Let's not insult animals by comparing to UPA. What the Ukrainians did 82 years ago in Volyn was nothing animal and had nothing to do with how animals behave.
An animal kills to last – very frequently kills to not be killed. From the point of view of human morality, he commits evil, but not barbarous. The animal does not enjoy murdering, does not commit sophisticated crimes, is not in a state of ecstasy due to an exceptionally creative violation of the 5th commandment. The animals must no uncertainty be left alone here. The only link between animals and events from Volyn is that Ukrainian torturers have led Poles to this level of suffering and trampling on dignity, in which dying becomes dying.
What did the Ukrainians do 82 years ago in Volyn?
A fewer eyewitness accounts are quoted below. Hollywood productions bidding with their predecessors in the field of "the level of brutality", peculiar effects for millions of dollars, or imagination richer than the most prominent authors of fantastic books have – seem worthless erstwhile read. Life trampled on the imagination – how it was treated.
"The victims of the robbery were forced into the barn, inflicting cruel torment on them, inflicting stab wounds to the chest, thus killing adults. First of all, men, at the head of the father Wenceslaw Wereszczyński, what he besides saw Ambroży and then women. In the final phase, the children were driven [in] and burned alive in a closed barn.”
“They started a canonade with a weapon to a runaway girl who fell into the corn pits. 1 of the bullets hit. 1 or more Ukrainians ran to kill her with flasks. So long they beat until alternatively of the head a shapeless pulp.”
“Let the cruelty of the attackers be borne out by the fact that 1 of the villagers who grazed the horses had their tongue cut out and their eyes pierced and then they mockedly asked if they knew who did. Ukrainian criminals left him in a pool of blood to die in torment and drive away.”
"The Ukrainian sieks were chopped up by people into pieces, and the small babies were by the legs and against the wall, until the brain gushed out, killing in specified a terrible way. any of you had small twins erstwhile the bandits came in, they said they couldn't give 1 advice, and here 2 more are born and by legs and against the head wall until the head broke. They so savagely murdered in front of their husband's wife and children, and yet raped and murdered her.”
Evil in pure form
The Volyn massacre is an unprecedented event, it is something to which 1 can appeal by describing another murders in order to show their savagery – it itself is evil so pure and so utmost that it fits in terms of incomparability. Hitler's Germans or Russians in Katyn retained this promilium, visible under a microscope and hidden behind the storm of savagery – but inactive – human reflexes (the first obeyed any global conventions, others shot in the back of the head, not even tearing the body apart with 2 moving in the other direction of horses). Ukrainians murdering Poles in Volyn, but besides Jews and Czechs are archetypes of the dead.
Connected by Memory Struggle
A large part of Polish politicians and publicists have been doing everything for many years, so that the memories of Volyn will be dusty to be locked in a museum hidden behind 7 mountains, a museum closed in a lock, which takes many years to be sawed in order to get there.
This was done jointly and in agreement by journalists and politicians connected with 2 major parties in Poland. any did so in the name of “not waking up the demons of Polish nationalism” or akin “wisdom” specified as “you gotta focus on the future” (it always wondered whether on November 1 these people were going to the cemetery in this way). Others did so in the name of the concept of "Polish Jagielloński", which orders to support east neighbours in their struggles with Russia for freedom.
Memory After Witness Death
In another words – those whose own nation is not very curious at all (unless it is essential to overwhelm the pogrom in Jedwabne – lost a 1000 people there, while in Volyn "only" 1 100 times more) and those who believe that the past of this nation is simply a fight for the freedom of another nations.
Now – in the face of the inconceivable cry for justice – a large part of these politicians and publicists graciously admitted that commemoration of the victims from Volyn was needed. specified kindness came erstwhile most witnesses of those events were no longer present in this world.
Some of them will most likely say they didn't know. rather amazing is this raising ignorance to the rank of basic alibi by certain people and certain environments, usually by those who know the most. A certificate of self-ignorance protects against allegations of silence or support of crime. Therefore, so many are so eager to call themselves ignorant.
Gustav Herling-Georgian As early as 1949, he wrote that Polish intelligence must not be unaware of the crimes of Stalinism. Lech Kaczyński already in 2008 he knew what Russia truly was like. Holy memory priest Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski, in my humble opinion, 1 of the most prominent figures in the contemporary past of Poland, talked about Volyn respective years ago. And the politicians and the public didn't know? Or did they figure it was better not to know? They couldn't keep quiet from 82 years ago, so they started sabotaging the fight for justice. That it is necessary, but not now – due to the fact that now Ukrainians are fighting for survival. That it is essential – but those who fight for it the most are (and indeed!) "ruskie ones" and are driven by hatred. That it was a conflict in which each side was guilty. That these events from distant past and today's Ukrainians have nothing to do with it.
