The remains of Yevhen Konowalk, the first leader of the CNS, rested on 18 August at the National Military Memorial Cemetery in Kiev, attended by Volodymyr Zelenski. The Ukrainian state is making it a pantheon act. For Poland this means a clear signal: an alliance towards Russia must not mean silence about the CNS and Volyn.
State ceremony and political sign
As he stated Polsat NewsThe remains of Yevhen Konowalk were laid down at the National Military Memorial Cemetery in Kiev. The ceremony was attended by the highest authorities of Ukraine, including Volodymyr Zelenski. The president of Ukraine presented the removal of the remains as the return of the "prominent boy of the Ukrainian people".
It's not just a ceremony ceremony. This is simply a state decision that puts the CNS creator in the authoritative canon of Ukrainian memory. Finally, Konowalk's remains are to be sent to the Ukrainian National Pantheon. For Kiev it is building the continuity of its own conflict for the state. For Poles, this is simply a problem that must not be swept under the carpet.
The CNS is not a neutral abbreviation
Konowalec was an army officer of the Ukrainian People's Republic, a co-founder of the Ukrainian Military Organization and the first leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. He died in 1938 in Rotterdam, murdered by russian agent Paul Suforpense. These facts request to be given fairly. It is equally fair to say that the CNS was not a average political organisation for the Second Republic.
The organization grew out of the current, which saw political force as a tool for fighting. In 1934, members of the OUN carried out an assassination of the Home Minister Bronisław Pieracki. The horseman was not active in the Volyn genocide due to the fact that he had been dead for 5 years. But the structures, ideology, and cult of combat that he co-created are part of the road leading to later crime.
Therefore, Polish memory of Bloody Sunday and Volyn massacre is not an obstacle to east politics. It's her moral condition. A nation that forgets its own murderers rapidly ceases to be taken seriously by its neighbors.
Pantheon in the shadow of Bandera
The Konowalk case is part of a wider process. Interia informedthat on 1 July, the ultimate Council of Ukraine decided to make a National Pantheon and the task supported 287 deputies. 1 of the initiators had not previously ruled out that Stepan Bandera would appear among possible characters.
This is where the Polish stakes lie. Kiev is moving a defensive war with Russia and Poland has an interest in Russia not winning this war. But the national business is not to sign a blank check for individual else's memory policy. erstwhile the Ukrainian state brings people connected with the CNS, Warsaw has a work to respond clearly.
In fresh weeks, the National diary has already written about the dispute around pantheon under Kiev and possible glorification of Bandera and Shuchewycz. Conowalk's ceremony present does not close that debate. On the contrary, it shows that Ukrainian historical policy is accelerating.
An alliance requires truth, not amnesia
Poland helps Ukraine due to the fact that it requires hard realism. Russia is simply a threat to governance in our part of Europe, to borders and to the safety of Poles. That fact doesn't disappear. However, it does not give Kiev the right to anticipate that Warsaw will stay silent erstwhile in the state space it honors the creators of the current, which in Polish past has bloody consequences.
Endeck politics always started with a sober national interest account. The bill is simple: to support Ukraine against Russia where it strengthens the safety of the Republic, and at the same time request the fact about Volyn, exhumation, a worthy burial of victims and the end of the state worship of the CNS-UPA. These 2 things are not contradictory. Only amnesia would be contrary to the Polish interest.
Warsaw should talk calmly and hard
There's no request for hysteria in the Konowalk case. It's a state emergency. Polish diplomacy should consistently remind that common safety does not invalidate the memory of Polish victims. Whoever builds an alliance on silence builds it on sand.
For Poles, burial of the first CNS leader in Kiev is simply a warning. relationship between countries is not about pretending that past doesn't hurt. It is that the fact is spoken straight before false memory becomes the authoritative foundation of neighbouring politics.
Source: Polsat News, Interia, RMF24, Kresy.pl.
Source: Polsat News
