Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance has denounced the head of Ukraine’s IPN for his comments on the Volyn massacre, calling them ‘outrageous’.
IPN Responds to Ołeksandr Ałfiorow’s Interview
The Polish Institute of National Remembrance has responded to an interview with Ołeksandr Ałfiorow, head of Ukraine’s IPN, given to “Ukrainska Pravda.” The Polish IPN stated, “The Volyn massacre is not a ‘Volyn tragedy,’ let alone a story or narrative – it is genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists.” In a post on X, the institute called Ałfiorow’s words “outrageous,” particularly his statement that “the Volyn tragedy is one of Poland’s state-building myths.”
The institute also criticized Ałfiorow’s claim that for most Ukrainians, the Volyn massacre was “merely a local episode in history.” According to the Polish IPN, the director’s stance is an example of “relativizing the crime and reducing it to a ‘local event,’ thereby trivializing it and denying the suffering of the victims.”
In its statement, IPN condemned Stepan Bandera, whom it described as “the architect of hatred directed against Poles,” as well as Roman Shukhevych, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
What Did Ołeksandr Ałfiorow Say?
In his interview with “Ukrainska Pravda,” Ałfiorow was asked if he believed there was a chance to move the topic of the Volyn massacre back from the political sphere to the academic one. According to the director, this is unlikely to be possible.
“The Volyn tragedy is one of Poland’s state-building myths. Not a myth or a legend, but one of the key elements of Poland’s grand narrative. It is perceived not in terms of numbers, but in terms of emotions. Ask Ukrainians how many people died during the Holodomor. They will answer: millions. One person will say 3, another will say 10. Even among scientists, the numbers vary – from 3.5 to over 10 million. For the whole nation,” he said.
Ałfiorow pointed out that “Poles have their own pain.” “For the majority of Ukrainians, this is merely a local episode in history because these events took place exclusively on Volhynia. Meanwhile, Poles who later emigrated settled throughout Poland,” he emphasized.