On indivisible freedom

Very soon we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the 1917-21 Ukrainian Liberation Revolution. This event has many aspects, one of the most interesting of them being the relations between the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the emerging newly-independent Polish state, the Second Polish Republic led by Jozef Pilsudski. If willing, one obviously can pay special attention to military conflicts between the two sides, especially to the fighting between the West Ukrainian People’s Republic’s forces and Polish troops in 1918-19. Today, however, we ascribe special importance to those pages of the shared Ukrainian-Polish history of that period that featured political and military cooperation between Ukrainians and Poles; on a personal level, it centered on Symon Petliura and Jozef Pilsudski, who, despite the fundamental differences of opinion, managed to unite, through the Ukrainian-Polish treaty of April 1920, their efforts in the fight against Red Russia, which threatened both countries.

It resulted in the joint Polish-Ukrainian victory (which should be treated as such due to Ukrainians’ active participation in it) near Warsaw in August 1920, when the Bolshevik troops’ European offensive was stopped. Without the Ukrainian-Polish alliance, this achievement would have been impossible. Conversely, any discord between our countries and peoples was exploited by the Kremlin then and is being exploited now. We must remember this and draw appropriate conclusions. In equal measure, we must remember the Polish insurgents’ slogan “For our freedom and yours,” which has not lost its relevance in the slightest.

On February 15-18, Poland hosted an official Ukrainian delegation made of MPs who are members of the group on interparliamentary relations with the Republic of Poland, headed by MPs Oksana Yurynets (the Petro Poroshenko Bloc) and Mykola Kniazhytskyi (People’s Front). The Ukrainian delegation met with Deputy Marshal of the Sejm Ryszard Terlecki, representing the Law and Justice party. According to the Sejm’s chancellery, the conversation dealt with the annexation of Crimea and historical issues. The importance of developing relations between Poland and Ukraine at the parliamentary level was also stressed by chairman of the Sejm’s Committee on Liaison with Poles Abroad Michal Dworczyk.

Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day

“We want to engage in dialog with members of the Ukrainian parliament on cooperation in the field of historical politics; we want to end the debate and clarify misunderstandings,” Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Jan Dziedziczak said at a press briefing in the Sejm.

The Day asked our experts to answer the question: “What do we love about Poland and what reservations do we have regarding certain statements and actions of the current Polish government in view of the danger of discord in Ukrainian-Polish relations in the context of current challenges?”

THE POLISH PEOPLE’S SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE

Leonid ZASHKILNIAK, Doctor of Sciences (History), expert on Polish-Ukrainian relations, deputy director for research at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine’s Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies, Lviv:

“What we love is a Poland, which sought, above all, self-determination and independence. The spirit of independence of the Polish people in the broadest sense of that term contributed greatly to triggering the Ukrainian national movement.

“We love it for the Polish uprisings of the 19th century and conspiratorial organizations, which, despite the repression, allowed the Poles to fight against tyranny, the tsarist regime and its empire. And we certainly love this Polish spirit of independence.

“We love Poland of high culture, which has been elitist to a large extent. This includes such poets as Zygmunt Krasinski, Adam Mickiewicz, and Juliusz Slowacki, who promoted values which were both universal and national.

“Programs of our early political forces, such as the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, relied heavily on Polish poetry or writings of leading figures of the 19th century Polish national liberation movement.

“The Polish dissident and opposition movement at the end of the past century was not based on purely national values anymore, turning to liberal and democratic ones instead. The Polish movement for liberation from the Soviet yoke was basically about human rights. It was a totally new element, appearing with the movements of the 20th century, and it showed the way to some of our opposition dissident organizations, like the Helsinki Group, which emulated the Polish dissidents, primarily Jacek Kuron and Adam Michnik.

“Speaking of literature, no other Eastern European country has so many Nobel laureates in that field. In particular, I mean Czeslaw Milosz, who treated Ukrainian issues and the Ukrainian liberation movement with great sympathy and understanding. Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska won a Nobel Prize as well. These people set us an example, for they put universal human problems first instead of patriotism and defended human rights.

