• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Yorkshire Bylines
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
    Thwaite Hall, Cottingham,

    Plans to house asylum seekers at former student accommodation in Hull put on hold

    Whitehall bus, photo by Malcolm Laverty

    Who will the prime minister throw under the bus this time?

    Child playing

    Children first: a challenge for Wakefield parliamentary candidates

    Judy Ling Wong

    Judy Ling Wong CBE: a life in art and environmental activism

    Drax Power Station

    Drax Power Station: a burning issue

    Poster from Linton Action

    Linton-on-Ouse: Home Office set to repeat previous asylum accommodation failures

    Parliament House, Canberra

    Inside Australia’s unpredictable election

    Image of a baby deer

    Steer clear of baby deer!

    RAF Linton

    RAF Linton to house asylum seekers: what we know so far

    Trending Tags

    • Johnson
    • Coronavirus
    • Labour
    • Starmer
    • NI Protocol
    • Brexit
    • Culture
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Home Affairs
    • Transport
    • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Culture
    • Dance
    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Recipes
    • Sport
    Bradford photograph courtesy of Tim Green Bradford | Tim Green | Flickr

    Will Bradford become the UK City of Culture 2025?

    Judy Ling Wong

    Judy Ling Wong CBE: a life in art and environmental activism

    Image of Norky's Ramblings books

    Norky’s Ramblings by Peter Norcliffe: a review

    Image of heath hall

    Bowls, beer, and battles: a not too serious guide to the capture of Wakefield, the Merrie City, May 1643

    Image of Skipwith Common

    Weird Yorkshire: the Skipwith Bear

    Westenra, promo image provided

    Local band to play at Whitby Abbey Guinness World Record attempt

    Photo courtesy of the JORVIK Centre

    JORVIK Viking festival

    Image of Cragg Vale

    Norky’s Ramblings: a WARTS ramble in Cragg Vale

    Image of 'no racism' at cricket match

    Condoning racism in English cricket comes at a price: £50,000 to be exact

    • Food
    • Music
    • Poetry
    • Sport
  • Business
    • All
    • Economy
    • Technology
    • Trade
    Jar with money cascading out of it

    Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

    Desk with laptop

    Johnson and Rees-Mogg want us back in the office, but for whose benefit?

    Cost-of-living crisis, Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash

    Poorest households continue to be the hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis

    Food bank packing at the Cornerstone Community Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, by Staffs Live on Flikr

    Sooner rather than later – why the poorest households need help now

    Constructing houses

    Trouble in Happy Valley: Calderdale Council struggles to agree its local plan

    Cost of living crisis

    A government that’s out of touch and out of ideas

    Cost of living - a house, a piggy bank and a magnifying glass

    Cost-of-living crisis likely to escalate due to rising global consumption

    Driverless car

    How safe are driverless cars?

    Port of Dover, Eastern Docks, Customs Control

    Brexit border checks: better never than late?

    Trending Tags

      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
    • Region
    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • All
      • Brexit
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Health
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
      Thwaite Hall, Cottingham,

      Plans to house asylum seekers at former student accommodation in Hull put on hold

      Whitehall bus, photo by Malcolm Laverty

      Who will the prime minister throw under the bus this time?

      Child playing

      Children first: a challenge for Wakefield parliamentary candidates

      Judy Ling Wong

      Judy Ling Wong CBE: a life in art and environmental activism

      Drax Power Station

      Drax Power Station: a burning issue

      Poster from Linton Action

      Linton-on-Ouse: Home Office set to repeat previous asylum accommodation failures

      Parliament House, Canberra

      Inside Australia’s unpredictable election

      Image of a baby deer

      Steer clear of baby deer!

      RAF Linton

      RAF Linton to house asylum seekers: what we know so far

      Trending Tags

      • Johnson
      • Coronavirus
      • Labour
      • Starmer
      • NI Protocol
      • Brexit
      • Culture
      • Education
      • Environment
      • Home Affairs
      • Transport
      • World
    • Politics
    • Opinion
    • Lifestyle
      • All
      • Culture
      • Dance
      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Recipes
      • Sport
      Bradford photograph courtesy of Tim Green Bradford | Tim Green | Flickr

      Will Bradford become the UK City of Culture 2025?

      Judy Ling Wong

      Judy Ling Wong CBE: a life in art and environmental activism

      Image of Norky's Ramblings books

      Norky’s Ramblings by Peter Norcliffe: a review

      Image of heath hall

      Bowls, beer, and battles: a not too serious guide to the capture of Wakefield, the Merrie City, May 1643

      Image of Skipwith Common

      Weird Yorkshire: the Skipwith Bear

      Westenra, promo image provided

      Local band to play at Whitby Abbey Guinness World Record attempt

      Photo courtesy of the JORVIK Centre

      JORVIK Viking festival

      Image of Cragg Vale

      Norky’s Ramblings: a WARTS ramble in Cragg Vale

      Image of 'no racism' at cricket match

      Condoning racism in English cricket comes at a price: £50,000 to be exact

      • Food
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Sport
    • Business
      • All
      • Economy
      • Technology
      • Trade
      Jar with money cascading out of it

      Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

      Desk with laptop

      Johnson and Rees-Mogg want us back in the office, but for whose benefit?

