Between the Great Famine and the Great Terror. The Deportations of People from the Border Districts of the Soviet Ukraine in 1935
Between the Great Famine and the Great Terror. The Deportations of People from the Border Districts of the Soviet Ukraine in 1935

Summary/Abstract: The article is a discussion of the first mass deportation of the unpredictable Polish and German inhabitants from the western border districts of Ukraine, which the Soviet authorities carried out in 1935. Close to 9,500 households were facing deportation, with Polish families accounting for approximately half of these. Increased suspicion of and hostility toward the Poles and the Germans was caused by the growing international tensions in contemporary Europe and the gradual emergence of the future military conflicts. In the mid-1930s, the Soviets were reinforcing their western border, erecting fortifications as part of the so-called Stalin Line, which also spanned the section of the USSR’s border with the Second Polish Republic. The deported Poles and Germans were moved to eastern districts of Ukraine, particularly in villages depopulated during the Great Famine of 1932–1933. The purpose of this strategy was two-fold: to tighten security in the state’s western extremities and to provide workforce for towns and villages decimated by hunger.

• Details
• Contents