{"id":37291,"date":"2026-05-06T22:27:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/?p=37291"},"modified":"2026-05-06T22:27:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:27:01","slug":"the-ukrainian-jewish-encounter-cultural-dimensions-part-4-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrainianjewishencounter.org\/en\/the-ukrainian-jewish-encounter-cultural-dimensions-part-4-3\/","title":{"rendered":"\"The Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter: Cultural Dimensions\": Part 4.3"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter was founded in 2008 with the goal of building stronger relations between Ukrainians and Jews, two peoples who, for centuries, lived side by side on the territory of what is modern-day Ukraine. Since then, in keeping with its motto, \"Our stories are incomplete without each other,\" UJE has sponsored conferences, round-table discussions and research, as well as translations and publication of works the organization anticipates will promote a deeper understanding between the two peoples and an appreciation of their respective cultures.<\/p>\n

We offer for the first time the book\u00a0The Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter: Cultural Dimensions\u00a0<\/em>in an eBook format.<\/p>\n

The book is a collection of essays that examine the interaction between the Ukrainian and Jewish cultures from the seventeenth century onwards. Written by leading experts from Ukraine, Israel, and other countries, the book presents a broad perspective on parallels and cross-cultural influences in various domains \u2014 including the visual arts, folklore, music, literature, and language. Several essays also focus on mutual representation \u2014 for example, perceptions of the \"Other\" as expressed in literary works or art history.<\/p>\n

The richly illustrated volume contains a wealth of new information on these little-explored topics. The book appears as volume 25 in the series\u00a0Jews and Slavs,<\/em>\u00a0published by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since 1993. In several previous volumes, considerable attention is given to the defining role of the Old Testament in Ukrainian literature and art and to the depiction of Jewish life in Ukraine in the works of Nikolai Gogol, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, Vladimir Korolenko, and other writers.<\/p>\n

This collection of essays was co-edited by Wolf Moskovich, Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Alti Rodal, Co-Director of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, who also wrote the introduction to the volume. It was published in 2016 by Hebrew University of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

4.3<\/span><\/h1>\n

Click\u00a0here for a pdf\u00a0<\/a>of the entire book.<\/p>\n

The Image of\"the Other\" in World War II memoirs of Lviv citizens<\/h2>\n

Ola Hnatiuk (Warsaw University)<\/span>
\n<\/em><\/strong>The Jewish-Polish-Ukrainian relationship during the very beginning of the Second World War \u2014 the year 1939 \u2014 has been less studied and merits additional scrutiny. This article is based on broader research that was originally conducted for the Lviv 1939\u20131941 <\/em>exhibition presented in July 2010 in the Rynok (Market Square) adjacent to Lviv City Hall. The exhibition, financed by the Polish and Ukrainian Institutes of National Memory, was the result of joint work by Ukrainian and Polish historians. [1]<\/a><\/sup> The goal of the exhibition was to present the beginning of the Second World War from the perspective of the three largest ethnic groups that resided in Lviv at that time.<\/p>\n

Even though numerous publications are devoted to this period, only a very limited number of them deal with ethnic relations during that time. [2]<\/a><\/sup> Certain aspects of inter-ethnic relations in 1939 are also mentioned in Ukrainian, American, and German publications. To expand our understanding of these complex relations, I would like to discuss here materials that had been left out of the exhibition \u2014 in particular those drawn from the Jewish Studies Center in Kyiv, the Emanuel Ringelblum Archives in Warsaw, and private collections. Other unusual sources include jokes, which shed light on aspects of life experienced during that time. Most of the jokes are drawn from published memoirs. All this material is evaluated against the background of contemporary interpretations of historical events \u2014 mostly Ukrainian, Polish, and Russian.<\/p>\n

Three quotes relating to the pre-war period will help in understanding the most common image of the relations that existed in 1939 and the years following among the three major groups of Lviv residents. I deliberately focus on those well-known memoirs and fiction, which describe the multicultural atmosphere of tolerance in pre-war Lviv. [3]<\/a><\/sup> The authors of these works are people of extraordinary authority, who were almost compatriots: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Metropolitan Lubomyr Husar (born in 1933); the legendary Polish opposition figure, Jacek Kuro\u0144 (1934\u20132004); and Leopold Unger (1922\u20132011), a journalist who emigrated after the anti-Semitic campaign in Poland in 1968 and later imbibed the spirit of and wrote for the Parisian Polish monthly Kultura<\/em>. The following are noteworthy quotes by these three personalities:<\/p>\n

