The Ethnic Displacements of Ukrainians and Ruthenians in Eastern Europe after the End of the Second World War and Their Influence on the UPA and OUN Movements

15 June 2019


Authors
Tomáš Řepa
Abstract

After the Second World War, the ethnic situation in Eastern Europe was far from clear. Europe was exhausted, with the war just ended, and individual states had gained new boundaries, defined by the outcome of the war. The deployment of national minorities in Eastern Europe, however, caused further strife and bloodshed. In particular, Ukrainian nationalists from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) had no intention of accepting the new borders and fought Poland and the Soviet Union for the creation of an independent Ukraine and their own state. Allied powers (especially the Soviet Union) and new Polish state found radical solutions to the ongoing conflicts and ethnic violence by the expeditious removal of ethnic minority Ukrainians, Poles and Ruthenians either to different parts of a country or out of a country completely. The relocation of hundreds of thousands of people affected large areas. This contribution focuses on the causes and course of such relocation and its impact on Ukrainian nationalist movements. The relocation of minority groups in Eastern Europe has irreversibly changed the ethnicity of many states. For present-day Ukraine, this meant occupying territories that had always been ethnically Polish. These issues were later reflected also in Czechoslovak post-war relations.

Keywords
Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Stepan Bandera, removals, minorities, Czechoslovakia.
References
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  2. Ibid.
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  13. As a revenge for assassination, ten leaders of the OUN were arrested.
  14. Stepan Bandera (1 January 1909 – 15 October 1959) was the most prominent leader of the OUN. The detachment of this organization has been named after Bandera since 1939, and under the name the Bandera group (‘banderovci’) came into history by an armed struggle for an independent Ukraine. During his life, Stepan Bandera was imprisoned by several regimes for his attitudes and nationalist activities, and his life only illustrates the tragic destiny of Ukraine in the twentieth century. After the end of the Second World War, he moved to exile in Munich, Bavaria, to continue his past activities. The Soviet Union remained so dangerous that it was decided to liquidate him. It was done by KGB agent Bohdan Stashinsky using cyanide, which was injected into Bandera’s face. For many contemporary nationalists in Ukraine, Stepan Bandera’s legacy is still alive and is reflected in the political situation in the country. Řepa, Banderovci, celkové, 13.
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  32. Roman Šuchevyč (30 July 1907 – 5 March 1950) alias ‘Taras Čuprynka’ was a member of OUN since 1930. His most important function was the position of the UPA commander from 1942 until his death in the shootout with NKVD agents in 1950. Given the poor outlook in the encirclement, he shot himself rather than be captured alive. Bandera’s troops fought against that mighty power for a very long time, thanks to the personality of their commander and their perfectly sophisticated guerrilla combat techniques. After the liquidation of Šuchevyč, the organized resistance Bandera group definitively disappeared. Řepa, Banderovci, celkové, 110.
  33. For example WIN (Wolność i Niepodleglość), NSZ (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne) or AK (Armia Krajowa).
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  40. Fiala, Zpráva, 36.
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  43. For an overview of legal assumptions of population transfers based on international agreements, see Jan Kuklík, Mýty a realita tzv. “Benešových dekretů”: dekrety prezidenta republiky 19401945 [Myths and Reality of the So-Called ‘Beneš Decrees’: Decrees of the President of the Republic 19401945] (Prague: Linde, 2002), 121–133.
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  55. Karol Świerczewski (22 February 1897 28 March 1947) was the Polish general, politician and post-war Deputy Minister of Defence. He participated in the Civil War in Russia, and since 1918 he has been a member of the Bolshevik Party. He participated in post-war repression of non-communists, especially against Armija Krajowa (AK). From February 1946, he served as Second Deputy Minister of National Defence. In March 1947, in Bieszczady, he was most probably by Bandera unit killed in a shootout. Řepa, Banderovci, celkové, 121–122.
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