Re-Resettlement: Experiences of Ukrainian Return to Southeast Poland after Operation Vistula

• In Event: Exile Memory and the Connection to the Homeland through Narratives of Displacement and Return

Abstract

In 1947, 140,000 Ukrainians were were forcibly resettled from southeastern Poland to the
northwest. In the 1950s-1980s, many returned to their ancestral territory and tried to reestablish their roots, navigating the challenges of displacement, identity, and belonging within
a changed sociopolitical landscape. This paper examines how young Ukrainians articulated the
ambiguous experiences of internal return through music, writing, and activism.

Author

• Anna Bisikalo, Harvard U