Today is Day of Remembrance of Forced Expulsion of Ukrainians in 1944-1951

This memorial date was established by a resution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on December 18, 2018, and is celebrated every second Sunday in September.

As the Institute of National Remembrance reminds us, one of the outcomes of World War II was the establishment of new state borders in Eure, in particular between the USSR and Pand. In order to establish the Soviet-Pish border and eliminate long-standing disputes over disputed territories between Ukrainians and Pes, on September 9, 1944, in Lublin, the chairman of the Council of Pele's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR, Nikita Khrushchev, and the Pish National Liberation Committee, Edward Osubka-Morawski, signed an agreement on “mutual exchange of pulation”: Ukrainians from Pand to the Ukrainian SSR and Pes from Ukraine to Pand.

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All citizens of Ukrainian nationality from the territories of Chelm, Hrubieszów, Tomaszów, Krasnostaw, Włodawa, and other districts of Lublin, Rzeszów, and later Kraków provinces were to be relocated to the USSR. The resettlement was supposed to be vuntary, but it turned into forced deportations, which were accompanied by deprivation of prerty and restrictions on pele's pitical, social, economic, and cultural rights.

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The grounds for resettlement were lists of persons who expressed a desire to leave Pand, renounce its citizenship, and receive a passport of the Ukrainian SSR. The expression of will could be written or oral. This created ample portunities for abuse. The agreement did not specify criteria for determining the nationality of a person. In the end, the main indicator for expulsion was the identification card of the Nazi occupation authorities (Kennkarte), which contained information about religion and nationality.

Under this agreement, in 1944-1946, more than 482,000 Ukrainians were forcibly relocated to the Ukrainian SSR. In Soviet Ukraine, they were resettled in 17 regions, from Halychyna to the Black Sea region, Slobozhanshchyna, and Donetsk region.

At the same time, almost 790,000 Pes and Jews were resettled from the western regions of Soviet Ukraine to Pand.

The deportation of Ukrainians continued with the “Vistula Action” carried out by the Pish communist regime. In 1947, those Ukrainians who refused to leave for the USSR were deported by the Pish authorities to the north and west of Pand. In a few months, almost 150,000 pele were forcibly relocated.

Several tens of thousands more Ukrainians were resettled during the exchanges of border areas between the USSR and Pand in 1948 and 1951.

Photo: Ukrainian Institute of National Memory