For some Polish politicians, the war over memory is much more convenient than an actual war — Snyder
The historical disputes between Poland and Ukraine over naming a Ukrainian military unit “after the Heroes of the UPA” play right into the hands of the Russian Federation.
Renowned American historian Timothy Snyder made this statement in an interview with the Polish edition of Newsweek.
In his view, the presence of excessive emotions in bilateral relations between the neighboring states and an irrational approach to the current complex security situation can only benefit official Moscow.
The American researcher believes that evaluating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decisions on this matter outside the context of the current war against Russia is a fundamental mistake on Warsaw’s part.
According to him, for some Polish politicians, the so-called “war over memory” is much more convenient than an actual war, as it allows them to declare their own righteousness without taking the real geopolitical context into account.
The historian cited another important factor: in contemporary Polish discourse on the crimes of World War II, there is a complete absence of any discussion of the specific harms that Poles inflicted on the Ukrainian population in the first half of the 20th century.
This creates a one-sided perception of the shared past.
“If we speak only of the horrific ethnic cleansing in Volhynia, the Polish discussion overlooks the fact that there were also Polish actions against Ukrainians. Poles in Volhynia also killed thousands of Ukrainians, but there were also pacification campaigns against Ukrainian villages in Galicia in the 1930s, the expulsion of Ukrainians from Volhynia, and the complete absence of an official Polish response during the Great Famine, when Poles knew better than anyone else what was happening in Ukraine at the time. “It would be good if, whenever Ukrainians are criticized in Polish commentary, there were also some mentions of these facts,” noted Timothy Snyder.
At the same time, the scholar acknowledges that official Kyiv has also made a misstep in this situation. Ukrainian society tends to view the UPA’s activities solely through the lens of the third phase of its existence—the heroic struggle against the Soviet Army after 1945.
At the same time, it is completely forgotten how painfully the initial phase of the UPA’s activities is perceived in Poland. The expert noted that Ukraine should not link the current war of liberation to the events of World War II.
“This is the wrong lesson for Ukrainians themselves. It would be much better to focus on the current war and view this war as a source of Ukrainian symbols and memory,” the historian emphasized.
The professor strongly criticizes attempts by some European circles to use Ukraine’s difficult situation as a lever for political pressure in disputes over historical memory.
According to him, Poland’s geopolitical situation today depends far more on Ukraine’s resilience than on support from the U.S. or NATO, and therefore Ukrainians should be treated as strategic partners and allies—even when they make certain mistakes.
This was reported by Newsweek.
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