Orthodox churches in Volhynia and (especially) the Lublin area. This was defended as a recovery of non-Orthodox churches that had forcibly been made Orthodox by the Russians during their over-century of post-Partition rule, and not an attempt to take-away Orthodox Churches away from the Ukrainians. (pp. 162-163). POLAND'S UNENVIABLE GEOPOLITICAL SITUATION IN THE LATE 1930s By 1930, Soviet military power had grown so much that a renewed Polish invasion of the USSR was militarily impossibility. (p. 104, 117). The Polish-Soviet and Polish-German nonaggression pacts of the early 1930's reflected this reality. Snyder realizes that Poland wanted truly to be neutral towards the two powers and rejects the claim, advanced by Soviet propaganda at the time [and recently repeated by Russian revisionists] that accused Poland of having a secret alliance, with Nazi Germany, against the USSR. (p. 117). THE ZYDOKOMUNA IN THE USSR AND IN INTERWAR VOLYN Snyder writes: "It is true that about thirty percent of the Bolshevik Central Committee members were Jewish in 1917, and that Trotsky, a Jew, was the Bolshevik Commissar for war in 1920." (p. 52). Not mentioned is the fact that only 1-2% of the
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population of the USSR was Jewish. As for interwar Poland, much the same situation existed as per the CP. For example, Snyder comments: "In Luck [Lutsk], for example, every member of the Party was Jewish." (p. 67). During this same time, Poland's Ukrainian Communists complained that the local Ukrainian Communist Party leadership, handpicked by the Soviets, was predominantly Jewish. (p. 71). UKRAINIAN SEPARATISM AND THE VERY NECESSARY POLISH PACIFICATION The Ukrainian fascist-separatist OUN, active in interwar Poland, did everything to prevent Polish-Ukrainian friendship. After a wave of assassinations and arsons, the Pacification took place: "In September [1930] Pilsudski ordered the pacification of Galicia, sending a thousand policemen to search 450 villages for nationalist agitators. They found weapons (1,287 rifles, 566 revolvers, 31 grenades) and explosive materials (99.8 kilograms), but Galician Ukrainians interpreted intrusive searches in political terms." (p. 76). Snyder suggests that the OUN assassination of Tadeusz Holowko, a tireless champion of Polish-Ukrainian goodwill, had owed to a mistaken identity, because it was inconsistent with the OUN's foreign image as the defender of an oppressed people. (pp. 36-37). The OUN-UPA genocide of Poles, beginning in the winter of 1942/1943 in German-occupied Volhynia, had been planned long before WWII. Already in 1936, captured OUN operatives spoke of exterminating the Poles. (p. 158; See also p. 167).
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Ukrainians in Poland Felinski, M. 1931 Population Statistics. Ruthenian Nonsynonymous With Ukrainians. Austrian-Driven 1918 Polish-Ukrainian War. Bilingual Schools Much of what is published in the West on this subject is slanted towards a Ukrainian nationalist-separatist pan-Ukrainian view. This book provides somewhat of a counterbalance. However, it is no apologist work: The Polish author faults Poles when they were wrong. For instance, he cites the work of A. Krysinski, a Polish scholar who affirmed the premise that the 1921 census overstated the percentage of Poles in Eastern Galicia (39.1%). Krysinski revised the actual percentage to 33.1% (and 29.7% if six western districts--presumably including Lwow and environs--are deducted). (pp. 25-28). However, by any measure, the territories had a mixed population. Thus, to
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say that Eastern Galicia was "Ukrainian" was just as incorrect as saying that it was "Polish". UKRAINE ORIGINALLY A GEOGRAPHIC, NOT ETHNONATIONAL TERM The term Ukraina was first used in the 16th century, and had a geographical ("borderland"), not ethno-national, connotation. Moreover, it was then restricted to the territories near Kiev and eastward. (p. 19). The peoples called themselves Ruthenians, and were thus called by others. RUTHENIAN IS NOT (NECESSARILY) AN OUTDATED SYNONYM OF UKRAINIAN Fast forward to the 20th century. Ukrainian had by then acquired an ethno-national connotation. However, Ruthenian did not simply become an archaic synonym of Ukrainian. Some of Poland's Ruthenians (e. g., the Ruthenian Agrarian Party) considered themselves a separate nationality, not a branch of either the Ukrainians or the Russians. (p. 23). [Marian Widomski, my childhood Scoutmaster, once told me that he knew a man before the war who had told him: "I am a Polish Rusyn. Don't you dare call me a Ukrainian!"] THE AUSTRIANS AND THE 1918 POLISH-UKRAINIAN WAR Michael Baczynski, a Ukrainian deputy in the Seym (Polish parliament), does not treat the 1918 Polish-Ukrainian War as an attempted Ukrainian war of liberation: "It is a historical fact that the fighting which took place in 1918 [against the Poles] was forced on the Ruthenian people. It was not the expression of the people's will; it resulted from the machinations of certain individuals, Ukrainian-Galician politicians, who were at the disposition of Austria." (p. 73). Furthermore, unlike some Ukrainian writers, Baczynski does not share the rosy view of Ukrainian life as part of the Austrian empire as compared with later life as part of Poland: "The Ruthenian people, exhausted by the long years of the World War, crushed by Austrian persecutions, and ruined materially and financially, would never have agreed to a war with Poland..." (pp. 74-75). MOST KRESY UKRAINIANS WERE NOT ANTI-POLISH Contrary to its usual portrayal in the west, continued Ukrainian separatism was far from universal, and may have been a minority viewpoint. Despite the murders of several prominent anti-separatist Ukrainian political leaders, and the call by Yevhen Petruszewycz for Ukrainians to boycott the 1922 elections to the Polish Seym, a noticeable fraction of eastern Galicia's Ukrainian population defied the boycott. (p. 47). POLISH-LANGUAGE SCHOOLS, IN UKRAINIAN-MAJORITY AREAS, WERE NOT ACTS OF POLISH CULTURAL IMPERIALISM Perennial Ukrainian
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complaints about Ukrainian schools becoming converted into bilingual schools, by Polish government policy, are ironic in view of the fact that Polish schools were also converted into bilingual schools. The purpose of this policy was to ensure that everyone spoke Polish, as well as another language that was common in the area. So the conversion of Ukrainian schools into bilingual ones was no more a suppression of the Ukrainian language than the conversion of Polish schools into bilingual schools, as criticized by certain Polish nationalists, had been an attempt to suppress the Polish language! (pp. 128-134). [I personally knew ethnic Poles, from the Kresy, who could speak Ukrainian because it was "forced" on them in the Polish-government-sponsored bilingual schools!] DEMANDS FOR A UKRAINIAN UNIVERSITY The Ukrainians wanted the establishment of a Ukrainian university. Progress in this direction had been made in the form of the foundation, in 1930, of the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Warsaw, where future professors would be trained. (p. 135). [Poles were reluctant to have it built in Lwow (Lviv) because it would become a focus for separatist-minded Ukrainians.] POLISH GOVERNMENT PUSHES BACK AGAINST SEDITIOUS UKRAINIANS The Polish government's abolition of the Ukrainian Scouts (Plast) owed to the fact that this organization had departed from Scouting, had become infected with seditionists and separatists (p. 141), and had unmistakably played a major role in separatist arson and sabotage. (p. 146, 165). In fact, separatist violence tended to occur in those locations where the Plast, Luh, Sokil, and Proswita were well organized. The Ukrainians were hardly reacting to "oppression" In fact, the chief participants in separatist violence were not the poor and downtrodden, but secondary and university students and teachers. (p. 164). The separatist violence, a desperate move to reverse Polish-Ukrainian cooperation, and a means of scoring political points on the international scene, was sponsored by the UWO (Ukrainian Military Organization), which was financed and directed from Berlin. (p. 156, 161). The much-maligned Polish "pacification" of 1930 was a long-delayed reaction against the UWO and its separatist violence. Many villages were searched, and thousands of weapons and explosives were found and confiscated (see table on page 169). When owners were uncooperative, their properties had to be broken into by force, and disheveled in search for weapons. [Propaganda photos in the west, on "Polish atrocities in the Ukraine", showed the disheveled properties, but not
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the reason for the dishevelment.] "NONETHNOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES" ARE NOT UNJUST, AT LEAST NOT NECESSARILY [The reader should remember the fact that the existence of a local ethnographic majority does not in itself entail separatism. The French-majority regions of Switzerland are loyal to German-dominated Switzerland, and do not demand either a separate French-Swiss state, or annexation of their region by France.] THE ORGANIZATION OF UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS (OUN) WAS CLEARLY FASCIST Felinski (p. 158) described the recently-founded OUN as fascist. Writing this in 1931, he could not have been influenced by the OUN-Nazi collaboration, or by the OUN-UPA genocide of Poles, because these events were still a decade or more in the future.
