Talk:Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia/Archive 7

Archive 1

←

Archive 5

Archive 6

Archive 7

Archive 8

Archive 9

Archive 10

Please observe the 1RR on this article

See the result of this 3RR case. All editors working on Massacres of Poles in Volhynia must limit themselves to one revert of this article per day (WP:1RR). The definition of revert is given at WP:REVERT. Any admin may enforce this restriction by blocks, if needed. Before an editor reports a violation of 1RR to admins, it is good practice to leave a note for the person who you think exceeded 1RR and ask them to take back their last edit. This restriction can be lifted by any uninvolved admin without consulting me provided the admin is supported by consensus at a noticeboard. Any admin who closes a WP:AE case related to this article may undo the restriction if they think it desirable. EdJohnston (talk) 00:25, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Just to prevent these disputes from spilling onto other pages, I'd slap 1RR on Ukrainian Insurgent Army as well just to make sure.radek (talk) 14:53, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm planning to set up a 1RR at Ukrainian Insurgent Army as well. See a review of the 1RR at WP:AN. EdJohnston (talk) 22:51, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

1RR still in effect on this article

See #Please observe the 1RR on this article. User:Hedviberit and User:Lvivske are urged to take note of this. EdJohnston (talk) 20:10, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

....for the love of god I just made a simple grammatical fix, can noone make a basic edit on here without getting into a revert war?--Львівське (talk) 21:04, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Since two people were reverting that language back and forth, at least one of them must have thought that more than grammar was at stake. Why not ask for consensus for your change on Talk? EdJohnston (talk) 22:21, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Because I know how to speak english--Львівське (talk) 02:19, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

"Polish" kapo

If Volksdeutsche (members of German minority) kapos were Polish, Bandera and Ukrainians in Volhinia (members of Ukrainian minority) were Polish as well. Teritorially and by citizenship. So this is your logic: some Polish people were angry because other Polish killed one Polish so massacred other Polish people. Is here any point?Yeti (talk) 12:31, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

A matter of taste/Lipniki photo

"Taste" is a highly subjective thing. Therefore, I don't find this "better taste" justification to be sufficient enough to delete the photo. It was previously removed from the article about Ukrainian Insurgent Army (specifically from the section describing ethnic cleansing by the UPA) on the grounds that photos of victims are not used in articles about military organizations. Right? Similar argument can't be applied here; such photographs seem to be acceptable in wikipedia articles dealing with massacre(s) or genocide (even exhumation photos are sometimes included) e.g. The Holocaust,My Lai Massacre,Katyn massacre - should these be removed too? IPN's site contains other photographs of Poles murdered by Ukrainian Insurgent Army, far more drastic than this one, e.g. [1]. Description under the photo ought to reflect the one given in the original source.--Hedviberit (talk) 05:21, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

What are you talking about? It was never removed, just moved down and the more tasteful memorial photo put at the top. Jeez, don't wig out. --Львівське (talk) 06:46, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

If you check your last edit, you will notice that the photo was indeed removed. Should I be guessing what your intention was? Anyway, as you can see, photos of victims are at the beginning of the articles I linked to (My Lai, Holocaust), and no one finds them distasteful. --Hedviberit (talk) 06:59, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

It was two edits done at the same time, you know what's up.--Львівське (talk) 07:33, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

For the record, since you pointed it out above, Katyn massacre begins with a memorial photo.--Львівське (talk) 09:14, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Katyn massacre is an example of article where exhumation photos (very drastic) are used. Hedviberit (talk) 18:29, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

... in the body, there are like 5 memorial photos used in the lead and body prior to the exhumation photos.--Львівське (talk) 19:17, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Bosnian genocide, Srebrenica massacre, etc the list goes on of other articles of similar topic exercising good taste.--Львівське (talk) 19:19, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

should be added

link, exhibit opened on it causing outrage. would be good for the article. also, those running it refer to it as "The Volyn Slaughter" so we might have a common use name for it now? --Львівське (talk) 18:00, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Conflict between Ukrainian political forces. Both sides are criticized: link. "Volyn slaughter" is Polish term, "Volyn tragedy" is the term used in Ukrainian publications, as highlighted in the lead of the article.Hedviberit (talk) 15:59, 19 April 2010 (UTC)

undid massive renaming/moves

Please see here for some background [2]. Basically I restored Faustian's last version but then kept the edits made by bots and by Diannaa.radek (talk) 16:06, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

Snyder vs. Piotrowski

Yale historian Snyder is a historian specializing in this stuff. University of New Hampshire professor Piotrowski is not a historian but a sociolgist. Checking Piotrowski's references, he used some dubious sources. The two are not equal.Faustian (talk) 17:37, 22 September 2010 (UTC) Yes, yes he is a sociologist and professor of anthropology, history, recognized in the world. for over twenty years Piotrowski, carry out in the history of ethnic relations. I believe that Piotrowski is a bigger expert in the subject line, please compare his scientific achievements. Questionable sources are your opinion, please cite specifically its suppose. Snyder works are characterized by naivete and lack of integrity describes the years 1939 -1947 in the same breath. does not do any analysis of the nationalities. Lack of integrity in his work. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AndrzejSkulimowski (talk • contribs) 02:01, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Snyder lacks integrity?? I have a feeling you don't speak or read English and never even bothered to read his work.--Львівське (talk) 02:12, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

--Bstarzewski (talk) 23:00, 19 June 2011 (UTC) My father is a survivor of the uprising. He lived near the village of Sielec in July 1943 and knew many of the people interviewed for Piotrowski's book and a number of the victims described including Sokolov the Russian school teacher and Irena Moralewska who's fates he had not been aware of.

The following is an excerpt from the memoir of Konstanti Starżewski (my father) which would seem to bear out Piotrowski's version: (notes: that he refers to himself in the 3rd person as "Kostek". I have not attempted to make any grammatical or spelling edits so as not to taint the content. He is still alive and available for interview.)

UKRAINIAN UPRIZING One summer day, all three of the boys decided to go to Polish colony in Janiewicze, Zbyshek's home village. The visit meant to serve two purposes: one, to visit family of Zbyshek, and the other, to visit place where he knew many young friends usually gathered on Sundays – the preferred house for such activity happen to be on the way to Zbyshek's parents place. As they approached the house, Zbyshek remarked, “It seems too quiet inside. Did they noticed us and are trying to play a joke on us?” As they all entered the porch, Kostek glanced upwards and noticed a girl signaling something while sticking her head from above. To him, the act seemed to reinforce the idea of a prank. Just about that time, Zbyshek stepped in front of his friends and opened the door to the house. Suddenly, without saying a word, he turned and ran out of the porch as if he was shut out of a sling. Romek, being close behind Zbyshek, must have glanced inside also and did the same. A strange man with a gun busted out after them. Kostek, however, was few steps behind the other two. Bewildered, he hesitated a bit by turning his head to observe his friends and the strange man. Not realizing what is going on, out of curiosity he extended his hand to grab the knob, for the door somehow got closed in the meantime. When the door opened as if by magic, in front of him appeared a man with a rifle. That man quickly grabbed him by the hand pulling him inside. What Kostek observed there stunned him. In the middle of the room there were several young people laying with their faces down to the floor. At that moment, he realized what his friends observed and why they ran. The young people on the floor were dead. However, Beyond that, his mind seemed to refuse to reason out any connection as to how this may effect him. Only after a little while when he heard a command to lay down on the floor that he instantly realized the horror of what is at stake.

“Lay down here, face down!“ the man gave an order in Ukrainian language in a sharp voice. Kostek realizing that this person intends to do him harm, his instinct for self preservation kicked in. The idea of pretending he is one of them, flashed through his mind like flash of lightening, for in the past the deceit worked to his advantage.

“Why? I am Ukrainian. Are you also killing your own people? (Pochemoo? Ja Ukrainski. Wy toze zabywayety swoich?) Kostek asked the person in his own language.

“No! You are not one of us. I heard you talk outside. You did talk to your friends in Polish, don't lie to me. Go down! Now!”

“Of course I did. I am sure you also can talk Polish. Does that make you one also? ” Kostek insisted. But that man did not answer, only kept on pushing him down with the but of his rifle.

Kostek tried again and again to convince his would be executioner that he was also an Ukrainian, but he was failing. When the three boys were trying to enter the house, there were two Ukrainians in that house. However, when the other two boys escaped, one left inside while the other took of after them. The one in the house was evidently a bit confused by Kostek's revelation, or maybe his conscience was bothering him. Yet driven by the fever of revolution, he fired his gun - the sight of this victim laying at his feet must have created conflict in his mind. The bullet did not find the intended victim, it hit next to Kostek's head. Kostek, upon hearing the noise of the gun, out of fear, passed out loosing his consciousness. How long he was in that state, he did not know. At some time he finally came to. Being disoriented and still in the daze, without realizing what has happen, he slowly began giving signs of life and slowly started to raise his head. The Ukrainian, seeing his victim alive, either became confused or stunned, got scared and dropped his gun. At that moment, Kostek seeing the reaction of his enemy, also scared but mindful of his life, quickly took advantage of the situation; got up and headed for the only light emitting source – the window, probably not even realizing that it was not opened. In the matter of only few seconds, Kostek and the frame were outside. Just like his two other friends; he took off for home via the tall stand of grain.

By the time Kostek reached his home, his two friends already spread the news about the event. However, in order not to alarm and worry his mother, who by then, was giving indications of being very stressed, he chose not to talk about what happened to him.

