The "Operation Vistula" carried out in 1947 was justified by the fact that the army had to cut off the UPA from the supplies that the local population eagerly provided. In fact, it was only a false pretext and the Ukrainian insurgents were not very popular at all.
Forced migrations of people from the south-eastern border of Poland began right after the war. They did not apply only to Ukrainians. All those who wrote in Cyrillic and prayed in front of the iconostasis, regardless of whether they were Boyki, Lemkos or Dolinians, became suspects in the eyes of the communist authorities. The locals couldn't understand why they were suddenly made Ukrainians and why they had to leave their homes with only a handful of their belongings and one cow on a rope.
The situation in this area has been boiling over the years. People with rifles appeared in the villages of the border provinces - Germans, Soviets, Poles and Ukrainians. Suspicion did not lessen with the end of World War II. The communists claimed that the non-Polish population from the Rzeszów, Lublin and Kraków voivodeships collectively supported the Ukrainian underground. The same judgments are now issued by Ukrainian historians, such as Volodymyr Viatrovych (head of the local counterpart of the Institute of National Remembrance). Contrary to these opinions, the vast majority of the aforementioned population wanted, above all, to finally experience a bit of peace.
Herojam slava ? Not at all!
The desire for stabilization is clearly visible not in the statistics or documents, but in the memories of the people themselves. A resident of Cisna, born in 1934, Anna states that she only heard about the Banders as a teenage girl. Quoted by Krzysztof Potaczała in the book “Only stones remain. Action 'Vistula':expulsion and returns' explains that the local Ukrainians were in no hurry to fight in their ranks:
[Banderites] were not clearly well perceived by the Ukrainian community. Although some locals had some hopes for an independent Ukraine, most dreamed of peace. They were not interested in politics. Many Ukrainians during the war were taken into the Soviet army, at least half of them did not return, so people did not massively embrace a new conflict.
Lemkos in traditional costumes (photo:public domain)
As Grzegorz Motyka emphasizes in his book about the Polish-Ukrainian conflict in 1943-1947, the UPA had the least support among the Lemkos. Despite strenuous propaganda efforts and attempts to distribute blotting paper and books, the inhabitants of the Low Beskids were absolutely indifferent to the issue of independent Ukraine. The rickety network of Ukrainian nationalists in this area covered only ... several dozen people. Interestingly, the Lemkos not only did not succumb to Ukrainian nationalist agitation, but also felt obliged to inform the Polish authorities that partisans with trisub on their caps were appearing in their area.
Also, many indigenous Ukrainians did not support the UPA at all. Paulina, née Karpecka, from a mixed family (father is a Ukrainian, mother is Polish), grew up in an environment that turned strongly towards Ukrainian identity, in the town of Romanowa Wola. She attended a Ukrainian school, church and church, and the vast majority of her neighbors were Ukrainian families. Around 1944, she came into contact with a UPA unit for the first time.
The Banderites appeared armed, without invitation, and ordered the hostess to prepare food for which they had no intention of paying. They demanded scrambled eggs and pies. Then they ordered the family to stand on watch and check if there were any Poles coming, and they laid themselves down in their beds and fell asleep. The woman mentions that she was afraid. As the story of one of its neighbors shows - rightly so. The author of the book "Only stones remain. Action 'Vistula':expulsion and returns " quotes:
Dad's friend lived nearby. He courted a certain girl, he carried honey for her, and on one date he missed that the UPA would win an independent Ukraine, if a cactus would grow in his hand. The next day he disappeared without a trace.
Paulina also describes a similar incident, but involving two women. Both Ukrainian women were returning from the Orthodox church and on this occasion (as with many others) they simply exchanged gossip. During the conversation, the first of them asked why the hell those Bandera followers walk around the villages, they do not let people live. Further events proved that her tongue loosened in the wrong hour. She did not expect that her friend would support the UPA and report her to the "foresters". As Paulina describes:
At night they came to her hut, beat them up and ran into a birch grove. The children pleaded for mercy for their mother, but a moment later she hung on a branch.
The attitudes of the population towards the fight for Ukraine's independence were not improved by the UPA forced enlistment among Ukrainian youth, which began in 1945. Whether they liked it or not, the young boys had to go to the woods. Even those who had just returned from the front and were wounded. One of the characters of Krzysztof Potaczała's book “Only stones are left. Action 'Vistula':expulsion and returns' describes that her brother returned home from the army very weak, after spending many months in the hospital. Hearing about this, the Bandera followers appeared and immediately wanted to take him to sotnia. Due to military training, he was an excellent recruit. They didn't foresee, however, that he didn't want to join them at all.
Plaque on the chapel under the holy mountain Jawor - many such plaques can be found at churches in the Low Beskids (photo:Meteor2017, GNU FDL license)
The boy wanted to get away to such an extent that he was scratching his barely healed wounds and sprinkling lime on them to make them mess for as long as possible. He managed to trick him from going to the detachment, but not from collecting contingents. If he cared about the life and health of his loved ones, he couldn't just say no. Those who protested had to face the consequences, and these were brutal.
The Banderites set fire to the houses of rebellious recruits, and killed those who fled after being forced to join the unit with a shot to the head. The boy's relatives who did not want to go to the UPA could also face a punishment. This was the case with the father of teenage Maria, one of the protagonists of Krzysztof Potaczała's book “Only Stones Left. Operation "Vistula":expulsion and returns ” . As he describes years later:
The Banderites took young Ukrainians to the forest at every opportunity, constantly strengthening the ranks. Once they came to Seredni, they dragged my father out of the hut and beat him with a whip for not giving his son away. Then the priest prayed over him because he was lying almost spiritless. His whole back was scarred, the meat came out of him, but he licked it happily.
Historians favoring the Ukrainian nationalist movement want to build a picture in which the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was supported by all the inhabitants of the lands it considers Ukrainian. The truth, however, lies elsewhere. Many of these people were against the activities of the UPA, or were not even interested in a free Ukraine. In 1947, however, no one asked them about their views and, apart from a few exceptions, all fell victim to the "Operation Vistula".
Information sources:
- Action "Vistula". Documents and materials , ed. Eugeniusz Misiło, Ukrainian Archives 2013.
- Koprowski M.A., Operation "Vistula". Bloody war with the OUN-UPA , Replica 2016.
- Koprowski M.A., Operation "Vistula". The final hearing with the OUN-UPA , Replica 2017.
- Motyka G., From the Volhynia massacre to Operation "Vistula". Polish-Ukrainian conflict 1943-1947 , Wydawnictwo Literackie 2011.
- Potaczała K., Only stones left. Operation "Vistula":expulsion and returns , Prószyński i S-ka 2019.
- Wiatrowycz W., The Second Polish-Ukrainian War 1942-1947 , Ukrainian Archives 2013.