UKRAINIAN-POLISH INTELLECTUAL CONNECTIONS: THE CHALLENGES OF HISTORY

Abstract

The article examines the characteristics and particularities of Ukrainian-Polish intellectual and scientific exchanges from the late 19th to the early 21st centuries. It reveals that the initiation and development of scientific collaboration were often influenced by political events: Poland’s regained independence in the early 20th century and the Ukrainian statehood movement throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. This context contributed to a unique aspect of Ukrainian-Polish scholarly cooperation, where not only Ukrainians from both sides of the border but also members of both nations actively participated, distinguishing it from other international Ukrainian scientific interactions. At the same time, it is noted that the source of most Ukrainian-Polish conflicts were Russian narratives. These narratives were intended to weaken Ukrainian-Russian relations and increase Russia’s colonial pressure.

Two political initiatives significantly influenced the development of intellectual relations between Ukrainians and Poles and their collaborative resistance to Russian imperial expansion: the “Prometheus” society and the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Warsaw (1930-1939). Additionally, the role of Jerzy Giedroyc’s Paris-based magazine “Culture» in fostering independent Ukrainian intellectual thought in post-World War II Europe is examined.

Two main trends of Ukrainian-Polish cooperation in the post-war period of the existence of the USSR are identified: -in spite of and -for that. Cooperation was important for Ukrainian-Polish intellectual relations in emigration, despite the tragic conflicts that broke out between the two nations during the Second World War. Instead, cooperation between scientists of Soviet Ukraine and post-war Poland was based on the principle of conveying to the “free world” the truth about the Soviet open occupation of Ukraine and her pressure on Poland.

The role of Polish intellectuals and institutions in shaping independent Ukrainian humanitarian science within the broader European context following the reestablishment of Ukraine’s statehood at the end of the 20th century is highlighted.