      Cost-of-living crisis, Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash

      Poorest households continue to be the hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis

      Food bank packing at the Cornerstone Community Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, by Staffs Live on Flikr

      Sooner rather than later – why the poorest households need help now

      Constructing houses

      Trouble in Happy Valley: Calderdale Council struggles to agree its local plan

      Cost of living crisis

      A government that’s out of touch and out of ideas

      Cost of living - a house, a piggy bank and a magnifying glass

      Cost-of-living crisis likely to escalate due to rising global consumption

      Driverless car

      How safe are driverless cars?

      Port of Dover, Eastern Docks, Customs Control

      Brexit border checks: better never than late?

      Trending Tags

        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Region
      No Result
      View All Result
      Yorkshire Bylines
      No Result
      View All Result
      Home Lifestyle Culture

      Poles and Ukrainians: the emergence of today’s Ukraine

      Poles and Ukrainians have a long history of love and hate. Since WWII, relations between the states have thawed as their cultures are similar.

      Jan Vladimir LedóchowskibyJan Vladimir Ledóchowski
      03-04-2022 10:10
      in Culture, Politics, World
      Image of Lviv cathedral

      Lviv Cathedral, Rbrechko, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

      683
      VIEWS
      Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
      ADVERTISEMENT

      Part I of this article is available here.

      The First and Second World Wars caused ruptures in Polish-Ukrainian relations. As soon as the German, Austrian and Russian empires collapsed, the re-emerged Poland assembled its armies and fought and won wars of independence against both Germany and Russia, retaking much of today’s Lithuania, Belarus and Western Ukraine, which were all, according to the Poles, part of the historic Commonwealth.

      Conflict over Lviv

      But the Poles, much to their surprise, had to fight the Ukrainians for Lviv, which both sides considered their own historic city. Further east, with support from Poland, the Ukrainians tried to recreate an independent country around Kyiv but did not have time to create a strong army to fight Russia. They were defeated and Eastern Ukraine was reincorporated into the Russian Empire, better known as the Soviet Union.

      The eastern areas of the new inter-war Poland included many Ruski peasants considering themselves Ukrainian and there was some much resented aggressive ‘pacification’ by Polish forces. All major minorities in Poland – German, Jewish and Ukrainian – vigorously defended their cultures and there were clashes with mainstream Polish nationalism.

      My father used to write articles in the Polish émigré press criticising racism in South Africa, and one day received a letter from an old friend in Australia. It turned out he was a Ukrainian whom my father saved from being beaten up by a Polish nationalist mob at Lviv University in around 1930.

      With time things settled down, especially when the Ukrainians saw that things were far worse in the east, under Russian domination, where Stalin imposed his vicious dictatorship and was responsible for a terrible famine in the 1930s.

      Eastern Poland is invaded by Russia

      In September 1939, Germany and Russia both attacked Poland and split it between them. Eastern Poland / Western Ukraine was once again under the domination of Russia. Stalin promoted the fiction of Ukraine being a nearly independent Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union and encouraged anti-Polish resentment.

      In some places it did not work. There were cases of Polish landlords being hidden from the Soviet security police, the NKVD, by their farmworkers or by Orthodox priests. My grandparents, Polish landlords, went into hiding in Lviv where their Ruski farmworkers secretly supplied them with food and clothing.

      My grandfather, a retired Polish general, was never betrayed and so did not end up being shot by the NKVD (later known as the KGB) in the Katyń massacres like so many other members of the elite. However, there were also examples of Ukrainians betraying Poles to the NKVD. Jews were considered Polish and suffered alongside them – the elite shot at Katyń (including Jewish officers and the Jewish deputy mayor of Lviv), and hundreds of thousands deported to Siberia.

      Hitler invades Russia

      In June 1941, Hitler attacked Russia and so the whole of Ukraine came under German occupation. Initially Nazi propaganda called on the Ukrainians for support against Polish domination and against the Jews, many of whom were betrayed if not massacred by the SS or transported to death camps anyway.

      As it gradually became clear that Germany would lose the war, the Poles and Ukrainians ended up fighting over who would take over the area once the Germans were gone. The Ukrainian Partisan Army, UPA, attacked the local Polish population in many towns and villages including one of the country houses owned by my family, Smordwa, where they were eventually beaten off after a bitter fight.

