Represje reżimu sowieckiego wobec Czechów wołyńskich w latach 1921–1941
The Soviet Regime’s Repressions against the Volynian Czechs in 1921–1941

Summary/Abstract: The case study of the repressive actions of the Soviet regime against ethnic groups, particularly the Czechs of Volyn, is based on the analysis of archival materials and memoirs. The analysis of the basic documents regulating the repression process shows that there was no separate document/order under which the operation against the Czechs was carried out and that the repressive bodies implemented the provisions of the so-called “Polish model” operation. The repression mechanism and the categories of the repressed Czech population within the chronological period of 1921–1941 are characterised. It is noted that mass arrests, evictions/deportations, and executions of the population, particularly Volynian Czechs, were commonly implemented on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR and from 1939 in Western Ukraine too. They became the means and tools for the realisation of the internal policy of Sovietisation. Archival materials and memoirs helped ascertain the categories of the Czech origin persons who were subjected to repression as “socially dangerous ones”. They were former owners of industrial enterprises, so called “Kurkuls”, landowners, former state functionaries and policemen, Polish military, active participants of a social movement and its leaders, prisoners of war, members of the Czech army, as well as soldiers of the Czechoslovak corps of the Russian army (1914–1918). The research findings argue that repressions against the Volynian Czechs led to a negative attitude of the Czechs toward the Soviet regime, and in the post-war period, toward the re-emigration movement.

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