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Post by kaima on May 2, 2020 8:15:44 GMT -7
and now the movie: www.stowarzyszenielemkow.pl/web/pl/film-akcja-wisla-cz-1/?fbclid=IwAR2rqvjMT7VAm39jYutYlSobJjdc_AvMWH5R5m7wOYC59Er3HAfSFJcrn1IOperation Vistula (Polish: Akcja Wisła) was a codename for the 1947 forced resettlement of the Ukrainian minority as well as Boykos and Lemkos from the south-eastern provinces of post-war Poland, to the Recovered Territories in the west of the country. The action was carried out by the Soviet-installed Polish communist authorities with the aim of removing material support and assistance to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.[2][3] The Ukrainian Insurgent Army continued its guerilla activities until 1947 in both Subcarpathian and Lublin Voivodeships with no hope for any peaceful resolution. Operation Vistula effectively brought an end to the hostilities.[4] In a period of three months beginning on 28 April 1947 and with Soviet approval and aid,[4] about 141,000 civilians residing around Bieszczady and Low Beskids were forcibly resettled to formerly German territories, ceded to Poland at the Yalta Conference at the end of World War II.[5] The operation was named after the Vistula River, Wisła in Polish. Some Polish and Ukrainian politicians as well as historians condemned the operation following the 1989 fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and described it as ethnic cleansing.[6][7] Others pointed out that no other means of stopping the violence existed at the time since partisans used to regroup outside the Polish borders.[4] During Operation Vistula the conditions of the United Nations Charter of 26 June 1945, on the right of self-determination and international laws, were respected.[4] The deported farmers received financial help from the Polish government and took over homes and farms left behind by the Germans, in some cases experiencing an improvement in their living conditions as a result of the increased size of the newly acquired properties, their brick construction, and the provision of running water. In the years 1956 to 1958 they received mostly non-repayable credits totalling 170 million PLN which was a considerable amount of money in the Polish national budget.[8] At exactly the same time the Soviet Union carried out a parallel operation, dubbed "Operation West", in the Ukrainian SSR. Although both operations were coordinated from Moscow, there was a shocking difference between their outcomes.[4] Operation West was conducted in West Ukraine by the Soviet NKVD and targeted the families of suspected UPA members. Over 114,000 individuals, mostly women and children, were deported to the Kazakh SSR and Siberia and forced into extreme poverty.[4] Of the 19,000 adult males deported by the NKVD deportees,[4] most were sent to coal mines and stone quarries in the north. None of the people deported by the NKVD received any farms or empty homes to live in.[4] |
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Post by kaima on May 2, 2020 8:20:19 GMT -7
and now the movie: www.stowarzyszenielemkow.pl/web/pl/film-akcja-wisla-cz-1/?fbclid=IwAR2rqvjMT7VAm39jYutYlSobJjdc_AvMWH5R5m7wOYC59Er3HAfSFJcrn1IOperation Vistula (Polish: Akcja Wisła) was a codename for the 1947 forced resettlement of the Ukrainian minority as well as Boykos and Lemkos from the south-eastern provinces of post-war Poland, to the Recovered Territories in the west of the country. The action was carried out by the Soviet-installed Polish communist authorities with the aim of removing material support and assistance to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.[2][3] The Ukrainian Insurgent Army continued its guerilla activities until 1947 in both Subcarpathian and Lublin Voivodeships with no hope for any peaceful resolution. Operation Vistula effectively brought an end to the hostilities.[4] In a period of three months beginning on 28 April 1947 and with Soviet approval and aid,[4] about 141,000 civilians residing around Bieszczady and Low Beskids were forcibly resettled to formerly German territories, ceded to Poland at the Yalta Conference at the end of World War II.[5] The operation was named after the Vistula River, Wisła in Polish. Some Polish and Ukrainian politicians as well as historians condemned the operation following the 1989 fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and described it as ethnic cleansing.[6][7] Others pointed out that no other means of stopping the violence existed at the time since partisans used to regroup outside the Polish borders.[4] During Operation Vistula the conditions of the United Nations Charter of 26 June 1945, on the right of self-determination and international laws, were respected.