      The number of Polish victims is variously estimated at around 50,000, and many Poles accuse the Ukrainians of outright genocide. The Polish film Wołyń highlights the extraordinary cruelty with which men, women and children were tortured and killed. My wife’s uncle was taken by the UPA and never seen again, presumed murdered.

      The Iron Curtain descends across Europe and the Cold War begins

      The division of Europe into West and East agreed by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin at the Yalta conference in February 1945, completely changed the picture yet again, and triggered a progressive improvement in Polish-Ukrainian relations ever since.

      The ‘iron curtain’ ran down the middle of Germany and practically all peoples to the East of it were now under the domination of Russia, either as Communist states or as members of the Soviet Union itself. Churchill made it quite clear to the Polish government in exile in London and in hiding in Warsaw that they should accept the new order.

      Vladimir the Great statue
      Politics

      Poles and Ukrainians: a love-hate relationship that turned to love

      byJan Vladimir Ledóchowski
      2 April 2022

      Lack of support from the West

      Polish resistance forces totalling around 150,000, which carried on fighting for independence from Russia (known in Polish as the ‘Cursed’), received no help from the West and perhaps 20,000 were killed. The UK government connived in the Russian pretence that the Katyń massacres had been perpetrated by the Germans.

      Poland was moved Westwards into areas that had been German for centuries, and Ukraine was moved Westwards into areas that had been Polish for centuries. Most of Lviv, including museums and universities, ended up in the former German city of Breslau, now renamed Wrocław. Many Ukrainians in the new Poland were moved the other way, into the new Ukraine.

      A thaw in Polish-Ukrainian relations

      Yalta Conference, 1945. From left: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin. US government photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

      Then Polish – Ukrainian relations, both in the Communist bloc and in exile, started improving. Like the East Germans, they considered Stalin and Russia, with the shameful co-operation of Churchill and Roosevelt, as primarily responsible for their plight – so they were victims in common. They were also no longer minorities in each other’s countries.

      Ukraine’s continued existence as a culture, language and country was no longer being threatened by a Polish elite, but by Russians being imported into the country to ‘Russianise’ it. Poles also had to learn Russian at school. Suffering under Stalinism, some Ukrainians looked back to pre-war Poland with nostalgia.

      Both Poles and Ukrainians all loved ‘their’ beautiful city of Lviv. ‘Polish’ historians at Wrocław University worked together with ‘Ukrainian’ historians at Lviv University.

      When I visited Lviv in the early 2000s many locals told me they were really Polish and their parents or grandparents loved Lviv so much they refused to be transported by Stalin to Wrocław.

      Many people living round Lviv watch Polish TV from over the border. When I asked the hotel receptionist where I could find a memorial to the Polish University professors murdered by the Germans in 1941, she looked puzzled and then brightened and replied, in quite good Polish, “Oh, you mean the Ukrainian professors murdered by the Germans!”

      Over 20 percent of Ukrainians are Greek Catholics or Uniates today, and they together with the remaining Roman Catholics take their religion and allegiance to the Pope very seriously, strengthening their links with Poland and the West generally.

      Similarities between Polish and Ukrainian cultures

      An example of the historic overlap between these nations is the poet Adam Mickiewicz. His patriotic poem, composed in exile in Paris and learnt by every Pole, starts (my rough translation):

                    Lithuania my country,
                    You are like health.
                    We only really appreciate you,
                    When we lose you.

      Mickiewicz’ poem is addressed to ‘Lithuania’ but he had in mind something much bigger. His family home is today a national museum in Belarus. His statue is still standing today in Lviv. The rolling fields and forests of his poem are throughout former Ruś or ‘Greater Lithuania’. They all love him.

      Togetherness emerges in Polish-Ukrainian relations

      Towards the end of the Communist years, a feeling of togetherness spread among dissidents in all countries, including even Russia, who were in contact with each other in their struggles. As it happens, Poland under the iconic figure of Wałesa was first to overthrow its regime, which earned it a lot of respect from the other countries including Ukraine, which followed with its so-called Orange Revolution and then Maidan Revolution.

      Once the regimes were overthrown, border issues threatened to spoil the euphoria. But reunited Germany made it very clear that it accepted the cession of its eastern territories to Poland as a permanent reality.

      Poland accepted the cession of Lviv to Ukraine

      Ukrainians were very anxious about Lviv because of its old Polish connections, but Poland very wisely took the same position as Germany: it accepted the cession of these lands to Ukraine as permanent. Poles travelled to Ukraine to visit their old properties and to do business. Ukrainians came to Poland to work as nurses or builders, and as hard-working fellow Slavs made a good impression. The war time generation is dying off and people are forgetting the atrocities.