Up until 1939, ethnic relations were difficult, influenced by the memory of the Ukrainian-Polish war [1918\u201319]. In the 1930s, all official contacts were frozen. Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky sought understanding, but the policy-makers of the Polish state made it impossible.\" (Metropolitan Lubomyr Husar's assessment of inter-ethnic relations in Lviv)<\/p>\n

The Polish-Ukrainian conflict was alive in pre-war Lviv. The war only strengthened it. I believe that what we lacked then \u2014 and what we lack today \u2014 is the understanding that Ukrainians and Poles lived, live and will continue to live in these lands that are their common homeland. This reality seems to me most important if one wants to gain understanding of our mutual roots and our enmity.\" (Jacek Kuro\u0144, in his book Faith and Guilt<\/em>)<\/p>\n

I am a Jew, a Jew from Lviv, the city of three nations \u2014 Poles, Ukrainians and Jews (not counting Armenians, Karaites, Tatars and others); [the city] of three strivings, three philosophies, languages, and an endless number of conflicts. The city, due to these very confrontations and encounters of different cultures, became a fertile ground for the coming together of a variety of worldviews and opinions, which made Lviv a city of great achievements in culture and civilization.\" (Leopold Unger, \"My<\/a> Berlin Kaddish\"<\/a> in Gazeta Wyborcza<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

A Jewish refugee's testimony, recorded on 20 November 1941, speaks darkly about the ethnic relations in the early period of the Second World War: \"Ethnic relations in Ukraine can be described briefly as hot mutual hatred. Ukrainians hated Poles and Jews, Poles hated Ukrainians and Jews, who paid them back with the same feeling\u2026.How did each of these nations treat the Bolsheviks? In this, they were united: pretty much negative.\" (Emanuel Ringelblum)<\/p>\n

Yaroslav Hrytsak paints a similar picture in his essay \"Lviv Passions\" [4]<\/a><\/sup> but suggests a radical difference. He insists that the Poles and Ukrainians were united in their common conviction that it was the Jews who had collaborated most closely with the Bolshevik regime. In his research, Hrytsak cites reports from Lviv to the government-in-exile in London, in which such convictions are clearly reflected. [5]<\/a><\/sup> The historian emphasizes that the spread of this conviction played a negative role during the German occupation of Lviv, when the Nazis destroyed the Jewish community. The real treatment of the Jews \u2014 first of all, of Jewish refugees \u2014 can be gauged from the following statement circulating among NKVD figures and Soviet party officials: \"Under the camouflage of moving the Jews and people of other nationalities, Germans are sending in their own agents to spy and cause diversions.\" [6]<\/a><\/sup> According to Jan Tomasz Gross, Jewish people suffered the same Sovietisation as all other ethnic groups. [7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The picture gets more and more complicated the closer one looks at it or if one observes it from different points of view. Only then, despite certain stereotypes typical of every statement, the picture becomes ambiguous, as is seen in the above-mentioned citation. This article shows how the perspectives and understanding of the realities of the war differed, depending on the cultural identity of the source (as indicated by the authors of the memoirs or testimonies), and how these ethnic groups perceived or represented, and stereotyped, \"the Other\".<\/p>\n

In analyzing the image of the \"Other\", one should also consider the circumstances under which a particular statement was made or a text was written. In particular, to whom was the statement directed for whom was the text written? For example, when evaluating a text designed for publication in the official Soviet press, one cannot dismiss the propaganda purposes that its author and editorial board pursued. A totally different motivation and sentiment would shape particular types of testimony, such as a denunciation or an interrogation protocol preserved in the NKVD archives.<\/p>\n

Also of essential significance is the group with which the author was identifying at the time of making the statement or writing the text. For instance, Ukrainian \u00e9migr\u00e9 authors tended to get caught up in a nationalistic discourse in which the role of the Poles was generally described in a very negative light. [8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

