Lviv on the Polish independency Day
Every year in Lviv, on 11 November, Poland celebrates a solemn vacation of regaining independence.
On that day, the capital of east Małopolska, after a fewer hours on the Polish-Ukrainian border, comes erstwhile Lvivians, activists of border associations, banner mails of young people from schools referring to the heritage of the Lviv Orląts and lovers of Lviv and east Borders. Unfortunately, all year, there are less and less arrivals...
The celebrations are organized by the Polish consulate in Lviv and Polish organizations there. The tourist office “Quand” from Tomaszów Lubelski organizes a peculiar “patriotic departure” on 11 November, which is attended by members of the Society of Lovers of Lviv and the South-East Borders from Lublin and the flagship post of the schools of the Orląt Lwowskie from Zamość, Krasnestaw, authoritative of Kraśnik and Tomaszów Lubelskie. After the solemn Mass, celebrated in the Lwowska Cathedral, we then go to the Łyczkowski Cemetery, where in its military part at the City Defenders Cemetery, commonly called the "Cementary of the Lwowski Orląts" we lay wreaths on the disc of the Unknown Polish Soldier marked Szczerbce, there are speeches and in the lofty atmosphere we sing Rota and our anthem Mazurek Dąbrowski.
Lviv called “most Polish of Polish cities” – since the 15th century it has been the main centre of Polishness in east Małopolska. The town of Peltvia, located on 7 hills, on the confederate Mite, was for centuries a large centre of Polish patriotism. The way he wrote Makushinski Cornnel "Polish city possessed" was artificially cut off by Stalin from Poland in 1944. Marshal Józef Piłsudski awarded the town in 1922 with the Virtuti Militari order, in designation of being a heroic defence against Ukrainians at the turn of 1918 and 1919. In 1939, in Lviv, Poles accounted for about 60%, Jews 25%, and Ukrainians 12% – a full of about 315,000 inhabitants. In 1944, many Polish refugees from Lviv, Podolski villages and towns slaughtered by UPA gangs entered it.
Fortunately, planet War II dealt rather graciously with Lviv, monuments and churches suffered comparatively small (such as Tarnopol was then turned by the Germans into a fortress and as a consequence of the Red Army offensive, it was practically taken off the surface) and present we can admire them by walking along beautiful streets from which Polish culture and the brutal art blinds the nationalists of there. Unfortunately – the Ukrainian side tries to cover all traces of Polishness ....
We should remember – until present there are Poles surviving in Lviv who cultivate Polish language and culture. It is officially there (Lviv and neighbouring towns) of our countrymen respective thousand, but any estimation that there may be up to 50 thousand. In 1944-46 the Russians together with the Ukrainians tried in all way to force our countrymen to leave. At the turn of 1944/45, mass arrests were carried out throughout Lviv, and a year later Polish workers were handed work orders to Donbas ... The aim was to get free of Poles, for arrests and dispatches the alternate was to go to Poland... Today, Lvivers and their descendants live in Wrocław, Legnica, Jelenia Góra, Lower Silesia, Opole, Gliwice, Zabrze and Bytom. But a tiny part remained after the war, specified as the art historian Mieczysław Gębarovich ‘last guard’ of Ossolineum or Janina Zamojska Animator of Polish environments in Lviv and curator of national heritage.
Currently there are 2 Polish schools in Lviv. A fewer years ago, a bust of the UPA Commandant was hung on the wall of school 10. Romana Szuchewycz ps. “Taras Czuprynka”, Nazi criminal and genocide, liable for the death of thousands of Poles and Jews, the author of the order – “... to cut Poles into pieces ...”. Szuchewycz – as even Ukrainian sources confirm – in August 1943. He accepted the genocide committed in the Poles in Volyn by the UPA at the head of which he was Dmytro Klaczkiwskij ps. ‘Klym Sawur’, and then ordered to carry out a akin slaughter of the Polish population in east Galicia. The suspension of the board of specified an individual on the Polish school was an apparent Ukrainian provocation, which did not encounter practically any reaction of the Polish side. Where are these mythical “Pro-Polish environments in Ukraine” where are these “Lvivian-Kijovian elites”...? If a plaque was hung on the wall of Ukrainian school in Poland, dedicated to 1 of the Polish guerrilla commanders, who took part in a retaliatory action against the Ukrainian population, then most likely after a fewer days the “Warsaw-Krakov elite” would cry out in outrage and a storm about “Polish anti-Ukrainian nationalism” would start...
