Dear Sir,
I urge you to publish only facts and truthful, objective, even-handed (not biased and misleading) views on your forum.
There is a lot of incorrect, deceptive and misleading coverage with missing relevant facts on Ukraine's history and political issues on the Internet published by people claiming to be knowledgeable on Ukraine issues (journalists, political scientists, historians and politicians), in particular on the current war by Russia against Ukraine from 2014 until now.
This anti-Ukrainian propaganda for no valid reasons must stop. Ukrainian patriotic forces expose those pro-Russian propagandists worldwide with relevant facts on Russian imperialist crimes for centuries against over 100 nations. That's how the Russian empire was historically expanded to the largest territory in the world nowadays. All those captive oppressed nations on their indigenous territory, forcibly belonging to the current Russian Empire (officially falsely called the Russian Federation), have the right to self-determination (sovereignty to rule themselves) according to International Law. But Russia under Putin has been violating International Law enormously, and denies those nations the right to self-determination under threat of using military force against them.
I regard myself as knowledgeable in Ukrainian politics and history (in major issues) as I have read numerous publications in this respect.
I also urge Ukrainian and Polish historians to publicise all relevant facts about historical relations between Poles and Ukrainians, in particular in the 20th century as many publications don't include all of them, are biased (not even handed) and therefore not objective.
On July 22, 2016 the Polish parliament passed a scandalous, biased and false resolution on the alleged genocide of Poles in Volyn and Galicia in Western Ukraine in 1943-1945 by the OUN and UPA (Ukrainian liberation fighters). This resolution does not state the true causes of tragic violent events in Volyn and Galicia, and does not mention numerous crimes by Poles against Ukrainians at that time.
The true underlying cause of tragic events in Volyn and Galicia in Ukraine in 1943-1945 (mutual killings between Poles and Ukrainians) was the armed struggle over the Ukrainian territory between Poles and Ukrainians, and aggressive expansionist Polish imperialism that historically occupied, oppressed and enslaved the Ukrainian nation and sought to eventually destroy the Ukrainian ethnicity through Polonisation of Ukraine (eventual elimination of the Ukrainian language, culture and religion by the Polish language, culture and religion) and through artificial intensive colonisation of Ukraine by Polish settlers to change the ethnic composition of Ukraine. So ultimately Polish imperialism aimed at genocide-ethnocide of Ukrainians in Ukraine. If Polish imperialism had fully succeeded the Ukrainian nation would have ceased to exist as it aimed to turn Ukraine into Poland, and to claim Ukrainian lands as Polish lands forever.
Historically for a very long period of time Poland controlled and exploited Ukraine's natural and mineral resources and Ukraine's economy turning Ukrainians in Ukraine into poor serfs doomed to misery and premature death from misery. So Poles did their best to prosper at the expense of Ukraine's labourers, resources and economy.
You know quite well that Poles regarded Ukrainians as "bydlo" ("cattle") claiming their superiority over Ukrainians.
Keep in mind that not only Polish officials but also almost all Polish civilians supported and many of them assisted with implementation of oppressive imperialist policies of the Polish government against Ukrainians in Ukraine. That was the main cause of enormous hatred and conflict between Poles and Ukrainians, especially during the second World War, in particular in Volyn and Galicia. as Nazi Germans and Communist Russians as occupiers actively promoted the conflict with their policies.
Researchers claim that around five thousand Poles joined Soviet (mostly Russian) Communist partisans in 1943, and that around two thousand Poles joined Nazi German police in Volyn and Galicia in 1943 in their armed fight against the OUN and UPA in 1943 (underground Ukrainian liberation fighters as Ukrainians did not have their own sovereign state). A certain number of Polish villages served as bases for Soviet partisans. Polish policemen, Nazi German policemen, Polish partisans and Soviet Communist partisans committed reprisals against innocent Ukrainian civilians (plunder, imprisonment, terror, killing, etc).