Zbeshek, who's parents lived near the house the boys visited, after escape, tried quickly to visit them. Finding all of his relatives murdered, explained in details the horror he had witnessed there. It so happened that his sister was also caught in the Ukrainian viscousnes. She was there with her newly born baby. On the news of what happened to them, her husband, who was an ex Russian soldier, became furious. his anger was even greater upon hearing the kind of death the baby suffered. Zbyshek described in detail every member's death. According to him, the baby was stuck with a pitch fork and nailed with it to the wall with writing beneath it in blood- “Polish eagle”. Siergay took upon himself to revenge his wife and the infant. Instantly, he mounted a horse and took into Ukrainian villages to hunt for the perpetrators. There is no doubt that he did not find anyone admitting to the crime, but every one believed that he did do damage to many households, for big column of smokes were visible in the direction of his search.'

Copyright reserved. Material is the original work of Constantine (Konstanti) Starzewski.Permission granted by author exclusively for the purposes of this article and discussion. All other rights reserved.

Renaming/Moving article

In my research, I'm finding that the events were much less one sided than the article currently presents. Poles killed civilians in reprisal, and there seems to be a question as to who threw the first stone in all of this. Considering this is a back and forth conflict, should the article be retitled to reflect the massacre as part of a larger conflict? If a separate article was made to reflesh the Polish killings, there would eventually be so much overlap that they would have to be merged anyway.--Львівське (talk) 01:30, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't think the article presents this in a "one sided" manner, rather it is based on sources. While there were reprisals it's a simple question of scale. I believe that this kind of proposal was made before and there was neither consensus in its favor nor sources to support it. Volunteer Marek (talk) 01:42, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Well 40-50k vs. 20k deaths, it's not really a matter of scale, both are high numbers, and both happened through similar means for similar purposes. The Polish POV seems to have more literature due to the nature of victimization narratives, and the Ukrainian side obviously doesn't want to talk much about it. I don't think the POVs from either side should take control here, or dictate what is and isn't talked about. Since "Massacres of Poles in Volhynia" only reflects one POV, and excludes a third of those killed, it doesn't seem very neutral.--Львівське (talk) 02:07, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Well, first you're comparing the supposed 20k killed by Poles in total to just the 40-50k killed by Ukrainians in Volhynia alone - the total number would be much higher if we consider all of affected areas. The fact that one set of actions was a response to the initiation of the killings also matters. The title is not "Polish POV" but simply how this is described in sources.

The 20k is in Volhynia and is specifically in reprisal to the 40-50k..what other areas, Galicia? I do think it is POlish point of view since its only presenting the chain of events from the Polish perspective. To quote Magocsi, "The [Polish] underground movement [...] was concerned with the post-war status of [Polish] territories which [Poles] argued should belong [...] to a restored Poland [...] hence the attacks on innocent civilians were designed to eliminate the presence of [...] Ukrainians to the advantage of the future state that would rule [this territory]”--Львівське (talk) 02:48, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

According to Motyka, who's a pro-Ukrainian historian, in Volhynia itself the number of Ukrainians killed by Poles was 2000 to 3000 (not 20,000), compared to 40,000 to 60,000 Poles killed by Ukrainians. The Magocsi quote is something that perhaps should be included in the article (I thought Faustian already put something like it in there somewhere) but it is not a reason to change the scope nor the title. (Also there's a lot of [...] in your quote). I believe we've discussed this before. Volunteer Marek (talk) 03:18, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Well lets say I get a bunch of sources showing the Polish actions and make it into its own article. Would that not be destined for a merge proposal? --Львівське (talk) 03:30, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

It might. It depends on the sources and the article. Volunteer Marek (talk) 03:37, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

The [...]s were just removing the Ukrainian references to 40k, "both groups", etc. Things that are clearly known here. Just trying to shorten it for the sake of brevity--Львівське (talk) 03:28, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

I've also reverted one of your edits since you took out a text based on a reliable source and replaced it with what appears to be an opinion piece from a source of unknown reliability. Volunteer Marek (talk) 02:34, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

BTW, here's the last time we had this discussion [3]. Then you opined that something like "Ethnic Cleansing of Poles in Volhynia" (maybe with a "by OUN") was the most appropriate title (if I understand those comments correctly). For the record, as I said there, I do not think the title of this article should use the word "genocide", like some other people proposed. Volunteer Marek (talk) 03:44, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I remember. Back then I had no idea the amount killed by Polish groups was so high and, well, my argument then was to be more accurate of what the OUN/UPA was doing and to give the article a more accurate title. Like the Magocsi quote, the OUN wanted to ethnically cleanse Poles from Volyn....so I don't think my argument was off...either way, what I'm proposing now is totally different than the last discussion.--Львівське (talk) 03:48, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

If you're referring to the 20k number then that has also been extensively discussed before. Volunteer Marek (talk) 03:51, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't recall. Plus, some editors at one point were saying the UPA killed Ukrainian civilians...so I may have assumed that still fell under the article's main premise of UPA instigated ethnic cleansing. Now that I see it was done by both sides and both on large scales...well...I've stated my take on this. If I make an article dedicated to the Polish ethnic cleansing (not Op. Vistula) that took place at the same time, it would have an identical background section and rely on this article to bring the historiography together....so they would be merged...so I'm trying to get to skip the obvious outcome.--Львівське (talk) 04:14, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

(outdent) My recollection was that the number of murdered Ukrainian civilians in this conflict was 15k-20k total. Of these, only 2-3 thousand were killed in Volhynia. According to Snyder I believe, some of the family members of Volhynian Polish victims avenged themselves on Ukrainian villages in the west (whose people were innocent of the Volhynian massacres); in those regions more or as many Ukrainian civilians were killed than Polish civilians were killed. But in Volhynia, the numbers were quite lopsided.Faustian (talk) 12:23, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

According to the newest results of investigation in Volhynia were killed about 2-3 thousand Ukrainians, Eeastern Galicia 1-3 thousand. In years 1944-1947 in current Poland territory about 8-10 thousand Ukrainians. But it is diffrent story Polish UB and LWP fought against AK/WiN too, there were many criminals assaults for money and goods.--Paweł5586 (talk) 15:09, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

AFAIK many of the Polish UB and LWP forces who were killing Ukrainian civilians from themselves from Volhynia, seeking revenge on people who didn't commit the Volhynia crimes. Most of the Polish civilians killed in those lands currently in Poland were victims reprisal attacks. Snyder described a cycle in which a Ukrainian village would be destroyed, in revenge the local UPA (not connected to the UPA in Volhynia) would destroy a Polish village next-door, and so on. Thus, Ukrainians in current Polish territories were in a situation similar to that of Poles in Volhynia.Faustian (talk) 15:31, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

I think Faustian is broadly correct here (and note that it's not actually that different from what Pawel5586 is saying). The only thing I would be hesitant about is in ascribing motives like "revenge" to members of the UB; opportunism, "following orders" and a wacked ideology are probably more likely. There were *some* acts of revenge carried out by NSZ and rogue NOW-AK units in Galicia (actually the nom-de-guerre of one such guy responsible was in fact "Wolyniak") but the bulk of responsibility lies with the UB and the KWB (LWP was more of a mixed bag, with some records of LWP units "getting lost in the mountains" quite often - i.e. purposefully so in order to avoid having to carry out a "pacification" of some village. This was also reflected in the fact that both the Polish anti-communist underground and UPA generally treated captured LWP soldiers (take arms, strip buck naked, send on their way) differently than they treated captured UBeks (execute after something resembling a "trial")). Volunteer Marek (talk) 18:22, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Okay, lets say this article deals specifically with Volyn and the 20k was total and included Galicia. Would anyone object if I made an article on the conflict as a whole--Львівське (talk) 18:35, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

I think there is a possibility of a meta article here but again, it's gonna depend on how you do it. It can't be just a POV fork of this one. For example when you refer to "the conflict as a whole", what's your starting point? I mean, we could go back to Severyn Nalyvaiko, Kosinski or even further. If we limit it to WWII then that would exclude Op Wisla, as well as interwar Polish policy towards the Ukrainian minority. And it'd end up looking pretty much like this article. Volunteer Marek (talk) 18:43, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

"And it'd end up looking pretty much like this article" therein lies the problem. This article is restricted to just volyn and just the Polish side...but a broader article would look very similar and draw on the same material...--Львівське (talk) 19:36, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

The massacres of Poles in Volhynia, of Poles in Galicia, of Ukrainians in Lemko territories and the reprisals against Ukrainian civilians are all linked to each other and ought not stand alone; furthermore they cannot be understood without a good background context (which this article already has). For example Snyder described how after the Ukrainian police deserted, the Germans hired Polish police (often, family of victims of UPA) who executed Ukrainian policeman-deserter family members, which caused the violence to further spiral. Since the article already includes info on events in Galicia, and includes info on reprisal attacks claiming Ukrainian lives, I tend to agree that the current title ought to be changed to Massacres in Volhynia or Ukrainan-Polish massacres during and after World War II, with a redirect to this article from "Massacre of Poles in Volhynia." This would better reflect the article content. I am sensitive to those who rightly do not want it to seem that the crimes were equal in scope: in total about 4 to 5 times more Polish civilians than Ukrainian civilians were killed during the 1940's and most researchers (such as Snyder) state that UPA began the cycle of massacres, so something to that effect ought to be placed in the first paragraph of the lead. But the current title does seem to be too narrow.Faustian (talk) 21:04, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Well, a better alternative may be to spin of the events in Galicia, and the Lemkos, into their own articles, with this article just mentioning the connection and pointing the reader to those articles.

