Concepts of Poland’s Foreign Policy Towards Ukraine in the Columns of the Parisian “Culture”

Abstract

The presented articles analyze the foreign policy concepts of Polish political emigration after the Second World War, which were published and discussed in the columns of the literary and political magazine “Culture”. The founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine was a Polish emigrant figure: journalist and publicist, public intellectual Jerzy Giedroyc, and the literary and political magazine “Culture” was published in Paris between 1947 and 2000. Playing an important role in Polish literary life, the magazine also became a lively discussion platform on the future of Europe, in particular, the future of Polish-Ukrainian interstate and interethnic relations. In fact, J. Giedroyc, together with his friend and colleague J. Myroszewski, created, substantiated and developed the idea of recognizing Poland’s post-war eastern borders and reconciling Poles with Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians. Another important component of the Polish foreign policy concept was the thesis that a free Poland could not exist without a free Ukraine. This concept of Poland’s foreign policy was not perceived in the 50s and 70s of the twentieth century by either Polish political emigrants or the politicians of the Polish People's Republic. However, after the victory of Solidarity in the 1989 Polish elections and the formation of a new post-communist government, the independent Republic of Poland took the ideas of J. Giedroyc and J. Myroszewski as the basis of its foreign policy towards Ukraine. The process of shaping Polish foreign policy since 1989 has been quite complex and controversial, as from the very beginning it was necessary to develop a clear position on the changes taking place in the West and, more importantly, in the East. The crisis, and later the collapse of the USSR, put on the agenda of the Polish political elite the need to approach the formation of a new foreign policy of the Third Commonwealth with special attention. Therefore, the main goal of the new Eastern policy was to respond to the changes taking place abroad.