I’m often asked why Western Ukrainians initially viewed German forces differently in 1941. The answer isn’t found in regime propaganda, but in the lived experiences of families who survived both occupations. If you want to understand the truth, don’t learn history from the regime. Learn it from the people.
Today, June 22nd, marks 84 years since the German invasion of the Soviet Union. But to understand this date’s significance for Western Ukraine, we must remember what happened before – the Soviet occupation of 1939-1941.
When Soviet forces occupied Western Ukraine in 1939, they immediately began mass arrests targeting anyone deemed “nationally conscious” – intellectuals, clergy, farmers, anyone who kept Ukrainian symbols or simply took pride in their identity. Thousands of innocent civilians were imprisoned.
As German forces advanced in June 1941, retreating Soviet forces committed horrific massacres in prisons across Galicia. Families rushing to find their loved ones discovered thousands of mutilated bodies – men, women, elderly, even children – tortured and killed simply for being Ukrainian. Skulls crushed. Eyes gouged. Bodies torn open. The Soviets didn’t just kill — they dehumanized. These are not myths. These are documented truths of the land where I was born.
But the question remains:
Can any fair-minded person condemn Western Ukrainians for hoping — even briefly — for an end to Soviet terror?
Can we judge those who had just buried loved ones tortured to death in Soviet prisons, for believing anything might be better?
This is why Western Ukrainians initially saw Germans not as liberators, but as an end to immediate Soviet terror. This hope was tragically misplaced, as Nazi occupation brought its own horrors. But the Soviet “liberators” had already shown their true face through mass murder of civilians.
Today, as the world struggles to stop Russia’s aggression in 2025, Ukrainians remember these lessons written in blood. People’s ancestors’ voices cry from the earth: “Never again.” We know what Russian “liberation” means – we’ve seen it before.
History teaches us that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Western Ukraine remembers.
To learn more about this tragic period, read:
- Snyder, T. (2010). Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Basic Books.
– A powerful analysis of how both Nazi and Soviet regimes brought mass death to Eastern Europe. https://www.amazon.ca/Bloodlands-Europe-Between-Hitler-Stalin/dp/0465031471 - Snyder, T. (2003). The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999. Yale University Press.
– A detailed study of the region’s complex national histories and the shifting tides of occupation. https://www.amazon.ca/Reconstruction-Nations-Ukraine-Lithuania-1569-1999/dp/030010586X - Applebaum, A. (2017). Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine. Doubleday.
– Though focused on the Holodomor, this book shows how Soviet terror extended into Western Ukraine during 1939–1941. https://www.amazon.ca/Red-Famine-Anne-Applebaum/dp/0385538855 - “Harvest of Despair” (1985). Directed by Slavko Nowytski.
– A documentary on the broader scope of Soviet policies in Ukraine, including survivor testimonies. https://www.amazon.com/Harvest-Despair-Holocaust-Slavko-Nowytski/dp/B0009T2JJW - Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Archives – Extensive primary sources on NKVD prison massacres and occupation history: https://huri.harvard.edu and https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/1941-nkvd-prison-massacres-western-ukraine
- Motyl, A., & Kiebuzinski, K. (Eds.). (2017). The Great West Ukrainian Prison Massacre of 1941: A Sourcebook. Amsterdam University Press.
– This vital volume documents one of the Soviet regime’s most horrific atrocities—between 10,000 and 40,000 political prisoners were executed by the NKVD in Western Ukraine in just eight days. Includes scholarly essays, survivor accounts, and literary testimonies.
Open access here: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/53241 - Memorial sites in Lviv and across Galicia – Visit memorials at Yaniv Cemetery and others that document and honour the June 1941 victims.
Let us remember:
📌 The mass graves in Western Ukraine before the arrival of the Germans were Soviet.
📌 The terror many Western Ukrainians faced was not originally Nazi, but Communist.
📌 The truth of Ukrainian history was buried with the bodies, and only now are we beginning to uncover it.
🕯️ On this day, we remember the silenced.
🕯️ We honour the memory.
🕯️ We resist the repetition.
From the blood-soaked soil of Galicia to the battlefields of today — Ukraine remembers. And Ukraine fights for freedom.
June 22nd in Ukraine is a Day of mourning and commemoration of the victims of war
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