The role and responsibility of Nazi Germany and Communist Russia (as occupying powers) in the conflict between Ukrainians and Poles is underestimated. and has not been adequately researched since Nazi Germany and Communist Russia occupied, controlled that territory, and were responsible for order and life of civilians in the area.
The OUN and UPA (the Ukrainian underground) made several appeals to the Polish underground in Volyn in 1942-1943 to launch a joint struggle against Nazi Germany and Communist Russia, but the Polish underground received an order from the Polish government-in-exile in London not to join forces with the UPA against Nazi Germany and to cooperate with the Communist Soviet Union as an ally (main enemy of the OUN and UPA).
The Polish government-in-exile based in London, UK negotiated about joint armed fighting by the Polish underground forces together with Soviet forces against UPA and about post-war belonging of Volyn and Galicia to Poland mistakenly hoping the Soviet Union would not annex that territory to the Soviet Union.
The Polish underground and a certain number of Polish civilians in Volyn and Galicia cooperated with Soviet communist partisans in their armed fight against UPA. Therefore in 1943 Ukrainian nationalists issued an ultimatum to Poles to leave Ukrainian lands of Volyn and Galicia and to move to Poland. As Poles refused to do so, the territorial dispute over Volyn and Galicia, enormous hatred between Ukrainians and Poles as a result of it and mutual accusations of cooperation with the enemy led to mutual reprisals and violent events there in 1943-1945.
In the past as you know Poland occupied and oppressed a part of Western Ukraine (Galicia) for over four centuries and other parts of Ukraine for shorter periods. Poland caused the Ukrainian nation enormous economic, human, material and other losses and suffering including during aggressive expansionist wars waged by Poland to conquer and to enslave the Ukrainian nation. Also do not forget that historically all legitimate uprisings by Ukrainians against Polish oppression in Ukraine were bloodily suppressed by Polish authorities. Many thousands of Ukrainians lost their lives as a result of Polish repressions against Ukrainians.
I believe that the Ukrainian authorities, politicians and historians must oppose false Polish claims of genocide against the Poles in 1943-1945 by the OUN and UPA in Volyn and Galicia, and must raise the issue of Polish historical imperialist crimes against the Ukrainian nation aimed at eventual genocide of the Ukrainian nation through Polonization and colonization of Ukraine by Polish settlers, and through repressions, persecutions, oppression and terror to ultimately assimilate the Ukrainian nation which would have led to the disappearance of the Ukrainian nation.
Historical facts can prove that Poles as occupiers and oppressors of Ukraine historically committed many more crimes against the Ukrainian nation than Ukrainians did against Poles.
It is true that there were crimes against innocent civilian population committed by both Poles and Ukrainians, including in Volyn and Galicia in 1943-1945 in present-day Ukraine and in areas predominantly inhabited by Ukrainians in 1942-1947 that belong to today's Southeastern Poland. Also keep in mind in this regard that a certain number of Polish and Ukrainian civilians were participants in the conflict to some extent helping in certain ways in the armed struggle against the enemy, and therefore became victims of reprisals (revenge and punishment) by the enemy as civilians are often a target for this reason. Such is the harsh reality of all conflicts and wars. So all the facts must be revealed to assess each case of victimhood appropriately. Operation "Wisla" (deportation of Ukrainians from their indigenous territory in Southeastern Poland) carried out by the Polish government in 1947 was an ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians (a crime against all Ukrainians in Poland committed by Poles).
Mistreatment of people of all kinds, especially beatings, torture and killing must be condemned, and the guilty ones must be duly punished. Consequently, the top priority must be prevention of armed conflicts and wars that lead to human suffering and to loss of human lives.
Polish historians and politicians claim that Nazi German forces were responsible for the death of 6 million Poles during the Second World War.
Yet the Polish Parliament has not so far passed a resolution about genocide of Poles by Nazi Germany but paradoxically the Polish Sejm deliberately passed a false resolution on July 22, 2016 about genocide of Poles by the OUN and UPA (Ukrainian liberation fighters) in Volyn and Galicia in Western Ukraine in 1943-1945. Polish historians and politicians believe that the OUN and UPA fighters killed up to 100 000 Poles for that period, although this figure is hotly disputed as highly inflated by Ukrainian historians and politicians.