In turn, the image of \"the Other\" as presented in the Polish memoirs should also be considered with due regard to the circumstances in which they were written. A sanitized image surfaces, for instance, in the works of Stanislaw Wasylewski [9]<\/a><\/sup> or even in Stanislaw Lem's Wysoki zamek <\/em>(High Castle), published in Poland under censorship and a ban on discussing the so-called \"Kresy\" (the Polish name for eastern regions that is highly contested in contemporary Ukraine). The image that Wanda Wasilewska presents in her memoirs of 1939\u201344 absolutely supports the official Soviet propaganda line. [10]<\/a><\/sup> From an opposite perspective, authors who took part in the so-called \"Kresy organizations have tended to see a betrayal of the Polish state's interests in the actions of representatives of ethnic minorities, especially Ukrainians and Jews, and to stress the crimes of the Ukrainian nationalists.<\/p>\n

There is another example of filtering an image. When reading testimonies of the Jews who were deported or arrested by the Soviets, and who in 1942 tried to reach the Anders Army and thus leave the territory of the USSR, we see their extremely negative attitude to everything Soviet and a very positive attitude to everything Polish. [The\"Anders Army,\" commanded by General W\u0142adys\u0142aw Anders, refers to Polish armed forces, consisting largely of prisoners of war released from Soviet camps, who were evacuated via Iran and eventually fought under British command in Italy.] This is seen in the questionnaires preserved in the Sikorski Institute and in the Hoover Institution and published in 2009 by Krzysztof Jasiewicz.<\/em> [11]<\/a><\/sup> Their statements were filtered through their situation of urgent and extreme need and a dependence on the Polish military authorities. A different image emerges from the testimonies of those Jewish refugees who managed to cross the border and then found themselves under the German occupation (this is mostly taken from the memoirs in the Ringelblum Archives). Their relations with the Poles in those times were painted in dark colours, while their attitude to Soviet power was quite good \u2014 from reserved acceptance of it as a given, to enthusiasm for the opportunities that it afforded, especially opportunities for study and work, which finally, after many years, became available to Jewish youth.<\/p>\n

Let us now look at the quotes that have been assembled to help us reconstruct a fuller picture of the spectrum of identities and mutual images (and negative interactions). I deliberately restrict these identities to represent only the intellectuals and the clergy, being well aware that among representatives of other social strata this image would have been somewhat different.<\/p>\n

From among representatives of Soviet officials, I will look at the impressions of a journalist or a writer. Intellectuals who were under strong Soviet control show a different attitude to the intrusion of the Soviet Army. Consequently, their image of \"the Other\" is also different. The obstacles created by the Soviet presence made the local intellectuals and clergy perceive that power in a negative light. The attitude of Ukrainians, Jews of Polish culture, and Poles to one another was not much better. Jews and Ukrainians were united in accusing the Poles of superior and haughty attitudes in their treatment of others, while the Poles accused the Jews and Ukrainians of disloyalty to the Polish state and ingratiating themselves with the new power.<\/p>\n

I have limited the choice of quotes to the sources' attitudes towards the war, the arrival of the Red Army, and the image of a Red Army soldier.<\/p>\n

In the imagination of Polish and Ukrainian societies, the arrival of the Red Army and the establishment of Soviet power was perceived in stereotypes. Soviet propaganda proclaimed a liberation from oppression and used the metaphor of the \"Golden September\" in its description. To the Poles, these events were a shameful cooperation between two powerful states, a fourth division of Poland. These versions are the most common, and confrontations between Polish and Russian historiographies still exist today. Modern Ukrainian historiography has rejected the metaphor of the \"Golden September\" recently. [12]<\/a><\/sup> Meanwhile, the conviction still exists that the local population of the lands captured by the Red Army \u2014 in particular, the Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Jews \u2014 happily greeted its arrival. Polish historiography often emphasizes that ethnic minorities behaved disloyally to the Polish state during these events.<\/p>\n

