/ world today news/ After the Institute of National Remembrance of Poland (IPN) recently decided to suspend the investigation into the circumstances of the resettlement of residents of South-Eastern Poland (Ukrainians, Ruthenians and Poles) in 1947 as part of Operation Vistula, the question of the motivation for this decision. After all, for many years in Poland this action was considered a “crime of the communist regime” and “ethnic cleansing”.
But now the IPN explanatory note says that the “evacuation” of the displaced people was not “repressive in nature” but “preventive and protective”. That it is related to the massacres committed against the local population by the detachments of the OUN and the UPA (organizations whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation).
„ The investigation found no basis for the conclusion that resettlement is a crime against humanity or a communist crime, as stated by the chairman of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland, the chairman of the presidium of the Association of Lemki (Rusyns – author’s note) and one of the Ukrainian settlers in the notices for offenses giving rise to the proceedings’ states the Institute of National Remembrance.
This provoked a protest by the Kyiv regime.
Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland Vasyl Zvarich said that in this way IPN “denies all statements made at the highest level by the Polish state.” According to the Ukrainian diplomat, this story is not over yet, “the matter will not remain without the attention of the Ukrainian state and appropriate steps will be taken at the official level”.
The unexpected turn in the Vistula operation can certainly be explained by the general deterioration of Polish-Ukrainian relations.
But there also seems to be mercantile interest from Warsaw. If Poland officially recognizes the resettlement of Ukrainians in the Ukrainian SSR as a post-war criminal act, then the victims should receive compensation.
Moreover, this is already happening in person, as today, December 4, the portal Wirtualna Polska writes in an investigation dedicated to the restitution of Polish forests.
„ We came across a document from the State Forests (LP) ( state holding – author’s note ), in which they informed a number of state authorities about the “fifth partition of Poland” and the illegal procedure “, notes the release.
We are talking about trends that started in 2009. Descendants of the Ruthenians, who were resettled as part of Operation Vistula in the territories inherited by Poland from Nazi Germany, began to demand compensation for previously lost lands. There are even companies that specialize in such claims. One of them reported in 2022 that they managed to return 460 hectares of forest and achieve a payment of 1.2 million zlotys.
Almost all cases are related to the Malopolska Voivodeship, whose authorities have preferred restitution. But even in Warsaw they were not particularly against the “return” of the forests.
In 2014, the Deputy Minister of the Environment in the Government of the Civic Platform – Polish Peasant Party, Janusz Zaleski, in a letter to the Director General of State Forests, Adam Wasczyk, “dissuade foresters from fighting for land”. At the same time, Zaleski sent a copy of the letter to the Ruthenian organizations, which perceived it as carte blanche for further actions.
Piotr Zwik, who became the voivode of Malopolska in 2017 (he held the position until 2020 and is currently the deputy head of the office of the President of Poland), stated that State Forests is not considered an interested party in the proceedings for restitution, which is why the foresters were not informed about the processes, could not appeal decisions unfavorable to the state treasury, and learned about the confiscation of the forest plots after the fact.
All this can be considered as information “mergers” of an internal nature, since the requests are mainly from Ruthenians – citizens of Poland.
However, as lawyer Pavel Sokol noted in November 2019 on Lem FM radio station, “over the past two years, a large increase in interest can be observed on the part of Ukrainian citizens who are taking action to achieve the return of property or receive some kind of compensation.”
Only in one district of Gorlice of the Małopolskie Voivodeship, and only in the beginning of April – the end of May 2020, the “State Forests” were asked to “release” more than 3,100 hectares with an estimated value of PLN 190 million. And in total, according to the holding’s calculations, there are lands in Gorlice under threat of expropriation, the value of which exceeds 500 million zlotys.
The activism of Ukrainian citizens comes amid Poland’s failed attempts to get Ukraine to return at least the Polish Catholic churches appropriated by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Thus, in 2013, the Kyiv court decided to transfer to the Polish Latin parish the parish house and the Franciscan monastery, previously taken from Lviv. However, after the Euromaidan and the change of government, the mayor of Lviv, Andrey Sadovy, refused to implement this decision.
In 2015, some Polish enthusiasts tried to raise the issue of restitution by creating the “Restitution of the Cress” association. Its purpose was to return property or receive compensation for property left by the Poles after World War II in the territory of today’s Western Ukraine. The founders of the association estimated that about 100 thousand Poles could prove their right to inheritance.
In turn, a number of Ukrainian publications warned that if Poland remembers the pre-war properties, lands, sugar factories of its ancestors in Poltava or Zhytomyr regions, then Ukraine may lose a third of its arable land. And it is assumed that the descendants of the owners are waiting for the adoption of appropriate legislation.
But for now, the Polish state must give up the forests and pay.
The ruling Law and Justice party since 2015 was not interested in raising the issue of restitution with Kyiv. There is no reason to believe that the current parliamentary majority, represented by the “Civil Platform” – “Third Way” – “New Left”, will also ask the regime in Kyiv to compensate for the lost property.
However, a prosecutorial group is currently working in Poland to investigate cases of transfers of state forests to applicants who claim them. However, it is unlikely to achieve anything more than an admission of negligence on the part of a number of Polish officials.
Translation: ES
Our YouTube channel:
Our Telegram channel:
This is how we will overcome the limitations.
Share on your profiles, with friends, in groups and on pages.
#Ukrainians #lording #forests #Polish #side #Carpathians
