Volyn in 1943 in Ukrainian and Polish Family Histories
Petro Dolhanov, Elżbieta Kwiecińska
2.6.2025, 19:00
Conference Room of the Center for Urban History
The conversation between historians Elżbieta Kwiecińska and Petro Dolhanov is dedicated to a painful page of Ukrainian-Polish relations — ethnic cleansing in Volyn in 1943-1944.
Both historians happen to have roots in a small village in Volyn, Zelenyi Dub. For centuries, Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews have lived in similar Ukrainian-Polish villages in Volyn. Since the nineteenth century, this region has also become home to many Czechs and Germans. During the Second World War, the ethnic borderlands in Volyn were perceived by totalitarian ideologies as a “historical mistake” that had to be corrected in order to build a homogeneous society.
The dialog between Elżbieta Kwiecińska and Petro Dolhanov will be based on the background of their meeting on the Polish-Lithuanian border in Krasnogruda. Then, the historians will focus on the events of early July 1943, when the Ukrainian nationalist underground destroyed the Polish part of the village of Zelenyi Dub. Through the presentation of family microhistories, the researchers aim to show the personal dramas of people as their ancestors became victims of political decisions from above. Petro and Elżbieta will reflect on family memory and share their personal reflections.
Petro Dolhanov
PhD in History, Associate Professor of the Department of Teaching Methods at the Rivne Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, a member of the Mykola Haievoi Center for Contemporary History, editor of the section “Overcoming the Past” and guest editor of a special thematic issue on the Holocaust in the journal “Ukraina Moderna”. He is the author of the monograph ‘Each to Their Own’: The Socioeconomic Dimension of Ukrainian Nation-building in Interwar Poland (Rivne, 2018). He is the author of a series of publications on the history of the Holocaust in the cities and towns of western Volyn, The Life and Death of Jewish Communities.
Elżbieta Kwiecińska
PhD, Historian, Associate Professor of History at the University of Warsaw. She received her doctoral degree from the European University Institute in Florence (2021). Research interests of Dr. Kwiecińska include methodology and history of historiography, the intellectual, cultural and social history of Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Ashkenazi Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries with a special emphasis on nation-building processes and studies of colonialism. In her research, she adopts the perspective of global and transnational history.
The event will take place as part of the Invisible University for Ukraine (CEU) and the Center for Urban History summer school Routes and Roots: Migration and Displacement in Eastern Europe.
Credits
Cover Image: Czesław Miłosz's estate in Krasnogruda
Gallery: Olya Klumyk