This is the best time to influence the Ukrainians
At the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine, I went to the East Railway Station in Warsaw to receive the Ukrainians coming and seeking shelter – I escorted them to the shelter with accommodation places, where they were waiting for further transport. I shuddered at the thought of the atrocities committed by the Russian invaders—the shooting of children, the rape of women, the savagery far beyond that which frequently triggers war in people.
I was impressed by the scale of aid that Poles gave to Ukrainians. I did not consider 1 thing – that in any cultures good is seen as something noble and repays it with good, while in another cultures good is weakness and good must be used. To this day, Ukrainians have not agreed to complete exhumations. To this day, Ukrainians have not apologized for the Volyn massacre. They were given money, military equipment, roofs over their heads – they were incapable to make even honorable gestures. No, it wasn't Polish society that started to be anti-Ukrainian – Polish society is what it was. You can't ask anyone to want to be used.
Two arguments
Many politicians and publicists, as I mentioned, reacted to the Poles' request for full exhumation and apology with an argument: they are fighting for survival, let us not require it from them now. For 79 years before the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the same politicians and publicists, of course, did not request anything either. The Ukrainians, erstwhile they did not wage war, did not, of course, express any consent to the exhumation and apologize for anything. The war lasts for 3 years – ignoring Polish memory and Polish sensitivity lasts for 82 years. No little crucial are 2 another arguments – 1 refers to the sphere of interest, the another to human sensitivity.
Firstly, if the Ukrainian people want to be regarded as belonging to the European sphere of civilization and having over the Russians what is called a moral advantage, they should not hide the deviant who committed crimes decades ago even more terrible than those Russians. Belonging to the structures of global organizations to which Ukraine aspires excludes relativisation of genocide.
Secondly, with all its horror, war can be a lesson of empathy and humanity, due to the deep disgust of this war, specified a defensive reaction, meaning "I do not want to be like them." The best way to defy the brutality of the enemy is not to be equally brutal – winding the spiral of beasthood leads to the fact that at any point 1 forgets what is actually right behind it and whether it has any meaning at all. Feeling what the Ukrainians now could think for a minute how the families of those murdered in Volyn feel.
Memory, not hate
Often the opponents of strong demands against Ukrainians argue: Poles talking about Volyn massacre do not direct sensitivity to victims, but hatred for Ukrainians. And possibly in any cases they are right – seeing any posts on social networks, I was wondering myself if the strength of hostility was specified that it might have a problem getting a long-term reflection on the destiny of the murdered people. But what does that prove? That Ukrainians long ago should not have agreed to complete exhumations? That Ukrainians shouldn't apologize to us? That Ukrainians should build monuments to degenerates?
Volyn did not fall from the sky – about the ideology of the CNS
In the context of the assessments of historical events and attitudes of peoples and nations, there is always a question of the scale of support for certain actions, but besides of their ideological motivation. It is clear that a group of dozens of hatefully motivated people do not act on behalf of the full nation and it is hard to make them a origin of shame for future generations. It should besides be said that, with all its reprimand, the common, murderous decision caused by the madness of war, the accumulation of affective states or another phenomena, which should be explained alternatively by psychiatry, is something another than established by the adoption of ideology, profoundly rooted hostility.
Ukrainian Hostility had its banners, its program, its ideologists, its objectives. Ukrainian nationalists besides murdered during the interwar period in the II Rzeczpospolita – let us callback the names of the BBWR associate Tadeusz Holówka Or the Home Minister Bronisław Pieracki. It was done by members of the CNS. If we were to deal with comparisons and analogies or their lack, we would gotta compose any specified texts. However, let us mention the assassination of the first president of Poland after the partitions, i.e. Gabriel Narutovich. The killer. Eligius the Unknown, yes, he had nationalistic beliefs, but despite his hard efforts, his organizational connections with the National Democracy camp could not be demonstrated.
Different Nationalisms
Ideology of Organizations of Ukrainian Nationalists, whose main author was Dmitro Doncow, author, among others. Decalogue Ukrainian nationalists were something completely different from what representatives of the most utmost sects of Polish nationalism preached before the war. extremist Polish nationalism, expressed by the head of the National and extremist Camp Jan Mosdorf It was based on Christian foundations, while the ideologies of the CNS were explicitly replaced The nation's creator was called an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. 7 point mentioned Decalogue (The very fact that a “competitive” Decalogue was created for this Christian is significant) he said: “You will not hesitate to do the most dangerous thing if it is the good of the case”. Point 8 reads as follows: ‘With hatred and ruthless fighting you will accept the enemies of your Nation”.
