Change in Polish view of nationalities (12/31/89)

Change in Polish view of nationalities

by Dr. Roman Solchanyk

MUNICH - The Ukrainian-language weekly Nashe Slovo, published by the Ukrainian Social-Cultural Society in Warsaw, reported in its December 3 issue that the "coordination" of the activities of Poland's national minority organizations has been transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of Culture and Art.

Stated differently, what this means is that for the first time since the end of the war the national question in Poland will no longer be treated as a police issue but rather as a political problem. The announcement was made on November 10 by Deputy Minister of Culture Stefan Starczewski during a meeting with the leadership of the Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Jewish, Lithuanian. and Slovak cultural-educational societies.

This first step in the "normalization" of the national minority issue in Poland may well raise expectations among Ukrainians, the largest ethnic minority in the country, that the Polish government will repudiate "Akcja Wisla," - the 1947 mass deportation of Ukrainians from their traditional homelands in the southeastern part of the country to the so-called recovered territories in the north and west. Such a step was recently taken by the USSR Supreme Soviet with regard to nationalities deported by Stalin during the war.

In this connection, it is interesting to note that during a recent roundtable discussion on Polish-Ukrainian relations organized by the Warsaw Catholic weekly Lad (October 29), one of the participants, citing the influential role played by Soviet "advisers" in post-war Poland, argued that the decision to deport the Ukrainians in 1947 "was not made by Poles."