There's actually an important article waiting to be written here on how the Volhynian massacres were dealt with in Communist Poland - this is relevant to this discussion because the way they were dealt with was by falsely pretending that the events in Volhynia actually happened in Galicia (since it was one of the no-no's of the Communist propaganda to ever state that Volhynia had ever had Poles in it or had been part of the Republic of Poland - yet at the same time the Communists wanted to utilize the existence of these massacres for their own ends, like justifying Op Wisla). This kind of propaganda is part of what is responsible for some of the confusion that has arisen around this topic, including that over the number of victims. Volunteer Marek (talk) 21:31, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

I don't think the events in Volhynia were independent of those in Galicia, or of the Lemko areas, though. Unless you mean one article about everything plus seperate articles with more details about each of the regions. In that case, however, you'd have to repeat the context in each article anyways.Faustian (talk) 21:51, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

So what do you think? Top article with shorter sections on the entire conflict, or separate articles, or one giant? If we go with the latter, it will eventually be proposed to split. I think a 'catch all' solution would be best, with emphasis on context, background, and mutual conflict. Would allow this article and a potential Galicia spin-off to be trimmed down with a hat-note directing to the mother article--Львівське (talk) 05:16, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Well, something like that in the long run. But let's not bite off more than we can chew at a time. How about spinning of the Galicia article successfully first? At the same time having a disambig page - essentially what should be a category - to various Polish-Ukrainian conflicts of this period for now is fine. Volunteer Marek (talk) 05:44, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

<-- Hmm, thinking about it some more, maybe a better approach would be to get more specific before going meta. If stand alone articles on Galicia and the Lemkos can be developed, then once they're in place we could have some kind of bigger "Polish-Ukrainian Conflicts around the time of World War II" (obviously we'd need a better title) article which could outline the basics and then direct the reader to the specific articles. It's true that none of these events were independent but that is always true in history - the key is to make sure that the articles don't become POV forks of each other, that the specific articles deal with specific information and stick to covering what they're supposed to cover and leave the generalities to the meta article. We could also put things like Polish policy in the interwar period, Operation Wisla and my proposed article on Communist propaganda regarding these events in the bigger article. We could even have an article on the cooperation between UPA and the Polish underground after the war, though while non-negligible that one might end up being sorta short. I think this is more of a question of HOW these articles were to be written rather than whether or not they COULD be written - so yes, you'll have to repeat the context but if you keep it brief and can refer to the meta article it could work. Volunteer Marek (talk) 22:01, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Excellent ideas, I was thinking along similar lines. This article probably has enough material for the Volhynia and Galicia stand-alone articles.Faustian (talk) 22:24, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Yeah, there's enough stuff on Galicia here to split it off. For the Lemkos I vaguely recall that User:Halibutt actually wrote some stuff on what happened to them long time ago but can't find atm where - there's probably some orphaned articles relating to it somewhere on Wiki. He's not very active anymore but it might be worth a try asking him about it. Volunteer Marek (talk) 22:48, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

There is big diffrence beetwen situation Poles at Volhynia and Ukrainians in Poland. First UPA command ordered to liquidate all Poles, in Polish side there were no such orders, in Volhynia main AK command ordered not to kill woman and children, there werent any big well-organized action in Polish side, only single retaliatory actions. Second, UPA in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia tried to kill as many Poles as they were able to - e.g. 11 July 2003. In Piskorowice Zadzierski unit, killed only families of UPA members not all Ukrainians, in Pawłokoma only men were shooted, Terka - only hostages were killed. There was no dead in Vistula action, only in Jaworzno died some Ukrainins due to typhoid.--Paweł5586 (talk) 13:32, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

There is no evidence that UPA in Poland (not in Volhynia) was trying to kill all Polish civilians. According to Snyder, UPA in Poland was trying to disrupt deportations of Ukrainians and to retaliate against massacres of Ukrainian civilians. In the latter actions they behaved like AK in Volhynia. As for AK in Volhynia, testimony is coming out that frequently those whom the Poles claimed were "UPA" or "men" were often in reality women and children. Here is an interesting excerpt from a book written by a Ukrainian journalist, which is carried by the Yale University library. This may or may not be a relaible source for this article (what do others think?) because the author is a respected journalist in Ukraine but not a historian, but it is certainly worth reading: [4]. Excerpts: "When I heard that the Polish researchers, Eva and Wladislaw Siemaszko (Incidentally, my countrymen from the village Sviychova Vladimir-Volyn region), were researching the tragic events in Volhynia during the war and described what is currently happening in almost every village in my homeland, I had the urge to read what they should write about my own hometown of Vyzhhiv. Because, the story by my now deceased grandmother Anna about the treacherous attack on the village on December 22, 1943 by Poles dissguised in the uniforms of the soldiers of Ukrainian Insurgent Army has lived in my memory from childhood [according to Timothy Snyder both UPA and AK disguised themselves in the others' uniforms in order to get into villages with less resistence - Faustian]. The Poles murdered the priest Nikolay Pokrovsky, cut down my great-grandfather Ivan Mishchuk, Aunt Alexandra and her husband Ivan Zinchuk and their three-year daughter Galya. Before me in scattered hamlets in the Vyzhhiv region are the graves of my neighbors and relatives the Savchuk family: Volodya, eight years old, Serhiko, 5; and eight year old Anton shot with his mother Xaratyna. The blind Pavlo Zinczuk was shot. My fellow journalist from Lutsk Andriy Bondarchuk got a book by Siemaszko somewhere, copied and sent me several pages of stories about Vyzhhiv and the closest village. I seized upon the pages, read them and could not believe my eyes: "In August 1943 ... in woods near Vyzhhova UPA warriors were gathering, and in the village was placed a strong UPA group(!?)... December 22, 1943 Polish division, formed from parts of AK guerrilla lieutenant Kazimierz Filipovich "cordite" and partisan of AK pidporuchnyka Stanislav Vitamborskoho "Small" which located on the outskirts Rymachiv (Berezhetska Commune Lyubomlsky County), attacked the UPA warriors that were in Vyzhhovi. However, it appears that there were no warriors in the village (!!!?), and was only abolished posterunok (!?), who, shot four UPA members (!?) and the priest Pokrovsky." I tried top put together who among the victims could have been a member of UPA according to the Poles. But from my memory fall the names of women and children. MAybe the old grandfathers Joseph Savczuk, Lev Shushelo or Zinoviy Olkhovsky-Savczuk? But they were all killed in their yards! Aha - in Vyzhhiv refugees were hiding. Under the categoty of UPA soldiers was Dmytro Karpiuk from Bovtuniv. But he did not have weapons in his hands, but children! And he was not shot, as Siemaszko wrote, but stabbed with bayonets along with his wife Ewa, his daughter Lena and his one month old son Mykolko." I'm inclined to put some of this info inthe article, but noting that "according to Ukrainian journalist Olkhovsky, whose family was romthis village..." Faustian (talk) 14:39, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

This anticipates some of the difficulty we're gonna have with trying to work on these other would be articles. But here's some comments.

According to Snyder, UPA in Poland was trying to disrupt deportations of Ukrainians and to retaliate against massacres of Ukrainian civilians. - the accuracy of this statement depends on the time period under consideration. If you're talking about the period after the entry of the Red Army and the establishment of communist authority then yes, that's pretty much it. If you're talking about the time period contemporaneous with the Volhynia massacres then no, not really. At that point UPA was on the offensive, in Galicia as well, even though there the action did not take on the same character as what happened in Volhynia.

In the latter actions they behaved like AK in Volhynia - mmm, sort of. Maybe. Well, no. I think the events were different enough, though connected, so that you cannot draw that kind of comparison. I don't think any of the major authors who've written about it make that kind of explicit connection.

As for AK in Volhynia, testimony is coming out that frequently those whom the Poles claimed were "UPA" or "men" were often in reality women and children. - as you acknowledge yourself a lot of that is from unreliable sources. You're also equivocating between "AK" and "Poles". Per Snyder, and what you say yourself above, most of the Ukrainians-killed-by-Poles in Volhynia (the 2000 to 3000) were ones who were killed by Poles who joined German sponsored police units after their family members had been massacred by UPA. If we go up a little further in time, some of the killings were done by NSZ and NOW units which did include some FORMER AK members but these weren't "AK" strictly speaking in the sense that they had nothing to do with the AK military structures (there's a running theme throughout a lot of non-Polish writing which simply identifies any "underground Poles" with the "AK", simply because the AK was the largest, best organized and most well known of the Polish underground organizations - but they weren't the same as these other units) and they were people who had left the AK by the time these things happened (sometimes, they were kicked out of AK for being unable to follow military discipline, or even fled AK because they had a court martial imposed death sentence imposed on them for disobeying orders). Anyway, it's a complicated story and that's part of the reason why we could use some sub-articles here. Volunteer Marek (talk) 05:44, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Snyder specifically mentioned that the AK's 27th Home Army Infantry Division (Poland) were murdering Ukrainian civilians in Volhynia and burning down Ukrainian villages. He also mentions Polish police in German service killing Ukrainian civilians. The bit I quotes about Poles killing Ukrainian women and children was written by a respected journalist from one of those villages. He basically refuted Siemaszko's claims and travelled from village to village in Ukraine asking about those events from Siemaszko's work, and predictably got a totally different view from the Ukrainian witnesses than Polish historiography says, based on the statements by Polish eyewitnesses. To be clear, the source is not a historian but neither does it seem to be a Ukrainian nationalist propagandist. It's a journalist (the book is carried by the Yale library, if that means something). Who knows? Maybe eventually the historians will start incorporating his findings and the number of Ukrainian victims will be revised upwards. My impression is that the Ukrainian historians are at least a decade or two behind the Poles in terms of researching this stuff. With respect to the extreme western territories, Snyder was clear that the UPA there had nothing to do with events in Volhynia or eastern Galicia - it was mostly local boys, and they didn't form until 1945 or so, in response to Polish actions against Ukrainians there. That UPA's actions against Polish civilians were stricly retaliatory, which s why I compared that UPA to AK. UPA in Volhynia and eastern Galicia of course cannot be compared to AK.Faustian (talk) 12:42, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

