Summary:
On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the “Vistula” Operation during which in 1947 all of the remaining Ukrainians and Lemkos from the south-eastern corner of Poland were resettled in the western and northern parts of Poland a number of articles appeared in the Polish press. Timothy Snyder of Harvard University looked at the history of Polish-Ukrainian relationship, and although in the process of doing that he did mentioned Lemkos – he underlined that up to the time of the resettlements a few Lemkos followed Ukrainian ideology and therefore they should be treated separately. It was only – in his opinion - Operation “Vistula” that caused others and some Lemkos to view themselves as Ukrainians.

Commenting on the earlier voices in the discussion, Tadeusz Zieliński underlines that while it is still problematic whether Operation “Vistula” was undertaken to liquidate the Ukrainian underground or simply to change the ethnic structure of the south-eastern corner of Poland and assimilate (polonize) its inhabitants – its ways and means were brutal and resembled those implemented by the Nazis during the occupation of Poland.

Akcja „Wisła” była dopełnieniem trwającego od roku 1939 procesu niszczenia pewnej tożsamości, tradycji i myślenia, które w tej części Europy trwały przez kilkaset lat. Także dlatego stworzenie wyważonego opisu historycznego akcji „Wisła” – i stosunków ukraińsko-polskich w XX wieku – jest szansą, aby Polacy i Ukraińcy zwrócili wzrok na inne okresy historyczne. (Polish summary from: http://www.tygodnik.com.pl/numer/tp/index.html)

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