Andrey Petrov on Vesti.FM: collapse of empire leaves peoples alone with each other in conditions of anarchy

The main question that scientists ask, referring to such tragic pages of the history as the Volhynia massacre is not ‘who is to blame?’ and ‘what to do?’, but ‘how is this possible?’. In the case of the Volhynia massacre, the main factor was the aftershock of the old world collapse after the First World War, the leading analyst of Vestnik Kavkaza, Andrey Petrov said today in the National Question Program on Vesti FM.

The expert explained, that in 1918, Austria-Hungary - one of the last empires of the old type, when a small metropolis keeps many provinces exclusively at the expense of weapons and does not attempt to unite ideologically peoples into one nation - collapsed. "In such an empire, as soon as the center wanes, each province is intensifying its struggle for sovereignty - this happened with Austria-Hungary due to a depletion in the First World War. Many states were formed on its territory, Polish and Ukrainian lands declared their independence,’’ the expert said, recalling that a very large territory of modern Ukraine, including Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk region, Galicia, was the part of Austria since 1772, and Polish Krakow - since 1846.

The analyst stressed that the roots of the Volhynia massacre are in the conflict of two national movements that occurred on the lands with a mixed Ukrainian-Polish population: Austrian Poles restored Poland, and Austrian Ukrainians created the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. "They both claimed control over Galicia, which was none’s land. The Polish-Ukrainian war began due to this. The collapse of the empire left the nations alone with each other in conditions of anarchy. They were so absorbed in the struggle for freedom that did not even try to negotiate. Poles dreamed of a new Commonwealth, Ukrainians - about united Ukraine, and these dreams could only be realized at the expense of other state, " he said.

"As a result, Austrian Ukrainians were defeated, Galicia became a part of Poland in the summer of 1919, and Ukrainian nationalists had a bold motivation to hate Poles - they literally deprived Ukraine of independence. By the way, Stepan Bandera, the future organizer of the Volhynia massacre, was ten years old in 1919. He lived in the Eastern Galicia, his father Alexander Bandera participated in the war against Poles. Stepan himself was at the epicenter of the Chortkiv offensive, after which the Western Ukrainian People's Republic ceased to exist. Thus, the basis was laid for all his future activities in the framework of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, including the mass murder of Poles in Volhynia region,’’  Andrey Petrov concluded.