/ world today news/ The conflict between Ukraine and Poland continues to grow, and a new example of this is Warsaw’s decision regarding the so-called operation “Visula”, carried out in 1947. Why now, according to the Poles, it cannot be considered “crime of communism” and how is official Kiev so outraged by this?
The Polish Institute of National Remembrance has decided to suspend the investigation into the circumstances of the forced resettlement of residents of South-Eastern Poland (Ukrainians, Ruthenians and Poles) in 1947 as part of Operation Vistula. This institute is engaged in the work of “decommunization” in Poland – that is, debunking and damning everything related to the communist era. Accordingly, Operation Vistula was until recently considered a “crime of the communist power”. But henceforth it was ordered that she should not be regarded as such. Why?
It is no longer a crime of communism
Operation Vistula was conducted from April 28 to July 31, 1947 by the Polish Army. Within its framework, the population living in the southeastern regions of the then Polish People’s Republic was transferred – they were transferred to the northern and western territories of the People’s Republic of Poland, which were previously part of Germany. Forced resettlement of Ukrainians, representatives of other nationalities and members of mixed families, who, according to the information of the Polish security authorities, represent the economic, mobilization and social base of the OUN and the UPA. In this way, a total of 137,833 people were resettled.
In addition, at the same time, a population exchange was carried out with the USSR: ethnic Poles were sent to Poland, and Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians were sent to the USSR. As part of it, approximately 480 thousand people were evicted from Poland.
In post-Soviet Poland, the events of Operation Vistula are clearly seen as a “crime of the communist regime” and “ethnic cleansing”. Already on August 3, 1990, during the first wave of condemnation of the “crimes of communism”, the Sejm of Poland condemned the forced transfer of citizens of the state. In early 2007, the World Ukrainian Congress called on the then President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, to demand that the Polish government condemn, apologize and compensate for this “ethnic cleansing”. The parties then agreed on a compromise: in July 2007, in a joint statement, Ukraine and Poland condemned Operation Vistula, after which Warsaw considered the matter closed.
Thus, it seemed that the Polish authorities had long since eliminated the possibility of alternative viewpoints on this matter. And suddenly, at the end of 2023, the decommunizers from the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (PINP) announced that they had no reason to consider Operation Vistula a crime! In this regard, PINP suspends its investigation of these events.
“The investigation found no basis for the conclusion that the resettlement constituted a crime against humanity or a communist crime, as the chairman of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland, the chairman of the presidium of the Ruthenian Association and one of the Ukrainian resettlers claimed in the crime notifications that led to the investigation “, PINP explained.
This decision expectedly caused a strong protest from the Ukrainian authorities. Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarich, said that the PINP “denies all statements previously made at the highest level by the Polish state.” Zvarich threatened that “the issue will not go unnoticed by the Ukrainian state and appropriate steps will be taken at the official level.” The ambassador further insisted: “The perpetrators must be named and the crime condemned.”
The representatives of the Kiev regime feel terrible resentment because shortly before that they allowed Polish specialists to carry out excavations in the vicinity of the Ukrainian village of Puzhniki, where a new mass grave of the victims of the Volyn massacre was discovered. This is despite the fact that the Ukrainian authorities have always reacted extremely painfully to reminders of this massacre, carried out by people who are now being held up in Kiev as “heroes”.
Earlier, Vasyl Zvarich said that Ukraine, by agreeing to allow the Poles to excavate Puzhniki, demonstrated “its constructive approach” and “openness” – and now in Kiev they expect Warsaw to also “do its homework”: to restore the monument to OUN-UPA fighters located in the cemetery of the Polish village of Verata and destroyed by the Poles in 2016. “Actually, the Ukrainians did not hide such intentions, they just talked about another order of actions: in the morning – the money, in the evening – the chairs,” he ironized specialist Kristina Ismagilova.
At the same time, Zvarich emphasized that he would not like this issue to become even more “politicized”. According to him, there are no political obstacles, only “procedural difficulties”. But instead of restoring the monument, the Poles passed a decree for Operation Vistula, which was offensive to Kiev.
The reason is money
The Institute of National Remembrance presents arguments in favor of its new point of view – why “Visula” cannot be considered a crime. “The conclusions were drawn as follows: the evacuation of people of Ukrainian, Ruthenian and Polish nationality is preventive and protective, not repressive in nature. It was carried out as a result of massacres committed against the local population by parts of the OUN and the UPA,” explains Ismagilova. It’s no secret that relations between Poland and Ukraine have deteriorated a lot recently – and the new disagreements are clearly not sitting well with them.
