POPULATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN THE USSR AND POLAND: ITS PURPOSE AND CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

The agreement between the government of the Ukrainian SSR and the Polish National Liberation Committee on the resettlement of Ukrainians from Poland to Ukraine and Poles from Ukraine to Poland, signed on September 9, 1944, was supposed to solve the long-standing problem of relations between the two peoples and create the preconditions for their reconciliation. However, neither the PNLC nor the government under Soviet Ukraine could play any important role in the exchange of population, as the resettlement agreement was called for convenience, even though it was the fate of their peoples. Even at the time of the agreement's signing, this was well understood by those who pushed for its conclusion and for what reason. The authorities of the USSR, the same Russia, only under the guise of a federation of independent states, having increased its territory during World War II, not only tried to keep it, but also to spread its influence further west, subjugating neighboring states directly. At the expense of the transported half a million Ukrainians, the USSR authorities were tried to replenish the number of their own citizens, which had been reduced during the war. The Poles resettled in the opposite direction were supposed to be used as a political arm of the future restructuring of Poland on the model of the USSR. Its collapse opened up the possibility of Ukraine's independence from Russia. However, the latter, despite its recognition of an independent Ukraine within the then recognized borders, after much preparation, began to reestablish its dominance over Ukraine and force Ukrainians to abandon their national identity. The immigrants from Poland and their descendants had to endure all the hardships of fitting into Soviet society, make a significant contribution to the development of independent Ukraine, and now defend its independence with the help of friendly countries, including Poland.