Repressions

Repressions as a whole are typical trait of a totalitarian regime. In fact, it cannot exist without them. One of the major aims of repressions of the Stalinist regime was to create an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. When a person lives in fear he is much easier to control. Even high governmental positions did not guarantee safety. Quite the contrary, the ruling class was the first victim of repressions. The majority of high-ranking party officials in Moscow as well as in all other Soviet republics were repressed. For example, of 1,966 deputies of the USSR Supreme Council, 1,931 (more than 95%) were repressed in the middle of the 1930s. Of 66 members of Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine 55 were repressed. Of 11 members of the Ukrainian Politburo, 10 were repressed. In 1938 all the Ukrainian government (17 ministers) were arrested and shot. The Prime Minister P. Liubchenko committed suicide. Before killing himself he killed his wife to save her from tortures by the political police and from a horrible life in the Gulag. In general, 37% of Ukrainian Communists (170,000) were repressed. By the late 1930s the limited self-government that Ukrainians (and other non-Russians in their republics) had possessed earlier was almost totally destroyed.

A lot of intellectuals (because they could think critically and understand the nature of the regime) were repressed in all Soviet republics.¹¹ The NKVD (political police) accused many representatives of the Ukrainian cultural elite of participating in secret anti-Soviet organizations, spying and terrorism. Victims were usually asked two questions “Who recruited you?” and “Whom did you recruit?” Then under physical tortures or threats to repress close relatives the victims usually pointed at any people they knew. In all, some four-fifths of the Ukrainian cultural elite was repressed in the course of the 1930s. As a result of such a policy, the intelligentsia was intimidated and had to glorify the regime.

Besides intellectuals many ordinary Soviet citizens perished in prisons or were shot. Millions of political prisoners worked in the Gulag in extremely difficult conditions. The food ratio of a Gulag convict was less than the food ratio of a dog that guarded the Gulag. The death rate in the Gulag was horrible. One-fourth of its convicts died every year. In the Soviet Union nobody could feel secure and many people could not trust each other. There were millions of informants. Even children were encouraged to inform on their parents and friends.¹² Under such conditions, forming any kind of opposition was impossible. Thus, through repressions, Stalin consolidated his rule in the USSR.

The Ukrainian Autocephalous (Independent) Orthodox Church was banned and many of its priests were sent to prisons. Practically all Ukrainian kobzari (folk musicians and singers of poems about the Cossacks¹³) were invited to a congress, then arrested and shot. By eradicating Ukrainian religious and cultural differences Stalin planned to make his empire more unified. The same policy was adopted in other Soviet republics.

All those who were repressed were officially called “enemies of the people”. The NKVD even had plans how many people were to be repressed within a certain time. For example, 268,950 Soviet citizens were to be repressed from August till December of 1937. Of that number 75,500 were to be executed immediately. In 1991, shortly before the collapse of the USSR, the KGB (successor to the NKVD) announced that 42 million Soviet citizens died during the dictatorship of Stalin (1928-1953) as a result of the forced collectivization and repressions.

The political police (NKVD) was also not immune from repressions. The majority of NKVD leaders in Moscow, Kyiv and other Soviet capitals were repressed in the 1930s. In Ukraine alone 1,193 senior NKVD officials died as a result of repressions in the 1930s.

Part II:

Western Ukraine between the Wars

Ukrainians under Polish rule

The fate of Western Ukraine was decided at the Paris Peace Conference (1919). The Ukrainians made 64% of the region’s ethnic composition, the Poles – 25%, and the Jews – 10%. The majority of Ukrainians (94%) lived in villages. At the conference Poland promised to grant the Ukrainians autonomy and respect their rights. The Entente powers accepted the Polish proposal and placed Western Ukraine under Polish jurisdiction. France, a major power in the Entente, was interested in creating a strong Poland as a counterbalance to Germany in Eastern Europe. Paris believed that in case of war between France and Germany the grateful Poland would attack the Germans from the East. The Entente also wanted Poland to be a strong barrier between Bolshevik Russia and Europe. These facts explain why Western Ukraine found itself under Polish rule.

Poland did not keep its promise, however. Western Ukraine did not get autonomy. The number of Ukrainian-language secondary schools was reduced and Ukrainian was pushed out of administrative use. The old Austrian system of Ukrainian elementary schools was transformed into a bilingual one where Polish was dominant. Ukrainian Studies departments at Lviv University, created under Austrian rule, were abolished. But in contrast to the totalitarian Bolshevik Ukraine, Western Ukraine enjoyed some political liberties under Poland. There were many Ukrainian political parties that existed legally and issued their newspapers.¹⁴ Numerous Ukrainian cultural, scientific, professional and public organizations such as Prosvita (275,000 members and 3,071 libraries in 1936), T.Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Association of Ukrainian Women (50,000 members), the Association of Ukrainian Teachers, the Association of Ukrainian Lawyers, etc acted quite freely. It was allowed to establish private schools with Ukrainian as the language of instruction. The Polish parliament had a significant number of Ukrainian deputies and even its vice-speaker was a Ukrainian. The largest and most influential legal Ukrainian political party was UNDO (Ukrainian National Democratic Union) which advocated constitutional democracy and favored a compromise with the Poles. One of the major aims of the party was the achievement of Ukrainian autonomy.

For security reasons Poland tried to gradually eradicate the differences between Poles and Ukrainians. The old name of “Western Galicia” was changed into “Eastern Little Poland.” Greek Catholic priests received government orders to change Ukrainian last names in church documents according to Polish samples (for example “Levytsky” was to be changed into “Lewitski”). There were numerous official attempts to describe the Ukrainians not as a different nation, but as a branch of the Polish people, and the Ukrainian language, accordingly, as a Polish dialect. The Polish government forbade using word ‘Ukrainian’; the old word ‘Ruthenian’ was reanimated instead. This measure was aimed at discouraging West Ukrainians from perceiving themselves as part of a broader Ukrainian nation. To dissolve the predominantly Ukrainian ethnic composition of Galicia and Volyhnia Polish authorities settled about 200,000 Polish colonists there. The Polish government also tried to instigate religious conflicts between 3-million Greek Catholics Ukrainians of Galicia and 2-million Orthodox Ukrainians of Volhynia (Divide-and-Rule policy). Since rural areas of Western Ukraine were overpopulated, many Ukrainians emigrated to the USA, Canada, Argentina, etc.