THE UKRAINIAN-POLISH BORDER AS A FRONTIER OF HISTORICAL MEMORY AND IDENTITY

Abstract

This article examines the Ukrainian-Polish borderland, which has become a kind of frontier between two nations, cultures and identities. The thousand-year-old history of Ukrainian-Polish coexistence has absorbed all aspects of shared life in the borderlands, transforming them into a dynamic transition zone on the border between two nations/societies/ states/cultures, which is not just a line on the map, but represents a colourful and specific region that has absorbed the cultural and national diversity of both peoples, thereby emphasising national characteristics. Historically, the territories where the cultural influences of nations met and intertwined for centuries, where different peoples lived side by side or together, creating the history of the region in particular and of individual states in general, have been given the general name of borderlands/frontiers. It was precisely the border areas where nations lived that most often became the subject of disputes or acute bloody conflicts, passing from one state to another, which bordered each other, becoming a kind of frontier with its own historical memory, a set of historical myths and socio-historical stereotypes, with a special (sometimes acute) identity. Using the example of the formation and transformation of the historical memory of Ukrainians and Poles, the article analyses interethnic relations in the borderlands. It is proven that the historical memory of borderland residents is, first, a distinct marker of identity and, second, a rather sensitive element of interethnic relations. The study of borderlands is, in fact, a component of regional studies – a science that is currently quite popular and actively developing. At the same time, the presented scientific research is a rather narrow scientific problem of local history and is intended to fill the gaps in the study of the history of the Ukrainian-Polish borderlands.