I dont find any AK's 27th Home Army Infantry Division (Poland) anti-Ukrainian actions in Motyka, Filar, and other historians. Raised in January 1944, fought against UPA to protect Polish villages, in February togeter with Russian partisans destoroy UPA unit in Świniarzyn Woods. Since March 27 WDP fought with Germans. This is true about Polish police, after Ukrainian police excape Germans completed police battalions with Poles. Many of them have joined to get revenge, they losted family and often saw mutilated bodies their families. But there wernt any organized actions, like UPA. Different view of Ukrainians nationalists is obvious, they are on the side of the murderers they are trying to justify and whitewashing.--Paweł5586 (talk) 13:09, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Timothy Snyder on page 174 of his book states that the 27th Home Army Division murdered Ukrainins it found on roadways and burned Ukrainian villages. Władysław Filar was himself a veteran of that Division so he has an obvious conflict of interest with respect to negative information about that division. Siemaszko was also closely tied to this division. Indeed, it seems that a lot of Polish historiography is tied with them.Faustian (talk) 13:18, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

1 page 44, "Polish partisans (usually, but not always formations outside the main command of the Home Army) engaged in the mass killing of civilians." I think Snyder makes it pretty clear by previous and these statements that when he says "partisans" its like he's saying they killed off the record since the official order was to not, they did it anyway --Львівське (talk) 00:04, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Any names of destoyed villages, sources and evidences? Why Motyka, Hryciuk also dont mention that? Why Polish IPN dodnt mention and dont make any investigation about that? We got investigations about Piskorowice, Pawłokoma, Terka massacres but about 27 WDP there is no word. Why Ukrainian IPN dont make any investigation? This is not reliable, defending Polish villages cant be counted as ethnic cleansing. Single retaliatory actions without main command orders is not the same. UPA destroyed 1048 Polish settlements. --Paweł5586 (talk) 13:37, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Any statement written by Timothy Snyder in a book published by Yale University Press is certainly reliable. In fact, given that much of Polish history is based on the works of Polish veterans of the Ukrainian village-burning, Ukrainian-civilian-shooting 27th WDP, it would seem that Snyder's work is more reliable that those other works.Faustian (talk) 13:51, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Timothy must have his own sources, you couldnt even name one village allegy destoroyed by the 27 WDP. I can write you hundreds od Polish villages destroyed by the UPA. Polish historian are basing on Polish, Ukrainian and Russian archives. One thing is important OUN propaganda many times counted German pacifications as made by Poles. As I said there werent any organized by 27 WDP actions against Ukrainian-civilians, there were single retaliatory actions, single soldiers, single units could killed some Ukrainians. Thats why this is big difference.--Paweł5586 (talk) 08:36, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

I never claimed that UPA didn't destroy hundreds of Polish villages so why are you bringing this up here? An attempt to excuse the atrocities committed by the 27th WDP? I'm sure that 27th WDP veterans claimed that there weren't any organized actions, but we go by what reliables sources say.Faustian (talk) 12:52, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

<<-- The thing is, Snyder doesn't actually say that it was the 27th Volhynian Division which killed civilians on roads and burned villages. What he does is he first discusses the formation of the division as a response to UPA's massacres. He then says that DESPITE orders from the Polish government not to attack civilians "in the field Polish partisans burned Ukrainian villages and killed Ukrainians found on the roads in Volhynia". "Polish partisans" could refer to the division, but it could also refer to a number of other things; independent units, self defense groups etc. Volunteer Marek (talk) 18:16, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

This was mentioned in the paragraph about the 27th Division, right after the formation of the 27th was discussed. Snyder: "The Volhynian Division, the Home Army's largest, drew its stength from the Polish self-defence units formed to defend civilians agianst the UPA, and from former policemen who left the German service [as noted earlier by Snyder, Polish police were killing Ukrainian civilians in reprisal attacks - Faustian]. Absent the UPA's ethnic cleansing, the division would never have arisen. Although the Polish government ordered that civilians not be harmed, in the field Polish partisans burned Ukrainian villages and killed Ukrainians found on the roads in Volhynia." How does the last sentence not refer to the subject of the rest of the paragraph, the 27th division?Faustian (talk) 21:34, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm not saying it doesn't, I'm saying it's not clear that it does. The paragraph appears to be about the Polish response to the massacres. The formation of the division was one such response. Actions of Polish partisans were another such response. Since "Polish partisans" COULD refer to the division, but it could also refer to other units, it's not clear that the last sentence in fact refers to the division. What makes judging it a bit more difficult is that the previous page 173, where run-up discussion takes place is unavailable on Google books. I don't know, is there anything else on pg. 173 that would indicate some kind of connection? Other than that it looks like OR and some mind-reading of the author. Volunteer Marek (talk) 21:42, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Page 173 appears on my googlebooks (and I have the book, at home). The paragraph is about the 27th Division. It starts by saying that the events there were undesired by the Polish government, the Polish government in exile didn't know how to react as events in Volhynia came to their attention, in July 1943 it called on Polish self-defence units to place themselves under its command and then in January 1944 it created the 27th Division (this takes us into page 174). It would be quite odd indeed, don't you think, to assume that there is a possibility that in a paragraph devoted to the 27th Division suddenly in the last sentence Snyder switches and adds a sentence about someone else? If anything that kind of assumption seems to be some sort of OR.Faustian (talk) 22:02, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Moreover on pg. 176 he uses the term "Partisans" to refer to Home Army units (such as the 27th - though pg. 176 wasn't about the 27th specifically) so when he used the word on pg. 174 there's no need to assume he's referring to Soviet partisans, for example.. "The PEasant Battlions were not the only Polish parttisans in the field killing Ukrainians and battling the UPA. In spring 1944 Home Army units set out to secure the Chelm region, and burned about twnety Ukrainian villages in the process."Faustian (talk) 22:07, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Also, the AK are considered 'partisans', even on the AK wiki article its filled with references to the soliders being partisans, and so on.--Львівське (talk) 22:10, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, the AK were "partisans" but that doesn't mean that all Polish partisans were AK. Faustian's example from page 176 illustrates this - BCh were also "Polish partisans". I never said he's referring to "Soviet partisans" - he's clearly referring to "Polish partisans". But it is not clear that he is referring to the 27th Division or the AK. Volunteer Marek (talk) 23:16, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Given that the parapgraph in question on page 174 is devoted to the 27th Division the partisans referred to in that paragraph were the 27th and it would be stretching things quite a bit, to say the least, to imply that perhaps after writing about the 27th suddently in the last sentence of the paragraph Snyder switched and wrote about someone else. This seems like an extreme standard here. If an author wrote a paragraph about the UPA and at the end of this paragraph about UPA described Ukrainian guerrillas murdering civilians, we would be completely justified in using that desccription of the crime as an UPA crime. In other words, it is not necessary in every sngle case to use the explicit word UPA in the sentence of evey claim abput UPA. In this case we have a paragraph about the 27th division, which includes a sentence stating that Polish partisans (which the 27th were) killing Ukrainians on roads and burning villages.Faustian (talk) 23:27, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

There are many evidences about UPA genocide on Poles. First orders - Klaczkiwski, described by Stelmaszczuk (you can find it below), second Szuchewycz during UHWR meeting said: "Liquidation of the Polish population ...), which ended in the summer of 1943, in Galicia," the UPA leadership has issued orders expulsion of the Poles, if they did not resettle. The attacks are continuing. " He added: "We are creating for themselves a comfortable position that can not be achieved by the green tables [talks]. We will not lie to yourself. Ukrainian mass in our hands. " - G. Motyka, Ukraińska Partyzantka, and Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, third area: Poles were killed in 5 Voivodeship!, 4 time: the genocide started since 1943 and lasted till 1945 (and 1945-1947 in current Poland were some anti Polsih actions), 5: number of victims - at least 80-100 thousand, but more probable is number 120 thousand, 6: all Poles in villages were mourdered.

There is no mirror in Polish side - there werent any organized action, no orders, most of Ukrainians were killed in single reataliatory actions, most of victims were related to UPA, SB OUN, SS-Galizien members, not all Ukrainians were killed.--Paweł5586 (talk) 09:51, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

This is your own POV. I have provided good sources on the matter, other sources clearly show AK actions into Ukraine against civilians. Also, refrain from calling this a genocide, that's a really far stretch--Львівське (talk) 18:14, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

In Poland we got two articles: pl:Rzeź wołyńska, pl:Czystka etniczna w Małopolsce Wschodniej, in second you can find section about Polish retaliatory actions. There is also article about Vistula action of course. There is no article about "Lemko massacres", this is untrue. But we got single articles about Crimes: in Piskorowice, Terka, Pawłokoma, with background of retaliatory action.--Paweł5586 (talk) 13:37, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

As I've said above, there was a repression/deportation/ethnic cleansing of the Lemkos that occurred. But I don't know much about this particular aspect of this tragic story myself, and so I recommended bringing in somebody else into the discussion. Volunteer Marek (talk) 05:58, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

I'll ask Magocsi about this, him being the Rusyn expert I'm sure he may have an idea on where to find documentation of this.--Львівське (talk) 06:04, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Your edit: This mirrored Polish attempts at ethnically cleansing local Ukrainians in hopes of regaining territory following the war. These actions by Polish self-defense groups and the Polish Home Army (AK) against civilians resulted in the killing of approximately 20,000 Ukrainians.[6] And you wrote: The 20k is in Volhynia and is specifically in reprisal to the 40-50k.

