We are all used to looking for a whipping boy. In Lviv, this boy is a legal entity, the City Council that reaffirmed its resolution of September 4, 2000, and which is in conformity with international law concerning military burial sites.
Disrespect for a decision of a local self-government authority in this case is provoked by the Ukrainian side. A fact kept shamefully silent. Valery Cherep, Chairman of the Interministerial State Commission for the Immortalization of War Victims’ Memory, and Andrzej Pszewoznik, Secretary General of the Council for the Protection of the Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom of the Republic of Poland, met in December 2001 and signed a protocol, voluntarily “amending” the City Council’s resolution. The protocol had the adverb “heroically” and provided for some architectural details of the prewar pantheon, known as the Cemetery of Young Eagles, which the Lviv authorities and public then refused to accept. However, their objections must have been lacking in resolve, because the Polish pantheon (supported by official Kyiv) did appear on Ukrainian territory. It apparently claims a place of note among numerous military burial sites in other European countries, kept in a retrained, modest style. This fact is also hushed up by those currently denouncing the city council’s “unreasonable” stand causing an international scandal. But is the resolution actually to blame?
Indeed, it is not worth wasting words over the one word, heroically. It would have sufficed to mount that notched sword (known to the Poles as a symbol of the conquest of Ukraine) on the Grave of the Unknown Polish Soldiers to make everything clear. Ihor Havryshkevych, director of the Lychakivsky Tsvyntar Memorial Cemetery, says that some Polish tourists refuse guides, for there are people among them with booklets offering a different version of historical events. And well they should, as the pantheon, standing out against the unfinished memorial of the fallen heroes of the Ukrainian Galician Army, makes one wonder who is actually master here.
The current self-flagellation of the Ukrainian side adds to the dramatic effect, of course. Lviv Mayor Liubomyr Buniak did not sign the resolution, thus distancing himself from the whole affair. The regional state administration sharply denounced the city council’s stand. Numerous local press publications likewise condemn the city hall. And there are practically no expert commentaries, because experts involved in or with the administrative apparatus (in terms of rank or position, or otherwise) are filled with trepidation and keep silent or beat their breasts with remorse.
“The decision of the deputies of the Lviv City Council has resulted in quite a scandal. In actuality, this decision does not reflect the opinion of all Ukrainians and Poles,” says Taras Vozniak, head of the Lviv City Council’s external contacts department, adding, “I am personally convinced that all those small groups of Lviv political speculators, not politicians, are in the minority. Yet, Lviv’s armchair politicians let themselves be pushed around by them...” Mr. Vozniak further states that “there are active meetings between Mr. Putin and Mr. Kuchma. Hence the simple conclusion pointing to who is trying to organize that ridiculous war with the Poles in Lviv actually worked for.”
Mr. Vozniak is not quite correct, this war is not ridiculous but tragicomic, for we are cannonading our own national dignity. He is echoed by Prof. Yaroslav Hrytsak, director of the Institute of Historical Research:
“I think that the city council’s decision is worse than a crime. It is an act of sheer stupidity. I think that Lviv has once again demonstrated its provincialism. Lviv deputies and intellectuals appear unable of thinking on a broader scale... Relations with Poland are the highest priority from the standpoint of our national interests, because these relations are the most promising. And we must surmount all those small obstacles on the road to neighborly relations.” Does this leave room for comment? Let us leave those “small obstacles” on the conscience of intellectuals in “provincial” Lviv.
War veterans, in contrast, took a reasonable and justified stand. The Lviv branch of the All-Ukraine Association of Veterans passed a resolution at a conference, addressing the combatants of Ukraine and Poland: “Gentlemen, Brothers in Arms, we are united by memories of war wounds and loyalty to the Fatherland. The destinies of Ukraine and Poland are similar and were common at certain stages in history. We deeply respect Tadeusz Kosciuszko and the Polish rebels fighting Russian autocracy in the 1830s-60s. We respect all those Poles that rallied under the banner of Polish national revival after the proclamation of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR). We are pained to recall that Poland and ZUNR, after proclaiming independence, waged an unequal and bloody war ending in a disaster for us and annexing our lands.
“We bow our heads in respect to those before us that fought in their land, for their own state, and we pay homage to all Polish officers and men that fell in the war. We cannot regard as a manifestation of neighborly and equal relationships between our nations the attempts of certain Polish public circles to restore the military burial site at Lychakiv in Lviv, using the ideology and symbols of the prewar Polish Republic. Every people can build a pantheon of military glory, but only in its own territory. The restoration of the Polish Pantheon of Military Glory in Lviv is an act of humiliation and shame for us, because the best sons and daughters of Ukraine fell in battle against the Poles in this city, in 1918-1919.
“We are pained to realize that certain top and local self-government circles in Ukraine let this humiliating act happen. We want no Ukrainian pantheons in other countries, but we want to restore the simple military monuments to our heroes and expect the Polish combatants to show proper understanding of this problem. Those fallen in battle require no bronze and stone grandeur; they want us to remember them; our respect is a manifestation of our irredeemable indebtedness to them.”
This resolution was passed three days prior to the scheduled meeting of the Ukrainian and Polish presidents. If only the veterans had been heard...
