But on June 19, the current president, Karol Nawrocki, announced he was rescinding the order<\/a> and stripping Zelensky of the honour. He did so after Zelensky awarded the honorary title \u201cHeroes of the UPA\u201d<\/a> to an elite unit of Ukraine\u2019s special forces<\/a>. Zelensky said he had awarded the honour at the unit\u2019s request. He said it was his duty<\/a> as commander-in-chief, who \u201cmust provide them with everything they need to protect our people and our land\u201d. He added: \u201cAnd if they are motivated by our heroes \u2026 and if this is very important to them, I must do whatever they tell me.\u201d <\/p>\n Political spats between the two countries over historical memory are nothing new<\/a>. But this is the first since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to escalate to this degree. And the fact is that it has more to do with domestic Polish politics than any long-term rift between Poland and Ukraine.<\/p>\n First, some background. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist formation that fought against the Soviets during the second world war. After harsh Soviet rule in Ukraine many in the UPA saw the German military invasion as liberating them from Soviet repression.<\/p>\n But it turned out that the Nazis were even worse than the Soviets. For the Poles, though, memories of the massacre of ethnic Poles in Volhynia, now Volyn, in Ukraine, by members of the UPA, remain raw.<\/p>\n As American historian Timothy Snyder has written<\/a>: \u201cUkrainians think about the UPA mainly through \u2026 the struggle against the Red Army after 1945. Poles remember \u2026 1943, when the UPA killed tens of thousands of Poles in Volhynia.\u201d<\/p>\n These memories lead to different interpretations which are used to serve often divergent domestic political purposes in the two countries. Despite the UPA\u2019s history, Ukraine continues to award UPA-related honours because the nationalist movement has become a symbol of resistance to Soviet and Russian rule, which fits with the broader post-2014 campaign to rid Ukraine of vestiges of its communist past<\/a>. <\/p>\n Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has reinforced this trend, making such honours less about revisiting the past than about mobilising contemporary symbols of national resistance in Ukraine \u2013 even if they remain deeply controversial in Poland.<\/p>\n Nawrocki claims he revoked<\/a> Zelensky\u2019s award because \u201chis countrymen\u2019s pain threshold has been crossed\u201d<\/a>. It\u2019s a strong reaction, which drastically contrasts with Nawrocki\u2019s own previous position<\/a> as head of the Institute of National Remembrance in 2023, when he stated that Ukraine was free to honour its own historical figures, including the UPA\u2019s leaders.<\/p>\n The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, was more restrained, urging<\/a> both countries to stop quarrelling about the past for the sake of the future. His deputy Rados\u0142aw Sikorski, who is also Poland\u2019s minister of foreign affairs, pointed out that while Zelensky\u2019s decree was inappropriate<\/a>, that Nawrocki\u2019s reaction was disproportionate and had been welcomed in Moscow<\/a>.<\/p>\n This contrast between the responses of Nawrocki, a rightwing populist, and the centre-left government suggests that the dispute cannot be explained by history alone. It illustrates the friction between the right-leaning president and the left-leaning government. Nawrocki has unofficially started a campaign for next year\u2019s parliamentary election and is rallying for his Law and Justice party (PiS) by playing up anti-Ukrainian sentiment.<\/p>\n Before being elected, Nawrocki promised to block Ukraine\u2019s accession to Nato<\/a>. He has also been against Ukraine\u2019s membership of the EU<\/a>. Zelensky has given him an opportunity to capitalise on anti-Ukrainian narratives that play well to Poles disaffected by the war.<\/p>\n Additionally, by revoking Zelensky\u2019s honour, Nawrocki has laid down a challenge to Tusk. The prime minister\u2019s countersignature is required to validate the decision \u2013 and this would put him in a difficult political situation domestically<\/a>.<\/p>\n Following the dispute, Nawrocki\u2019s approval ranking is at a historic high<\/a> of 54.8% \u2013 up by 8.4 percentage points from a month before.<\/p>\n While anti-Ukrainian rhetoric falls on fertile soil in Poland due to popular fatigue at supporting so many refugees<\/a>, there is still strong support for Ukraine. <\/p>\n Jerzy W\u00f3jcik, a prominent Polish journalist and media executive, who has led major humanitarian campaigns like Warmth from Poland for Kyiv<\/a>, initiated a petition<\/a> to present Zelenskyy with Citizen\u2019s Order of the Future award. He said that<\/a> \u201cthe Polish right wing has launched a campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections and is ruthlessly exploiting the Volhynia tragedy for political gain\u201d.<\/p>\n UPA\u2019s past links to genocide are felt by most Poles. But there is still a strong tension when it comes to Nawrocki\u2019s revocation of Zelensky\u2019s order. This, along with Polish public support for Ukraine, suggests that the dispute is more complex than the political rhetoric implies.<\/p>\n The dispute is not primarily about the UPA \u2013 nor is it evidence of a fundamental shift in Polish foreign policy. While it has the potential to become a bigger diplomatic challenge for the two countries, it illustrates a broader phenomenon: political leaders mobilising contested history to solve present-day domestic political problems. <\/p>\nJockeying for political advantage<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/286171\/count.gif\")
<\/p>\n