We are pleased to share the call for papers for the workshop “Poland, Ukraine and Operation Vistula” to be held on 20th June 2022 at the University of Cambridge.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Vistula (Akcja Wisła, Операція Вісла): the forced re-settlement of the Ukrainian, Lemko and Boyko communities from south-eastern Poland. This was preceded by the re-settlement of Ukrainians from Poland to the Soviet SSR in 1944-46. The traumatic events of 1944-50 remain a subject of conflicting interpretations by historians. They also made a lasting impact on the collective memory and identity of the communities involved, and still resonate in the relations between these communities.
This international workshop aims to revisit the forced population transfers of 1944-50 and their legacy. Invited are paper proposals on topics related (but not limited) to:
- Post-war Polish-Ukrainian population “exchange” and “repatriation”
- Partisan operations on the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands between 1944 and 1950
- Operation Vistula
- Cultural legacy and everyday history of forced migration
- Impact of 1944-50 on majority-minority relations in Poland and Ukraine
- Significance of Operation Vistula for Polish-Ukrainian relations
- Legal aspects of Operation Vistula and forced migration
Please send a paper proposal up to 300 words and a bio in one file to both Tadeusz Wojtych (tw474@cam.ac.uk) and Daria Mattingly (dm628@cam.ac.uk) by Thursday, 31st March.
A publication of the presented papers is planned.
The organisers are grateful for support from the George Macaulay Trevelyan Fund at the Faculty of History, the Cambridge Committee for Russian and East European Studies (CamCREES), Cambridge Polish Studies, and the Cambridge Heritage Research Centre.
Study Group for Minority History 