Deputy Head of the Ministry of abroad Affairs Marcin Bosacki warned on 23 August that entering Stepan Bandera and Roman Szuchewych into the Ukrainian National Pantheon would seriously worsen Kiev's relations with Poland and Europe. The stakes are simple: an alliance with Ukraine must not mean consent to the state cult of the people liable for crimes on civilians.
Pantheon as a memory test
The dispute concerns the Ukrainian National Pantheon Act, signed by president Volodymyr Zelenski. According to RMF24/PAP, the fresh regulations rise concerns in Poland, due to the fact that they can open the way to state honouring people associated with UPA. Bosacki, erstwhile asked about the case in TVP Info, said clearly: each nation chooses its own heroes, but choosing the people liable for mass crimes on the civilian population would have political consequences.
This is an crucial signal, due to the fact that in Polish politics besides frequently effort to separate the aid of Ukraine from the memory of Volyn. You can't. Poland's state ration requires both: support for the state fighting against Russian aggression and unconditional defence of the fact about the victims of the CNS and UPA. Who tries to argue these matters harms Poland.
Bandera and Szuchewycz share Warsaw and Kiev
Stepan Bandera and Roman Szuchewycz stay symbols whose presence in the state pantheon would be a wound to Poles with full awareness. It's about the memory of the families murdered, the exhumation, the naming of the crime by name. It is besides about the simple gravity of the relations between nations. Partnership is not about pretending that painful facts vanish erstwhile they become diplomatically uncomfortable.
In fresh weeks, the subject has returned after Ukrainian politicians and diplomats have spoken. We wrote that Ukrainian ambassador spoke of Bander as a figure worthy of respect. This is not a linguistic incident. This is the direction of part of Ukrainian memory policy, with which Poland must talk hard, calm and without complexes.
The horseman was a informing without words
Bosacki besides recalled the case of judaic Konowalc. The deputy head of the Ministry of abroad Affairs indicated that almost no representatives of the diplomacy of the European Union countries attended his ceremony in Kiev, and that was, as he said, a Polish diplomatic action. That fact matters. Europe understands that the cult of utmost nationalist formations from the 20th century does not fit into the task of European integration, although it frequently says it quieter than Warsaw.
Sam Jewish Konowalker's burial in Kiev showed how thin the border between Ukrainian state communicative and Polish historical memory is. Poland must not let the force of war to justify the silence of the crime. Russia uses all dispute, but that doesn't mean we're to quit the truth. It means only that 1 must talk precisely, without the Russian temptations and without anti-Polish silence.
An alliance without amnesia
Bosacki emphasized that Ukraine's triumph over Russia is in the Polish national interest. That conviction is real. Russian imperialism threatens Poland straight and so must not pretend that the destiny of the front in Ukraine is simply a distant matter. But the second conviction is equally true: the Polish national interest includes the memory of citizens of the Second Republic murdered by UPA.
Therefore, Warsaw should put political, not emotional conditions. The integration of Ukraine with the West cannot go alongside rehabilitation of persons charged with work for crimes on civilians. If Kiev wants the western road, it must realize the western measurement of work for history. And Poland has a work to guarantee that Moscow did not usage Volyn for its own gameBut he would not treat Kiev as a method obstacle.
This isn't about hostility to Ukrainians. It's about respect for victims and the maturity of the state. The nations that want to build a lasting alliance do not begin by putting on pedestal people associated by a neighbour with the blood of his families. If Kiev does not realize this, the problem will not only be Polish-Ukrainian. It'll be European.
Source: Kresy.pl, RMF24/PAP