“Ethnographic Boundaries”—A Bogus Issue
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The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World Anthony, David W. 2007 Includes Details on the Prehistory of Eastern Europe: Bug-Dniester Not Eternally Ukrainian Instead of repeating the many other reviewers, I instead focus mostly on other content. The author repudiates attempts to misuse the study of prehistory in order to make territorial claims. [For instance, past Germans had justified their imperialism by claiming that the territories of present-day Poland were originally German, while Ukrainian nationalists would have us believe that the territories east of the Bug River had been eternally Ukrainian.] It quickly becomes obvious, from analyzing this scholarly work, that no territories had been eternally anyone. Change had been the only constant throughout the millennia. The author places the "homeland" of the Proto-Indo-Europeans in the territory just north of the Black and Caspian Seas. (pp. 84-85). Ironic to Ukrainian claims that eastern Galicia had always been Ukrainian, we learn that there had actually been a distinctive Bug-Dniester culture that had persisted for thousands of years. (e. g., p. 141). It had a unique dialect that has since become extinct. (p. 148). As a further irony, part of the Bug-Dniester culture, after undergoing influxes of different peoples over the
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millennia, may have eventually developed into recognizable European languages. Anthony comments: "The Bug-Dniester people may have well spoken a language belonging to the language family that produced Pre-Proto-Indo-European, while their Cris neighbors spoke a language distantly related to those of Neolithic Greek and Anatolia." (p. 154). More recently, about 1,200 B. C., the following took place: "Pre-Slavic probably developed between the middle Dnieper and upper Dniester among the populations that stayed behind." (p. 380). So, ironically, the Dniester-Dnieper valleys may be the cradle of not only Ukrainian, but of all the Slavic languages! This work features many important archeological sites. One of them is Brononice in south-central Poland. Anthony writes: "The Brononice wagon image is the oldest well-dated image of a wheeled vehicle in the world." (p. 67). It dates back to 1,300--1,500 B. C. (p. 311). For a picture of this image, see p. 68.
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The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War Kochanski, Halik 2012 The Phony Indignation About Pre-WWII Poland Lacking Ethnographic Boundaries. A Detailed Broad-Based Analysis of Poles and Poland During WWII--Marred by Major Inaccuracies The author, Halik Kochanski, is a Briton born to Polish parents. She wanted to discover what her father had gone through. The result is this comprehensive work. It not only covers the Polish experience during WWII, but also provides a brief glossary of Polish pronunciations, a glossary of abbreviations, and a detailed index of biographies. Owing to the fact that the author covers so much ground, there are naturally differing areas of emphasis. Obvious strengths of this book include the treatment of the 1939 war, the experience of the Polish deportees in the USSR, the Polish-British alliance, Poles and Jews during the Holocaust, the west's betrayal of Poland to the USSR, and the Ukrainian fascist-separatist OUN-UPA genocide of Poles (although she underestimates the Polish civilian death toll by a factor 3-5). GUERNICA AND ROTTERDAM: CHILD'S PLAY COMPARED TO THE FATE OF POLISH CITIES AND TOWNS IN THE FACE OF 1939 GERMAN TERROR BOMBING Considering all the attention given to the
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small civilian death tolls at Guernica and Rotterdam, the reader learns of the 1,600 Polish civilians who perished at Wielun, at the hands of Luftwaffe, on the first day of WWII. (pp. 61-62). And that was just one town. THE PHONY INDIGNATION ABOUT POLAND'S "UNFAIR" NON-ETHNOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES Some of Kochanski's statements are especially perceptive. Consider the contention that Poland's pre-WWII boundaries were unjust because they encompassed millions of non-ethnic Poles. This complaint was hypocritically raised by many nations, and eventually became the rationalization for Churchill agreeing, at 1943 Teheran, to let the USSR keep the conquered Polish Kresy for itself. In reality, "injustice" of boundaries not being ethnographically determined went both ways. Approximately 1 million Poles were stranded in the Soviet Union, to the east of the Riga line (Poland's "unjust" pre-WWII eastern border). (p. 21). No one was concerned about that! In fact, the Soviet Union was doubly hypocritical. She was complaining about ethnographic boundaries regarding Poland, all the while the USSR had been a colonial empire consisting of an ethnographically Russian core and a larger, mostly non-Russian periphery of conquered peoples! Cry, crocodile, cry. ACCUSING THE ARMIA KRAJOWA OF WANTONLY KILLING FUGITIVE JEWS--YET AGAIN The author sees through the accusations directed against A. K. commander Bor Komorowski. (p. 284, 655). His anti-banditry order had been twisted, as by the Jewish Communist author Ainsztein (and, unfortunately repeated by respectable Holocaust sources), as a veiled command for Poles to kill fugitive Jews. In actuality, banditry in German-occupied Poland was very real (in fact, rampant), and nothing about Bor Komorowski or his orders hints at any anti-Jewish tendency. JEWISH HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS SOMETIMES FACED HOSTILITY OVER REGAINING THEIR PROPERTY Finally, on another issue--that of Poles being sometimes reluctant to return Jewish properties after the war--she realizes that this partly owed to the severe postwar housing shortage. (p. 549). THE UNFOLDING POLOKAUST Halik Kochanski includes little-known information. For instance, the Germans' GENERALPLAN OST included long-term plans for the resettlement of 30 million Slavs further east, during which some 80% would perish. (p. 269). Jews and Gypsies were obviously not the only ones targeted by the Nazis for genocide. WHAT IF SWITZERLAND'S NEUTRALITY HAD BEEN VIOLATED? On another subject, there
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were Polish reservists trapped in Switzerland who would have been put into action had Germany attacked Switzerland. (p. 245). MAJOR PROBLEMS WITH THIS BOOK This book has more than its share of disappointments. Unfortunately, for all the work that went into it and the valuable information and insights it provides, errors mar this work--a fact obvious to those readers knowledgeable on the issues. The main problem is Kochanski's reliance (or over-reliance) on secondary sources--furthermore ones of dubious authority. It is unfortunate that the manuscript did not go through more comprehensive editing. Kochanski essentially repeats stale German propaganda on the Poles' 1939 "Bydgoszcz Massacre" of 700-1,000 German civilians. (p. 70). To learn what actually happened, please click on, and read, the detailed English-language Peczkis review of Dywersja niemiecka i zbrodnie hitlerowskie w Bydgoszczy na tle wydarzen w dniu 3 IX 1939 (Polish and German Edition). She repeats the fallacious argument that there was no Polish Quisling because the Germans never wanted one. (pp. 96-97). They certainly did. [Nor is there any inconsistency between Germans seeking a Quisling and despising the Poles, for the Germans set up Quislings in other Slavic nations that they despised.] The author (p. 121) quotes Jan T. Gross (and his wife) that many of the Jews cooperating with the Soviets were refugees from the west, grateful that they did not fall into Nazi hands. (p. 637). This canned exculpation is invalid. Actually, Jews were not then particularly afraid of the Nazis (as proved, for example, by those Jews in Soviet-occupied Poland who soon thereafter moved, or tried to move, to German-occupied Poland)! In addition, most Jewish-Soviet collaborators were locals, and went far beyond cheering the arriving Soviets. They had earlier formed fifth-column militias, often planned long before the war, and fought against the remaining 1939 Polish forces on behalf of, and with, the Soviet invaders. See the detailed, English-language Peczkis review of: Polacy i biaorusini w zaborze sowieckim: Stosunki polsko-biaoruskie na ziemach ponocno-wschodnich II Rzeczypospolitej pod okupacja sowiecka 1939-1941 (Historia najnowsza) (Polish Edition).The reader learns about "extreme nationalist Polish claims" that Jews did not deserve to be saved because of their collaboration with the Soviets (p. xxvii,) and that the NSZ regularly killed fugitive Jews. (p. 368). She provides no evidence to support these egregiously Polonophobic formulations. Halik Kochanski repeats the mistranslation/misquotation, by the likes of Jan T. Gross and Tony Judt (p.
