(NOT) MEMORY OF JEDWABNE, (NOT) MEMORY OF VOLYN

Abstract

The episode of the Second World War remains one of the most tragic and irritative pages of European history. No one could discuss the historiography of the Volhynia tragedy, the Jedwabne pogrom, and the expulsion of the Silesian Germans in the communist era. In contemporary reality, the memory of these events has turned to be official. The anniversary of «Bloody Sunday», July 11, (since recently, it has become the National Day of Remembrance of Genocide of Victims perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists on the citizens of the Second Republic of Poland) is celebrated after July 10, when the massacre of Jewish people by Polish citizens of Jedwabne in Podlachia is commemorated. The analysis of these historical controversies allows highlighting common features of their course and influence on social thought. Both topics have been found supersensitive to social thought: they have caused the rethinking of the victims- executioners dimension. In recent years, much has been said in Poland about the Jedwabne case and that Poles are responsible for this crime. At the same time, the argument that «first of all, the very Poles are innocent victims, hundreds of thousands of innocent victims in Volyn and Galicia» is sweeping. That sort of argument often justifies, for example, the disregard of Ukrainians currently working or studying in Poland. Attempts to assert our point, our right to choose our history at all costs, doom us to constant confrontations with those who seek to convey another part of the truth. The functioning of both different national versions (Jewish and Polish, Polish and Ukrainian, respectively) and distinctive internal discussions (conservative, liberal) should be regarded as a feature of scientific and social discourses in the context of the Jedwabne’41 and Volyn’43 cases. It is argued that over time, historical controversies about Jedwabne and Volyn’43 are non-exhaustive but, on the contrary, are aroused with a vengeance. The research shows the escalation of memory conflicts in both neighboring countries and demonstrates the need for separating disputes over the past and the development of modern interstate relations.