Poles` and Ukrainians` different views on history

[Bonobo]

Yesterday many (not all) Ukrainians celebrated 100 anniversary of Stepan Bandera`s birthday.
www.tvn24.pl/-1,1579680,0,1,bandera-jest-bohaterem,wiadomosc.html

In some cities monuments were unveiled. The Ukrainian President declared that Bandera is a national hero for Ukraine.

Here we have a conflict because for Poles Bandera is a leader of OUN/UPA, a bunch of murderous thugs who, during WW2 and after it, exterminated about 100.000 Poles living in eastern and southern Poland. Read about it here:
polandsite.proboards104.com/index.cgi?board=polishhistory&action=display&thread=224&page=1#3664

Polish views on Bandera are symbolically rendered by the photo included in the news article.


This disagreement on Bandera creates an unpleasant situation for Polish authorities, especially the Polish President, who have supported the Ukrainian cause whenever and wherever possible. It is obvious they have done it for political reasons because independent Ukraine is a key obstacle to the comeback of Russian imperialism to this part of Europe.

However, I am really curious what Kaczyński will say when the Ukrainian Parliament votes UPA was a national independence organisation and its members receive a status of legitimate combatants, folowed by pensions and benefits.

What will he say or do? Nothing. Politics is politics and independent Ukraine is more important than the memory of the Poles murdered by UPA.

Read about Stepan Bandera:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera

Read about UPA
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army

[Bonobo]

It seems it is going to take some nationalist Ukrainians a long time to give up anti-Polish phobia.



Offensive’ symbols in Polish cemeteries in Ukraine?
26.05.2010 12:52


Szczerbiec – legendary coronation sword, or offensive Polish nationalist symbol?

The District council in Lviv, western Ukraine, has repeated its demand for the removal of “anti-Ukrainian” symbols at Polish cemeteries in the west of their country.

The council claims to have discovered “anti-Ukrainian” symbols at thirteen Polish cemeteries, which is a violation of Polish-Ukrainian agreement on memorials.

One of the examples of the violation of the Polish-Ukrainian law is said to be a sculpture of a coronation sward, called the Szczerbiec, at the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv (Cemetery of Eaglets) which was used to coronate new Polish kings. The legend has it that in the 11th century Boleslaw Chrobry [the first King of Poland] chipped the sword against the Golden Gate during his triumphal entry into Kiev.

The Szczerbiec, which since the 1930s has become a symbol of Polish nationalism, became an object of protest last year after a monument to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was vandalized in southeastern Poland. The Lviv district council immediately demanded the removal of the statue of the conronation sword from the Polish military cemetery.

Ukrainians also perceive as offensive the words “Kresy Wschodnie” at Janowski Cemetery, where victims of the Polish-Ukrainian war of 1918-1920 were buried.

Local authorities also criticize Poles for having renovated Polish graves without Ukrainian consent.

The council wants all Polish monuments accused of violating the Polish-Ukrainian law on memorials, to be demolished.

It is not the first time that Polish cemeteries in Ukraine have become a bone of contention between the two countries. The Lviv Cemetery of Eaglets generates controversy as many of the people buried there fought on the Polish side against the Ukrainians during the Polish-Ukrainian War.

The cemetery was closed for several decades and reopened only in 2005, when the Lviv City Council finally gave its approval. Initially the council resisted the opening of the cemetery because of inscription on one of the collective graves commemorated “The unknown Polish heroes who died during the Polish-Ukrainian War”. The inscription was changed several times and now it reads: “Here lie Polish soldiers who gave their life to Motherland.”


www.thenews.pl/international/artykul132348_offensive-symbols-in-polish-cemeteries-in-ukraine--.html

[Bonobo]

Ooops...

Euro 2012: matches to be played at 'Bandera Stadium'?
17.06.2010 11:43

A city councillor in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv wants the stadium there to be named after Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, responsible for the murder of thousands of Poles in World War 2.

Rostislav Novozhenets, a councillor in the Lviv region, said that the working name of the stadium, “Lemberg” (Lviv in German), is causing outrage among the city’s residents, and proposed to change the name to one which Lviv’s inhabitants “can be proud.”

The Sevodnya daily, based in Kyiv, has called the move “scandalous,” adding that the “heroisation of Bandera will provoke protests with our Polish partners in the organisation of Euro 2012.”

In April, a court in Ukraine repealed the decree billed by former president Viktor Yushchenko that proclaimed Stepan Bandera as a national hero. The European Parliament also protested Yushchenko’s move to glorify the leader of the Ukrainian Insugent Army (UPA).

Sevodnya underlines that since the Lviv stadium is being built with tax-payers’ money, the name has also caused unrest among many Ukrainian citizens, not all of whom believe that Bandera was indeed a national hero.

Director of Euro 2012 in Ukraine, Markiyan Lubkivskiy believes that it is still too early to name the as yet unbuilt stadium. According to Lubkivskiy, the idea to name the stadium after Bandera would politicise the tournament. “The public should be consulted when choosing the name for the stadium,” he added.

Last Monday, the mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi announced that the name for the Lviv stadium may be chosen by way of a tender. “I have already received some proposals,” Sadovyi said, although he refused to comment on the councillor’s proposal.

www.thenews.pl/sport/artykul133726_euro-2012-matches-to-be-played-at-bandera-stadium.html

[valpomike]

Let the people pick it's name, not the leaders.

Mike