“” “” When I brought this example up to some Ukrainians in Lviv a couple of years ago, they said, “We all recognize who the real enemy is.” “” “”
Bet they said the same to the Germans in 1941. And the same to the Russians again in 1944. Solzhenitzyn mentioned that there was one thing in common in Stalin’s and Nazi camps. You were guarded by the Ukrainians.
It is really stunning how they are always capable to assemble in a group of a million people to violently deny something and then in a short period of time again denouncing the very same thing and praising what they were against the first time. And if you ask them they say they ALWAYS held the same position on the subject and they don’t even know anyone who didn’t.
That is one extremist opportunism.
This of course is nonsense, but I ran into a similar case with a Croat I used to know.
In his apartment he had two photos next to each other on his shelf: Pope John Paul II and Anton Pavelic.
Quite a juxtaposition, eh? When your country - and people- only earned their independence (or tried to) with such bastards as Bandera or Pavelic the situation is somewhat complicated, and people believe what they want to believe.
My impression when I was there (and from reading reports about it) was that local Poles were well treated, so much so that some Polish families expelled from Lviv were returning. My ears also told me that the local Ukrainian dialect was very close to Polish anyway, and when I used my very limited Polish vocabulary it was understood immediately.