Recently, the portal krzyszy.pl stated that on 14 October (the alleged “Day of the Defender of Homeland” established by Poroszenko on the day of the UPA!) president Zelenski gave the title of hero of Ukraine to a inactive surviving 1 Myroslaw Symczych, who commanded 1 of the UPA bands in 1944, issued orders to assassinate Polish villages Pistyń and Trzyc in the erstwhile Stanisławów Voivodeship. The papers published by the Wrocław Association for the Memorialation of Victims of Ukrainian Nationalists besides state that this individual personally murdered the Polish household of Ivanicki, including tiny children. Why are the Polish prosecutors and IPN not after this human-killer?! Why are Ukrainians now, during the war with Russia, deciding on specified anti-Polish provocations?
Currently, Ukraine consists of Polish voivodships from the times of the Second Polish Republic – Volynskie, Tarnopolskie, Stanislawskie and partially Lvivskie. There are presently very fewer Poles in these areas, who survived the bander massacre that escaped after the war on Earth regained. Bands of UPA slaughtered Polish villages lying on Podol, over Zbrucz, Dniester and Seret even erstwhile it was known that all Poles would be resettled to Poland. specified a symbolic example is the execution in Ihrovica close Tarnopol, carried out by the banders on Christmas Eve 1944, i.e. more than six months after crossing the front. 89 people were murdered, including Fr Stanisław Szczepankiewicz..with an axe.
After Lviv, Poles now besides live in Ivano-Frankivsk (formerly Stanisławów), Sambor, Mościska, Sądowa Wisznia, Czerwonograd (formerly Krystinopol), Drohobycz, Złoczów and Żółkiw, and Plain and Kostopol in Volyn. Many more of our compatriots now live behind Zbrucz (terrains where there was no slaughter of the band UPA), in the vicinity of Żytomierz, Berdyczów, Chmielnicki (formerly Płoskirów), White Church or Vinnica. In the 1920s, Dowbysz was the main centre of the Polish national territory of the alleged "Marchlewszczyzna" within the framework of the USRR.
According to authoritative data in Ukraine there are presently about 150 1000 Poles, in fact there are at least 350 1000 people of Polish nationality. Most of them are afraid to admit their Polish nationality, and the Bolsheviks were erstwhile feared – present neo-banderists. The scandal is that there is not a single Polish school in the full Żytomierzce – despite the occurrence of compact areas inhabited by the Polish population. Was it not possible for the Ukrainian State, presently seeking to join the EU structure, to afford to build 1 school facility for Poles there for 30 years?
Before the war, there were about 35 Roman Catholic churches in the area of Lviv and the close area. During the russian times, the Russians allowed only the Lviv Roman Catholic Cathedral and St. Anthony's Church in Łychak (for years the parish has been fighting against the city in courts for the plebania building). It's been over 30 years of independent Ukraine and... nothing's changed. Poles in Lviv cannot ask for the transfer of at least 1 church. The vast majority was occupied by the Greek Catholic church, the hierarchs who do not even want to hear of the dedication of any robbed temple. In erstwhile years, our compatriots in the church building of St. Mary Magdalene (now at Bandery Street – behind II of Poland at Sapieha Street), in which the "organ performance hall" was presently arranged, carried out twice the business hunger strikes demanding the surrender of the temple to the Roman Catholic Church.
