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01.05.2007, [16:57] // UGCC // risu.org.ua

Poland – On 29 April 2007, the 60th anniversary of Operation Vistula, the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) in Poland, Archbishop Ivan (Jan) Martyniak of Przemysl and Warsaw and Bishop Wolodymyr Juszczak of Wroclaw and Gdansk released an address to the faithful of the UGCC in which they mention the great losses for the UGCC caused by Operation Vistula.

The text of the address notes that “the primary goal of Operation Vistula was to solve the ‘Ukrainian issue’ in post-war Poland, i.e., the total assimilation of the Ukrainian population in its new place of residence.” Also, the document states that “for many long years, Soviet propaganda claimed that the key reason for the action of the expulsion of Ukrainians from their native land was the murder of General Karol Swierczewski and the struggle against units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Available documents prove that this was just a shameful pretext, since the need for the resettlement of Ukrainians was discussed by the Ministry of State Defense back in 1946 before Swierczewski’s death on 27 March 1947.”

RISU note: During Operation Vistula, conducted by the Soviet and Communist Polish governments at the end of World War II, thousands of Poles and Ukrainians were forcibly removed from their native territories. Generally, Poles were removed from what was then Soviet Ukraine and taken to the territory of post-World War II Poland and Ukrainians were taken from Poland to Soviet Ukraine.

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