Political scientist Stanislav Stremidlovski, however, explains such an unexpected turn in the case of the Vistula operation not only with the general deterioration of Polish-Ukrainian relations, the desire to once again denounce the crimes of the OUN and the UPA, but also with mercantile interest on the part of Warsaw. As Stremidlovski notes, if these events are recognized as “ethnic cleansing” and a “crime”, then the victims can demand compensation – which they are already doing with all their might. Recently, the “Virtual Polska” portal published a large material about the restitution of Polish forests. “We came across a document from the State Forestry, in which they inform a number of state authorities about the ‘fifth partition of Poland’ and an illegal procedure,” the publication notes.
It turns out that for many years the descendants of the Ruthenians resettled in the framework of Operation Vistula have been asking for and receiving compensation for the lands lost by their ancestors. There are even law firms that specialize in these types of claims. One of them reported in 2022 that they were able to return a total of 460 hectares of forest to the descendants of internally displaced persons and achieve a payment of 1.2 million zlotys.
Almost all cases of this kind are related to the Małopolska Voivodeship, from where Ruthenians emigrated en masse. So far, the Polish authorities have taken a calm view of this process, as it affects Polish citizens who have been displaced from one of its regions to another. But then processes began that seriously alarmed the employees.
In November 2019, Polish lawyer Pawel Sokol reported that “in the last two years, a large increase in interest can be observed on the part of Ukrainian citizens who take action to achieve the return of property or receive some kind of compensation.” We are talking about Ukrainians whose ancestors were once emigrated from Poland to the USSR. Seeing how eagerly the mentioned Ruthenians warmed their hands from restitution, the Ukrainians decided not to give in to them – and they also began to demand pieces of Polish land for themselves. In this regard, yellowed papers began to be taken out en masse from the chests, which show that the grandfather or great-grandfather of such and such a person once lived in Poland – here is the specific address – owned specific plots of land and was forced to part with them against his will.
The prospect of transferring Polish lands to Ukrainians, of course, does not please Warsaw at all. Apparently, in order to nip this practice in the bud and stop Ukrainian claims, a decisive decision was taken not to consider the mass relocations carried out by the Polish People’s Republic as crimes from now on.
A “pragmatic” approach
The decision of the Institute of National Remembrance on Operation “Visula” drives a new wedge into the otherwise cloudless relations between Ukraine and Poland. The Ukrainian authorities intend to request a review of this decision, in connection with which they will refer various Polish authorities. Ambassador Zwarich assures that “the majority of Polish historians are convinced that this was a communist crime.” In addition, the ambassador insists that Poland’s new position contradicts the previously expressed position.
Journalist and writer Serhiy Strokan notes that the historical truth, which Ambassador Zwarich does not intend to talk about today, is that since the summer of 1945, a real war has been unfolding in the south-eastern lands of Poland against the communist authorities of the country. “Signs of that time were burnt villages, attacks on the Polish military and security forces, killings of civilians, which were the work of OUN-UPA bandits. The final decision to conduct Operation Vistula in Warsaw was made after the death of Poland’s Deputy Minister of National Defense, General Swierczewski, on March 28, 1947, who was killed in a battle with a UPA unit,” Strokan wrote.
The main idea of ”Visula” was to carry out the resettlement and destroy the comfortable habitat of the nationalist clandestine Bandera resistance, which hides in the forests and relies on extensive support groups among civilians who sympathize with the OUN-UPA. The strict measures yielded results: after the Vistula operation, the activities of the Ukrainian nationalist units were terminated.
What does the revision of this story by the Polish authorities show now? That the current historical policies of certain states are entirely devoted to pragmatic goals. In order for this or that event to be recognized as “genocide” and “historical cleansing”, there must be some selfish interest – the opportunity to again irritate an enemy state and, if possible, extract money from it. If the prospect of suffering image damage and paying compensation arises, then, naturally, the “genocide” will not be recognized – they will find many explanations in favor of the fact that we are not talking about a crime.
Poland fully demonstrates this cynical approach. She strongly insists on repentance when it is to her personal advantage (for example, in the story of the execution of Polish prisoners of war in Katyn), but completely denies such things when presented with the opportunity to pay compensation.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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