      The legacy of Vladimir the Great

      But through it all, the memory of Vladimir the Great of the First Russia continues to loom over the former Ruś lands. Włodzimierz in Polish or Volodymyr in Ukrainian, it originally meant power and peace, or respected for his power. The president of Ukraine is named after him and no doubt considers it his historic mission to ensure that this time the Kyiv state will not be crushed, but will survive and flourish.

      The President of Russia is also named after him and all the signs are that, with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, which regards the current conflict as a ‘Holy war’, he attacked the other Vladimir because he wishes to recreate an Empire of all Eastern Europe, with Moscow and himself as a quasi-Tsar at the centre.

      Poles have been invaded by Russia many times over the centuries; they know what it is like, fear more attacks in the future, and are giving Ukrainians all the support they can.             

      (1) Source: Author’s family website.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

      Tags: HistoryUkraine
      ADVERTISEMENT
      Previous Post

      Woeful ignorance: a timeline of Russian interference in UK politics

      Next Post

      A roaring success: The Lion King at Bradford Alhambra

      Jan Vladimir Ledóchowski

      Jan Vladimir Ledóchowski

      Jan worked in the City for years advising large corporations, and then the Polish government on its privatisation programme. He has just finished writing the history of his family, is active in the charity Medical Aid for Poland and the leading London Polish club Ognisko. He makes films, sails in the Mediterranean, enjoys visiting Yorkshire, is a passionate European and occasionally writes about current affairs.

      Related Posts

      Whitehall bus, photo by Malcolm Laverty
      Home Affairs

      Who will the prime minister throw under the bus this time?

      byJohn Cole
      24 May 2022
      Bradford photograph courtesy of Tim Green Bradford | Tim Green | Flickr
      Culture

      Will Bradford become the UK City of Culture 2025?

      byJohn Heywood
      24 May 2022
      Jar with money cascading out of it
      Economy

      Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

      byAndy Brown
      24 May 2022
      Desk with laptop
      Economy

      Johnson and Rees-Mogg want us back in the office, but for whose benefit?

      byLisa Burton
      23 May 2022
      Image of the skydiving team
      Politics

      Learning Curve Group skydive to raise over £1,000 to support Ukrainian refugees

      byYorkshire Bylines
      23 May 2022
      Next Post
      image of lion king on stage

      A roaring success: The Lion King at Bradford Alhambra

      Want to support us?

      Can you help Yorkshire Bylines to grow and become more sustainable with a regular donation, no matter how small?  

      DONATE

      Sign up to our newsletter

      If you would like to receive the Yorkshire Bylines regular newsletter, straight talking direct to your inbox, click the button below.

      NEWSLETTER

      LATEST

      Thwaite Hall, Cottingham,

      Plans to house asylum seekers at former student accommodation in Hull put on hold

      24 May 2022
      Whitehall bus, photo by Malcolm Laverty

      Who will the prime minister throw under the bus this time?

      24 May 2022
      Bradford photograph courtesy of Tim Green Bradford | Tim Green | Flickr

      Will Bradford become the UK City of Culture 2025?

      24 May 2022
      Jar with money cascading out of it

      Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

      24 May 2022

      MOST READ

      Whitehall bus, photo by Malcolm Laverty

      Who will the prime minister throw under the bus this time?

      24 May 2022
      Photo credit Robert Sharp / englishpenLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

      The Davis Downside Dossier

      1 January 2021
      Desk with laptop

      Johnson and Rees-Mogg want us back in the office, but for whose benefit?

      23 May 2022
      Jar with money cascading out of it

      Boosterism doesn’t put food on the table

      24 May 2022

      BROWSE BY TAGS

      antivaxxers Charity climate change Coronavirus Cost of living Creative industries Crime Cummings Democracy Devolution Equality Farming Fishing hgv History Immigration Johnson Journalism Labour Local Democracy Mental Health mining money NHS NI Protocol omicron Pies pollution poverty PPE Public Health Review shortage social media Starmer tax travel Ukraine Yorkshire
      Yorkshire Bylines

      Yorkshire Bylines is a regional online newspaper that supports citizen journalism. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Yorkshire and beyond.

      Learn more about us

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Contact
      • About
      • Letters
      • Donate
      • Privacy
      • Bylines network
      • Shop

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • News
        • Brexit
        • Education
        • Environment
        • Health
        • Home Affairs
        • Transport
        • World
      • Politics
      • Opinion
      • Lifestyle
        • Culture
        • Dance
        • Food
        • Music
        • Poetry
        • Recipes
        • Sport
      • Business
        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
      • Donate
      • The Compendium of Cabinet Codebreakers
      • The Davis Downside Dossier
      • The Digby Jones Index
      • Newsletter sign up
      • Cartoons by Stan
      • Authors

      © 2022 Yorkshire Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

      Welcome Back!

      Login to your account below

      Forgotten Password?

      Retrieve your password

      Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

      Log In