RESTORATION OF STATEHOOD IN THE POLITICS OF MEMORY OF THE SECOND POLISH-LITHUANIAN COMMONWEALTH (THE CASE OF WESTERN UKRAINE)

Vitalii Matviichuk

doi:10.35433/history.11202

Abstract

The aim of the article is to study the politics of memory of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1920s–1930s in Western Ukraine associated with the restoration of the Polish statehood. The methodology of scientific research is based on general scientific and special historical methods, including the basic principles of historical perception. The principles of historicism and scientific character of research enabled the author to recreate the politics of memory of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Western Ukraine in all its complexity and diversity, as well as in interrelation and interdependence with the events of that time. The principle of objectivity facilitated the consideration of the outlined problems taking into account objective historical patterns and a critical analysis of the reference database. The principle of consistency provided the means to form a complete account of the corresponding commemorative practices. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time the problem of reflecting the historical subject of the restoration of Poland in the political power of memory in Western Ukraine is studied on the basis of a big archive database. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the "memory" of the state restoration was actively implemented throughout its territory, including Western Ukraine. Due to the corresponding politics of memory, the Polish authorities tried to integrate Western Ukraine into a single social and cultural space, the creation of which was quite a difficult task for the postwar Poland. Historical subjects and various kinds of commemorations became unified on the entire territory of the state. Some of the local subjects, for example, "Lviv Eaglets" or the battles of legionnaires near Kostiukhnivka became national, and strengthened the position of the Polish state narrative in Western Ukrainian region. The author argues that the activity of memorialization in Western Ukrainian cities led to the filling of the memory space with Polish symbols. The paper considers the issue of formalism and monotony of Polish commemorative practices in Western Ukraine.

Highlights

The consequence of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles was the formation of a number of new states that appeared in a kind of political vacuum in Central and Eastern Europe
An important role in this context was played by politics of memory, which became an instrument of political control in the newly emerged states
In the processes of forming its politics of memory, they used the subject that was meaningful to that very society, at that very time, namely, the fight for the restoration of the state between 1914–1920

Summary

Introduction

The author argues that the activity of memorialization in Western Ukrainian cities led to the filling of the memory space with Polish symbols. The foreign historians studied the problem of the restoration of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Polish politics of memory of the postwar period in Western Ukraine. Pilsudski in the Polish postwar society (Załęczny, Kult Piłsudskiego przed i po maju, 2016), as well as the problem of commemorative practices and their evolution in the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Załęczny, Tradycje patriotyczne elementem kształtowania zbiorowej świadomości historycznej w II rzeczypospolitej, 2017).

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