[4] The deported farmers received financial help from the Polish government and took over homes and farms left behind by the Germans, in some cases experiencing an improvement in their living conditions as a result of the increased size of the newly acquired properties, their brick construction, and the provision of running water. In the years 1956 to 1958 they received mostly non-repayable credits totalling 170 million PLN which was a considerable amount of money in the Polish national budget.[8] At exactly the same time the Soviet Union carried out a parallel operation, dubbed "Operation West", in the Ukrainian SSR. Although both operations were coordinated from Moscow, there was a shocking difference between their outcomes.[4] Operation West was conducted in West Ukraine by the Soviet NKVD and targeted the families of suspected UPA members. Over 114,000 individuals, mostly women and children, were deported to the Kazakh SSR and Siberia and forced into extreme poverty.[4] Of the 19,000 adult males deported by the NKVD deportees,[4] most were sent to coal mines and stone quarries in the north. None of the people deported by the NKVD received any farms or empty homes to live in.[4] Background  Monument to Polish soldiers killed by UPA in Jasiel, south-eastern Poland, in 1946Further information: Population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine The stated goal of the operation was to suppress the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which had been fighting the communist Polish People's Army in the south-eastern territory of the Polish People's Republic.[3] The original codename of the operation was Akcja Wschód (Operation East), similar to Operation West (Akcja Zachód) conducted by the NKVD on the Soviet side of the border.[4] It is sometimes assumed that the direct cause for Operation Vistula was the assassination on 28 March 1947 of the Polish communist General Karol Świerczewski in an ambush set up by UPA.[9] About 12 hours after the incident, the Polish communist authorities made the decision to deport all Ukrainians and Lemkos away from the embattled region. It is known, however, that preparations for Operation Vistula had started already in January 1947, if not earlier. On 10 September 1947 the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union issued an Order № 3214-1050,[10] for the deportation of all Ukrainian families of alleged UPA members to Siberia.[4] Between 1945 and 1947 over 126,000 Ukrainians were apprehended by the NKVD and almost 32,000 of the Ukrainian underground were killed, attesting to the continuity of the same Soviet policy from before 1947.[4] Action participants The operation was carried out by the Operational Group Vistula consisting of about 20,000 personnel commanded by General Stefan Mossor.[2] The group included soldiers of the Polish People's Army and the Internal Security Corps, as well as functionaries of the police Milicja Obywatelska and the Security Service Urząd Bezpieczeństwa.[9] The operation commenced at 0400 hours local time on 28 April 1947. Initially, the expellees comprised about 20,000 Ukrainians and Lemkos. With time, the total number grew to 80,000 and eventually to 150,000 inhabitants of Polesie, Roztocze, Pogórze Przemyskie, Bieszczady, Low Beskid, Beskid Sądecki, and Ruś Szlachtowska.[2] Signature page of Polish-Ukrainian repatriation agreement signed by Khrushchev, 1944 The expellees were resettled over a wide area in the Northern and Western Territories assigned to Poland by the Potsdam Agreement including Warmia and Masuria. They received financial credits and material help from the government, including grain shipments and other foodstuffs.[4] Their new homes were renovated with public funds; in Olsztyn Voivodeship 2,427 houses were rebuilt by the state, in Szczecin Voivodeship, only 717 although the needs were exponentially greater: reaching 10,000 households, far beyond the available state budget. Most of their personal debts, however, were remitted in the following years.[4] A consequence of Operation Vistula was the almost total depopulation of Pogórze Przemyskie, Bieszczady and Beskid Niski coupled with the NKVD-led forcible repatriation of Ukrainians from Poland to the Soviet Union (the Ukrainian SSR and Siberia) in 1944–46. The relocation of the population put the UPA forces in Poland in the most difficult position; deprived of human and other resources, the outnumbered Ukrainian partisans were unable to uphold their armed resistance against the communist forces. Nevertheless, the UPA remained active for a few more years. After the last relocations, UPA's activities on Polish territory died out. Some Ukrainian partisans fled to Western Europe, notably to West Germany, and the United States.[11] Events
