PRESERVATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE OF RESTITUTION OF UKRAINIAN-POLISH RELATIONS

Abstract

Cultural heritage is a set of cultural heritage objects inherited by the nation from previous generations, the result of the spiritual and material culture of the people. One of the types of material culture are manuscripts, books, archival materials, scientific collections, various objects of artistic, historical or archaeological significance, which have artistic, historical, ethnographic or scientific significance. This part of the cultural heritage will be discussed in the proposed article. Most often, peoples living on the border lands have a common history or have built their own statehood in the same areas, or have survived military conflicts, face the problem of common cultural heritage. It is quite common for two or more peoples to claim the same cultural heritage sites. These issues are now governed by international law, the latter of which determines the affiliation of a cultural heritage site to the heritage of a particular nation. Restitution of cultural values, in relations between states, plays an extremely important role not only in the preservation and reproduction of the cultural heritage of the nation, but also in the preservation and development of neighborly relations between states. Since the early 1990s, Ukraine and the Republic of Poland have established and are developing cooperation in the restitution of cultural property and conservation activities, which is extremely important for the development of bilateral interstate relations. Throughout its history, the Ukrainian-Polish border has been a classic example of a polyethnic region, a meeting place for different cultures, their interaction and synthesis. Such syncretism has led to the fact that in the historical space of the Ukrainian-Polish border there is a bright intertwining of two cultures, the location of a large number of cultural heritage sites of the two peoples.