Operation Vistula

in Jasiel, south-eastern Poland, in 1946 The goal of the operation was to suppress the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which had been fighting the Polish People's Army (LWP) in the southeast of Poland. burned down by the UPA in 1946 About 12 hours after the incident, the Polish Soviet-sponsored authorities made the decision to deport all Ukrainians and Lemkos. It is known that preparations for Operation Vistula had started in January 1947, if not earlier. On 10 September 1947 the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union issued an Order No. 3214-1050, for the deportation of all Ukrainian families of alleged UPA members to Siberia. On April 16, 1947, the Minister of Public Security (MBP) divisional general Stanisław Radkiewicz and Marshal Michał Rola-Żymierski, the Minister of National Defence, issued the operative and organization plan for an operation named Akcja Wschód ('Operation East') articulating the goal of the operation as "To solve the Ukrainian problem in Poland once and for all" and instructing the participants to "Conduct evacuation from the southern and eastern border region of all the people of Ukrainian descent...and settle them in the north-western territories of Poland in the highest possible degree of scattering...". ==Action participants==

, 1944 The operation was carried out by the Operational Group Vistula consisting of about 20,000 personnel commanded by General Stefan Mossor. Initially, the expellees comprised about 20,000 Ukrainians. With time, the total number grew to 80,000 and eventually to close to 150,000 inhabitants of Polesie, Roztocze, Pogórze Przemyskie, Bieszczady, Low Beskid, Beskid Sądecki, and Ruś Szlachtowska. == Process of deportation ==

A principle of 'collective responsibility' was applied–all Ukrainians within the indicted area of Poland were deported regardless of political leanings, alliances and historical affiliations. Polish authorities decided to resettle "every person of Ukrainian nationality". Mixed families, communities that did not support UPA, Lemkos returning from Red Army service, "even loyal party members trained in the Soviet Union, even communists who helped 'repatriate' Ukrainians in the previous wave, were forcibly resettled." Nationality was not decided by 'individual choice' but by religion, language and "frequently by the letter 'U' in the Kennkarte Polish citizens received from the Nazi occupation during the war". Those who resisted deportation were imprisoned in the Jaworzno prison camp in Silesia. In total 3,936 Ukrainians were imprisoned in Jaworzno camp, a war time affiliate of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. Of the near 4,000 Ukrainians taken to Jaworzno camp, 823 were women and children. Torture, typhus epidemics and additional exigencies resulted in the several deaths and suicides in the camp. Military tribunals were also to judge civilians and sentenced to death 173 Ukrainians on the spot during Operation Vistula. The Ukrainians were transported in compact cattle and box cars, sanitary conditions were poor and food supplies irregular, some deportees died during transit. Ukrainians were packed into trains for Lublin or Oswiecim, where they were rerouted to their places of settlement. The final destination and degree of dispersal of groups was determined by the judgement of the intelligence officers, whose colleagues were waiting to receive their instruction in sealed envelopes at the end of the line. ==Events==

The deportations occurred in stages. Poland and the Soviet Ukraine conducted population exchanges resulting from bilateral agreements signed on 1944 and 16 August 1945. Some 482,000 Ukrainians were deported to the Ukrainian SSR between September 1944 and April 1946, Following the transfer of land, the Soviets built large coal mines there with the total capacity of 15 million tons annually. == Conditions upon resettlement ==

Living standards were harsh for the deported Ukrainians, as deportees were refused compensation for the property and land they were forced to leave behind and because communities and families were separated across the four provinces of Olsztyn, Szczecin, Wrocław and Gdańsk, carefully dispersed so that the Ukrainian deportees did not constitute more than 10% of the local population. The expedited plan approved by Civil Security Minister Brigadier General Radkevych and Marshal Zhymerski instructed "Conduct evacuation from the Southern and Eastern border region of all the people of Ukrainian descent...and settle them in the north-western territories of Poland in the highest possible degree of scattering...". Ukrainians were faced with largely decrepit accommodations, as most habitable buildings in the 'recovered territories' had recently been moved into by newly repatriated Poles after the 1944 Polish-Soviet population transfers. They received financial credits and material help from the government, including grain shipments and other foodstuffs. Dr Zbigniew Palski writes that new homes were renovated with public funds; in Olsztyn Voivodeship 2,427 houses were rebuilt by the state, in Szczecin Voivodeship, only 717 although the needs were exponentially greater: reaching 10,000 households, far beyond the available state budget. Most of their personal debts, however, were remitted in the following years. ==Situation of Lemkos in Poland==

Some five thousand Lemko families returned to their home regions in south-eastern Poland in 1957 and 1958. While the Polish census of 2003 shows only 5,800 Lemkos (self-identification), there are estimates that up to 100,000 Lemkos in total live in Poland today, and up to 10,000 of them in the area known as Lemkovyna. The largest communities of Lemkos live in the villages Łosie, Krynica, Nowica, Zdynia, Gładyszów, Hańczowa, Zyndranowa, Uście Gorlickie, Bartne, Bielanka, and in the eastern part of Lemkovyna – Wysoczany, Mokre, Morochów, Szczawne, Kulaszne, Rzepedź, Turzańsk, Komańcza. They also live in the town of Sanok and the cities of Nowy Sącz and Gorlice. ==Legacy==

On 3 August 1990, the Polish Senate adopted a resolution condemning the postwar Polish government's Operation Vistula. In response, the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) adopted the statement of understanding of the Polish Senate resolution as a serious step towards the correction of the injustices towards the Ukrainians in Poland. In the same resolution the Rada condemned the criminal acts of the Stalinist regime towards the Polish people. On 18 April 2002 in Krasiczyn, Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski expressed regret over Operation Vistula. The president described the operation as the symbol of harm against Ukrainians committed by the communist authorities. "Speaking on behalf of the Republic of Poland I want to express regret to all those wronged by the operation" - Kwaśniewski wrote in a letter to the National Remembrance Institute (IPN) and participants in the conference on the 1947 Operation Vistula and openly rejected the notion that it should in any way be linked to earlier events in Volhynia. "It was believed for years that the Vistula operation was the revenge for slaughter of Poles by the UPA forces in the east in the years 1943-1944. Such attitude is wrong and cannot be accepted. The Vistula operation should be condemned." In 2007, president of Poland Lech Kaczyński and president of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko condemned the operation as a violation of human rights. President Yushchenko also noted that the operation was executed by and was the responsibility of a "totalitarian communist regime". == See also ==