Are you sure prof. Magocsi wrote that Poles organized ethnic cleansing of Volhynian Ukrainians, killing 20,000 of them? From his book - Ukraine a history, 2010: UPA relationship to the Poles concerned the civilian population, that is, Poles living in scattered villages throughout the territories of western Volhynia, the Chelm region and Eastern Galicia, as well as the armed Polish resistance movement, in particular the Home Army (Armia Krajowa). Perhaps he refers exactly to these territories when writing about the conflict: This took the form of attacks by the UPA on Polish villages and reprisals by Polish self-defence units and later Home Army on Ukrainian villages. The underground movement on both sides was concerned with the postwar status of these territories which, each side argued, should belong to either a restored Poland or to an independent Ukraine. Hence, the attacks on innocent civilians were designed to eliminate the presence of Poles and Ukrainians to the advantage of the future state that would rule these territories. - Please correct me if I overlooked something.

The above fragment might be misleading – the situation in in the Chelm/Lublin area cannot be compared to the situation in Volhynia. And it seems strange that Magocsi recommended Timothy Snyder, The reconstructions of Nations as further reading:

• Volhynia:

In spring 1943, the UPA gained control over the Volhynian countryside from the Germans,43 and began the murder and expulsion of the Polish population. In Volhynia, Poles were far too weak to even consider striking first. Poles were at most 16 percent of the Volhynian population in 1939 (about four hundred thousand people), and had been reduced to perhaps 8 percent (two hundred thousand people) by 1943.44 They were scattered about the countryside, deprived of their elites by deportations, with no state authority except the Germans to protect them, and no local partisan army of their own. (pp. 169-170)

It's hard to believe that in such conditions, the Polish self-defence (even with help of the 27th Home Army division created only in 1944) was able to conduct ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians and kill 20,000. Polish underground simply wasn't in a position to even try to ethnically cleanse Volhynia out of Ukrainians, the overwhelming majority of the population.

• Eastern Galicia:

The UPA campaign to rid “Western Ukraine” of Poles began in earnest in Galicia in January 1944. In 1943 in Volhynia, UPA practice seems to have been to attack villages and murder populations without warning; in Galicia in 1944 the UPA seems to have sometimes presented Polish families with the choice of flight or death. This apparent change, in combination with a demographic balance more favorable to Poles, with better Polish self-defense, and with the mobilization and diversion of Home Army units, limited the death toll of Polish civilians to about twenty-five thousand in Galicia. UPA attacks on civilians in Galicia were still organized, and still brutal. (p. 176)

• But in eastern Poland the situation was quite different - both sides could be accused of trying to eliminate each other's civilian population (that would explain Magocsi's words).

To the west, across the river Bug/Buh, Ukrainian and Polish partisans engaged in an incredibly brutal, and evenly matched, armed conflict. In the eastern half of the prewar Lublin region, village after village was destroyed by both sides in late 1943. Polish partisans of the Peasant Battalions matched the UPA atrocity for atrocity. All told, in the Lublin and Rzeszów regions, Poles and Ukrainians killed about five thousand of the other’s civilians in 1943–44.74 (p. 175-176)--Hedviberit (talk) 19:41, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to ask Magocsi about the Lemko question, just to be clear, what should I ask him to clarify about the above? Where Poles struck, could they or did they strike first or is there a question of who struck first; what were the deaths in volhynia and galicia, and if there were instances elsewhere? Ukrainians killed in Poland and the situation, if any, of cleansing Ukrainians from territory now in Poland....did I miss anything?--Львівське (talk) 00:21, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

The repression of the Lemkos I believe was part of Operation Wisla, or at least of one of the earlier Soviet-backed deportations. Volunteer Marek (talk) 17:15, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

In my understanding, Magocsi doesn't state: on what territory, when, and in what kind of attacks (retaliatory or during ethnic cleansing operations - there is a difference) 20,000 Ukrainians were killed. Moreover he doesn't use the word "ethnic cleansing" in regards to attacks of the Home Army and Polish self-defence in Volhynia or Eastern Galicia. He writes about reprisals by Polish self-defence and later Home Army (just like other authors). He doesn't write anything about ethnic cleansing operation that would be orchestrated by Polish underground in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. He is not specific enough.

From the lead: This mirrored Polish attempts at ethnically cleansing local Ukrainians in hopes of regaining territory following the war.[dubious – discuss] These actions by Polish self-defense groups and the Polish Home Army (AK) against civilians resulted in the killing of approximately 20,000 Ukrainians.[11]

1. In what way were those actions "similar"? According to Timothy Snyder, The UPA's cleansing was a coordinated action on a massive scale . (Recontructions, p. 325). 2. Even if there was a source backing this claim, it wouldn't change the fact that this view is not supported by majority of historians and it shouldn't be included in the lead of the article where the claim is given undue weight and contradicts the article itself. 3. If 20,000 is not the number of Ukrainians killed specifically in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia then why it is in the lead, while Motyka's estimates (80,000-100,000) are not?

Further: Attacks on civilians by the Polish Home Army with the intention of ethnically cleansing the Ukrainian presence from a restored Polish state[11] resulted in the killing of approximately 20,000 civilians in western Ukraine.[109][110]

None of the given sources support this claim.

None of the given sources? What are you talking about? Are you not counting the ones cited or what? --Львівське (talk) 20:06, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

The conclusion is not explicitly stated by any of the cited sources. The territory, the intention of the attacks (retaliatory or ethnically cleansing the Ukrainian presence from restored Polish state) and the number of victims are not correct.

[10] Magocsi, "A History of Ukraine" (2010) - I don't see where he says that Polish Home Army conducted ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians in Western Ukraine (Volhynia, Eastern Galicia). Did you ask him about it?

[109] Subtelny in his book "Ukraine, A History", (2000), p. 475 doesn't state that Polish Home Army killed 20,000 Ukrainians in Western Ukraine. He doesn't give the number of Ukrainian victims in Western Ukraine (Volhynia and Eastern Galicia) at all, although states that, according to Polish sources, 60,000-80,000 Poles were massacred in Volhynia by Ukrainians. He doesn't write about Polish Home Army actions specifically in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia or Western Ukraine.

[110] From the press article on Radio Free Europe page: According to Poland's National Remembrance Institute, in 1943 the UPA murdered some 60,000 civilian Poles in Volhynia, in anticipation of an independent Ukrainian state after the war and a plebiscite on which country, Poland or Ukraine, should possess the disputed area. The Polish AK subsequently resorted to retaliatory actions. According to Ukrainian estimates (who?), the AK may have killed in retaliation as many as 20,000 Ukrainians in Volhynia.--Hedviberit (talk) 16:03, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm removing the problematic statements and hope they won't be reinserted until we reach consensus.--Hedviberit (talk) 16:50, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

lede - moved from my talk page

From my talk page, regarding the statements: The peak of the massacres took place in July and August 1943 when a senior UPA commander, Dmytro Klyachkivsky, ordered the extermination of the entire Polish population between 16 and 60 years of age. vs. The peak of the massacres took place in July and August 1943. No official orders regarding the operation have ever been discovered., Lvivske says: "what should it be changed to, though? Both refs contradict eachother"

Honestly, I don't think the Ukrainian Weekly [5] is a reliable enough source. Maybe - let me stress the maybe - it can be used in the body of the article with proper attribution. But it is not reliable enough to support something that is to be found in the lede. There's some pretty strange statements in that text too. Also what it actually states is an opinion of one person (which would make this a tertiary source) - who qualifies his statement with a "that I know of".

On the other hand the other source is academic and the same information can also be found in other reliable sources. Volunteer Marek (talk) 03:12, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

I cited who Himka cited. Seeing as Himka is a respected historian, here is his original quote: "The argument is made that no order has ever been discovered instructing the UPA to kill Polish civilians in Volhynia." so he cited it and didn't argue against it (the Himka article was on another topic altogether, he was slamming the Ukrainian narrative, so if he could refute it I assume he would take the opportunity). Though its debatable if the Ukrainian Weekly is relaible as a whole, Taras Kuzio, who I referenced about this, certainly is. Can we verify what was said in the Polish source? I don't speak it and can't see hte preview on google books on my end. --Львівське (talk) 03:25, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Wait, I'm confused. I don't see any sourcing to Himka. Volunteer Marek (talk) 03:29, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Himka cited who I cited, so I just leapfrogged to the original source. Here's where the above Himka quote was from and the Kuzio citation 1--Львівське (talk) 03:39, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Ah, but then it looks like Himka is critiquing the source and possibly that claim in particular.

My understanding of it - and I'll have to go and look some stuff up to make sure it's correct - is that the evidence for the actual order consists of both an actual order given by Klyachkivsky (though I guess one could split hairs and get into semantics about what exactly is the order ordering - but the "liquidation" of entire Polish male population between 16 and 60 is definitely in there), so it exists and has been "found", as well as statements from memoirs of UPA men who were present when this order was issued and recall this. Volunteer Marek (talk) 03:49, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough. I'll do more digging on the Kuzio claim, seems weird for one side to say there is no "smoking gun" while another to state clearly there were liquidation orders. The way I read Himka was that he was saying: Ukrainian historians say "there is no evidence" for the order to kill Poles, but then say the Holodomor happened when there is no official orders for Ukrainian genocide either (or the Final Solution either). He was basically calling Kuzio/Ukrainians hypocrits for ignoring the "no proof" argument against the USSR but hiding behind it with regards to the UPA--Львівське (talk) 03:54, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

According to Filar the order is in "Archiwum SBU Obwodu Wołyńskiego, d. nr 11315, t. l, cz. H, s.16. " or the Archives of the Volhynian Security Service of Ukraine. Volunteer Marek (talk) 04:06, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

--Bstarzewski (talk) 01:18, 20 June 2011 (UTC) I am adding this further excerpt from my father's memoir as it appears that there is considerable debate on whether this was a two sided affair. It confirms that while there were some reprisal actions it was without the home army's approval and largely sponsored by the Germans. This portion of the work is after the uprising began and after a German truck had picked them up in Markostaw and took them to Wolodymyr Wolynski. As per my previous comment Siergay was a former Russian soldier who's wife and child had been murdered in a gruesome manner a few days earlier.