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658), of A.K. commander "Grot" Rowecki's "overwhelming majority of the country is anti-Semitic" statement. (p. 314). Actually, what Rowecki wrote was that the "overwhelming majority of the country is in an anti-Semitic mood." It appears that Halik Kochanski was well-intentioned. It is hoped that a future edition of this book will correct the egregious anti-Polish errors that have found an additional home in this book.
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Ludobojstwo Nacjonalistow Na Polakach Lubelszczyznie W Latach 1939-1947 Jastrzebski, Stanislaw 2007 The OUN-UPA Genocide in Post-WWII Poland, Operation Wisla, and the Myth of This Genocide Driven By "Rightfully Ukrainian Ethnographic Territories" Title: THE GENOCIDE CONDUCTED BY THE UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS ON THE POLES OF THE LUBLIN REGION IN 1939-1947. Consider the exculpatory arguments that attempt to dichotomize the events on either side of the Bug River, that characterize the OUN's ideology as emancipatory nationalism, or that frame the euphemistically-phrased "removal of Poles" as taking place on"Ukrainian lands". The events described in this book debunk all these myths. The same genocide occurred on both sides of the Bug River! The ideology of the Ukrainian fascist-separatist OUN-UPA clearly partook of imperialistic nationalism in that it laid claim to territories that were Polish by every rational measure. THE "ETHNOGRAPHIC TERRITORIES" EXCUSE FAILS. NO DOUBT A GENOCIDE Ukrainians sometimes claim a moral high ground for the genocide, in that it took place on “Ukrainian” territories. It fails miserably. The genocide took place not only in Ukrainian-majority areas but also on territories in which Ukrainians were a distinct minority! Against those who deny that a planned genocide ever existed, Jastrzebski cites a Ukrainian source (Litopys UPA, volume 6, p. 42) that speaks of destroying all the Poles so that the territories won't return to Poland. (p. 10, 38). Jaroslaw Kaczynski recognized it as genocide on July 9, 2003. (p. 21). Jastrzebski takes issue not only with Ukrainian revisionists, but also with inadequately-informed Polish writers such as Grzegorz Motyka and Ryszard Torzecki, who was a Ukrainized Jew. (p. 11). SCALE OF THE OUN-UPA GENOCIDE—JUST IN THE LUBLIN PROVINCE A total of
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11,618 Poles are known murdered, with a projected total of 14,000-15,000 victims. (p. 231)--this is for the Lublin region alone. There are hundreds of localities catalogued in this book where the murders are known to have occurred. The killers were an assortment of Nazi-collaborating Ukrainians, UPA bands from the east, and local heretofore-amiable Ukrainians who had become radicalized by OUN agitators. WARNING: There are many photos that show the creative sadism used by the killers, and this may upset sensitive readers. Ukrainians were also sometimes murdered--for offenses such as friendship towards Poles (p. 100), intermarriage with Poles (p. 110), condemnation of OUN-UPA murderous policies (p. 183), leaving for the newly-enlarged Soviet Ukraine (p. 189), and disobeying the OUN-UPA (p. 194). Defended villages (samoobrony), often supplemented by the AK (A. K.) or BCh, were sometimes able to ward off OUN-UPA genocidal attacks (p. 23, 83, 86, 98, 149, 177, 198). Even when unsuccessful in averting a massacre, their combat reduced the number of civilians that perished. POLES DID NOT START THIS CONFLICT Those who try to shift the blame on the Poles accuse them of "starting it" by killing Ukrainians (actually Ukrainian collaborators) already in 1942. This is ridiculous. OUN units had already killed some 5,000 Poles back in 1939 (p. 15). Throughout 1942, the Ukrainian collaborationist police, the future nucleus of the UPA, had been killing Poles on behalf of, and with, the Germans (p. 47, 48, 55, 60, 63, 66, 81, 82, 83, 168, 171, 172, 174, 216, etc.). The Ukrainian police also played a major role in the Germans' de-Polonizing "Operation Zamosc" of the entire region. (p. 85). DO NOT RELATIVIZE POLISH AND UKRAINIAN CONDUCT Ukrainian sources misrepresent the events at Sahryn (Hrubieszow County) as a massacre of Ukrainians by Poles. What actually happened was the following: Sahryn had long been a powerful OUN stronghold, and locus of German-Ukrainian collaboration against Poles as well as Ukrainian murders of Poles. An AK/BCh attack on March 9, 1944, successfully broke-up a local UPA unit. (pp. 114-115). Even as Ukrainian civilians were deliberately killed by Poles, it was a drop in the bucket compared with the Polish civilians murdered by Ukrainians [One might compare it with the tiny amount of Turks killed by Armenians against the incomparably-larger number of Armenians murdered by Turks.] THE COMMUNISTS PRIORITIZED THE ARREST AND MURDER OF POLISH PATRIOTS The OUN-UPA genocide dragged on long after WWII
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because the Soviet and "Polish" authorities were busy eliminating the real or imagined opponents of the newly-installed Communist puppet state. (p. 25, 47). It finally came to an end in 1947 when the Ukrainian population was resettled (Operation Wisla) which--as intended--had deprived the OUN-UPA of its base of support. (p. 29, 47, 87).
