In Search of Ukrainian-Polish Understanding at the Beginning of World War II

Abstract

The authors have chosen for their study a problem that almost no one has raised for many decades, but which is present in one form or another when it comes to the state of current Ukrainian-Polish relations. The motive that encouraged the authors to prepare this paper was the discovery in Polish foreign and domestic archives of documents that shed light on the search for possible ways to cooperate between the two nations to liberate from occupation and restore their statehood.Indeed, the Ukrainian-Polish negotiations in the Romanian capital of Bucharest in January 1940 gave a kind of impetus to the resumption of contacts in this matter between the Ukrainian State Center in Exile and the Polish Emigrant Government. The documents found as well as other materials adjacent to these issues allowed the authors to recreate the history of continuing attempts to resume the Ukrainian-Polish dialogue on liberation from occupation, rebuilding the statehood of the two countries and establishing cooperation after World War II.