"To exploit and dishearten effected escapees even further, the authorities used many methods. The most effective one was the psychological. To convince people that returning to their homes will not be possible, they offered a locomotive with few box cars encouraging anyone desiring revenge while offering often jamming guns, to take a ride with some soldiers. Some took that offer, among them was Siergay. The soldiers, and some anxious to pay for burning and killing, would shoot at anyone that was in sight right from the train.

The ex Russian soldier did the most damage. He would leave the train, and ventured far from the railroad tracks and into Ukrainian villages burning, and killing anything he encountered on his way. According to Zbyszek's statements, German soldiers dressed in civilian clothing accompanied him. The Polish underground organization strongly discouraged such actions, as a result very few took part in such excursions. "

Again, Copyright reserved. Author Constantine (Konstanti) Starzewski grants permission exclusively for the purpose of this article and discussion.

UPA orders

Here. All documents founded in SBU archiv in Volhynia by Filar. You can translate it at google: ... powinniśmy przeprowadzić wielka akcję likwidacji polskiego elementu. Przy odejściu wojsk niemieckich należy wykorzystać ten dogodny moment dla zlikwidowania całej ludności męskiej w wieku od 16 do 60 lat(...) Tej walki nie możemy przegrać, i za każdą cenę trzeba osłabić polskie siły. Leśne wsie oraz wioski położone obok leśnych masywów powinny zniknąć z powierzchni ziemi.

• Źródło: Tajna dyrektywa terytorialnego dowództwa UPA – „Piwnycz”, podpisana przez „Kłyma Sawura”

Druże Ruban! Przekazuję do waszej wiadomości, że w czerwcu 1943 r. przedstawiciel centralnego Prowodu – dowódca UPA – „Piwnycz” „Kłym Sawur” przekazał mi tajną dyrektywę w sprawie całkowitej – powszechnej, fizycznej likwidacji ludności polskiej.(...) Dla wykonania lej dyrektywy proszę rzetelnie przygotować się do akcji przeciw Polakom i wyznaczam odpowiedzialnych: w rejonach nadbużańskich – kurinnego „Łysoho”, na rejony turzyski, owadnowski, oździutycki i pozostałe – „Sosenka”; na okręg kowelski – „Hołobenka”. Sława Ukraini.--Paweł5586 (talk) 08:23, 5 November 2010 (UTC) Dowódca grupy UPA „Turiw” – „Rudyj”, 24 czerwca 1943 r. Stawka

• Autor: Jurij Stelmaszczuk „Rudyj”. dowódca Północno – zachodniego OW „Turiw”

• Niemożliwe, żeby dowódcy UPA składali meldunki w języku polskim - to jakaś fałszywka. --Birczanin 15:26, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm sure it's a translation. Volunteer Marek (talk) 17:12, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

How about some neutral sources or something in english? If there is documentation of this, and the subject has been tackled by western scholars, there has to be evidence of it somewhere else.--Львівське (talk) 02:34, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

This orders was translated by Polish historians, I can provide pl-language sources, orginal documents you can find in SBU Archiv in Volhynia, and also in Russian archives--Paweł5586 (talk) 12:47, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Pawels insertion of 80-100k claim

Do any western scholars agree with this figure? I mean if the volyn est. is 35k and galicia is 20k, why is the low end of motyka's range 80,000? what is his year range? is he including only upa? what's his angle on these figures?

I have to dig out my Motyka book so I'll check the details later but I'm guessing that the reason is that it wasn't just Volyn and Galicia that were affected. Tarnopol and several others voivodeships were also involved. BTW, I'm not sure where you're getting the 35k as a lower bound - unless you're referring specifically only to those victims that have been positively identified by name; but that's an obvious underestimate. I think Motyka's lower bound for Volyn alone is 60k. Again, I'll look it up. Volunteer Marek (talk) 17:02, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

What I meant to say was the lower bound agreed on by other historians is 35k (Snyder says 40k, Katchanovsi says 35 area is best) but Motyka's lower bound is twice that...we can't use his numbers as a trump to all other historians (that's why I tried to fix the numbers section yesterday). If we're using Tarnopol and other areas affected now...are we not leaning towards turning this article into one that represents the entire UKR/POL conflict? --Львівське (talk) 17:11, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Actually I contradicted myself on Motyka. Hold on while I look it up. Volunteer Marek (talk) 17:19, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Generally, this whole discussion on casualties is getting confusing and this is also reflected in the text. Sometimes the numbers refer to casualties just in Volhynia. Sometimes to ones in Galicia, sometimes both and sometimes some other region. Maybe making a table such as this would help clarify things:

Estimates of casualties

	In Volhynia alone	In Galicia	In all areas affected by conflict	Notes
Researcher 1	xxxx	yyyy	zzzzz	He notes that xyz
Researcher 2	aaaa	bbbbb	ccccc	This is based on fgh

If somebody only estimated numbers for one of these cases then we just put "N/A" in the cell. I would also like it if we stuck to academic sources and exclude things like newspaper etc. articles as one can find all kinds of crazy things written in those, on both the Polish and Ukrainian side. Volunteer Marek (talk) 17:47, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Terrific idea. I'm on board.--Львівське (talk) 18:14, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Ok then let's start filling it out above. I just looked up Snyder's article in Past and Present - there he gives 50k Polish civilian casualties in Volhynia, in 1943 alone, and notes in a footnote that perhaps 35k of these have been identified. He gives 10k for Ukrainian civilian casualties in Volhynia, in 1943 alone, but these were due not just to the action of Polish self defense units but also actions of Soviet partisans and German police. Volunteer Marek (talk) 19:30, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Snyder's article in Past and Present

I removed a statement cited to it [6] because it's not in the actual source. What Snyder actually says is that 10,000 Ukrainian civilians were killed in 1943 by "Polish self-defence units, Soviet partisans, and German police" - i.e. he DOES NOT say that all these casualties were done "by ethnic Poles". Volunteer Marek (talk) 19:27, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

He also indicates in his discussion that most of the German auxilliary police was still composed of ethnic Ukrainians even after the mass desertions to UPA. The killing of Ukrainian peasants by Germans during this time was mostly due to the increased quotas for forced labor that were instituted after German setbacks on the Eastern Front and the resistance to these. Volunteer Marek (talk) 19:32, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Casualties table - move it here so it can be worked on first

Estimates of casualties, Poles killed by Ukrainians

	In Volhynia	In Galicia	In Volhynia and Galicia	In all areas affected by conflict	Source	Notes
Timothy Snyder	50k	N/A	N/A	N/A	In Past and Present
Timothy Snyder	>40k in July '43	10k in March '44	N/A	N/A	Memory and Power, 2002
Timothy Snyder	40-60k in '43	25k	N/A	+5k killed in Lublin and Rzeszów	The Reconstruction of Nations, 2004	Killed by UPA
Grzegorz Motyka	40-60k	N/A	N/A	80-100k ('43 - '47)	W kręgu Łun w Bieszczadach, 2009
Grzegorz Motyka	40-60k	30-40k	N/A	100k	Od rzezi wołyńskiej do akcji "Wisła", 2011
Ivan Katchanovski	35-60k	N/A	N/A	N/A	?	Katchanovski considers the lower bound 35k to be more likely
Niall Fergusson	N/A	N/A	60-80k	N/A	The war of the world, 2007	Fergusson is citing other authors (which ones?)
John Paul Himka	N/A	N/A	100k	N/A	Interventions: Challenging the Myths of Twentieth-Century Ukrainian history, 2001
Anders Rudling	40-70k	N/A	N/A	+7k in Poland	Theory and Practice, 2006	Problems with Rudling noted below
Rossolinki-Liebe	N/A	N/A	70-100k	N/A	The Ukrainian national revolution, Celebrating Fascism...	I'm having trouble finding the actual source - it may be referred to here.
Ewa Siemaszko	60k	70k	130k	133k	Bilans zbrodni [7]

Estimates of casualties, Ukrainians killed by Poles

	In Volhynia	In Galicia	In all areas affected by conflict	Notes
Grzegorz Motyka	2-3k	N/A	10-20k	The number for total includes those killed in Volhynia, Galicia, Lublin and Rzeszow regions in '44/'45 as well as during Operation Wisla
Grzegorz Motyka	2-3k	1-2k	10-15k	(8-10k killed in present borders of Poland), in: Od rzezi wołyńskiej do akcji "Wisła", 2011
P.A. Rudling	20k	N/A	+11k killed "in Poland"	in "Historical Representation of the Wartime Accounts of the Activities of the OUN..."
Magocsi	-	-	20k
Snyder	10k	x	x	Past and Present, "Over the course of 1943, perhabs ten thousand Ukrainian civilians were killed by Polish self-defence units, Soviet partisans, Nazi policemen".
Snyder	x	x	+5k killed in Lublin and Rzeszów; 11k total in Polish territories, 20k if including vol/gal	The reconstruction of nations p204
Rossolinski-Liebe	N/A	N/A	10-20k	both UPA members and civilians, during and after the war, Celebrating Fascism...