The Ukrainian OUN-UPA Genocide of Poles
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Wolyn 1939-1944 Filar, Wladyslaw 2012 The OUN-UPA Genocide of the Poles of Wolyn (Volhynia): All the Canned Exculpations Examined and Refuted This scholarly work utilizes Polish, Ukrainian, German, Jewish, and Soviet sources. Far from being anti-Ukrainian, it acknowledges past Polish wrongs against Ukrainians (p. 26-on), and mentions the efforts of anti-separatist and Polonophile Ukrainians (e. g., p. 47: Including members of the prewar center-right UNDO, and some Petlurites). UNCONTROLLED OR UNDISCIPLINED UKRAINIAN BANDS? Claims about UPA murders being the deeds of undisciplined individuals acting on their own are preposterous. On July 11, 1943, for example, over 160 [typo? 60] rural Polish settlements were near-simultaneously attacked in an obviously well-coordinated genocidal action. (p. 185, 190). UKRAINIAN VENGEANCE FOR PAST POLISH WRONGS? HARDLY Whatever the injustices that Poles had done to Ukrainians, they were relatively minor. There never was an instance when Poles had conducted a brutal genocide against innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children! SO NOW POLES ARE THE NAZI COLLABORATORS?? Oft-repeated Ukrainian complaints about WWII Polish collaborationism are laughable in view of the vastly larger scale of Ukrainian collaborationism. (p. 178). Specifically, in the GG (Polish-majority area), there was 1 (one!) Polish Schutzmannschaft Battalion (Nr. 202) in existence against 7 Ukrainian battalions. In the German-occupied portion of Ukraine, the same single Polish battalion contrasted with no less than 64 Ukrainian battalions serving the Nazis! Ironically, the nontrivial appearance of German-serving Polish police in Volyn (in mid-1943) was facilitated by the partial (though not total!--p. 201) earlier desertion of the Ukrainian collaborationist police, in March-April
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1943 (pp. 74-75), to join the UPA! SO POLISH COOPERATION WITH GERMANS AND SOVIETS PROVOKED THE UPA GENOCIDE?? Filar provides a timeline that decisively debunks the blame-the-victim contentions of UPA-apologists. For instance, Polish-German and Polish-Soviet cooperation against Ukrainians, far from serving as some kind of excuse for the UPA genocide against Poles, came well AFTER its start, and in defense against it. UKRAINIANS VS. POLES: SO THE "POLES STARTED IT"? Since mid-1941, the Ukrainian collaborationist police had been instrumental in the destruction of Volyn's Jews. (pp. 110-111). Ukrainian units killed Poles long before Polish units killed Ukrainians. This went back to the 1939 war. By November 1942, Ukrainian police were helping Germans destroy local Polish villages. (p. 166). Already during 1942, the OUN had been frequently murdering Polish individuals and families. (p. 167). The large-scale OUN-UPA genocide of Poles began in early 1943. (p. 168). In contrast, the first Volhynian Polish guerilla units weren't deployed until mid-July 1943. (p. 8). SO THE POLES SERVED THE GERMANS IN THE PACIFICATION OF UKRAINIAN VILLAGES? No German-serving Polish police units existed in Wolyn until March 1943 (pp. 198-199)(and as confirmed by Soviet guerilla sources: pp. 186-187), and these didn't become appreciable until June 1943 (p. 187)--long AFTER the start of the UPA genocide of Volyn's Poles, and then largely as a form of self-defense against it. The Polish Underground reluctantly tolerated “Polish collaborationism” owing to the otherwise-untenable situation facing the Poles. (p. 188). The sole-existing Polish SCHUTZMANNSCHAFT Battalion, 202, didn't arrive from Krakow until May 1943 (p. 182) to wreak its revenge. However, this came AFTER the first genocidal wave of UPA terror against Polish villages and, besides this, was a drop in the ocean. It is untrue that Germans commonly used ethnic Polish police to attack Ukrainian settlements. Whether intentionally or not, the Germans used Polish-speaking Germans (Silesians and VOLKSDEUTSCHE) for such purposes, and these were commonly mistaken by Ukrainians for ethnic Poles. (p. 201). SO THE POLES PROVOKED THE UPA GENOCIDE BY SIDING WITH THE SOVIETS? Ironic to the excuse that Polish-Soviet cooperation somehow justified genocide, its Ukrainian counterpart went back to 1939. (pp. 42-43). Well after the start of the OUN-UPA genocide, Poles were reluctant to contact Soviet partisans for help because the latter would confiscate the Poles'
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meager firearms. (p. 168). Though there were Polish Communists among Soviet partisans as early as February 1943 (p. 204), Polish-Soviet cooperation didn't become significant until much later, and then because the Poles, facing genocide at the hands of the UPA, had no other choice. BLAMING THE VICTIM: SO THE POLES PROVOKED THE UPA GENOCIDE BY (BELATEDLY) FIGHTING BACK? Strongly-defended Polish villages (samoobrony) didn't become relatively common until June 1943 (p. 174), 186), which was many months AFTER the start of the UPA genocidal attacks on multitudes of heretofore-unarmed Polish villages. By early 1944, they, together with the full deployment of the 27th Volhynian Division of the AK (Polish Home Army), caused the relative safety of the surviving Polish communities situated between the Bug and Stochod (Stokhod) Rivers. (p. 174). UNILATERAL OUN-UPA GENOCIDE AND THE MYTH OF A POLISH-UKRAINIAN WAR All the foregoing add up to the inescapable fact that, at least until the latter half of 1943, there was no semblance of any "Polish-Ukrainian war". (p. 355). Until that time, Polish blood had been cheap--six months of unilateral, unanswered slaughter of mostly-defenseless Polish men, women, and children by the OUN-UPA. The Polish-Ukrainian War came later. It was the outcome, not the cause, of the UPA genocide of Poles. SO "BOTH SIDES" ENGAGED IN GENOCIDE? HARDLY Although there were some AK (ARMIA KRAJOWA) units which later retaliated savagely (p. 154), AK-sponsored reprisals were belated and, even then, were very limited. In fact, the total number of Volhynian Ukrainians killed by the AK, about 2,200 (p. 111), pales in comparison with the 50,000-60,000 Volhynian Polish victims. [Some sources estimate 70,000 or more.] And that was only in Wolyn!
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Falszowanie Historii Najnowszej Ukrainy: Wolyn 1943 i Jego Znaczenie Poliszczuk (Polishchuk), Wiktor 1996 All Exculpations for the Ukrainian (OUN-UPA) Genocide of Poles Are Completely Demolished Ukrainian author Poliszczuk (Polishchuk) shows how, ever since the end of WWII, the Ukrainian fascist-separatist OUN-UPA has been repainting itself into a democracy-loving group of freedom-fighters. This played very well in the Cold War era, when anti-
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Communism was prized and Nazi pasts overlooked. It continues to this day. Part of the problem is that English-language works on this subject, such as Armstrong's UKRAINIAN NATIONALISM, are based on OUN sources. The LITOPYS UPA series is more pseudohistory. (p. 27). True events are mentioned without context. For instance, one later act of WIN/UPA cooperation (May 1945) is treated as the norm. (p. 12). YES, THE OUN WAS A FASCIST IDEOLOGY Leftists have always conveniently called fascist those groups that they did not like. The LEWAKS do it to this day. For this reason, the term fascist has to carefully be applied, and the author does this admirably. Polishchuk elaborates on the unmistakably fascist nature of the OUN: Its totalitarianism, undisguised amorality, quasi-racist ideation, cult of the WODZ (absolute leader), imperialist (not simply emancipatory) goals, etc. Its ruthlessness was unbounded. Ukrainians of even uncertain obedience to it were to be killed. (p. 46). UKRAINIAN COLLABORATION WITH THE NAZIS IN ITS FULLEST SENSE The notion that the OUN merely cooperated, but didn't collaborate, with the Nazis is ridiculous. Fact is, both Melnyk and Bandera praised Hitler, wished him victory, said that Ukrainians drew inspiration and example from him, and condemned "the Soviet and Anglo-American imperialists." (pp. 18-19). The excuse about Nazi collaborationism being conditional to the Nazis creating an independent Ukrainian state is also untrue. Fact is, Nazi Germany never made any such promise (p. 33), and, long after it became obvious that they wouldn't do it, the OUN-UPA/Nazi collaboration continued--in fact right until the very end of the German occupation. The Germans armed the UPA. (p. 58). GENOCIDAL ANTISEMITISM Claims about the OUN-UPA not being anti-Semitic are laughable. In April 1941, which is even before the German invasion of eastern Galicia and Volyn as part of Operation Barbarossa, the OUN-b had a declaration stating that the OUN should destroy the Jews. (p. 23). In later 1941, both the OUN-b and OUN-m had published statements echoing Nazi views of Jews. (pp. 24-25). The OUN was instrumental in creating the Ukrainian collaborationist police that not only played a major role in the Nazi extermination of Jews, but also in finding and killing fugitive Jews. (p. 31). Later, and contrary to the rosy portrayals of UPA-Jewish relations, the UPA continued the extermination of Jews. (pp. 22-26). THE SS-GALIZIEN The Ukrainian-collaborationist SS-Galizien most certainly DID swear allegiance to Hitler.
