Polsko-ukraińskie spory historyczne w latach 2015–2019 z perspektywy ukraińskiej myśli politycznej
Polish-Ukrainian Historical Disputes in 2015–2019 from the Perspective of Ukrainian Political Thought

Summary/Abstract: After a partial calming down of the mood in Polish-Ukrainian relations in the late 1990s and early 2000s, historical issues once again, after 2015, took on the status of system-building issues. It is difficult to say unequivocally what was the starting point for such a turn in bilateral relations – it can be said that the crisis against the background of history began in 2010, when Lech Kaczyński reacted sharply to Viktor Yushchenko awarding the title of Hero of Ukraine to Stepan Bandera. It can also be suspected that the starting point was Euromaidan, when UPA flags and Bandera slogans began to be widely used in Ukraine for the first time, and not only in nationalist circles. We can also mention President Komorowski’s famous speech in the Ukrainian parliament in April 2015, immediately after which the act on the recognition of, among others, The UPA was a force fighting for independence, which was strongly received in the Polish public debate (there were even voices saying that this episode influenced the outcome of the 2015 presidential election). In any case, in the period 2015–2019 it was historical issues that became the decisive topic in Polish-Ukrainian relations. The articulated research question, which is the starting point of this text, is as follows: why did historical disputes in the period 2015–2019 become a key factor in Polish-Ukrainian relations from the Ukrainian perspective, overshadowing seemingly more important questions for bilateral relations about economic cooperation, defense, participation in joint regional projects? It is worth noting here that historical disputes themselves are not the subject of this article, so they will not be analyzed directly. The main issue is only the impact of historical disputes on Polish-Ukrainian political relations in the presented period. The research hypothesis of the article is the statement that Ukrainian historical policy in the period under study was dominated by circles representing a narrow (and actually nationalist) historical trend, which, having regular support from the central authorities (which was the result of mutually beneficial political cooperation), also had a very significant influence on the shaping of the foreign policy of this country. Starting from the research question and the research hypothesis, the aim of this article can be formulated, namely to present key publications in the Ukrainian public space, which have a real influence on the shaping of Ukrainian political thought and diplomacy in relation to Poland, and secondly, which enable us to understand why at a given time Ukrainian political thought, hindering the development of political relations between the countries, was dominated by historical issues.

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