Ukrainian historian explains Poland's Volhynia tragedy remembrance day

The Polish Sejm has decided to establish July 11 as the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the Volyn tragedy. However, this date has already been officially designated as a day of commemoration in 2016.

According to Zinchenko, it is difficult to understand the logic of this step.

He recalls the words of Ukrainian dissident Henrik Altunian: "Don’t look for logic where you didn’t put it."

Zinchenko points out that the Polish parliament has not yet established a single day of remembrance, for example, for the victims of the Wola Massacre, when German troops killed tens of thousands of civilians in Warsaw in a few days in August 1944.

Likewise, Polish politicians ignore the tragedy of the Polish NKVD operation, during which more than 100,000 mostly Poles died.

According to the historian, the topic of Volyn is less and less related to commemorating the victims and more and more to politics.

"Unfortunately, more and more, this topic is considered exclusively as a way to fuel Ukrainophobia and xenophobia in Polish society," he said.

Against the backdrop of growing support for far-right politicians in Poland, including Grzegorz Braun, the use of historical memory for political purposes only deepens the divide between societies.

Exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy

This year, Ukraine began exhuming Polish citizens who died during the Volyn tragedy in 1945. Warsaw had previously repeatedly called for the start of this process, and recently, the two countries managed to reach an agreement on many issues.

In early April, exhumation work began in Ukraine's village of Uhly, Rivne region. Search activities also took place in the Ternopil region.

Read more about why Ukraine and Poland are still arguing about the Volyn tragedy in RBC-Ukraine's article.