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“The first Soviets”


OnSeptember 1st, 1939, partsoftheWehrmachtcrossed the border with Poland and began its occupation; on September 17th the Red army crossed its eastern borders. September 1939 marked the beginning of the national tragedy for Poland. The central symbol of this tragedy was the Katyn massacre – a mass execution of 22 thousand captive Polish officers carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the Soviet secret police, in the Katyn forest in Russia. After the division of “spheres of influence” in Europe between Stalin and Hitler the majority of Ukrainian and Belarussian territory was annexed to the USSR.

According to the norms of international law actions of the USSR were considered as aggression. In order to legitimize annexation of the western Ukrainian and western Byelarussian territory to the world community and local people, the administration of the USSR voiced its concern as to the security of the brotherly Ukrainian and Belarussian peoples. The so-called “reunion” of the Western Ukraine with the USSR called for legal legitimization. The Bolsheviks arranged everything in such a way as if the initiative to “reunite” was coming from local Ukrainian people and it was them who addressed the authorities with the request to accept them as a part of the USSR. With this purpose on October 22nd, 1939, the Soviet government organized in Western Ukraine “elections” to the People’s Meetings. Propaganda in the USSR proclaimed democracy of the election process, while only one surname (usually of a loyal to the government person) was listed on the ballot paper. Elections were held according to the plan of Bolsheviks. As a result the winners were candidates from the Bolshevik party. On October 26-28, 1939, at the People’s Meeting, the Declaration on annexation of Western Ukraine to the USSR was signed. 

In between the World wars (1919-1939)
USSR
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Romania
The Second World War (1939-1945)
“The first Soviets”
Under the rule of the Third Reich
Ukrainian resistance movement
War after the war (1945-1953)
Liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church
The second collectivization
The Famine of 1946-1947
Deportations
GULAG
The Khrushchev “thaw” (1953-1964)
The Brezhnev stagnation (1964-1986)
On the way to independence (1986-1991)
Related video
- Preparation of weapons for the OUN, 1939
- On the way to Kazakhstan, 1941
- A food crisis in Lviv, 1942
- Coming of the "first Soviets" to Western Ukraine, 1939
- Tortured prisoners from the prison “at Lontskoho”, 1941
- Deportation to Kazakhstan, 1940, part 1
- Tortured to death inmates in prison of the town of Skole, 1926
- Father and uncle arrested, 1941
Related film
Lviv in 1939
People's Council of Western Ukraine, 1939.
Victims of the NKVD from the prison"at Lontskoho", 1941.
The Red Army enters Galicia, 1939
Related photo
Soviet and German soldiers near vehicle armour
Brest-Lytovsk (Brest, Belarus)
Soviet and German soldiers near vehicle armour
ID: DFF000308

Повний опис
Bodies of the NKVD victims in the garden near Lviv prison #3
Zolochiv
Bodies of the NKVD victims in the garden near Lviv prison #3
ID: DFF000194

Повний опис
German and Soviet officers
Brest-Lytovsk (Brest, Belarus)
German and Soviet officers
ID: DFF000310

Повний опис
Parade of German-Soviet troops in Brest
Brest-Lytovsk (Brest, Belarus)
Parade of German-Soviet troops in Brest
ID: DFF000307

Повний опис
A meeting of German and Soviet soldiers near Brest-Lytovsk
Brest-Lytovsk (Brest, Belarus)
A meeting of German and Soviet soldiers near Brest-Lytovsk
ID: DFF000302

Повний опис
Meeting of German and Soviet soldiers
Brest-Lytovsk (Brest, Belarus)
Meeting of German and Soviet soldiers
ID: DFF000304

Повний опис
Victims of the NKVD in the yard of the prison"at Lontskoho", 1941.
Zolochiv
Victims of the NKVD in the yard of the prison"at Lontskoho", 1941.
ID: DFF000195

Повний опис
The transit prison #25 Territory of Terror - The Lviv ghetto Territory of Terror Territory of Terror
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