Between the Great Famine and the Great Terror

The Deportations of People from the Border Districts of the Soviet Ukraine in 1935

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/STW.2021.05.01

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.

Author Biography

Prof. Henryk Stroiński, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn

A professor of humanities, historian and lecturer at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. Born to a Polish family in the village of Panasówka near Ternopil. A graduate of the Faculty of History at the University of Lviv (1977). He has been both a teach­er and a director of a high school. His doctoral studies were made at the Chair of the History of Southern and Western Slavs at the University of Lviv. He defended his doctoral thesis at the Uzhhorod National University. He defended his post-doctoral thesis at the University of Warsaw and has been a professor since 2011. He was an associate professor and professor at higher education facilities in Ternopil and Kremenets´ in Ukraine, and since 2001 has been a professor at and director of the Institute for International Rela­tions at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn and the head of the scientific council at the Center for Eastern European Research. For many years the president of the Polish Cultural and Educational Society of Ternopil Oblast, founder and president of the Association of Polish Scholars of Ukraine. Initiator and organizer of international academic conferences. He is the author of numerous publications on the fate of Poles in Ukraine and Polish-Ukrainian relations in the 20th century. He published about 200 works on the fate of Poles under Soviet totalitarianism.

Selected publications
Deportacje polskiej ludności z Ukrainy do Kazachstanu w 1936 r. Przyczyny, prze­bieg, skutki, in: Polacy w Kazachstanie, eds. S. Ciesielski, A. Kuczyński (1996); Represje stalinizmu wobec ludności polskiej na Ukrainie w latach 1929–1939 (1998); Wielka prowokacja NKWD. Sprawa Polskiej Organizacji Wojskowej na Ukrainie w latach 1933–1938, in: Europa nieprowincjonalna. Przemiany na zie­miach wschodnich dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (Białoruś, Litwa, Łotwa, Ukraina, wschodnie pogranicze III Rzeczypospolitej) w latach 1772–1999, ed. K. Jasiewicz (1999); Pamiętnik kijowski, vol. 6–9 (editor) (2002–2008); Polacy na Południo­wej Ukrainie XVII–XX wiek (2007); Ucieczki, deportacje i repatriacje Polaków z Ukrainy w XX wieku: etapy, rozmach, specyfika, skutki, “Przegląd Polonijny” no. 4 (2007); Polska dyplomacja na Wschodzie w XX – początkach XXI wieku (2010); Zbrodnia doskonała, czyli ludobójstwo Polaków w ZSRR, “Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski” vol. 8 (2017); Marchlewszczyzna. Rzecz o polskim rejonie narodowościowym na Ukrainie w latach 1925–1935, “Echa Przeszłości” no. 18 (2017); The Holodomor. Poland. Polish Victims 1932–1933, eds. M. Dwor­czyk, R. Kuśnierz (co-author) (2020); Zostali na Wschodzie. Słownik inteligen­cji polskiej w ZSRS 1945–1991, vol. 1, ed. A. Hlebowicz (co-author) (2021).

Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies

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Published

2025-09-23

How to Cite

1.
STROIŃSKI, Henryk. Between the Great Famine and the Great Terror: The Deportations of People from the Border Districts of the Soviet Ukraine in 1935. Totalitarian and 20th Century Studies. Online. 23 September 2025. Vol. 5, pp. 12-23 (PL), 258-269 (ENG). [Accessed 9 March 2026]. DOI 10.12775/STW.2021.05.01.

Issue

Vol. 5 (2021)

Section

Artykuły

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