“Ukrainians know hardly anything about the Volyn massacre”

– Knowledge about the Volyn massacre is scant in Ukraine. The locals who could know something about it disclaimed this part of history and did not pass it on. Their children and grandchildren did not hear from them about that- said in Kulisy Spraw the investigative journalist, the author of Pokochać Ukrainę, Jacek Łęski. He referred to 74th anniversary of the events in Volyn.

Jacek Łęski stressed in Polskie Radio 24 that the knowledge about the Volyn massacre is narrow in Ukraine.

– Basically, Ukrainians know hardly anything about the slaughter. The image of those terrible events that happened in Volyn in 1943 is not very popular in Ukraine. It was not seen in newspapers and books, there was nothing about it in schools so how could they know? – he asked rhetorically.

According to him, even direct heirs of those who remember the tragedy in Volyn often keep “specific and typical of the Soviet society belief that there are things that are better not to talk about”.

Łęski also related to the attitude of Ukrainians towards the formation and activists of UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army). – We are alarmed to see what is currently happening in Ukraine. Monuments of those who we consider as murderers are being built- he said.

As he stated, on one hand the problem is the lack of knowledge and on the other hand that Ukraine wants to build its own patriotic identity- it searches for the model- and UPA is one of these models and it will probably become one whether you like or or not. The whole UPA was not engaged in what happened. A part of UPA was fighting with the Soviet occupation and this is how it has grown up in Ukrainians’ minds- summarized Łęski.

 

Author: Łukasz Kurtz

Translation: Daria Skrzypczak

 

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