Protests did nothing, Lvov's mer consistently refuses – reportedly Andrij Sadowej He was expected to say that even if he always agreed to donate the church, “the Polish state will gotta build” another building for the organ hall. Unfortunately, the Polish media kept the subject completely silent. If a akin situation had occurred in Russia or Belarus, this case would not have been off the charts, and Polish politicians would have been indignant. I would add that during his first visit to Ukraine in December 2015, the President, after his election, Andrzej Duda – Bringing immense financial assistance – he asked Poroshenko (unfortunately unsuccessfully...) to quit this owning church ...
In Lviv itself in many places you can announcement hanging red-black UPA flags and flagstones. The impression is made by a monumental statue of Bandera, which from a distance looks like Lenin's postument, is reportedly constantly protected by bodyguards. close is the beautiful neo-Gothic church of St. Elizabeth – now the Greek Catholic church – which old people say Lviv is set on the border of the watershed, reportedly the water flows from 1 roof to the basin of the Baltic and from the another to the Black Sea. Last October, the Lviv Circuit Council announced that 2022 would be officially celebrated on its territory as the year of the Ukrainian Insurgency Army, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of this criminal formation.
There are inactive many paintings and another works of art robbed in Lviv during planet War II by the Russians. presently these treasures of Polish culture are owned by Ukrainians who behave like fences. In 2019, the authorities of the Lviv Art Gallery conducted an "audit" of collections that showed that around 700 exhibits had simply vanished. It's just that more valuable images and volumes are systematically stolen and sold on the black market. Everyone's known about this for years and nothing changes. Even worse is the collections of the celebrated Ossolineum, which simply rot scattered in the cellars of the Lviv Citadel. Ukrainians like a gardener's dog – like to lead to a situation of full demolition of old Polish collections than to return to Polish hands.
In fresh months, the “star” of Polish media is the mayor of Lviv Andry Sadowyj. It should be remembered to the forgetful that it was he who opposed the uprising of the Polish home in Lviv (the construction of the church is slimming and is administratively hampered by the municipal authorities), he acted against the dedication of the Roman Catholics to the church of St Mary Magdalene and repeatedly participated in the glorification of Ukrainian criminals from the bands UPA and SS-Galizien, among others, a fewer years ago during Ukrainian celebrations in Piculice under Przemyśl. Now, as a consequence of the Russian threat, is he posing as a European and friend of Poles – did he truly get the flagism and chauvinism completely out of his head?
Almost all day we learn from the media about another military, economical and financial support which Poland provides Ukraine. Our country transports natural materials across the east border, passes ambulances and fire trucks, supports the Ukrainian banking strategy and businesses, and even defuses themselves in the name of assistance to the “brother country”. For about 30 years, Poland has been referred to as Ukraine's attorney. All governments have supported the European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of this country in all way. Polish society provides large aid to Ukrainian refugees, Ukrainian flags fly in cities and trizubs hang, most Poles support Ukraine in the war with Russia. Unfortunately, it is love completely blind and unrequited...
Are Poles in Ukraine persecuted? Recently, the Minister for European Affairs has become Szymon Sękowski aka Sęk, who is yet to be Deputy Minister of abroad Affairs. According to the Journal-Gazeta Prawna (there was besides a short text in Rzeczpospolita) on 28 October 2021 at a gathering of the Parliamentary Commission on Communication with Poles across the border, he said, "There will be no exaggeration in stating that Poles in Ukraine are discriminated against in terms of freedom of religion, access to education in their parent tongue and freedom of speech". Since specified thesis was officially presented by a advanced authoritative of the Polish government, he had real grounds for it. It is unusual that this message was practically silenced by the Polish political class. But – as the native Lwowiak erstwhile said – the trainer of the Millennium – Kazimierz Górski – “You play as your opponent allows”>