Today, Ukrainian historians in Lviv interpret the arrival of Soviet power in Lviv as the establishment of an occupation regime. They stress its criminal nature and close collaboration with the Nazis. [13]<\/a><\/sup> The truth cannot be hidden, however, as traces of propaganda from the past remain in the public discourse. An example relates to Valentyn Nalyvaichenko's blunder during the ceremony of the opening of the Lontsky Prison Museum in Lviv. [14]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The following are typical statements of two Polish researchers regarding the events of 1939\u20131941. According to a Polish underground officer: \"Relations between the Poles and Ukrainians became even tenser than in September 1939. Their enmity was kindled by news flooding Lviv about anti-Polish demonstrations in various provinces and unconcealed satisfaction that Ukrainians showed with the breakdown of Poland. The behavior of Ukrainians showed signs of revenge for the grief they had allegedly suffered from Poland.\" [15]<\/a><\/sup> Grzegorz Hryciuk, who cited this source in his book, <\/em>manifests a certain distance, mentioning that mutual enmity was born by news coming to Lviv.<\/p>\n

Such a detached view is certainly missing in Krzysztof Jasiewicz's work. He writes: \"It seems that the greatest shock to the Poles who lived in the Kresy, even greater than the unexpected appearance there of the Red Army, was the behaviour of the local Belarusians, Ukrainians and Jews, who enthusiastically greeted the occupiers and sometimes showed radical enmity to the Polish state and to the Poles. Jews often played the key role of spiritus movens, <\/em>leaders, or a new 'elite' in these events.\" The researcher provides numerous testimonies of Poles, in particular: \"The local population treated the rest of the population, namely the Poles, with arrogance. They constantly launched mass raids and searches\u2026it was mostly a criminal element.\" Jasiewicz devotes the rest of his book to Jewish testimonies, showing not even a trace of the alleged enthusiasm attributed to them. It is clearly important to take into consideration that these testimonies were answers to the Polish military's questionnaire, and that for their authors, getting to the Anders Army meant an opportunity to save their lives.<\/p>\n

Let us consider another testimony \u2014 that of Yevhen Nakonechny, whose attitude to a Polish officer is filled with compassion. This is true both about the author and about his heroine, a Jewish girl who helped save the life of a Polish officer. [16]<\/a><\/sup> There are certainly various testimonies to prove or to disprove the idea of alleged massive support of ethnic minorities or examples of an extremely loyal attitude to the Polish state from leaders of ethnic communities. (We can cite the address by Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, the speech of the Polish Sejm (Parliament) Vice Speaker, Vasyl Mudry, and the resolution of the Jewish community of Lviv published in the Polish-language Jewish newspaper Chwila <\/em>(Wave).<\/p>\n

It is important, however, to look at the elements in these stories that reflect the means used to create the image of the Jews as loyal to Soviet power. Jasiewicz provides specific details regarding the mechanism that led to the awakening of inter-ethnic enmity through propaganda.\"The main argument of this propaganda was the equality that the Jews would enjoy in the Soviet Union in contrast to the alleged persecution they had experienced in Poland. Whole articles were written to describe the cruelties, tortures, sufferings and persecution that Jewish people had experienced in Poland. Detailed descriptions were given of slaughters and pogroms against Jews, organized mostly by Polish officers, generals and the Polish military command. They also wrote about how Jewish people were kicked out of moving trains, how drunk officers entertained themselves by shooting Jews in the streets, and so on. These stories were told to a correspondent of a Soviet newspaper, following which this person thanked them for liberation with tears in his eyes, expressing joy for the opportunity to live under the Soviet regime.\"<\/p>\n