It is worth mentioning this highly symptomatic fact – Jan Mosdorf died in Auschwitz-Birkenau for helping Jews. He reported him to the Belarusians. During this time Ukrainian nationalists collaborated with the 3rd Reich. No, there is no symmetry between Poles and Ukrainians not only at the level of activity, but besides in terms of fanaticism of the ideas preached.
The cult of violence
Recollection Yuri Fedoriwa, operating in the CNS, but later to this distant organization, the Ukrainian nationalists in prison in Wronki refused this Decalogue as a prayer. Christianity replaced their belief in a nation and an highly amoral, Darwinist imagination of the confrontation of nations, in which the stronger would prevail. Even by reading various violent authors, including a German nationalist Ernst Jünger, we find in them ideas proving that “blood ecstasis” and akin alleged spiritual states associated with force rise to a higher level of humanity. In Doncov metaphysics search vainly – Doncov orders small to speak, endure torture and kill. First of all, kill.
Paraphrasing words Marian Turski from the speech given in Auschwitz – Volyn did not fall from the sky. Volyn was the applicable consequence of the influence that people like Dmytra Doncov had on Ukrainians. Doncow wrote this: “without rape and without iron ruthlessness, nothing has always been created in history. Rape, iron ruthlessness, war—these were the methods of advancement of the chosen nations.”.
Nation above all?
Dmytro Doncow described – of course, positively – the characteristics of fanaticism: “’Fanatic’ immediately recognizes its fact as general, revealed, it is to be accepted by others. Hence his aggressiveness and intolerance towards another views (...) boundless hatred of all that hinders its implementation—this is the sum of the experiences that surrounds all actual revolutionary, fanatic”.
"Nation" was for Doncov something eternal, a species in nature. As he wrote about his worldview Viktor Liszczuk in text About the ethical foundations of Ukrainian nationalism (in the book Nationalism or nationalism?, edited Bogumiła Grott): "In this respect Doncow went much further than Adolf Hitler in ‘Mein Kampf’, where the second treats the full human household as a species. – Latin specie, mankind. Doncov's treatment of nation as species results in a full string of ethical-moral attitudes in his doctrine. (...) The nation and national state are of the highest value, according to the rule of ‘Nation above all!’.
If they have nothing in common, why do they glorify executioners?
Polish Ukrainians separate from Ukrainians 1 basic trait – that is, if the first proclaims everything and due to the fact that today's Ukrainians have nothing to do with the perpetrators of the Volyn genocide (of course, behind this view is political correctness alternatively than knowledge), while others constantly effort to prove that it is precisely the opposite.
It is not even a deficiency of obvious, it would seem, human gestures, specified as an apology or consent to exhumations, but besides that in Ukraine there are virtually everywhere monuments, streets and squares bearing the names of serial killers of the Polish nation. president Viktor Yushchenko gave even Stepan Bander Title of Hero of Ukraine.
The Ukrainians are preaching a series of arguments justifying our east neighbours. We hear they have no another heroes. We hear that those people did a lot to fight Ukraine for independence. Well, Adolf Hitler did a lot for Germany's economical development.
Unacceptable symmetism
One of the most curiosal arguments expressed in 1 interview by the prof. of the University of Warsaw Michał Bilewicz. As he put it, Stepan Bandera is simply a controversial figure, but we besides have controversial people among national heroes, specified as. Maximilian Kolbe. This comparison is not only disgusting, but besides of course mixes views with actions, that is, the alleged anti-Semitism of the Polish saint with the patronage of scalping people by the “Patron of Ukraine”. By the way, this symmetrism has perfectly summed up Leszek Millerwho stated that the Holocaust was not "a division in German-Jewish relations".
I omit here a unusual weakness for bloodthirsty Ukrainian nationalism, which people with a glare have looking for manifestations of Polish nationalism and with fire wanting to burn it.
The Ukrainians have not cut off
The Romanian State has cut off the Iron Guard, the Hungarian State has distanced itself from the gunfighters. These countries felt work for the movements they had in them, they enjoyed considerable support – even if these movements were not organised by the State. Let us add – these organizations were not liable for anything akin to the Volyn massacre.
Ukrainians not only did not cut off from serial killers, but their names call themselves streets. And as it seems, it will be a long time before they realize that it is hard to ask for human rights by praising people who are patronizing tongues and pricking eyes.
Jacek Tomczak
