Polish-Ukrainian relations

This study analyzes policies and public attitudes concerning the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) after the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine. The issue of the political rehabilitation of these nationalist organizations, which relied on terrorism and were involved in Nazi genocide and ethnic cleansing of Poles during World War Two, became one of central political issues in this post-Soviet state. The question is which factors determine attitudes towards the OUN and the UPA in contemporary Ukraine. The hypothesis is that regional factors are the main determinants of the public opinion concerning these organizations. This paper uses analysis of historical studies and archival data to examine policies and controversies concerning the OUN and the UPA. It employs comparative and regression analyses of the 2009 Kyiv International Institute of Sociology survey to determine effects of regional factors, compared to other factors, such as ethnicity, language, and age, on attitudes towards the Stepan Bandera faction of the OUN and the UPA. The paper shows that that regional factors and perceptions of the involvement of the Bandera faction of the OUN and the UPA in mass murder are strongest predictors of views concerning these nationalist organizations.

Article is the first in ukrainian science outline (essay) of vital way and place in history of writer, author of world-famous work “The Manuscript Found in Saragossa”, geographer, traveler, historian, archeologist, ethnologist, founder of Slavonic science, one of the first representatives of Romanticism Count Jan Potocki, who was closely related to Ukraine.

"In the article bohemianism as socio-cultural trends (alternative lifestyle) in Ukrainian society: from the first manifestations in modern day with its vivid expression in Romanticism; comparison of different socio-cultural manifestations that fall under the definition bohemianism in a international context; features found reception bohemian style on Ukrainian ground, found kindred phenomenon in the world, including European and Eastern European context.
Key words: bohemian, alternative lifestyle, nonconformism (anticonformism), counterculture, subculture, Romanticism, balagul’schyna."

"The scholars of Central and Eastern Europe have long noticed that the place of Europe in post-Cold War national mythologies of different countries varies widely if not wildly. In three arguably most dramatic examples, Poland rethought itself as “the somehow decentred heart of Catholic Europe” (Dayan & Katz, 1994, p. 166), while Russia gave reasons to conclude it “leaves the West” (Trenin, 2006, p. 87) and Ukraine stuck with its view of Europe as a normative example (Orlova, 2010, p. 26). However, to what extent this remains true if one is to look empirically at the discourses that currently inhabit news media and public discussion? This paper points out to how various narratives of Europe are instrumentalised in internal and regional political discussions in the three counties that followed very different paths since the collapse of the communist bloc to which they once belonged, and whose relations have always remained defining to the structure of the region(s). The presentation includes results of qualitative analysis based on an open coding approach that discerns different narratives of Europe in the media discourses of the Polish, Russian and Ukrainian press. The focus of the analysis rests primarily on the most important and prestigious news outlets (Rzeczpospolita and Gazeta wyborcza in Poland; Izvestiya and Kommersant in Russia; Dzerkalo tyzhnia and Korrespondent in Ukraine) but also includes the most prestigious online blog platforms where opinion leaders set the principal frames for narrating Europe; such as Ukraine’s most read blogs section at Ukrayins’ka pravda or Russia’s Snob.ru. This will arguably give a more valid and up-to-date overview of what could be thought of as the three countries’ public spheres and Europe’s place in them.

Keywords: Europe, public sphere, Poland, Russia, Ukraine"

This study examines the role of political factors in attitudes toward World War II in contemporary Ukraine. The question under examination is which factors determine public views of the principal warring sides and their leaders in Ukraine. This paper uses a representative national survey specifically designed for this research project and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in 2012. It analyzes the roles of regionalism, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, age, and sex in attitudes toward the Red Army, Soviet partisans, the German Army (Wehrmacht), and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the war, as well as toward the wartime leaders of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the UPA. The analysis of the survey data shows that regional values, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, and age have significant effects on views of the Soviet Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the war and attitudes toward the wartime activities of Joseph Stalin and Roman Shukhevych. Public perceptions of the German Army and Adolf Hitler in Ukraine do not vary much across regions, political parties, and ethnic, language, age, and sex groups.

This paper analyzes the involvement of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in Nazi genocide during World War II in Ukraine. The issue of the political rehabilitation of these organizations became one of the central political issues in this post-Soviet state. The research question is whether leaders and members of the Bandera faction of the OUN (OUN-B) and the UPA were involved in the Nazi-led genocide. This article devotes particular attention to Volhynia where the UPA was established by the OUN-B in 1943. The study analyzes the biographies of 329 OUN-B and UPA leaders and documents concerning the OUN-B and the UPA, local police, and Nazi mass executions of Jews, Ukrainians, and Poles from the State Archive of the Volyn Region, the State Archive of the Rivne Region, the Archive of the State Security Service of Ukraine in the Volyn Region, the Archive of the State Security Service of Ukraine, the National Archives in the US, and other archives. This paper shows that large proportions of leaders and members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army served in various police and militia formations, collaborated with security and intelligence agencies of Nazi Germany, and took part in the Nazi genocide, primarily in assisting roles during mass executions of Jews in the first two years of the Nazi occupation of Ukraine.

""An article summary: The Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Berlin in the light of Polish historiography and archival materials.

The Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Berlin was found on 10 November 1926 as a result of Ukrainian emigration environment efforts assembled by hetman Skoropadski. Those efforts were supported by German authorities mainly officers with high status in the German army (Reichswehr). This institute worked until the end of II World War. It wasn’t a school institute, it didn’t carry any course lectures, any exams and any diplomas. The main reason for its activity was dissemination of scientific material about Ukraine and its scientific connection with  West European science and culture. They wanted German elite to realise the importance and extensiveness of Ukrainian problem but Ukrainian emigration to integrate and live in the surrounding of patriotism. The other reason was talented emigrants supporting by giving them scholarships. The institute consisted of five departments: Ukrainian history, Ukrainian history of art, Ukrainian history of philosophy, economy and ethnography. Its activity was carried by four main spheres: lectures for students, talks and exhibitions for the general public, publishing trade and care of scholarship holders. The activity of the Ukrainian Scientific Institute wasn’t widely known in Polish historical literature. A large amount of materials about this place is found in  the Archive of New Records in Warsaw which  was the base of this article. elaboration.""

The article tells about the growing of the Ukrainophile Nonconformist movements in the society of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lands. Its environment was initially the ruling gentry, who lived in the prevailing environment of Ukrainian folk masses. Then the different ranks of intellectual elite began to take shape. The less numerous nonconformist subculture among the gentry and bohemians was kozakophiles. The participation of the kozakophiles in the Polish uprising against the Russian Empire in 1831 noted the lack of convergence of this subculture with the lower layers of the folk masses starting from the bottom that did not support the uprising. These same events led to the emergence of a new subculture – balagulschyna. The populism and Ukrainophilism of the balaguly were of the rebellious, counter-cultural character against the noble society of the Right-bank Ukraine and created a vivid style. To look more outrageous balaguly used the Ukrainian language, sang Ukrainian songs, used modified elements of folk clothing. In the mid 1850's at the University of Kyiv there was the opposite subculture – purysty. In 1859, most of the purists led by V. Antonovych evolved into khlopomanstvo.