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The MoA Week In Review – (Not Ukraine) OT 2023-168
Last week's post on Moon of Alabama:
> “The new policy embodied in Oct. 7 is: Not only are we not going to allow China to progress any further technologically, we are going to actively reverse their current state of the art,” Allen says. C.J. Muse, a senior semiconductor analyst at Evercore ISI, put it this way: “If you’d told me about these rules five years ago, I would’ve told you that’s an act of war — we’d have to be at war.” <
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Other issues:
Prigozin Affair:
Xinjiang:
Capitalism:
European Disunity:
Use as open (not Ukraine related) thread …
“A premeditated crime”: historian Aleksandr Dyukov on the causes and consequences of the Volyn massacre (RT na Russkom, Svyatoslav Knyazev & Yelizaveta Komarova, July 11, 2023 — in Russian)
In Poland July 11 is considered the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the genocide committed by Ukrainian Nationalists against the citizens of the republic. 80 years ago, OUN-UPA militants, as part of the Volyn massacre, attacked about 100 settlements in Western Ukraine where ethnic Poles lived. The crimes committed by the Nationalists on this day are the most famous, although later atrocities of the OUN-UPA militants were no smaller in scale. In Soviet times, little was said about these crimes, fearing an aggravation of interethnic relations. Nowadays, official Kiev prevents the study of the remains of the victims of the murders, that’s why, according to historians, the Volyn massacre is still poorly studied from a scientific point of view. Director of the Historical Memory foundation Aleksandr Dyukov, in an interview with RT, speaks about the causes and consequences of the massacres in Volyn, as well as the impact of those events on modern politics.
What gave rise to Ukrainians’ hatred for the Poles, which led to the Volyn massacre? Did its roots go back to the distant past, or did it arise immediately before the Second World War?
It was a premeditated event. The leadership of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) consistently instilled hatred towards the Poles in the Ukrainian population and planned bloody ethnic cleansing in advance. Ideological preparations for the Volyn massacre went on for at least the entire 1930s on the territory of the Ukraine. Already in the mid-1930s, OUN organizations were engaged in arson of Polish houses in order to expel Poles from certain territories.
In 1938, even before the outbreak of World War II, the military program of the OUN was formulated, which spoke of the need for bloody ethnic cleansing against the Polish population in the lands that are now considered to be Western Ukraine. These ideas were to be put into practice in 1939—at the beginning of World War II, the Nazis planned to carry out the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia and Jews on the territory of Western Ukraine with the help of Ukrainian Nationalists. But the additional protocol of the Non-Aggression Pact signed between the USSR and Germany transferred Western Ukraine to the Soviet Union, so the plan to use Ukrainian Nationalists was not implemented.
In 1941, the Nationalists issued a new regulatory document—“The struggle and activities of the OUN during the war.” It described the algorithm of actions of the OUN fighters after the German attack on the Soviet Union. It mentioned, among other things, ethnic cleansing of the Poles. Although, Ukrainian Nationalists planned to kill them after the massacre of the Jews. Similar plans were recorded in other documents of the OUN. Thus, we can say with confidence that the Volyn massacre was not an accident. It was a consistently premeditated crime.
Who were the participants in the Volyn massacre? Most often, members of the OUN-UPA are mentioned, but some sources claim that Ukrainian national units of the SS also participated in it. Is it correct to call the members of the UPA themselves Hitlerite collaborators?
The OUN, of course, interacted with the Nazis, although in late 1941 – early 1942 these ties at the organizational level were severed at the initiative of the German side. Ukrainian Nationalists did not like this very much, and by 1943, by the beginning of the Volyn massacre, these ties were restored. Therefore, members of the OUN and UPA, no doubt, can be called collaborators.
