“To Resolve the Ukrainian Problem Once and for All”: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ukrainians in Poland, 1943–1947

1999/05/01 by Timothy Snyder · 6 citations
Social Sciences · #Polish Historical and Cultural Studies #Eastern European Communism and Reforms #European Politics and Security

paper · doi:10.1162/15203979952559531

openalex publication_date 1999/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

The complicated and violent interactions between Ukrainians and Poles during and after World War II have been the subject of competing Ukrainian and Polish historical interpretations. This article sifts through the historical evidence to determine why Ukrainian and Polish memories of that period are so much at odds. The fate of the contested territories of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia was decided ultimately by the Soviet Union, which imposed new borders on Poland. Once those borders had been established, the transfer of Poles from the newly enlarged Soviet Ukraine and the forced removal of Ukrainians from eastern Poland consolidated an “ethnically cleansed” post-war order.

Citations

• The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing

Cited by

• Debating, obfuscating and disciplining the Holocaust: post-Soviet historical discourses on the OUN–UPA and other nationalist movements
• The OUN, the UPA and the Holocaust: A Study in the Manufacturing of Historical Myths
• Conversing with Ghosts: Jedwabne, Zydokomuna, and Totalitarianism
• Can There Be a Political Science of the Holocaust?
• History of Poland [wikipedia]
• Ukrainian Insurgent Army [wikipedia]