Talked with some residents from Lublin about the two refugee situations in Poland, interested if this about captures it
Talked with some residents from Lublin about the two refugee situations in Poland, interested if this about captures it
2 comments
I presume you’re the author.
The main difference in refugee situations is that Ukrainian escape from war and cross the border on the border crossings, while these on Belarusian border mainly escape from poverty and try to come to EU illegally. People in Poland see this, and this probably differentiates the response.
There’s also the matter of the sentiment. Many people in Poland have roots in Ukraine (Ukrainian lands were for all intents and purposes mostly cleansed from Polish by USSR after the war, moving large populations from Ukraine to Poland). Thus, they treat Ukrainians as brothers and sisters in need.
As for the article itself:
As far as I know, the majority of migrants going through Belarusian border do not wish to stay in Poland, usually they go to their relatives further in the West.
I wouldn’t describe polish government as far-right, too. There’s not enough right in it. (Pun aside, economically it’s as leftist as others). That may turn some readers off this (otherwise well-written) piece.
Final nit: male name is Zbigniew, not Zibigniew.
You’re missing some of the details in the context of Ukraine, so your article makes it sound like UPA and the Volhynia Massacre came out of thin air. Admittedly, it’s a bit of a history lesson.
When Kievan Rus collapsed, its’ remains – much of modern Ukraine and Belarus – were gobbled up by the Kingdom of Poland and Duchy of Lithuania, which subsequently united into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Suffice to say, frictions resulted, although eventually the region was conquered by the Russian Empire (and a fraction by Austro-Hungary) during the Partitions of Poland.
After the Russian Empire fell, our relations can be best described as competitive, with West Ukrainian People’s Republic claiming Lwów and triggering the Polish-Ukrainian War – which segued into a treaty and the Polish-Soviet War, during which Józef Piłsudski more or less proclaimed Poland to have a moral responsibility of protecting Ukrainian sovereignity from the Soviet invasion (outright phrasing it as righting the wrongs of our forebears). Polish forces managed some substantial successes against the Soviets, but after the Soviets sued for peace the negotiators on our side came from a nationalist pro-Russian faction and basically threw Ukraine under the bus. This still left Poland in control of Galitsia and Volhynia.
In the meantime, Polish internal policies towards minorities were split between the position of Endecja (“National Democrats”) which pushed for integrating them through forcing an “approved” Polish identity on them and that of Sanacja (Piłsudski’s party) which pushed for integrating them through supporting their cultural identities and building their loyalty towards the Polish state (see: Volhynia Experiment)
Somewhere around this period, OUN (which would eventually be the parent organization to UPA) moved into Galitsia and Volhynia, enacting a campaign of terror that went on for over a decade and resulted in reprisals from Polish government (see: Pacification of Galitsia) and escalated towards the Volhynia Massacre.