The Niall Ferguson number of 80k - is that for Wolyn or for total casualties? Also does he "estimate" this himself, or (as I suspect) is he quoting others? Volunteer Marek (talk) 23:34, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

I have no idea (I guessed on where to put the ref)--Львівське (talk) 23:38, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Should there be a third section (eventually spun into another article) about evnts in Lublin and other areas that became partof Poland? Citing Tadeasz Olszanski, Redrawing nations: ethnic cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948 By Philipp Ther, Ana Siljak pg. 188 goves figures of 8k-10k Ukrainian deaths in Poland from 1944-1947, 2500-4500 of whom were in his words "murdered" by the Polish underground. The source also states that 2200 Polish soldiers and civilians killed by UPA - civilian deaths were 600.Faustian (talk) 06:06, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Hmm....should we start a new meta article or should we continue "adding context" to the point where the title needs to be changed? Not enough info for separate "in galicia" and "in poland" pages...what to do what to do...I'l be sure to check out that book though--Львівське (talk) 06:11, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

@Faustian - there is a sense where the conflict in Lublin (and Rzeszow) is seperate from both the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and the events in Galicia. A lot of it though was actually "spillovers" (this is more or less covered in sources). These things happened later though and to some extent after the advance of the Red Army pushed both the Polish underground and UPA into those areas; but lots of the "partisans" (both Polish and Ukrainian) involved were in one way or another refugeees from the events of Volhynia etc. The way it unfolded was that the civilians living in these areas became caught up in it, whether or not they had anything to do with the events of '43 and '44. There was a running fight between UPA and AK up until at least late '44 - and then both organizations realized that they were gonna get screwed by the communists. Subsequently they actually came to an agreement and at least instituted a cease fire - in some cases even cooperated with each other against the communists. There's even incidents of post-AK units defending Ukrainian villages during Operation Wisla from communist Poles, though admittedly that had nothing to do with any kind of sympathy for Ukrainians but rather just a simple antagonism towards the PKWN. Anyway, at this point I think this kind of analysis is sort of at the cutting edge of modern research - like you said earlier, Ukrainian historiography might be ten years behind Polish historiography in this respect, but even Polish historiography is pretty recent here (since '95 or so). Up until at least mid '70's official Communist party line often propagated the view that the post-AK underground in eastern Poland supported the UPA (i.e. both were "bandit bands"). The movie Ogniomistrz Kaleń is sort of a typical example of such propaganda.

@Lvivske - like I said earlier, before we can get meta it would be good to get more specific first. So if you want to create a seperate article on Galicia and/or Lublin/Rzeszow that'd be good. I put in a "split" tag here to suggest it. Volunteer Marek (talk) 06:38, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

In the meantime, help me fill out the table above. Volunteer Marek (talk) 06:39, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Who qualifies? Are we going to include sociologists like piotrowski in the article, siemaszko?--Львівське (talk) 06:51, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Piotrowski definetly qualifies. Even though he's not a historian per se but a sociologist of history, he's still an academic. Ummm, it's sort of like I'm not a historian but I study economic history - there's an obvious overlap between fields and that's where Piotrowski falls in. Siemaszko - still thinking about it. For what it's worth, they are quoted authoretitively by Snyder. So at the very least other historians take them seriously. In their case I think the proper approach would be to discuss them but also discuss the criticsms of their work that have been made. Volunteer Marek (talk) 06:57, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Seehere for a detailed discussion about Piotrowski:[8] who basically just copies the work of often-discredited people such as Prus when discussing historical events which are not Piotrowski's field. The danger is he can be used as a "back door" to let dubious information in. There are plenty of actual historians doing research and writing about these events, no need to go to a sociologist who is writing outside his field. Use Piotrowski for information involving the social impact of these events (his subject), not for historical facts (not his area).Faustian (talk) 13:56, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

There are quite a few Piotrowski refs in the article. What should stay/go?--Львівське (talk) 18:14, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

If you can point to a specific part where he supposedly is basing himself on non-reliable sources then it should be at the very least noted where the info comes from. Other than that I would say he should be considered reliable. Volunteer Marek (talk) 18:24, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

BTW, I believe Snyder authoritatively cites Siemaszkos - but we wouldn't then say that Snyder is not reliable. Volunteer Marek (talk) 18:25, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Piotrowski not only used Siemaszkos but also the totally discredited Edward Prus as a source. And there is a difference between Snyder citing from Siemaszko once in a while and Piotrowski cited him and even more dubious sources a lot. Not everything the Siemaszkos wrote is wrong, and we can trust a legitimate historian, who knows this stuff well, to sort out what is fact and what is not (same thing if Snyder cited UPA her eor there). Piotrowski on the other hand is not a historian but a sociologist. And his chice of sources for historical information betrays his lack of expertise.Faustian (talk) 05:03, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

I disagree for two reasons. First, it's not our job to interpret sources, only decide whether or not they're reliable - and that is done at a general Wikipedia level, such as RSN. If Piotrowski is a reliable source (which he is) then it's not up to us to decide whether we can 'trust him or not' for whatever reason (i.e. just because he's a sociologist). We just report what he says. Second, looking through the book, I don't think Piotrowski cites Prus authoritatively just says "for a different view, see Prus" and stuff like that. Most of the references to Prus seem to be in footnotes, basically acknowledging - but NOT SUPPORTING - that these works exist. There might be an instance or two which is different but generally it's not true that "Piotrowski... used ... totally discredited Edward Prus as a source". Mentioning an author is not the same as using him as a source.

Which gets us back to my original point. IF there is some part in Piotrowski which you feel is based on faulty sources (like Prus) then, sure, we can exclude that part. But you have to be specific about that particular part. Otherwise we should also throw out Patrylyak out of Massacre of Lviv professors since he also uses "totally discredited" UPA-affiliated sources. Volunteer Marek (talk) 05:36, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Piotowski is a reliable source for sociological statements, not for historical ones. Of course eveything he writes on sociology is reliable and we have no right to judge it, we only report it. But the issue is using him for history. And a source that is reliable for one thing is not reliable for everything. If a chemist publishes a book and then includes some controversial statements on physics in his book, the physics stuff shouldn't be automatically considered reliable. And nor should adherents to that controversial theory use the chemist's book as a "back door" to get info into physics articles based on supposed reliability. With respect to your comments on Patrilyak, he may use UPA as a source (how could a historian not do so, if UPA is a subject matter - could a historian of World War II Germany not use Nazi documents?) but Patrilyak doesn't just follow their line. As for Piotrowski's usage on this article, I do not see anything particularly controversial in how he is being referenced; the particular statements referenced to his work are referenced to other works too and don't involve anything outlandish. I was speaking about him generally and saying we need to be very careful with him (btw Piotrowski does use Prus' works as references for facts, check googlebooks).Faustian (talk) 05:58, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

<<- To address the general point, I think you'd be right if we were talking about a chemist writing about history (or a linguist writing about politics). But this is more like a chemist writing about biology or a physicist writing about chemistry. It's a sociologist who studies history writing about history. Similar to an economist who studies economic history (and you'd be surprised how little academic dialogue there is between economic historians and traditional historians - yet, they're both reliable sources for Wikipedia purposes). So it's stepping outside a declared discipline, but not by much. And since it isn't much, it's not up to us to make these kinds of judgement calls as to their "trustworthiness". In regard to the specifics - I guess it looks like we're agree. I thought there was some specific passage of text reffed to Piotrowski that you were objecting to. I agree that it's fine to mention that he is a sociologist in the text. Volunteer Marek (talk) 06:21, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

An economic historian would be reliable as a source about, say, monetary and labor policies of the third reich but not about power struggles between Hitler's cronies or about World War II battles. Similarly, sociologist Piotrowski would be a reliable source about Polish and Ukrainian society of the 1930's and 1940's and the impact the genocide had on those societies - but not about the historical events themselves.Faustian (talk) 06:32, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Gotcha. I think for Siemaszko, keep his figures to a separate paragraph maybe? And explicitly state who he is / his connection to the subject. What's the relevance of this "communique" that was put in the article? Keep or go?--Львівське (talk) 07:01, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Seperate paragraph sounds good, though I'm not sure what you're referring to with the "communique". Volunteer Marek (talk) 07:06, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

"t the first ever joint Polish-Ukrainian conference in Podkowa Leśna organized on June 7–9, 1994 by Karta Centre, with almost 50 Polish and Ukrainian participants, an estimate of 50,000 Polish deaths in Volhynia was agreed upon, which they considered to be moderate.[106]"--Львівське (talk) 07:13, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

<<-- The conference should be put into the table. I guess the part you're referring to is whether or not the fact that Siemaszko signed the statement is significant enough to be included. I don't care and if the conference itself is mentioned I see no need to mention them. Volunteer Marek (talk) 07:15, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

The Rossolinski-Liebe article probably shouldn't belong in the table. It's taken from a work that isn't about these events and, ,ost likely, uses numbers referenced from one of the other sources found during the author's lit review.Faustian (talk) 19:55, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Number of victims

We got the newest book by Motyka: Od rzezi wołyńskiej do akcji Wisła, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2011, ISBN: 978-83-08-04576-3. Many UPA orders, some new evidences, and confirmed numbers (according to Polish and Ukrainians historians). --Paweł5586 (talk) 14:01, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

hm, anywhere i can confirm this online? I'm coincidentally going to be researching this topic a lot over the next few days for a paper--Львівське (talk) 16:56, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

I can upload a scan from Motyka book, and help to translate it. It is impossible to 35 thousand victims at Volhynia becouse we got about 30 thousand victims with knowing name and surname. So many were mourdered without knowing who they were. Number of victims is up to 50 th.--Paweł5586 (talk) 09:33, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Yeah but 1 biased historian doesn't trump all the other numbers out there. We went down this road before and Motyka is not the authority on this subject to the point of dismissing everyone else in the world. We've gone down this path before with you and Motyka. Just update his numbers in the appropriate section, don't inflate the low-end figure in bad faith.--Львівське (talk) 10:01, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Why do you think Motyka is biased? His numbers should in my opinion be included wth the others.Faustian (talk) 13:11, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

I think I keep getting him mixed up with someone else. His numbers are well beyond western estimates, however.--Львівське (talk) 02:31, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

I wouldn't say Motyka's 80,000-100,000 in all areas (Volhynia, Eastern Galicia and other territories, including those in Poland) or 40,000/50,000-60,000 in Volhynia and 10,000-20,000 in Galicia are well beyond western estimates of killed Poles: Snyder ("The Reconstruction of Nations"): 40,000-60 000 in Volhynia, 25,000 in Galicia, 5,000 in Lublin and Rzeszów. That would be 70,000-90,000 in all areas he takes into consideration. Fergusson : 60,000-80,000 in Volhynia and Galicia. John Paul Himka – 100,000 in Volhynia and Galicia.