This testimony must be compared with other materials and documents. Let us begin with the leaflets signed by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, which were dispersed from planes during the invasion of the Red Army, and which called on the workers and peasants of western Ukraine \"to take any weapon they had, their scythes, pitchforks and axes to fight against their old enemies \u2014 the Polish lords\". Another example is Lev Mekhlis's order to free soldiers of Ukrainian and Belarusian background from internment. Frequent shootings and reprisals were normal military practice and it left a lasting impression. [17]<\/a><\/sup> These first official orders go hand in hand with no less official publications of the central Soviet press describing, in particular, the life of Ukrainians in Poland. Here are some headlines: \"The Way They Lived\" and \"Ukrainian Population Doomed to Cultural Savagery.\" The purpose was to cause enmity and thus push people to actions that Marshal Timoshenko expected. Articles were written to describe the \"joyful meeting of the Red Army as liberators,\" and to be more convincing, examples were given of how cruel \"Poles burned Ukrainian villages, robbed their property, and killed their women and children as they retreated.\" [18]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Later, the central press was joined by the new local Soviet press: the Polish-language Czerwony Sztandar <\/em>(Red Standard), the Ukrainian-language Vilna Ukraina <\/em>(Free Ukraine), <\/em>and Yiddish papers such as Der Royter Stern <\/em>(Red Star). Their main goal was to present a negative depiction of Polish rule and the \"old regime\" and a positive depiction of the new power that was supposed to be adored by all except its enemies. While there has been research devoted to the Polish press under Soviet power in 1939\u201341, there is no in-depth research of the Soviet Ukrainian or Jewish press of that period. [19]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Let me add two more notes on the methods employed in the massive propaganda. In his diary, Stanislaw Czuruk makes an entry on 19 August 1940, practically recording preparations for the celebration of the first anniversary of \"liberation\": \"An anti-Polish film (most probably Dovzhenko's Liberation<\/em>) [20]<\/a><\/sup> is being shot in our street. It leaves a terrible, depressing feeling.\" In his Travels Through Illusions<\/em>, Kurt Lewin wrote, \"We were starved \u2014 and we were fed \u2014 up to our nose\u2026with propaganda! (\u2026) Like mushrooms after rain, different monuments appeared, some not without taste, made of alabaster, plywood and cloth. Add to this rallies during which tireless propagandists lectured us on what happy citizens of the Soviet country we are. Everything was propaganda \u2014 cinema, papers, books, theater. There was no escape from it.\"<\/p>\n

Other criticisms of Soviet propaganda are to be found in the special services archives. For example, contrary to the official propaganda, Maksym Rylsky, one of the best known Soviet Ukrainian poets \u2014 who on the one hand was officially recognized (as a winner of the Stalin Prize) but on the other hand constantly under the watchful eye of the special services \u2014 could not understand Stalin's policy. Here is what he said: \"I still fail to see weighty reasons that caused us to rush into Poland. This contradicts the humanity and justice that we always shout about so much. Every day I write poems to praise the valour of the Soviet troops and the wisdom of our policy-makers, but I sense no enthusiasm in my heart. We attacked the weak, and it is very difficult for an honest poet to justify such an act.\" [21]<\/a><\/sup> Mykhailo Drahomanov's son, Svitozar, was even more vehement in his reaction. He insisted that the Soviet intrusion into Poland was akin to its fourth partition. [22]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Mykola Khvylovy's acquaintance, Arkadii Liubchenko, escaped destruction during the Great Terror by a sheer miracle. Even though several years later there were far fewer sympathizers during the German occupation of Lviv, in 1939, after the invasion of the Red Army and the victorious cries of the authors of propaganda articles, he said: \"I'm really sorry for Poland. There existed a certain state, a certain people, and suddenly everything is ruined, almost as if by bandits. I do not like the fact that the USSR attacked such a weak country.\" [23]<\/a><\/sup> Despite his critical attitude to the occupation of the Polish territory, Liubchenko seems to partly believe the propaganda depicting Poland as a weak country that collapsed under the blow. However, he does imply that this blow is like a stab in the back.<\/p>\n

The Image of a Soviet Soldier<\/span>
\n<\/strong>The Soviet soldier is portrayed in the propaganda as a fearless and unselfish implementer of the people's revenge, who shook the hand of a Ukrainian peasant wearing a patched up robe. According to the order of the Soviet military command, the Red Army was to enter cities and towns joyfully, with the accompaniment of a harmonica and singing Ukrainian marches. Thus it is pictured in the Liberation <\/em>movie. In contrast, here are some testimonies of Lviv residents:<\/p>\n