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(p. 27). It didn't enter combat at Brody until late-July 1944. (p. 8). Polishchuk dismisses the notion of the SS-Galizien becoming transformed into the Ukrainian National Army as nothing more than a fabrication of the OUN-m. Fact is, the SS-Galizien always had a German commander, Fritz Freitag, who at no time came under any form of Ukrainian command. (pp. 17-18). GENOCIDE WAS IN THE OUN'S PLANS LONG BEFORE WWII Since its inception in 1929, the OUN called for removal of all non-Ukrainians. (pp. 77-78). This became reality in the form of the Nazi-collaborating destruction of the Jews and later the genocide of over 120,000 local Poles. Polishchuk rejects the denials and the blame-the-victim tactics. For instance, against the justification related to past Polish wrongs, he cites the "mega-wrong" of the Soviet Ukrainian famine-genocide, which claimed millions of Ukrainian lives, yet never provoked a genocidal impulse of Ukrainians against Russians! (p. 71). Polish reprisals against UPA actions did occur, but were very limited. THE OUN-UPA LATE-WWII MAKEOVER AS A PROFESSEDLY DEMOCRATIC UNIT In July 1944, the OUN-B and UPA condemned both Nazi and Soviet imperialism, and expressed support for political pluralism and democracy. (p. 15; see also 49-50). But notice that this OUN-UPA "pro-western orientation" and "evolution into democracy", which conveniently began after Stalingrad (p. 18), became especially prominent AFTER the Soviets had almost completely driven the Nazis out of Ukrainian geographic areas, fascism had become a discredited concept, and NazI Germany itself was close to defeat. Finally the OUN-UPA "evolution into democracy" couldn't be genuine because the OUN-UPA never admitted, let alone confronted and repudiated, its fascist/pro-Nazi/genocidal past. UPDATE The courageous Ukrainian Viktor Polishchuk wrote this book decades ago. Since then, nothing has changed. If anything, many Ukrainians are even more apologetic about the genocidal crimes of the OUN-UPA.
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Polish Self Defence In Volhynia Dziemianczuk, Wladyslaw 1999 How Poles Fought Back Against the Ukrainian (OUN-UPA) Genocide of Poles in Volyn (Wolyn) This is one of the few English-language books on this little-known genocidal event. During the German occupation of prewar eastern Poland during WWII, Ukrainian collaborators massively assisted the Nazis in the extermination of the local
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Jews. In March 1943, with few Jews remaining, some 5,000 members of the Ukrainian collaborationist police (soon to be joined by 8,000-9,000 others members of this police) deserted their posts. (p. 24). They kept their weapons, and formed the nucleus of murderous separatist bands (the UPA--so-called Ukrainian Insurgent Army), now putting their Jew-killing skills to use against the rural Poles. Local Ukrainian peasants were also revolutionized, recruited, and conscripted (by force if necessary) as killers.Over 30,000 documented Volhynian Polish men, women, and children were sadistically murdered. Owing to incomplete coverage, the actual projected total was actually about 70,000. (p. 28). OUN-UPA apologists have said that the murderous acts were not genocidal, but "only" a tactic designed to scare the Poles into leaving "their" (Ukrainian-only) lands. The falseness of even these claims is demonstrated by the OUN-UPA murders of Poles known to be in the process of leaving. For example, one massacre survivor recounted telling his Ukrainian neighbor and friend about his plans to flee to central Poland. The Ukrainian agreed to warn him of any danger, but instead returned that night with an OUN-UPA group and murdered his family. (pp. 48-51). Some Ukrainian clergy encouraged the genocide of Poles, blaming Poles for Ukrainians' problems and employing obvious exterminationist language (Poles as weeds growing on Ukrainian soil). (p. 30, 64). Ukrainian bishops Polikarp and Sheptytsky belatedly (August 10, 1943) called for an end to the "hostilities", but this was dismissed by the OUN-UPA: "A letter is a letter, because that is politics, but Poles must be cut down anyway." (p. 31). The terrorized Poles, at first not realizing the scale of the unfolding genocide against them, eventually established fortified villages (SAMOOBRONY) in defense. The official Polish Underground order to develop fortified villages did not come until May 17, 1943, by AK (A. K.--Armija Krajowa) Colonel Kazimierz Damian Babinski "Lubon". (p. 16). This was months after the start of the OUN-UPA genocide against the Poles. The Poles were hampered by an acute shortage of arms. One fortified village, Huta Stepanska, swelled to 16,000-18,000 destitute souls (p. 97)--the survivors of massacres and burnings of all the surrounding villages. The Polish defenders had only 40 firearms, (p. 40) yet managed to drive off an OUN-UPA attack force that enjoyed at least a 10:1 ratio. (p. 87). Being nearly out of ammunition, the defenders subsequently conducted a mass evacuation. Though several hundred Poles were killed during the evacuation, tens of thousands of others saved
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their lives by coming to the Germans and "volunteering" for forced labor in the Reich. At least 21 fortified Polish Volhynian villages, which are listed by name (p. 18), are known to have been well-armed enough to withstand OUN-UPA onslaughts at least until the arrival of the Red Army in early 1944 (after which the Soviets disarmed them.). The best known of these was Przebraze, located in Luck (Lutsk) district. (p. 19-23). It consisted of a series of hamlets converted into fortified bastions, complete with obstacles, barbed wire, etc. It had 120 armed defenders in June 1943, and 1,200 of them in September 1943.Mobile Polish guerrilla units were developed in order to prevent overwhelming force from being delivered against any one base at any one time. Most of these Polish guerrillas were eventually consolidated to form the 27th Volhynian Division of the AK. In contrast to the 70,000 defenseless Volhynian Poles who lost their lives at the hands of the OUN-UPA rezuny (cutthroats), the lives of a total of some 150,000 Volhynian (Wolyn) Poles were saved by the Polish guerrillas and the defended Volhynian Polish villages. (p. 21).Official AK orders forbade acts of retaliation against the OUN-UPA which would involve the killing of Ukrainian women and children. (p. 17). One AK commander, Mikolaj Kunicki "Mucha", reported capturing several UPA attackers, including a sergeant who had a list in his possession of 17 Poles he had killed, for which he endeavored to get awarded and decorated. "Mucha" ordered the UPA sergeant to be tortured to death, and the remaining UPA men to be hanged. (pp. 44-45).
