(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . A few notes on Ukraine's World War II: 1939-1949 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-05-13 A group of Ukrainian Insurgent Army fighters during a propaganda raid in Slovakia, 1947 I think everyone knows by now that the current Russian war against Ukraine is, essentially, Putin’s way of turning back the time to May 1945, when the Russia-dominated Soviet Union captured and dominated the eastern half of Europe. This war also highlights the importance of historical memory. The current actions of the Russian leadership and the support of Russian leadership by the Russian population are directly related to the way the Russian government and society chose to remember WWII. But enough for Russia — you can read their version of WWII history everywhere. Today, I wish to say a few words on Ukrainian history and the Ukrainian memory of WWII. Ukraine before the war It is important to remember that Ukraine did not participate in the war as a purely independent nation. When the great European empires of Austro-Hungary and Russia fell at the end of WWI, Ukraine entered its war for independence — along with Poland, Czechia and Slovakia, Belarus, Finland, Litva, Latvia, and Estonia. Ukraine has lost its battle, but in the flames of the war for independence, the Ukrainian nation was created. As an aftermath of WWI, the lands inhabited by Ukrainians were divided between the Soviet Union, a Russian Bolshevik dictatorship, the authoritarian Polish Republic, the constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom of Romania, and the only true democracy in Central Europe, Czechoslovakia. The Bolsheviks lured Ukrainians with a promise of self-government, national renaissance, and land reform. That only lasted less than a decade. When Ukrainian farmers refused to join Stalin’s collective farms, sometimes with armed resistance, Russia re-occupied Soviet Ukraine and killed every fourth Ukrainian by starving the farmers to death in 1932-1933 (the Holodomor). The land that became thus free was populated by settlers from Russia. On top of that, Bolsheviks killed, imprisoned, or otherwise silenced every Ukrainian writer, artist, scholar, or high-level government officer who did not agree to comply with instructions from Moscow. Ukraine’s independent Orthodox church had been destroyed — just like every other religious organization in the Soviet Union. The only permitted religion was Marxism-Leninism. In Poland, which, until 1936, was more or less a democratic state, Ukrainians enjoyed some freedoms and representation, though they were not allowed to have Ukrainian high schools or use the Ukrainian language in government. The government generally steered towards forceful assimilation of Ukrainians and colonization of Ukrainian lands by Polish settlers. In Czechoslovakia, Ukrainians enjoyed the most freedom. The beginning When did WWII start for Ukraine? For Ukraine, WWII started in March 1939. Following the infamous Munich Accords and Arbitration of Vienna of 1938, Nazi Germany invaded Czechia. Simultaneously, its ally Kingdom of Hungary invaded the eastern part of Czechoslovakia, known as Carpathian Ruthenia. The region was predominantly inhabited by Ukrainians (historically known as Ruthenians). As Czechoslovakia's military was unable to protect its territory, Carpathian Ruthenia declared its independence on 15 March 1939 as Carpathian Ukraine 🇺🇦. It was immediately attacked by Hungary. As the world looked on, a small army of Carpato-Ukrainians continued their fighting against a much larger and much better-equipped Hungarian army for another three days. The greatest battle between the Hungarian army and several hundred Ukrainian soldiers (armed with light machine guns, rifles, hand grenades and pistols) took place near Khust. About 230 Ukrainians died in the battle. This way, Ukrainians became the first nation in Europe (along with the Czechs and Slovaks) that had put an armed resistance to the Axis powers. New York Times reporting from the ground, March 1939 The Hungarian invasion of Carpathian Ukraine was followed by weeks of terror, in which more than 27,000 people were shot dead without trial. Thousands of Ukrainian patriots would flee from Hungarians to neighbouring Poland or Soviet Union, only to be executed or imprisoned there. Despite the immense human losses (about 20% of the population), the courageous resistance of the Carpathian Ukraine didn't go in vain. Today Carpathian Ukraine is a part of the united independent Ukraine, known as Zakarpattia region. The War Then, on 1 September 1939, the WWII has officially began with the Germany’s invasion of Poland. Ukrainians found themselves very much involved in the war. As citizens of Poland, Ukrainians fought against Germany from the day one. On 17 September, the Soviet Union army, which included a large portion of