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Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Author : A. Smirnov
Senior research associate, Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Candidate of Science
(Political Science)
MANY EUROPEAN STATES recognized the Ukrainian crisis as
a serious reason to revise their political opinions and change the
balance of power. For historical reasons and due to the sharpening
struggle between the main political forces inside the state, Poland
is involved in the process to a much greater extent than its East
European neighbors.
At all times, Polish conservatives have paid a lot of attention to
the Ukrainian question; its revival in the current interpretation is
connected with the "Orange revolution."
During the 2004 Ukrainian crisis, the "true" Polish conservatives,
unlike their liberal colleagues, discerned in it not so much a political
but a civilizational problem that should be resolved in favor of the West. Viktor Yushchenko's
victory was interpreted as a defeat of the pro-Russian forces and evidence of loyalty to the cho-
sen course.
The right-wing conservative camp unconditionally supported the "European hopes of Ukraini-
ans" and critically widened the gap between its position and the policies of the liberal government
of Donald Tusk.
The Polish leaders were gradually realizing that their positions were somehow vulnerable. Warsaw
was very much concerned with a wave of nationalist psychosis that engulfed the neighboring
country and the official recognition of the most odious figures, Bandera and Shukhevych in the
first place. The people in Kiev did nothing to cut short the campaign designed to revive the very
aggressive ideology of "Ukrainian exclusiveness" that was becoming anti-Polish among other
things. Warsaw was no less irritated by the leading European powers that being highly concerned,
in their turn, with the fighting in the Ukrainian territory preferred to discuss the key issues of
settlement with Moscow leaving Poland in the cold.
Polish politicians of all hues cannot but pay attention to the increasingly aggressive behavior of
their neighbors and their territorial claims. The Poles, on their side, have not forgotten that they
lost certain territories in the east between the two world wars.
The strategy related to the "Ukrainian Question" as one of the central foreign policy issues of
Polish conservatives has become questionable. The PiS leaders have all the chances to regain
power yet it should revise their basic foreign policy principles and formulate their own strategic
projects to move away from the current situation when the inner Polish problems are projected
into the sphere of international relations.
The Ukrainian Crisis in the Mirror of Polish Conservatism