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Ludobojstwo Dokonane Przez Nacjonalistow Ukrainskich Na Polakach W Wojewodztwie Tarnopolskim 1939-1946 Komanski, Henryk 2006 Encyclopedia of the OUN-UPA Genocide of the Jews and Poles of Tarnopol (Ternopil) Voivodship This comprehensive work follows a county-by-county, village-by-village format, giving a summary of local events from 1939-1946. Based upon the testimonies of 2,956 eyewitnesses, 23,102 Poles, most known by name, are known to have been murdered by the Ukrainian fascist-separatist OUN-UPA. (pp. 5-6). Coverage is incomplete, and lacking entirely for one-third of all villages, so the projected total of Polish victims in this Voivodship alone is 40,000-
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50,000. NOT ONLY POLES FELL VICTIM: THE MURDERS OF JEWS BY THE OUN-UPA Claims that the OUN-UPA didn't kill Jews are absurdly revisionistic. In fact, the Ukrainian German-collaborating police, which subordinated itself to the OUN under penalty of death (p. 618), and which later formed the core of the UPA, was instrumental in the Nazi extermination of Jews--as listed on too many pages to enumerate. Members of this police were also trained to locate fugitive Jews. (p. 267). Later, the UPA itself frequently murdered Jews (p. 40, 41, 42, 113, 153, 195, 247, 249, 302, 394, 402, 404, 440, 524, 648, etc.)--despite the rarity of still-surviving Jews by this time. THE UKRAINIAN CLERGY Named Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priests encouraged Ukrainians to murder Poles (p. 40, 41, 74, 164, 304, 320, 332, 339, 400, 597, 601), and even engaged in the blessing of knives, etc., for these mass-murder campaigns. (p. 38, 341, 387, 418, 533, 760, etc.). Other Ukrainian priests saved Poles (p. 424), condemned the OUN-UPA's crimes (p. 41, 697, 701), and are known to have been murdered for such "treason". (p. 180, 416, 489). Many other Ukrainians were murdered for warning, aiding, or hiding Poles. GEOGRAPHIC DIFFERENCES IN EASTERN GALICIA Ukrainian support for the OUN-UPA varied geographically. For instance, the Brzezany (Berezhany) area had already been a hotbed of OUN separatist violence before WWII, and an area where many retreating 1939 Polish soldiers were deceived, disarmed, and murdered. Other Polish soldiers fought off these attacks (p. 111, 118). On the other hand, the vast majority of the Ukrainians of Palikrowy repudiated the OUN-UPA and its crimes. (pp. 596-597). OUN-UPA WAS MORE NAZI THAN EVEN THE GERMAN NAZIS Ukrainian fascism was, in some ways, more fascist than Nazism. UPA members, acting spontaneously or as ordered, murdered even their Polish wives, mothers, and fathers. (p. 160, 240, 301, 506, 642, 670, 675, 694, 1133). Ukrainian villagers who refused to participate in the murders of Polish relatives and neighbors were themselves murdered (p. 50, 75, 94, 148, 153, 175, 177, 206, 207, 347, 381, 473, 601)--as were Ukrainians who even HAD Polish relatives of friends. (40, 52, 54, 62, etc.). Self-identification as a Rusin could itself bring death. (p. 203). Refusal to join or perform services for the UPA was a capital crime, as was even the act of criticizing UPA policies. (p. 41, 137, 172, 175, 180, 235, 439, 465, 481, 489, 640, 662, 893, etc.). POLISH SELF-DEFENSE BASES The many Polish-created samoobrony
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(defended villages)(mentioned at over 30 locations) often repelled large UPA attacks with relatively small losses. But even when faced with an overwhelming UPA force, which often enjoyed the support of incendiary shell-firing small artillery that ignited village buildings, armed Poles often managed to save their own lives, and that of many other Poles, by creating combat-related commotion that enabled successful hiding or fleeing. THE RE-ENTRY OF THE RED ARMY The second Soviet occupation (1944) began with overall Soviet indifference to the UPA murders of Poles (p. 167, 360, 891), and with the samoobrony weakened by the compulsory draft of military-age men into the Red Army--which the UPA took prompt advantage of. (pp. 480-481). Later, the Soviets exploited the desperate Poles as an anti-UPA tool by setting up the "Strebki" (Istriebitielny Bataliony). This made the samoobrony legitimate in the eyes of the Soviets, and enabled the usually-effective protection of Polish settlements (as listed on many pages)--excepting some dual-loyalty Russian- or Ukrainian-commanded units. (p. 42, 656). (Ukrainian complaints about "Bolshevik-lackey Poles", encountered in the LITOPYS UPA series regarding Czerwonogrod (p. 432), are laughable in view of the earlier 1939-1941 Ukrainian collaboration with Soviets against Poles, as well as the UPA-genocidal circumstances that drove Poles to the Soviets.) POLAND BETRAYED, AND THE REMAINING KRESY POLES EXPELLED By 1946, the Soviets had expelled most Poles as part of the terms of the 1943 Teheran Churchill-Roosevelt giveaway of these lands to the Soviet Union. A number of UPA murderers followed the Polish expellees to Poland in her postwar boundaries, and some of these, in a macabre form of identity theft, took the names of their victims. (p. 102, 141, 618). Many others emigrated to the West and escaped justice for their crimes.
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Genocide And Rescue In Wolyn: Recollections Of The Ukrainian Nationalist Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Against The Poles During World War II Piotrowski, Tadeusz 2000 DEFINITIVE WORK: The OUN-UPA Genocide of the Poles of Volhynia (Wolyn, Volyn) Scholar Tadeusz Piotrowski's work remains the best-known English language work on this sordid crime. In view of the fact that the UPA
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butchers are currently being glorified in the Ukraine, and emigre (not to mention today's mostly-western) Ukrainians continue to blame the victims, this topic remains as timely as ever. SUMMARY This book is packed with information. It surveys the how, why, and how of this little-known genocide of Poles. There is another detailed English-language book that discusses these crimes, as well as Polish defensive actions, often against impossible odds. See: Wolyn Aflame, by Ozarowski. There is also an English-language Jewish study of the OUN-UPA genocidal crimes against both Jews and Poles:The Holocaust of Volhynian Jews. By far the most comprehensive work on the OUN-UPA's genocide of Poles, is: Siemaszko, W., and E. Siemaszko. 2000. Ludobojstwo Dokonane Przez Nacjonalistow Ukrainskich na Ludnosci Polskiej Wolynia, 1939-1945. [The Genocide Conducted by Ukrainian Nationalists on the Polish population of Volhynia, 1939-1945], 2 Volumes, von Borowiecky, Warsaw. (ISBN: 8387689343). It catalogues over 1,600 known locations where the murders took place. It also contains numerous documents, photographs, etc., and has an extensive English-language summary. This work also examines and soundly debunks Ukrainian attempts to minimize this crime, blame it on the Poles, or create a false symmetry with a few Polish retaliatory actions to make out of it a mythical "Polish-Ukrainian war."
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Ludobojstwo Dokonane Przez Nacjonalistow Ukrainskich na Ludnosci Polskiej Wolynia 1939-1945 Siemaszko, Wladyslaw 2002 DEFINITIVE WORK That Details the OUN-UPA Genocide of the Poles of Wolyn (Volhynia, Volyn) Under the German Occupation During WWII Title: The Genocide Conducted by Ukrainian Nationalists on the Polish population of Volhynia, 1939-1945], 2 Volumes, von Borowiecky, Warsaw. (ISBN: 8387689343). Eyewitness Wladyslaw Siemaszko (now 100 years old as I write this) and his daughter Ewa Siemaszko have compiled this monumental work. It catalogues over 1,600 known locations where the murders took place. The total number of catalogued Poles murdered is over 30,000. Owing to incomplete data, the projected total is 70,000. But that is for Wolyn alone. This 2-volume work also contains numerous documents, photographs, etc., and has an
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extensive English-language summary. This work also examines and soundly debunks Ukrainian attempts to minimize this crime, blame it on the Poles, or create a false symmetry with a few Polish retaliatory actions to make out of it a mythical "Polish-Ukrainian war."