Ukrainians, also invaded Poland. Ukrainian civilians took the first round of suffering from the fighting and Soviet occupation. Ukrainian radical nationalists who were dreaming of independence have begun to make plans for the establishment of an independent state. They had a brief period of cooperation with Germans, which ended in 1941, when Ukrainians proclaimed an independent state in Lviv with the self-proclaimed government and political leadership to be arrested the next day by Gestapo. Those who remained free went undergound. Following the invasion of Poland, on 30 November 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland. Soviet Ukrainians formed a substantial part of the 400,000 Soviet casualties of that war. In June 1940, Soviet Union occupied the Baltic countries, sparkling the guerilla liberation fighting there. It also invaded Romania, occupying ethnic Ukrainian lands there. I am not going to retell all Wikipedia here, so further Ukrainian experience is pictured in this infographics: This is the German-Soviet part of war. Ukrainian war has begun earlier and proceeded longer This picture can explain why Ukrainian memory of WWII is very different to the Russian one Except for the deportation to Germany, all other deportations of Ukrainians were carried by Soviet Union or by Communist Poland — or by them acting together. Most of Ukrainians who were fighting in the US and Canadian armies were second-generation Ukrainian immigrants. Several 1-minute stories of Ukrainians who were fighting Nazism in different armies: USA: Canada-France: USSR: USSR: Ukrainian Independence Fighters: The war after the war When it became clear that the Nazis wanted Ukraine for themselves, not for Ukrainians, the Ukrainian independence movement went underground. It did not help that the independence movement had been engaged in bitter and deadly internal infighting — throughout the war, there were at least three distinct factions. It did not help that the Germans killed or imprisoned a substantial part of the pre-war leadership, simultaneously conducted talks with some parts of the movement and exercised regular anti-guerilla terror actions torching whole Ukrainian villages suspected of cooperation with the insurgents. The military height of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army — the most powerful faction of the independence movement — arrived in the summer of 1943. The Germans were retreating, and for several months Ukrainians established an independent Ukrainian administration in vast territories of rural Western Ukraine. At the same time, the ideology of the UIA has evolved from authoritarian, near-fascist nationalism to representative democracy. Aside from guerilla warfare, during 1943-44 UIA conducted regular battles with Germans, Hungarians, Poles and Soviets, with the highest number of fighters engaged in one battle reaching over 5,000 Ukrainians with artillery against about 50,000 Soviets with tanks and cavalry (battle at Hurby, April 1944). It is estimated that, at its height, the number of UIA fighters was up to 200,000. The Soviets and Poles employed severe anti-guerilla tactics, including deportations of the families of the UIA fighters, tortures, false flag operations etc. UIA responded with small group raids that conducted executions of communists and government officials and spread propaganda materials. In order to manifest their struggle and existence, UIA formed propaganda squads which broke the Soviet borders and raided Romania and Czechoslovakia, eventually reaching the Allied forces in Austria and Germany. UIA hoped that the war between the Allies and the Soviet Union was imminent and requested Allied support for the UIA operations in Ukraine. However, the big war with the Soviets never materialised, and UIA was left alone against all the might of the Soviet Union and the neighbouring Communist Block countries. In 1949, the commander of the UIA ordered the army to disband. Probably this date shall be regarded as the end of WWII in Ukraine. Underground groups were active until at least 1956, with the last armed resistance registered in 1960 when Soviet security forces hunted a 3-person UIA unit in their hiding place in the woods. UIA fighters who were arrested and not killed or executed by the Soviets were sent to GULAG labour camps for 10 or 25 years. On 16 May 1954, Ukrainian prisoners revolted in the Kengir labour camp in Kazakhstan. With almost no weapons, they maintained the life of the camp and defended it from the Soviet police and security forces for 40 days, until the arrival of the army units with tanks, which stormed the camp and brutally quelled the rebellion. Despite all odds, Ukrainians continued to fight for freedom. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/13/2169158/-A-few-notes-on-Ukraine-s-World-War-II-1939-1949 Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/