We can't use the low-end of the estimates of the number of Polish victims (taken from one source) and the high-end of the estimates of Ukrainian victims (taken from another source). Let's be consequent, low-end for Polish victims in Volhynia is 35,000 (Katchanovsky), for Ukrainian victims - 2,000 (Motyka). Another mistake which should be avoided, is to compare the number of Polish victims in one area – Volhynia with the number of Ukrainian victims in all areas affected by the conflict.Hedviberit (talk) 17:53, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

For sure Motyka is not biased, in Poland he is ctiticized by other historians for favoring Ukrainians. Second why are you reverting? As I said we got about 30 thousands confirmed surnames, how it possible to get lower numbers than 50.000. Motyka is one of the best historians in Ukrainian-Polish relationships. For sure Magocsi isnt, if he claims that the UPA actions were mirrored by Polish selfdefence its prove that he have no idea what happend in the Volhynia.--Paweł5586 (talk) 14:10, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Magocsi is one of the better historians on Ukrainian history, that's for sure. He does know what happened there, and I don't get your viewpoint of censoring the reasons and surrounding issues that caused what occurred. Very few events in history are one dimensional.--Львівське (talk) 02:36, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

I haven't reverted anything here, indeed I don't think figures from Motyka opught to be removed. "Confirmed surnames" doesn't mean he is right (though it doesn'teman he is wrong, either). Biased Siemaszkos used confirmed surnames also, and Ukrainians use confroemd surnames for higher numbers of Ukrainian victims.Faustian (talk) 21:02, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Regarding Grzegorz Motyka, Snyder (Yale University) describes one of his book about OUN and UPA, "Ukraińska partyzantka", as a "fundamental study" ("Bloodlands...", 2010, p. 500). Motyka is also praised by Ukrainian scholars, as a "leading specialist on the [Polish-Ukrainian] conflict" (Zenon E. Kohut, Bohdan Y. Nebesio, Myroslav Yurkevich. "Historical dictionary of Ukraine"‎. 2005. p.664). Motyka wrote several books dedicated specifically to the Polish-Ukrainian relations in the years 1943-1948. He is not one-sided, but adopts multi-dimentional approach in his analysis (see: Rafal Wnuk,Recent Polish Historiography on Polish-Ukrainian Relations during World War II and its Aftermath). Since 2011, Motyka is a member of the IPN Council.Hedviberit (talk) 17:53, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

I'm going to rv your last edit - the sources in the lead confirm that the massacres/ethnic cleansing took place not only in Volhynia, but also in Galicia (that means the perpetrator was not only UPA-North). There was no consensus regarding deletion of the "Eastern Galicia" section. In my opinion the title of the article should be renamed to: "Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Galicia".Hedviberit (talk) 17:53, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

I'll tell you what. There are only few experts that are/were deeply involved in victims number counting - Siemaszko, Motyka, in the beginning of 90'ties Torzecki... There rest, especially Western historicians, rely on available works. The "problem" is that process of counting the victims began in late 80'ties and it is still continued. The numbers increased by the years. That is why we have a lot of different numbers circulating in the literature. So, we should follow the newest works of real experts.

Worst situation is with estimation of Ukrainian victims number. The numbers circulating are not even „estimations” but just guessing. See Ilyushin's „UPA and AK” (Warsaw 2009): „No official information about the number of Ukrainians killed can only be explained by the fact that similar to Polish studies and calculations were never carried in Ukraine”. (page 37)

Number of 20,000 killed Ukrainians in Volhynia given by Rudling citing newspaper article of some unknown Maksymiuk is completelly crazy. This is example how host of circulating versions of one history can confuse even good scholars.GlaubePL (talk) 21:31, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Table

Is it ready to be put into the article itself?

Also, as far as I remember, Fergusson doesn't carry out an independent estimation of the deaths, but rather quotes another author (Snyder? Can't remember - I had the book checked out but had to return it to the library). If that is indeed the case then I don't think he should be included independently, just noted in the "Comments" section. Also I think the page number is actually 463 (based on Amazon's search inside feature, where the page is not available) rather than 455. It also means that it isn't quite correct to say in the text that "Niall Ferguson estimated the..." - unless a particular researcher did actual field work of some sort or a meta analysis of sources then we should probably use the phrasing "reports..." rather than "estimated".Volunteer Marek (talk) 19:20, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

See my comment about the Rossolinski-Liebe source, please.Faustian (talk) 19:56, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

If that's indeed the case and he quotes one of the other authors, we can do rephrasing.Hedviberit (talk) 06:43, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, it's not clear there either - I would include him but note in the comments that this appears to be based on other works, rather than an independent estimate.

Other than that, is the table ready to be included in the article?Volunteer Marek (talk) 20:10, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

I think so.Faustian (talk) 22:24, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

To elaborate on my earlier commnet - Rossolinski-Liebe seems to be a student of Rusling and/or Himka. His work is ano another topic and seems to just refer to Rudlng and/or Himka when he mentions the massacres of Volhynia as context for hisown work. Therefore citing Rossolinski-Liebe seems a bit like reciting Himka or Rudling twice.Faustian (talk) 02:57, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Can you identify which one?Volunteer Marek (talk) 03:49, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Katchanovsky uses estimates from Hrytsiuk and Snyder and his article is on another topic. Should we delete him from the table? On the other hand, Rossolinski's nummbers aren't exactly the same as those from Rudling and Himka.Hedviberit (talk) 06:43, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

One more thing - we shouldn't include the numbers of Poles killed in Poland, because they weren't the victims of this ethnic cleansing. Hedviberit (talk) 06:43, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Galicia

Since the article will be staying "...Poles in Volhynia" I've taken the initiative of cleaning out non-Volyn related content, namely, what carried out into Galicia. The entire Galicia section itself needed a rewrite as it was ass-backwards (galicia had more Poles, not less; Galician Poles were given warning, not NOT given warning, etc.). Should this stuff be staying if re-written? I suggested before that this article cover more / be retitled due to its depth, but was voted down that it should focus on the Volhynian massacres. Now I'm focusing it and just got reverted. Which is it going to be? All or 1? Can't have it both ways.--Львівське (talk) 06:59, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

I oppose the removal and suggested earlier that the article should be retitled - Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and (eastern) Galicia or Massacres of Poles in Western Ukraine. From my understanding the majority (most popular) view is that the ethnic cleansing/massacres of Poles took place in (Eastern) Galicia and Volhynia. Among the seven sources that you deleted ('do we really need EIGHT sources to prove this?') were scholars who agree with it. That is why I included them in the first place. I'm not aware of any wikipedia rule that limits the number of references.

I suggested before that this article cover more / be retitled due to its depth, but was voted down that it should focus on the Volhynian massacres.

Was that really the reason? What was your proposition for the title?

galicia had more Poles, not less;- Ukrainian Galicia (eastern Galicia) had less Poles than Ukrainians.

Galician Poles were given warning, not NOT given warning, etc.

From Snyder (The Reconstruction...): The UPA campaign to rid “Western Ukraine” of Poles began in earnest in Galicia in January 1944. In 1943 in Volhynia, UPA practice seems to have been to attack villages and murder populations without warning; in Galicia in 1944 the UPA seems to have sometimes presented Polish families with the choice of flight or death. Consider an order from the UPA high command to its soldiers, issued after the slaughter in Volhynia, and during the cleansing of Galicia: “Once more I remind you: first call upon Poles to abandon their land and only later liquidate them, not the other way around.”75 However: UPA attacks on civilians in Galicia were still organized, and still brutal. As in Volhynia, UPA units OFTEN killed every inhabitant of a village, not sparing women or children. So, Poles were SOMETIMES given the choice to flee, but OFTEN whole villages were massacred by the UPA. There is also this Shukhevych's order from 25 February 1944 (taken from Rudling) : In view of the success of the Soviet forces it is necessary to speed up the liquidation of the Poles, they must be totally wiped out, their villages burned... only the Polish population must be destroyed.

Both orders should be included.

You added this in the lead: Ukrainian victims, either those loyal to rival political factions or found to be aiding Poles, are said to have fallen in equal numbers.[10]. The reference is Snyder who writes: The OUN Mel’nyk, as we have seen, was at war with the OUN-Bandera. Both of these rivals were destroyed in early 1943 by the OUN-Bandera, and their soldiers incorporated by the OUN-Bandera’s UPA. Along the way partisans loyal to the OUN-Bandera killed tens of thousands of fellow Ukrainians for putative links to Borovets or Mel’nyk. Although no one has yet taken up the subject, it is likely that the UPA killed as many Ukrainians as Poles in 1943. What is the purpose? The article is about ethnic cleansing of Poles, not OUN. Hedviberit (talk) 06:40, 13 April 2011 (UTC)