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Krwawe Zniwa: Za Styrem, Horyniem I Sucza: Wspomnienia Z Rodzinnych Stron Z Czasow Okupacji Piotrowski, Czeslaw 1995 The Ukrainian OUN-UPA Genocide of Volhynian Poles. Fall of Stepanska Huta. Decades-Later Visits BLOODY HARVESTS BEYOND THE STYR, HORYN, AND SLUCZ RIVERS is the title of this Polish-language book (Review based on 2nd edition, 2004). It describes the unfolding WWII Ukrainian fascist-separatist OUN-UPA genocide of Poles under the German-Nazi occupation, and how the Poles defended themselves against the Ukrainian REZUNY (cutthroats). Stepanska Huta, the largest Polish defended village in Wolyn that eventually failed, is recounted in considerable detail. This book includes a comprehensive historical narrative, maps (including UPA battle plans), personal testimonies, a profusion of photos, etc. UKRAINIAN GENOCIDAL INTENTIONS: "FIRST THE RYE (JEWS) AND THEN THE WHEAT (POLES)" The genocidal intentions of the Ukrainian nationalists had been disguised in code. Piotrowski recounts the Ukrainians in 1942 commonly speaking of an upcoming harvest in which the rye would be cut first, and then the wheat. (p. 73). The author was puzzled, as the order of harvested crops was actually the opposite. Only later did he realize that the "rye" were the Jews, and the "wheat" were the Poles. The Jews were exterminated through massive Ukrainian-Nazi collaboration. The Germans gave the directives, and the Ukrainians killed the Jews. (p. 74). After the Volhynian Jews were almost gone by late 1942, it came the Poles' turn. Everything Polish was to be destroyed. Polish villages were subject to episodes and then nonstop mass murder and burning. After the first wave of desertion of the Ukrainian collaborationist police in mid-March 1943, these Jew-killers joined the UIA (so-called Ukrainian Insurgent Army; also OUN-UPA) and put their murderous skills to use against the Poles. (p. 128). THE UKRAINIAN OUN COPIES NAZI GERMAN RACISM The
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OUN's fascist ideology began to resemble the racial Nazi ideology more and more. There was a call for "purity of Ukrainian blood" and Ukrainians in mixed Polish-Ukrainian marriages were ordered to kill their Polish spouses and half-Polish children. Some did. Those who refused were themselves murdered. (pp. 143-144). Some local Greek Catholic Ukrainians, resettled from Eastern Galicia by the Soviets, were threatened with death if they did not convert to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. (p. 151). POLISH SELF-DEFENCE EFFORTS The Poles, caught by surprise by the OUN-sponsored genocide, gradually formed defended villages. It proved very difficult to procure anywhere near sufficient weaponry and ammunition. However, many villages in this general area (Sarny and Kostopol Counties) did succeed in beating off even large OUN-UPA attacks. For example, the village of Wilcze held out until the end of April 1943. However, as village defenders ran out of ammunition, they evacuated and joined the larger regional defended village of Huta Stepanska. The OUN-UPA tried to provoke the German occupation forces to destroy Huta Stepanska by bringing them false information. The Poles managed to convince the German punitive expedition of the truth, and the German pacification terror action was stayed. (p. 159). The Germans' visit proved to be a blessing in disguise. The Poles met, among the Germans, many Polish-speaking men of transitional Polish-German nationality from such places as Silesia and Pomerania. Some of these Poles and part-Poles eventually proved amenable to selling weaponry to the Huta Stepanska defenders, evacuating Polish survivors of massacres to the towns, and, in one case, of fighting on the side of the Poles and partly burning two Ukrainian villages (Weretenicze and Iwanicze). (e. g., p. 159, 211, 218). POLES WERE BLAMED FOR THE DEEDS OF THE VOLKSDEUTSCHE The author does not develop the foregoing theme further. A local Ukrainian would not usually know the difference between a half-Polish Silesian and an ethnic Pole. Did the German authorities purposely assign Polish-speaking Germans to Wolyn so that German repressive actions against Ukrainians would be mistaken by the local Ukrainians as largely the actions of Poles and "Polish collaborators"? Are the accounts of Poles and Germans joining each other against Ukrainians, prevalent in OUN lore, at least partly based on this mistaken identity? THE DEFENSE OF STEPANSKA HUTA At Stepanska Huta, less than 200 men had ANY type of firearm--if only a hunting rifle. (p. 7, 173). By a bitter quirk of fate, some 40 pieces of
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weaponry had locally been hidden by the 1939 Polish Army (p. 124), but the ones who knew of its whereabouts had been deported to Siberia during the first Soviet occupation. (1939-1941). What's more, the village was spread out over a wide area, making it difficult to form and sustain a defensive perimeter. Many sectors of the village were defended by one firearm with only a dozen or two rounds of ammunition. (p. 183). The large July 16, 1943, OUN-UPA attack on Stepanska Huta was halted. Polish losses included 30 fighters killed and about 60 Poles murdered while fleeing surrounding villages. Over 100 UPA dead were left in the fields. (p. 184). A few dozen enemy weapons were captured by the Poles. However, the Poles knew that there would be another UPA attack, and that they had insufficient ammunition to repel it successfully this time. For this reason, the thousands of Poles were evacuated, through a cordon of armed Polish defenders, to a German-held town. From there, they would save their lives by "volunteering" to travel to the Reich for forced labor. During the entire process of July 16-18, the UPA attacks on Huta Stepanska and other defended villages, and on the evacuees from Huta and nearby villages, cost a total of about 750 Polish lives. (p. 227). [Were it not for the samoobrony (defensive efforts), the death toll would have easily been several times greater.] There is some evidence that the Germans fought on the side of the UPA in the final attack on Stepanska Huta. The previously-mentioned Polish-speaking Germans had been assigned elsewhere to a different village, perhaps so as not to be witnesses to the UPA-German cooperative effort. (p. 218). THE SOVIETS, NOT THE UKRAINIANS, COMPLETE THE DE-POLONIZATION OF THE KRESY Some of the other Volhynian Polish defended villages survived until the second Soviet occupation (1944-on). At that time, the Soviets re-affirmed their annexation of the Kresy, and expelled nearly all the Poles. The latter settled in the new territories assigned to Poland from which the Germans were being simultaneously expelled. DECADES-LATER RETURNS TO THE IMPORTANT SITES OF THE UPA GENOCIDE OF POLES In 1971, and again in the late 1990's, the author and some aging Volhynians revisited the sites. There was no trace of many Polish villages. Huta Stepanska had been burned by the UPA after the Poles' evacuation. A collective farm stood in its stead. Amazingly, there was a large wooden cross, erected by the Poles in 1943 with the message "Jesus, save us", which survived until the early 1990's. (p. 330). Many Polish churches were
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nothing but a sad spectacle of bare foundations, and smashed statues among the greenery. The long-neglected village cemeteries still had legible headstones. Exhumed graves of the Janowa Dolina massacre showed skulls holed with bayonets. The reaction of modern local Ukrainians was mixed. Some realized that the OUN was fascist, while others tried blame-the-victim tactics on the Poles. Local Ukrainian priests organized ceremonies to remember the dead, and new crosses were placed to remember the dead.