The deportations occurred in stages. Poland and the Soviet Ukraine conducted population exchanges resulting from bilateral agreements signed on 9 September 1944 and 16 August 1945.[7] The first transfers occurred at the end of World War II. The Poles who resided east of the newly established borders were deported to new Poland over three years. In 1944 the expulsion from Ukraine involved 117,000 Poles officially. In 1945 the number swelled to 512,000 Poles. In 1946 the total was 158,500 Poles from the Ukrainian SSR alone.[12] Some 482,000 Lemkos, Rusyns and Ukrainians were deported to the Ukrainian SSR between September 1944 and April 1946,[7] although some 300,000 remained in their native settlements within the borders of Poland. Many Ukrainians and Lemkos as well as tens of thousands of Poles (ca. 200,000 persons or more) fled from south-eastern Poland to central Poland between 1944 and 1945 independently of treaties due to the pacification campaign by the Bandera faction.[4] Operation Vistula occurred within the Polish national borders. The transfer involved persons who were internally relocated as citizens of the country. The final relocation of Ukrainians and Poles between the state borders occurred in 1951, when Poland was forced by the Soviet Union to adjust the border in the upper San River area and in the Belz area for economic reasons. Poland gave up rich deposits of coal including the city of Bełz that was in Poland, and in exchange, was assigned a stretch of barren land with low quality soil and no natural resources east of the San River and south of Przemyśl. The new Soviet acquisitions went to Ukraine, and populations were exchanged.[13][14] Following the transfer of land, the Soviets built large coal mines there with the total capacity of 15 million tons annually.[15] Situation of Lemkos in Poland
Lemko house in NowicaSome five thousand Lemko families returned to their home regions in south-eastern Poland in 1957 and 1958.[16] While the Polish census of 2003 shows only 5,800 Lemkos (self-identification), there are estimates that up to 100,000 Lemkos in total live in Poland today, and up to 10,000 of them in the area known as Lemkovyna.[1] The largest communities of Lemkos live in the villages Łosie, Krynica, Nowica, Zdynia, Gładyszów, Hańczowa, Zyndranowa, Uście Gorlickie, Bartne, Bielanka, and in the eastern part of Lemkovyna – Wysoczany, Mokre, Morochów, Szczawne, Kulaszne, Rzepedź, Turzańsk, Komańcza. Also in the towns Sanok, Nowy Sącz, and Gorlice. Legacy
Further information: Ukrainians in PolandOn 3 August 1990, the Polish Senate adopted a resolution condemning the postwar Polish government's Operation Vistula. In response, the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) adopted the statement of understanding of the Polish Senate resolution as a serious step towards the correction of the injustices towards the Ukrainians in Poland. In the same resolution the Rada condemned the criminal acts of the Stalinist regime towards the Polish people. On 18 April 2002 in Krasiczyn, Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski expressed regret over Operation Vistula. The President described the operation as the symbol of harm against Ukrainians committed by the communist authorities. "Speaking on behalf of the Republic of Poland I want to express regret to all those wronged by the operation" - Kwaśniewski wrote in a letter to the National Remembrance Institute (IPN) and participants in the conference on the 1947 Operation Vistula and openly rejected the notion that it should in any way be linked to earlier events in Volhynia. "It was believed for years that the Vistula operation was the revenge for slaughter of Poles by the UPA forces in the east in the years 1943-1944. Such attitude is wrong and cannot be accepted. The Vistula operation should be condemned."[17] In 2007 the presidents of Poland (Lech Kaczyński) and Ukraine (Viktor Yushchenko) condemned the operation as a violation of human rights.[18] President Yushchenko also noted that the operation was executed by and was the responsibility of a "totalitarian communist regime".[19] |
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Post by pieter on May 2, 2020 10:01:06 GMT -7
The Ukrainian perspective
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Post by Jaga on May 2, 2020 12:03:27 GMT -7
This is one of these things, like bombing Hiroshima, that will always have two sides to the story. I feel bad for Rusines and Ukrainians, but I also understand why Polish government did what they did.
