The Prelude: Soviet Expansion into Western Ukraine

The story of Ukraine during Stalin’s era is inextricably linked to the broader geopolitical upheavals of World War II. Before the war, Ukraine was a divided land, with its western regions under Polish, Romanian, and Czechoslovak rule. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, a secret agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, set the stage for Soviet expansion. On September 17, 1939, the Red Army invaded eastern Poland, annexing territories that included what is now western Ukraine and Belarus.

Soviet authorities swiftly consolidated control, portraying the invasion as a “reunification” of Ukrainian lands. A hastily assembled pro-Soviet “Ukrainian National Assembly” petitioned for integration into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was formalized by November 1939. The Soviets dismantled Polish-era institutions, suppressed non-communist political groups, and initiated collectivization. Thousands of Soviet officials were dispatched to administer the region, while nearly a million people—Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians deemed politically unreliable—were deported to Siberia, Central Asia, and the Arctic.

Despite these repressive measures, Soviet policy in Galicia (western Ukraine) was comparatively restrained. The Greek Catholic Church, though criticized, was not fully suppressed, and Ukrainian language and culture saw a resurgence in public life. However, resistance simmered underground, particularly among Ukrainian nationalist groups like the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which would later play a contentious role in the war.

The German Invasion and the Illusion of Liberation

On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Caught off guard, Stalin’s forces suffered catastrophic losses. By June 30, German troops reached Lviv, where they discovered mass executions of Ukrainian political prisoners by retreating Soviet secret police. Many western Ukrainians initially welcomed the Germans, hoping for liberation from Soviet oppression.

The OUN-B faction, led by Stepan Bandera, saw an opportunity. On June 30, 1941, they proclaimed an independent Ukrainian state in Lviv, with Yaroslav Stetsko as its leader. The Greek Catholic Church endorsed the move, and OUN-B militants advanced with German forces, establishing local administrations. However, Nazi Germany had no intention of tolerating Ukrainian sovereignty. By mid-1941, Hitler made it clear that Ukraine was to be a colonial resource pool, not a free nation. OUN-B leaders were arrested, and the dream of independence collapsed.

Nazi Occupation: Brutality and the Holocaust

German rule in Ukraine was marked by unparalleled brutality. The Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) followed the Wehrmacht, systematically executing Jews, Roma, and Soviet officials. The massacre at Babi Yar near Kyiv in September 1941—where over 33,000 Jews were murdered in two days—became a symbol of the Holocaust in Ukraine. By 1944, an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews had been killed.

Ukrainians, though spared genocide, faced severe repression. The Nazis dismantled industry, confiscated food, and deported over 2 million people to Germany as forced laborers. Resistance emerged in various forms: Soviet partisans, Ukrainian nationalist guerrillas, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought both German and Soviet forces.

Soviet Reoccupation and Postwar Repression

By 1943, the tide of war turned. The Red Army’s victories at Stalingrad and Kursk paved the way for Ukraine’s “liberation”—a term that rang hollow for many. Soviet forces reoccupied western Ukraine by mid-1944, encountering fierce resistance from UPA fighters. Stalin’s regime responded with mass deportations, executions, and the suppression of the Greek Catholic Church. Over 200,000 western Ukrainians were exiled, and the region was subjected to intense Russification.

The war’s end saw Ukraine’s borders redrawn. Territories like Galicia, Volhynia, and Transcarpathia were incorporated into Soviet Ukraine, creating a unified Ukrainian state for the first time in centuries—albeit under Moscow’s iron grip. Stalin even secured Ukraine a seat in the UN, a symbolic gesture masking its lack of autonomy.

Legacy and Modern Relevance

The Stalin era left deep scars on Ukraine. The war claimed 8 million Ukrainian lives, and postwar famine in 1946–47 added to the devastation. Soviet policies entrenched a divide between the Russified east and the more nationalist west, a fissure that persists today.

The OUN and UPA’s wartime actions remain controversial. Some view them as freedom fighters; others as collaborators or extremists. Similarly, Stalin’s industrialization is credited with enabling Soviet victory, yet his repressions and forced collectivization caused immense suffering.

Ukraine’s experience under Stalin shaped its national identity. The war’s trauma, the Holocaust’s memory, and the struggle against Soviet domination fueled later independence movements. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, Ukraine emerged as a sovereign state—still grappling with the legacy of Stalin’s rule and the unresolved tensions between its eastern and western halves.

In understanding Ukraine’s present, one must reckon with this history: a land forged in war, occupation, and resistance, whose people continue to navigate the shadows of the past.