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UPA w Bieszczadach: Straty Ludnosci Polskiej Poniesione z Rak Ukrainskich w Bieszczadach w Latach 1939-1947 Zurek, Stanislaw 2007 Do Not Relativize Operation Wisla (a Triviality) With the Earlier OUN-UPA Genocide of Over 100,000 Poles! Book Title: THE UPA IN THE BIESZCZADY MOUNTAINS. This scholarly book traces the course of the Ukrainian fascist-separatist OUN-UPA (or UIA) genocide of Poles, focusing primarily on the geographic region located in the extreme SE of Poland as defined by her post-WWII borders. Zurek repeatedly refutes the claims of politically-correct history-distorters and moral relativists such as the Pole Grzegorz Motyka and the Ukrainian Eugeniusz Misilo. From time to time, we hear claims about the "eternally Ukrainian" character of the territories on which the UPA operated. This is nonsense, and not only in relatively recent times. The Polans (Polanians?), a local Slavic tribe, were deported eastward, and forced to build the Kieven Rus state. So, ironically, the Ukrainian people have a substantial admixture of Polish (along with, later, Tatar) blood. (pp. 191-192). THE TRAWNIKI Ukrainian-German collaboration is addressed. For instance, at the Trawniki Camp alone, 15,000 Ukrainian-Nazi collaborators (including SS) were trained. (p. 139). Nor is it true that Ukrainian collaborators operated only on "Ukrainian ethnographic" territories. For instance, in the GG (General Government), there were 30,000 Ukrainische Hilfspolizei alone. (p. 139). THE MYTH OF UPA KILLING POLES ONLY ON "UKRAINIAN ETHNOGRAPHIC TERRITORIES" The genocidal events that took place east of the Bug-San River can in no way be dichotomized from those that occurred west of it. Approximately 200,000 Poles were murdered by
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radicalized Ukrainians (primarily by the OUN-UPA) east of this river, and 18,000 west of it. (p. 177; for elaboration, see pp. 180-on). This was no "Polish-Ukrainian War": The vast majority of victims in each case were unarmed civilians whose only crime was to be born Polish. Ironic to "Poles started it" accusations, the Poles in Bieszczady, as their counterparts in Wolyn (Volhynia), had at first refrained from developing fortified villages (samoobrony) so as not to "provoke" the Ukrainians. (p. 13). Specifically-named local Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests were UPA leaders, while other Ukrainian priests fled from it. (p. 14). The Bieszczady region itself experienced a significant influx of UPA Pole-killers from Wolyn (Volyn) and eastern Galicia. (p. 23, 37, 147). UPA men from mixed marriages were ordered to kill their Polish mothers. (p. 99). Ukrainians who were friendly to Poles, or otherwise nonconformist to the OUN, were murdered by the OUN-UPA (e. g., p. 55,79-80,94,101,182). In fact, according to Ukrainian historian Polishchuk (Poliszczuk), a total of some 80,000 Ukrainians perished at the hands of the OUN-UPA. (p. 195). THE COMMUNISTS PRIORITIZED IN ARRESTING AND KILLING POLISH PATRIOTS The UPA lasted as long as it did because the Communist authorities were pre-occupied in fighting real or imagined opposition to the new Soviet-imposed puppet state. (p. 111). "Operation Wisla" was, strictly speaking, not a Polish operation. It was directed from Moscow. (p. 153). Karol Swierczewski may have perished from an NKVD "hit", not an OUN-UPA one. (pp. 123-on). OPERATION WISLA WAS A MILITARY NECESSITY The soundness of "Operation Wisla" is implicitly attested to by none other than UPA sources themselves. Without the resettlements inherent in "Operation Wisla", the UPA could've continued fighting for up to another ten years! (LITOPYS UPA, Vol. 16)(p. 177; see also p. 199). FALSE EQUIVALENCY: BOGUS ATTEMPTS TO COMPARE THE OUN-UPA GENOCIDE WITH OPERATION WISLA Attempts to call "Operation Wisla" genocide, or to relativize it with the privations of Poles, are totally nonsensical. The removal of the Poles was associated with the OUN-UPA genocide, while the population transfers of Ukrainians involved minimal loss of life. In the much-condemned Jaworzno concentration camp, a mere 161 Ukrainians died (mostly from typhus) and about 114 were tortured. (p. 176). [This total was easily matched in a single Polish village attacked by the UPA]. Even the population transfers of Poles and Ukrainians were not symmetrical. 140,000 Ukrainians were relocated
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in "Operation Wisla" along with other Ukrainians sent to the USSR, while several times more Poles were relocated from the USSR-annexed Kresy. (p. 109). Finally, part of the Ukrainian population got to remain in their domiciles in post-WWII Poland, while almost 100% of the Poles in the Ukrainian-inhabited regions of the Soviet-annexed Kresy were expelled. (pp. 103-105).
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Wolyn Naszych Przodkow Siemaszko, Ewa 2008 Poland's Jews are Not the Only Vanished Communities! The Poles of Wolyn (Volyn, Volhynia) Are a Forgotten Vanished Community. The Ukrainian OUN-UPA Genocide of Poles, the Teheran/Yalta Acquiesed Soviet Confiscation of the Kresy, and the Soviet-Directed Expulsions of Poles Title: VOLYN OF OUR ANCESTORS. This work contains approximately 700 photos from Wolyn. Most of these show the idyllic rural life before WWII. WARNING: There are also graphic photos of the mutilated bodies of Poles murdered during the Ukrainian-fascist OUN-UPA (or UIA) genocide. A smaller number of photos are of recent origin. JEWS REMEMBERED: POLES FORGOTTEN Very much has been said, in media discourse, about the Jews of Poland as a once-flourishing vanished community. Surprise--we never hear about other vanished communities, such as the Poles of Volhynia and other parts of the Soviet-annexed Kresy. Few Poles live there today, and there is one photo of a Polish school there. (p. 103). Some of the churches have been restored since the end of Soviet rule, but these have generally been given to Ukrainians. Otherwise, the only traces of Polishness, in most places in Wolyn, are the cemeteries with Polish markings and the memorials at the locations of mass murder of Poles during the OUN-UPA genocide. THE UKRAINIANS COMMITTED GENOCIDE AGAINST THEIR RECENT POLISH FRIENDS Before WWII, Poles and Ukrainians lived together amiably. OUN separatist and genocidal propaganda then turned Ukrainians against Poles. There are chilling 1930's photos showing specifically-named Ukrainian murderers-to-be standing next to Polish victims-to-be. (e. g., p. 49, 64). The relatives of Edward Smygly-Rydz were among the eventual victims. (p. 152). A SUMMARY OF THE
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UKRAINIAN OUN-UPA GENOCIDE OF POLES Ewa Siemaszko, relying on the magisterial work of her father, Wladyslaw Siemaszko, summarizes the unfolding OUN-UPA genocide under Soviet and especially Nazi occupations. Murders of Poles took place at 1,721 documented locations, comprising a total of over 36,500 victims. Information is lacking on another 1,787 locations were Poles lived, and the projected total of Polish victims stands at 50,000-60,000 for Wolyn alone. (p. 22). The Ukrainian fascist-separatist destruction of everything Polish included about 70% of Wolyn's Polish parishes and their properties. (Leon Popek, p. 24). And yet there are those who would have us believe that the OUN-UPA acts were not genocide! Many photos show the sites of the largest massacres of Poles. This includes the quarry town of Janowa Dolina. (p. 72). One photo from Kowel (Kovel) County, taken in 1991, shows an eerie, solitary hut. It was the only surviving structure of a Polish village destroyed by the OUN-UPA in 1943. (p. 113). THE POLES FOUGHT BACK, WITH SOME SUCCESS The Polish death toll could easily have been 3 (or more) times higher were it not for evasive and defensive measures taken by the Poles. Apart from those Poles who fled their farmsteads and found refuge in towns that contained German or Hungarian garrisons (with most of these Poles then sent to the Reich for forced labor), there were 13 successful samoobrony (fortified villages) where collectively several tens of thousands of Poles gathered and fought-off the genocidal OUN-UPA attacks, often against overwhelming odds. (pp. 20-21, 152-153). A painting and photo is shown that is related to the partially-successful defense against an UPA attack against the Polish-filled church at Kisielin (Horochow (Horochiw) County)(pp. 62-63). Another photo shows a memorial cross at the site of the largest Polish samoobrona, Przebraze (Luck (Lutsk) County).(p. 209). THE SOVIETS CONQUERED THE KRESY IN 1939, AND NOW GOT TO KEEP IT AS A RESULT OF THE TEHERAN AND YALTA BETRAYAL OF POLAND The OUN-UPA genocide was only the beginning of the de-Polonization of the Kresy in general and Wolyn in particular. The Soviets, after the 1943-Teheran agreed-to annexation of the Kresy and expulsion of nearly all Poles, continued the physical destruction of everything Polish. Some Polish churches were converted to agricultural storage centers and the like (e. g., p. 60), while others were destroyed--even decades after WWII. (pp. 150-151).
