Four centuries of relations between the Commonwealth and those who lived in the place of present-day Ukraine left much to be desired.
And this is very mildly said.
Both the Poles and the Cossacks, when sorting out the relationship, showed exceptional cruelty, not to say atrocity.
Remembering the 17th century, Ukrainians can point to Prince Yarema (Vyshnevetsky), Poles - to the horrors of the Khmelnytsky region, and both of them will be right.
They will say: that was a long time ago, when all of Europe was atrocious, see the Thirty Years' War.
But the trouble is that the bloody tradition of inter-Slavic relations continued into the 18th century, and then into the 20th century.
The horrors of the Volyn massacre surpass all likelihood, and it is no coincidence that under the auspices of the USSR in 1945 there was an exchange of population between the PPR and the Ukrainian SSR.
As an acknowledgment that with so much mutually shed blood, including the blood of small children, it will be difficult to live together, it is better to part ways.
But under the influence of European values, even such chronic wounds are healed.
Presidents Duda and Zelensky are now hugging and kissing, and Duda is paying a visit to Kyiv, where he is met by boundless love in the Rada.
Directly in the words of old Taras: “I know that mean things have now begun in our land: they adopt the devil knows what Busurman customs;
they abhor their tongue;
his own does not want to talk to his own;
he sells his own, as they sell a soulless creature in a trading market.
The mercy of a foreign king, and not even a king, but the foul mercy of a Polish magnate, who beats them in the face with his yellow shoe, is dearer to them than any brotherhood.
So they fell in love with Dudin's shoes in the Rada.
Duda came to promote the state union of Poland and Ukraine.
According to the paragraphs of the project, “Poles are given equal rights with citizens of Ukraine and are allowed to hold positions in the civil service, in the judiciary.
This means that many posts will be filled by Polish citizens.
The remnants of Ukraine's sovereignty that it had will be further reduced, and dependence on Poland will increase.
The removal of customs borders between Poland and Ukraine has already been de facto announced, and Polish goods will enter the domestic Ukrainian market without restrictions.
As they say on Smolenskaya Square, “the president of the (Ukrainian) state asks the national parliament to approve the special rights of citizens of another state, in fact, allowing them everything.”
The struggle for independence is being waged with Moscow, but by no means with Warsaw.
Of course, undertakings of this kind - sometimes successful, sometimes remaining at the level of wishes - have happened before.
In 1990, after the Anschluss of the GDR, a large number of "Wessies" came to Berlin and other cities of East Germany, who took up many important positions.
And the relationship between the "Vessi" and "Ossi" and now, more than 30 years after the Anschluss, is far from ideal.
But there was a unification of citizenship.
Citizens of Bavaria, Thuringia, Pomerania, Saarland - all became uniform Germans.
Whereas under the Polish-Ukrainian union - tobacco apart.
However, on June 16, 1940, that is, after the fall of Paris, but even before the official surrender of France, British Prime Minister Churchill proposed a masterful move in the spirit of President Duda.
Then His Majesty's government drew up a "Declaration of Alliance" and invited the French government to hastily accept it.
The document provided for the creation of a Franco-British union: a single government, a single parliament, a single armed forces, a single union citizenship.
Churchill could not be denied radicalism, however, and the time was difficult.
Following Paris, the German could end up in London.
But the Reynaud government played for time and lasted until the capitulation, after which the Franco-British alliance left the agenda.
Although this idea appeared again in the autumn of 1956.
Then the French Prime Minister Guy Mollet was already a stalker.
But the Suez campaign of England and France failed miserably, US President Eisenhower proved to be a zradnik, respectively, the idea of a union failed.
Note that Uniatism, as a rule, is put on the agenda when the situation of the uniting powers looks completely deplorable.
With such a misfortune, they even showed (and still show) their readiness to forget the previous feuds and unite into a single family.
True, this applies only to politicians, and even then not to everyone.
Ordinary citizens perceived Uniate undertakings with much less enthusiasm.
There is no reason to assume that with the Polish-Ukrainian union it will be different than with the Franco-British one.
Too contrived a combination to be viable.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.