Polish perspective: \"Soviet soldiers were thin, small, sad, looking needy, almost black with hunger, wearing poorly looking uniforms and poorly armed.\" [24]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Jewish perspective: \"The Red Army entered Lviv. My father and I stood in the street, looking at the entry of the Soviet soldiers. Among them were representatives of all nationalities that lived in the Soviet Union: Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Tajiks, Bashkirs, Ukrainians\u2026Father said we were captured by Asians. [25]<\/a><\/p>\n

Ukrainian perspective: \"The 'valiant' Red Army entered Lviv from Lychakiv. We timidly looked through the windows onto Horodetsky Street\u2026The soldiers held rifles ready to shoot, directed at stone buildings\u2026. Small tanks and cars moved. Some cars had Red Army soldiers and next to them \u2014 local teenagers, boasting red cockade hats.\" [26]<\/a><\/p>\n

These examples show how far from the propaganda ideal was the image of the Red Army soldier. The above testimonies go hand in hand with the widely spread rumours about how the Soviet soldiers were stupid and greedy for other people's possessions. In other words, they look more like grotesque farcical characters than soldiers of a victorious army. This is a way of getting back at those who have come out as the stronger power.<\/p>\n

After regarding the descriptions of Red Army soldiers and the invasion of the Red Army in general, one cannot help but recognize that the old principle of \"divide and rule\" was perfected to the highest degree by the Soviet propaganda machine \u2014 to the point that it captured public opinion and has shaped the perspectives of many researchers even today.<\/p>\n