Members of the OUN and UPA were the main striking force of the Volyn massacre. The vast majority of people were killed by representatives of these organizations. Against the background of the murders, the UPA was mobilizing local peasants, who were tied to the UPA with blood by being involved in the massacres. In 1944, formations belonging to the SS division Galicia also participated in the killings. In a number of cases, massacres were carried out in cooperation between UPA detachments and units of the SS division Galicia. And yet, I repeat, it was the OUN-UPA militants who committed the bulk of the murders on their own.
What was the direct cause of the Volyn massacre? Was there a specific event or was it a whole set of circumstances?
The destruction of the Poles was a pre-formulated plan. That is, in any case, Ukrainian Nationalists would have sooner or later begun this bloody ethnic cleansing. At the end of 1942, the OUN leadership realized that they were losing control on the ground. From the point of view of the German occupation administration, it was illegal. At the same time, raid formations of Soviet partisans began to penetrate into Western Ukraine. The local civilian population—both Poles and Ukrainians—began to help the Soviet partisans.
The OUN leadership was afraid that the Soviet partisans would seize actual control over the territories. It was at that time that the Nationalists launched the rapid development of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). It was formed, firstly, on the basis of small OUN detachments already operating in the forests—the so-called boyivkas—and secondly, on the basis of units of the Hitlerite Auxiliary Police. In addition, mobilization was carried out. This force had to be directed to some kind of vigorous activity and tied with blood. That’s when they decided to bring back the old plans, hitting the Poles. In addition to hatred motives, this also undermined the mobilization base of the Soviet partisans.
From what moment, from a historical point of view, did the Volyn massacre begin? Why did it peak on July 11–12, 1943?
The first mass attacks and killings took place in January–February 1943. From that moment on, we can talk about the beginning of the Volyn massacre. And July 11 is a symbolic date that is used in modern Poland. Perhaps the attacks that took place on this day are simply the most famous. But the massacres went before and continued later. The destruction of the Polish civilian population did not decline by the summer—on the contrary, it only became more active. In a word, July 11 is a formal date, it does not reflect the full scale of the tragedy of the Volyn massacre.
Historical sources describe the monstrous atrocities of the UPA militants in relation to the civilian population—to women, children, the elderly. What was the reason for such cruelty?
The task of the Volyn massacre was to organize such terror that the Polish population would flee from the territory of Western Ukraine. The principle “the Ukraine for Ukrainians” was put into practice. The atrocities committed by the Nationalists were a method of terror, a method of intimidation, forcing people to flee.
How did the Soviet partisans act during the Volyn massacre? Did they provide assistance to the victims of Ukrainian Nationalists?
Poles terrorized by Ukrainian Nationalists turned out to be natural allies of the Soviet partisans. While on the territory of Belarus there were clashes between Soviet partisans and units of the Polish Home Army, in Western Ukraine cooperation was established between Soviet partisans and units of the Volyn division of the Home Army. For Polish villages, the arrival of Soviet partisans was a lifesaver. In turn, the partisans could count on the support of the Poles. The principle “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” applied.
How did the Volyn massacre end?
Murders of Poles by Ukrainian Nationalists continued even after the arrival of Soviet troops in Western Ukraine. The Volyn massacre was ended for good by the exchange of population between the Ukrainian USSR and Poland in 1944–1946. The bulk of the Polish population of Western Ukraine was moved to Poland, and a significant part of the Ukrainian population of Poland to Western Ukraine.
Estimates of the number of victims of the Volyn massacre vary greatly: from several tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dead. Which numbers do you think are closest to the truth?
Here you need to understand that there are no statistics that would reflect reality, and there never was. Any data in this case is estimated, because no record of those killed by either side was kept. Historians give different estimates: from 60 thousand to 200 thousand killed Poles. In reality, we are talking, in all likelihood, about 80–100 thousand killed. I personally am of this opinion. In any case, this is a huge number of victims. And it is necessary to understand that a significant part of those killed were not just civilians, but women, children, and the elderly. That is, people who obviously did not pose any threat and who were killed on a basis of their ethnicity to cause terror and create an atmosphere of horror.
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Posted by: S | Jul 16 2023 18:12 utc | 64
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