Memory Wars and Reconciliation in the Ukrainian–Polish Borderlands: Geopolitics of Memory from a Local Perspective

Abstract

On 22 January 2010, Ukraine’s Unity Day, the outgoing president Viktor Yushchenko posthumously awarded Stepan Bandera, the icon of militant Ukrainian nationalism, the official title ‘Hero of Ukraine’. While Western Ukraine enthusiastically welcomed the long-awaited decree, it found much less understanding in the rest of the country. The controversial act also had a significant international resonance. Protests took place in many Polish cities. President Lech Kaczyński, despite his personal sympathy to Yushchenko, criticized the decree as an ‘action aimed against the historical reconciliation process between Poland and Ukraine’. On 25 February 2010, the European Parliament, on the initiative of the Polish members, passed a resolution denouncing Yushchenko’s decree. Not surprisingly, the resolution was welcomed by Moscow, which urged the incoming president Yanukovych to revoke the decree of his predecessor. In a letter to the European Parliament, Yushchenko insisted on his decision. An appeal in defense of Bandera was signed by a group of deputies of the Ukrainian parliament. Lviv’s regional assembly also issued an open letter to the European Parliament defending the honor of Stepan Bandera and the right of the Ukrainians to have their own heroes, even if they are not popular among their neighbors. On the Polish side, the situation was used by the nationalists and right-wing politicians to fuel anti-Ukrainian sentiments.