As for some general observations and conclusions, the material we presented shows that the more dramatic the experience that the source\/author had, the stronger was the tendency to describe their individual experience as dominating the particular ethnic group's narrative of heroes and martyrs. In such a narrative, the author's individual suffering acquires foremost prominence, while \"the Other\" is accused of causing all the sorrows \u2014 and who is designated \"the Other\" certainly depends on the identity of the author.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Authors: Oleh Pavlyshyn and Mariusz Zaj\u0105czkowski. Authors of the idea and consultants \u2014 Yaroslav Hrytsak, Rafa\u0142 Wnuk, and Ola Hnatiuk.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Grzegorz Hryciuk, Polacy we Lwowie 1939\u20131944. \u017bycie codzienne <\/em>(Warsaw: Ksi\u0105\u017cka i Wiedza, 2000). In particular the fourth chapter of the book: \"Postawy i nastroje ludno\u015bci polskiej w latach 1939\u20131941\" [Attitudes and moods of the Polish population in the years 1939\u20131944].<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Much has been written, particularly in memoirs and literature, about interwar Lviv. The recent work by George Grabowicz, Katarzyna Koty\u0144ska, Christof Mick, and Yuri Prokhasko is especially important.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> During the first Soviet occupation (1939\u20131941) Ukrainians and Poles mutually suspected and accused each other of working with the Bolsheviks in order to destroy their \"national enemy.\" They both agreed however that Jews were the most guilty of collaboration with the Soviets. The mood in the Jewish community was expressed in a \"Jewish prayer\" from the early months of 1941: 1) That those people [the Soviets] would leave, 2) That he [Hitler] would not come, 3) That we could remain here, 4) That those people [the Poles] would not return!<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> In addition to dubious pre-war arguments justifying an aversion to the Jews, there were new accusations of disloyalty and even treason to the Polish state by the Jews due to their collaboration with the occupier and activities detrimental to Poles. Hostility to the occupiers was expressed through antisemitism. Some materials of that period recorded the sad paradox that hatred of the Jews was practically \"the only bridge of understanding between Poles and Ukrainians.\" \"It is very great, even greater than that which both sides feel toward to the Bolsheviks, and only waiting for the moment to find an outlet...Through their actions they [the Jews] sign up as oppressors of the Polish nation in the Soviet annexation and in the future they will receive a reward, if not from the Poles, then from the Ukrainians.\" One of the reports sent to the Polish government-in-exile attempts to characterize Polish public opinion on the conduct of the Jewish population in 1939\u20131941. The report reveals perceptions of phenomena occurring during the Soviet occupation which are simplistic, superficial, and charged with negative stereotypes: \"All these persecutions, which in the countryside were inspired by the Ukrainians, were led by Jews in the cities. I must admit that while the Ukrainians acted quite openly, the Jews worked efficiently and quietly, delivering all the actions into the hands of the NKVD. Although the Ukrainians delivered very heavy blows, they were accepted as something more natural and expected, and moreover the Ukrainians announced them\u2026The Jews came unexpectedly, as a token of gratitude for that position occupied in the life of the Polish state and for defending and supporting them.\" Report from Lw\u00f3w to the Polish \u00e9migr\u00e9 government, Archiwum Zak\u0142adu Historii Ruchu Ludowego<\/em>, Materia\u0142y Stanis\u0142awa Kota, sygn. 97, k. 76\u201377. Cited in Hryciuk, \u017bycie codzienne Lwowa<\/em>. Hryciuk presented this opinion as typical prejudice.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Vladyslav Hrynevych, Suspilno-politychni nastroi naselennia Ukrainy u druhoi svitovoi viiny <\/em>(Kyiv, 2008), 22.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Jan T. Gross, Revolution from Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia <\/em>(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988). See also a recently published volume of documents that to a large extent explains the intricacies. Maciej Siekierski and Feliks Tych edited the collection Widzia\u0142em Anio\u0142a \u015amierci. Losy deportowanych \u017byd\u00f3w polskich w ZSRR w latach II wojny \u015bwiatowej. \u015awiadectwa zebrane przez Ministerstwo Informacji i Dokumentacji Rz\u0105du Polskiego na Uchod\u017astwie w latach 1942\u20131943 <\/em>(Warsaw: Rosner & Partners, the Jewish Historical Institute, 2006 and Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University, 2006). It comprises a total of 170 accounts from 169 authors. These are the so-called \"Palestinian Protocols.\" They show that the Jewish population in the eastern borderlands of the Second Polish Republic was subject to repression by similar rules as the Christian population. The Communists focused on traditional elites, mainly the leadership of political and social organizations. Right-wingers naturally went into the fire first, especially anti-Communist Zionist-Revisionists of the New Zionist Organization (NSO) and its youth organization Betar. Religious leaders experienced persecution. For example, the chief rabbi of Warsaw, Professor Moses Schorr (1874\u20131941), was arrested. \"Despite his venerable age he was tormented by unceasing interrogations and beaten.\" (p. 101).