“Since the 1970s, I have been studying the Ukrainian-Polish cooperation, and it was probably in the past decade that I began noticing the negative trends in the Polish social landscape, where largely artificial issues of the past were suddenly beginning to interfere with the present and future. I believe we need to learn from the past, but think about the future. What I am talking about here includes controversial resolutions of the Sejm, Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s speeches, publications appearing on social networks and in the media. The Poles suddenly remembered the old stereotypes about the murderous Ukrainian, the Banderaite Ukrainian, and started arguing that the Ukrainians committed genocide by exterminating Poles. Meanwhile, instances of Poles exterminating Ukrainians are being left out. This background of political tension has largely been generated by artificial infusion of history in the present. Were we to look for the roots of this infusion, I would say that some circles, the media, patriotism are acting as a conduit for reviving some imperialist ideas from the long-dead Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Still, I think Poland has a lot of healthy forces and smart people, and these viral diseases of patriotic nostalgia should somehow pass, like a flu outbreak.”

PATRIOTIC STANCE, DEEP PATRIOTISM

Olha BETLII, Associate Professor of History, deputy director of the Center for Polish and European Studies at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Kyiv:

“For me, Poland has always been an example: an example of patriotic stance, that deep patriotism that comes with the understanding of long-standing political traditions, good education, and a clear understanding of national interests. It is noble, rational, and often romantic when it comes to Ukraine. Ultimately, it was Polish colleagues, experts on Ukrainian issues, who did a lot to show us how to define and defend Ukrainian interests in the international arena. In addition to ignoring the current tensions which I believe to be temporary, I will also depart from the common practice of calling Poland ‘Ukraine’s locomotive’ in the EU. This metaphor fails to grasp the basic features of Poland’s Ukrainian policy, which include unfailing interest, high professionalism, and a thorough understanding of Ukrainian issues. I dream of the time when we in Ukraine will know Poland as well and have as many experts on Polish subjects, because we deserve it. Poland is also rich in history and culture. Every Polish city is a unique world full of different traditions. Compared with Ukraine, where the cultural and intellectual life has mainly developed around four cities (Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Odesa), Poland has had every city contributing to creating a strong modern Polish culture. It cannot help but impress us.”

“UKRAINE AND POLAND ARE TWO HUGE WORLDS, BUT THEY ALSO MAKE UP A SMALL CRACK IN THE ARTIFICIAL BORDER”

Anna DANYLCHUK, vice rector for research and education, European integration and liaison with students, Lesia Ukrainka Eastern European National University:

“The world is big. It can be seen in its entirety only from a spacecraft, but one would not see the details then. The devil, they say, lies in them. However, they open new beauty as well. A panoramic view, too, will give a different impression from that offered by a narrow strip of light which is visible through a crack in the wall. Still, what one has seen will anyway be only a partial truth, divorced from that absolute truth which only God can see. Ukraine and Poland are two huge worlds, but they also make up a small crack in the artificial border.

“I will deliberately avoid writing about people who have risen high above the bustle of politicians, games of opportunists and those who are just insulted philosophers. I will tell you a fresh story, one born this February, a story of two Poles, a father and a son who took a trip to the erstwhile Radziwillian town of Olyka. They are Radoslaw and Piotr from Poznan. Radoslaw does business with Ukraine, and he really likes this country. He is so sincere about it that he decided to spend his most recent vacation with his son, and instead of Portugal, they went to Volhynia. It is noteworthy that they do not have ancestral graves, roots or inheritance here. For them, this land is just as unknown as Thailand or aforementioned Portugal, albeit less alien, because Radoslaw always feels the taste of his childhood on coming here. When planning the trip, he jokingly told his son: ‘Let us go to visit the Banderaites.’ And the son, being a well-educated kid and a university student, spent a lot of time looking up on Google who the ‘Banderaites’ were. Piotr was equally poorly informed about the Volhynia massacres and did not see the film Volhynia, and his university friends did not either. They liked their short trip through bleak towns covered in half-thawed snow. They went to see the Radziwill Palace in Olyka, churches, and Lutsk Castle. ‘You have very good food and good service,’ they did not tire of repeating to the guide, who was still only half-believing that everyday Volhynia had impressed them so much. The son kept extolling the beauty of our girls, and his father was looking for tastes of his childhood by buying up pickled tomatoes and Trans-Bug baked cabbage. Sometimes the son saw what the father wanted to show, sometimes he failed to understand it, but both were looking at Ukraine straight, free from political-electoral filters, propaganda insults, and sports nationalism. I remember that elderly Volhynians also had a habit of saying that ‘under the Polish administration, even clay was better.’ These memories are not about empire, but about one’s youth and taste. Ukraine and Poland are two huge worlds that are dangling in time’s universe. Ukraine and Poland are also a small crack in the artificial border, and one sees through it that which is hidden, things taught in one’s childhood, and coming days. We have to choose what to see.”