By the way, this house looks beautiful!
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Post by kaima on May 2, 2020 13:09:13 GMT -7
This is one of these things, like bombing Hiroshima, that will always have two sides to the story. I feel bad for Rusines and Ukrainians, but I also understand why Polish government did what they did. By the way, this house looks beautiful! Yes, the in my visit to a fine Agrotourist farm in southern Poland I had the distinct impression the Lemko today are treasured the way American Indians are .. as romanticized artifacts of a previous time and place, as well as "the natural ecologist". I am happy to see they made a movie of it. I must find time to watch it. Kai |
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Post by Jaga on May 2, 2020 13:10:12 GMT -7
Probably relocation was a better solution than just bleeding down and allowing killing of Poles by Ukrainians and vice versa. Here is more about UPA:  The OUN's stated immediate goal was the re-establishment of a united, independent Nazi-aligned, mono-ethnic national state on the territory that would include parts of modern day Russia, Poland, and Belarus.[6] Violence was accepted as a political tool against foreign as well as domestic enemies of their cause, which was to be achieved by a national revolution led by a dictatorship that would drive out what they considered to be occupying powers and set up a government representing all regions and social groups.[10] The organization began as a resistance group and developed into a guerrilla army.[11] In 1943, the UPA was controlled by the OUN(B)[citation needed] and included people of various political and ideological convictions. Furthermore, it needed the support of the broad masses against both the Germans and the Soviets. Much of the nationalist ideology, including the concept of dictatorship, did not appeal to former Soviet citizens who had experienced the dictatorship of the Communist Party. Hence, a revision of the OUN(B) ideology and political program was imperative. At its Third Extraordinary Grand Assembly on 21–25 August 1943, the OUN(B) condemned "internationalist and fascist national-socialist programs and political concepts" as well as "Russian-Bolshevik communism" and proposed a "system of free peoples and independent states [as] the single best solution to the problem of world order." Its social program did not differ essentially from earlier ones, but it emphasized a wide range of social services, worker participation in management, a mixed economy, choice of profession and workplace, and free trade unions. The OUN(B) affirmed that it was fighting for freedom of the press, speech, and thought. Its earlier nationality policy, encapsulated in the slogan "Ukraine for Ukrainians"; in 1943, the most extreme elements of it were officially abandoned, although the actual policy of the OUN(B) hadn't changed significantly, and the UPA undertook ethnic cleansing in 1943.[6] During its existence, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought against the Poles and the Soviets as their primary opponents, although the organization also fought against the Germans starting from February 1943 – with many cases of collaboration with the German forces in the fight against Soviet partisan units. From late spring 1944, the UPA and Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-B (OUN-B)—faced with Soviet advances—also cooperated with German forces against the Soviets and Poles in the hope of creating an independent Ukrainian state.[12] The OUN also played a substantial role in the ethnic cleansing of the Polish population of Volhynia and East Galicia,[13][14][15][16][17] and later preventing the deportation of the Ukrainians in southeastern Poland.[18] After the end of World War II, the Polish communist army—the People's Army of Poland—fought extensively against the UPA. The UPA remained active and fought against the People's Republic of Poland until 1947, and against the Soviet Union until 1949. It was particularly strong in the Carpathian Mountains, the entirety of Galicia and in Volhynia—in modern Western Ukraine. By the late 1940s, the mortality rate for Soviet troops fighting Ukrainian insurgents in Western Ukraine was higher than the mortality rate for Soviet troops during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.[19][20] Between February 1943 and May 1945, unlike most resistance movements, it had no significant foreign support.[21] Its growth and strength were a reflection of the popularity it enjoyed among the people of Western Ukraine.[22] Outside of Western Ukraine, support was not significant, and the majority of the Soviet (Eastern) Ukrainian population considered, and at times still viewed, the OUN/UPA to have been primarily collaborators with the Germans. |
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