<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> The rarest accounts, which today seem paradoxical, are those by Ukrainian residents of Lviv. Sources include: Larysa Krushelnytska, Rubaly lis <\/em>(Lviv, 2001); Yevhen Nakonechny, Shoa u Lvovi <\/em>(Lviv: Piramida, 2006); Roman Volchuk, Spomyny z peredvoiennoho Lvova ta voiennoho Vidnia <\/em>(Kyiv, 2002); Myroslav Semchyshyn, Z knyhy Leva. Ukrainskii Lviv dvadtsiatykh-sorokovykh rokiv: Spomyny <\/em>ed. Oleh Romaniv (Lviv, 1998); and Ostap Tarnawsky, Literaturnyi Lviv 1939\u20131944<\/em>. The memoirs of Yurii Shevelov and Arkadii Liubchenko also cover in part German-occupied Lviv.The published fragments of the memoirs of Petro Panch also elicit interest. We do not learn anything from the memoirs of Ivan Kedryn-Rudnytsky or from those of his sister Milena Rudnytska. This is especially striking as their mother was Jewish (both siblings lost their father at an early age) and remained in German-occupied Lviv for some time when Milena and Ivan were in Krakow in the General Gouvernement.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Stanis\u0142aw Wasylewski, Pod kopu\u0142\u0105 lwowskiego Ossolineum <\/em>(Wroc\u0142aw: Zak\u0142ad Narodowy im. Ossoli\u0144skich, 1958), Czterdzie\u015bci lat powodzenia <\/em>(Wroc\u0142aw: Zak\u0142ad Narodowy im. Ossoli\u0144skich, 1959).<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> \"Wspomnienia Wandy Wasilewskiej\" w: Archiwum Ruchu Robotniczego<\/em>, t. 7. (Warsaw, 1982).<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Rzeczywisto\u015b\u0107 sowiecka 1939\u20131941 w \u015bwiadectwach polskich \u017byd\u00f3w <\/em>(Warszawa: Rytm, 2009), 195.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> Vladyslav Hrynevych, \"Katynskyi rozstril ta ioho peredvistia: chy vzhe nastav chas 'perehornuty' tsi storinky istorii?\" Dzerkalo tyzhnia<\/em>, no. 15, 2010, specifically: \"During the Soviet era myths were created about how the Soviet-Polish war in 1939 was a bloodless 'campaign of liberation,' an idyllic 'Golden September.' In reality however the Soviet invasion turned into a bloody nightmare for certain social and ethnic segments of the population of Western Ukraine (Eastern Poland).\"<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> See for example the conference \"September 1939: Lviv and the Lviv Region Between Hitler's and Stalin's Totalitarianisms,\" organized in September 2009 with the participation of academics and historians from Ukraine and Poland.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Security Service of Ukraine head Valentyn Nalyvaichenko during the opening ceremony of the \"Prison on Lontskoho\" on 28 June 2009 stated: \"Government power changed successively on Ukrainian land. They were all united by their desire to remove anything Ukrainian and to dissolve the national identity of our people. No matter whether the 'Lontskoho' was controlled by the Polish police, or the German Gestapo, or the Soviet NKVD-KGB, its leading prisoners remained fighters for independence and members of the liberation movement.\" See http:\/\/www.cdvr.org.ua.<\/a><\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Cited in Hryciuk from the archival material of Stanis\u0142aw Kot.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Nakonechny, op.cit.,<\/em>18\u201319.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> See for example V. Hrynevych in Dzerkalo tyzhnia<\/em>, no. 15, 2010. Prior to the Soviet invasion of Poland, anti-Polish sentiments were stoked at meetings in the Soviet army. They were masked under slogans proclaiming \"class struggle\" and the \"liberation of brother-Ukrainians and Belarusians.\" Therefore it is not surprising that commanders, commissars, and regular Red Army troops at the start of military operations began to take on the role of \"avengers for the suffering people\" and \"the punitive sword of justice.\" The consequences included the illegal executions of Poles throughout the September war in 1939.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> P. Dibrova, \"Naselennia radisno zystrichaie chervonoarmiitsiv yak vyzvolyteliv\" Pravda<\/em>, 20 September 1939. Cited in Mykola Lytvyn and Kym Naumenko, Lviv: mizh Hitlerom i Stalinom <\/em>(Lviv: Piramida, 2005), 55.<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> Agnieszka Cie\u015blikowa, Prasa okupowanego Lwowa <\/em>(Warsaw: Neriton, 1997).<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> Dovzhenko's film long remained the standard treatment of the \"liberation campaign\" and is sometimes treated as a documentary. In reality the film was shot a year later with the participation of more or less convincing extras.<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> Arkhiv SBU, <\/em>f. 16, \u043ep. 32, spr. 54. Many thanks to Vladyslav Hrynevych for his help in searching for sources that reflect other than official attitudes to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and its consequences.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> Ibid., p. 53. Cited in: Vladyslav Hrynevych, Suspilno-politychni nastroi naselennia Ukrainy v roky druhoi svitovoi viiny (1939\u20131945) <\/em>(Kyiv: National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Institute of Political and Ethno-National Studies, 2007), 106.<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> Hrynevych, 127.<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> Hryciuk: \"\u017co\u0142nierze sowieccy byli niedo\u017cywieni, drobni, marni, smutni, wyn\u0119dzniali, sczerniali - zda si\u0119 - z g\u0142odu, wychudzeni, odziani w liche mundury, uzbrojeni w lich\u0105 bro\u0144.\"<\/p>\n

[25]<\/a> Memoirs of Father Havryil Kostelnyk from 22 September 1939.<\/p>\n

[26]<\/a> This thesis fits the theory of Clifford Geertz (Clifford Geertz, \"Ideology as a Cultural System,\" 1964, cited in Burszta W., Przegl\u0105d Polityczny<\/em>, 2010), 55. Geertz explains social conflicts through the concepts of psycho-sociology. In his view emotional stress is discharged through a projection of problems onto a symbolic enemy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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