Communist imperialist Russia fighting for world domination also committed more crimes against the Polish nation and killed more Poles than Ukrainian nationalists did. Communist Russia launched a war of aggression against Poland in 1920 to establish communism in Poland. In the 1930s Stalin's Russia committed purges and terror against the Polish community in the Soviet Union. In 1940 the NKVD (Soviet State Security Forces) executed tens of thousands of Polish officers, victims of Soviet invasion and partition of Poland jointly by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939. Both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War and for unsurpassed crimes of the Second World War and for many millions of human losses of various nationalities.
The Volyn tragedy would not have happened if Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union had not divided Europe between themselves and had not launched the Second World War jointly by attacking Poland in September 1939.
So Nazi Germans and Communist Russians committed the biggest crimes against Poles in the 20th century. Why are Poles in power so blind in their hatred of Ukrainian liberation fighters of the past that they ignore the much bigger crimes against Poles by Nazi Germans and Communist Russians that truly committed genocide against the Polish nation? Do not forget that the Soviet Union (Communist Russian Empire) installed communism in Poland after 1945, and Poland suffered from communist oppression for 45 years until 1990.
It's still unknown how many hundreds of thousands of Poles were victims of communist crimes in Poland.
Patriotic Ukrainian activists, knowledgeable in Ukraine's history and the Ukrainian authorities have valid reasons to raise the issue of historically much bigger Polish crimes against Ukrainians than vice versa by appealing to the European Court of Justice and to demand financial and material compensation to Ukraine by Poland.
It's imperative for Ukrainian patriots to publish data in mass media worldwide on much bigger historical Polish crimes against Ukrainians than vice versa as well as on Russian imperialist crimes against Ukrainians to weaken both Polish and Russian neo-imperialist propaganda that smears Ukrainians as a nation. It's wrong and harmful for the image of the Ukrainian nation as truly the biggest victim to tolerate historical and political lies about and slander of the Ukrainian liberation movement and Ukrainian patriotic political forces nowadays.
Sincerely,
Michael
Ukraine never invaded Poland, rather Hitler gave the ok to send his troops into Poland in '39 by merrily marching into Gleiwitz aka Gliwice!
While Russia had her own plans following Stalingrad, were the winter not what it was (remember Napoleon, after all), chances are that the Nazis might well have scored a victory over Zhukov and claimed conquest.
Naturally, this didn't happen, as the Germans foolishly tried to fight a two-front war.
George Santayana, are you out there?
Bobko, reading and assimilating information aren't the same thing.
Much of Michael2's post looks rather rambling to me.
You mean Velund and yourself???
But of course, I meant myself and my colleague.
Once again, I am experiencing a crisis of faith. First, your "Poland Should Apologize to Ukraine" thread made me feel utterly superfluous. Now, this genius Michael arrives, and in one single post achieves a greater kinetic effect than 1,000 of our posts.
What am I doing here? Am I actually a good Russian troll, or merely average?
The above, is the difference between an amateur and a professional.
Am I actually a good Russian troll, or merely average?
Below average, because at some level you realize all the russian war-mongering propaganda is stupid bait meant to disempower everyday russians and keep them poor and the corrupt government rich.
At some level you realize just how barbarous russians are acting in Ukraine and are mortified but afraid to be a non-conformist because russians do to non-conformists what they used to do to witches.....
At some level you realize the US has an attractive culture and russia has a non-attractive culture that repels those with intelligence and integrity.
I'm sure novi and velund and monty really believe russian propaganda and think some kind of constructive or glorious thing is being done by russia in Ukraine (rather than killing civilians and dehumanizing russians), but at some level (maybe unconscious) you don't and it kills you and you fight it but stilll...... you know.
Sidewalk psychoanalysis completed. This one is on the house, but you'll have to pay for the next session.
