Національна політика Польщі на західних землях України у 1920 - 1930-х рр.: сучасне українське бачення

Abstract

The article summarizes the analyses of historiographic sources, that were created by contemporary Ukrainian historians and reflect the state of the study of the state policy of the Second Rzezc Pospolita in the sphere of international relations during the 1920s – 1930s. The priority directions of research are shown, scientists who contributed to the study of the subject under consideration are personified, due attention is drawn to the process of extension of scientific historical knowledge, the questions demanding further research are singled out.

The article proves that historians mainly study Ukrainian-Polish relations and focus their attention on the following questions: the sources and causes of sharpening of the aforementioned relations, ways and methods of assimilation of the Ukrainians, Ukrainian sabotage acts and their place and role in Ukrainian-Polish confrontation, Polish state «pacification» and its purposes and character; the attitude of Ukrainian political circles towards Y. Pilsudskyi’s new course, normalization policy and causes of its failure, voivoda G. Yuzewskyi’s «Volhynian experiment», Western Ukraine in the orbit of Polish Prometeizm. The achievements of scientists in the investigation of the problem of relations between Polish power and the Jewish minority are significant.

However the problem in view needs further investigation. In particular, historical researches of the recent decades include insufficient number of publications that disclose attempts of Ukrainian-Polish mutual understanding, seek the ways of cooperation of both peoples. More attention should be paid to the demonstration of Polish ethno-national policy through the prism of its foreign policy. A perspective direction for research is the question about the reaction of the world to the sharpening of Polish-Ukrainian relations in the interwar period in the XX century. Probably, Ukrainian studies, dedicated to official Warsaw’s policy towards the Germans, Czechs, Armenians and other national minorities that lived in the territories of West Ukrainian lands in the 1920s-1930s, will gain importance.