Soviet Policy in Western Ukraine

TOPIC 7

WORLD WAR II

The Second World War started on 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. Before this on 23 August Stalin and Hitler signed the so-called Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. It contained a secret protocol in which the dictators agreed to divide Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and occupation. According to this arrangement, Stalin was supposed to gain Finland, the three Baltic republics, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine, and Bessarabia. On 17 September when the Polish army was almost defeated the Soviet troops invaded western Ukraine and western Belarus. On 22 September a combined Soviet-German military parade in Brest marked the end of Poland.

Western Ukraine was attached to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Soviet policy in Western Ukraine was contradictory. Some measures of the Soviet government were welcomed by West Ukrainians. The lands of the Polish landlords were expropriated and distributed among the peasants. All spheres of life were Ukrainized (educational system, state bureaucracy, judicial system, etc). Ian Casimir Lviv University, a bastion of Polish culture for centuries, was renamed after Ivan Franko and adopted Ukrainian as the language of instruction. Poles were replaced by Ukrainians in the administrative apparatus. Health care system was improved radically in cities and villages. Enterprises were nationalized. Unemployment disappeared. On the other hand, many measures were unwelcome. All political parties, independent newspapers, and cultural organizations including Prosvita were closed. Many nationally-minded intellectuals were repressed. The Greek Catholic church was persecuted. Collectivization campaign started in the village. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Poles were deported to the cold regions of the USSR.[1]

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