Three years ago, it was the 100th anniversary of the defence of Lviv. The city defended itself due to the fact that Polish defenders were residents of this castle knowing all alley and alley in contrast to Ukrainian soldiers, for whom everything there was foreign. The Lviv AK besides prepared for a possible fight for the city with Ukrainians in 1944. As a consequence of the offensive of russian troops and supporting in the fight the AK troops (Action “Burza”) Lviv was liberated – hundreds of Polish flags, including at the Lviv Town Hall, hung on the streets for respective days. Unfortunately, Polish defenders were cunningly arrested and transported to Sibir, and “always faithful” the city was virtually cut from the Polish body – it was a shock to the inhabitants. present Lviv is part of the Ukrainian state, but historically and culturally it is simply a Polish city. This is evidenced by the Lviv streets, churches turned into churches or even stolen works of art, which came from the hands of Polish artists. Lwowski Magistrate held a number of cultural events under the motto respective years ago "Lviv – Austrian, judaic and UkrainianIt’s okay. ”
Has Sadowy's mayor “forgotten” over 400 years of Polish presence in this city or is it primitive to commit fraud? What ethnicities were Kasprowicz, Makuszinski, Fredro, Goszczyński, Hemar, Lem, Balzer, Bełza, Zacharewicz, Gorgolewski, Herbert, Zapolska, Szczepanowski, Łukasiewicz, Banach, Dzieduszycki, Parandowski, Zagajewski, Kossak, Styka, Grottger...? surviving in Bytom, poet and publicist, Marcin Noisz A fewer years ago, he issued a book "Give us the Lions", in which he did not request to return Poland to the city, but only called to remember the historical and cultural Polish heritage of this castle. The answer to Ukrainian safety was to include him in the passport the ban on entering Ukraine. It is truly hard to realize the conduct of the Lviv safety Service, which alternatively of searching for Russian spies deals mainly with the persecution of Polish border activists and people who effort to commemorate their relatives murdered in Volyn and Podol by UPA bands.
Who was at the Łychakovsky Cemetery is long impressed by this beautifully located necropolis. Ukrainians charge fees for entering its territory, which is the global phenomenon. Polish tourists light candles on the graves of Konopnicka, Zapolskia, Bełza, Grottger, Kossak or Ordon.... The central place, however, is “the cemetery of the Orląts of Lviv” where lies the remains of heroic defenders of the Polish Lviv, gymnasts, scouts, students, workers and batiars who gave their young lives for the Polishness of this city. There's besides a grave in this cemetery. General Tadeusz Rozwadowski ‘Jordan’, defender of the besieged Lviv in 1919 and in 1920 chief of staff of the WP during the war with the Bolsheviks. I mention curious in the subject to the books of prof. Stanisław Nicieja.
The Lwowski Orląt Cemetery, destroyed by Bolsheviks in 1971, whose reconstruction was undertaken by Energopol workers in 1990, and which was officially unveiled in 2005 is simply a salt in the eye of Ukrainian chauvinists. It is simply a place of proof of the Polishness of Lviv and that is why the yearly ceremonies held on 11 November are so important. Even at the beginning of the erstwhile decade, delegations from Wrocław, Bytomia and Opole came to visit them – presently only representatives of Przemyśl and Lublin. Unfortunately, Polish politicians bypass them with a wide arch – they are most likely afraid to be accused of Polish nationalism.
A fewer years ago, he participated in them, as a typical of the Marshal's office in Wroclaw, known for the breaks of “Polish Thought” – Tadeusz Samborski. In the last 2 writing numbers, a very interesting article was published by him about the Ukrainian rebellion in September 1939. specified situations, i.e. murders carried out by Ukrainian bands on Polish soldiers and refugees from western and central Poland, took place not only in Volyn and in east Galicia, but besides in my household Zamość. frequently Polish families from Wielkopolska or Mazowsze simply "disappeared" after staying in the Ukrainian farm – and reminded of the visit only additional horse and fresh clothes of children of Ukrainian host... Fortunately, Poles are now acting rather differently in helping Ukrainian women and children fleeing the war.
Will there be celebrations for the Polish independency Day in Lviv in this “war” 2022? Will they be brave and alternatively of marching among thousands in Warsaw – they will make “white-red” on the Lwowski Orląt Cemetery? Lviv – was the city of “always faithful – Semper Fidelis” of the Republic – will we remember this?
Jarosław Świderek
The author is an activist of the Association of Memory of Poles Murdered in Volyn
Think Poland, No. 45-46 (6-13.11.2022)
