Transcript Lecture 3

Ukraine during the World War II.
Ukraine during the after-war period
(1945-1986).
Plan
1. Second World War in Ukraine.
2. Post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.
3. Destalinization.
4. Dissident movement.
5. Social and economic development in 60-80th
years.
6. Chornobyl disaster.
SECOND WORLD WAR IN UKRAINE
 Second World War for Ukraine actually started on
September 1 1939, when Germans attacked Poland,
 The most cruel and tragic stage of the war began with
the attack of Germany on the USSR on June 22 1941
and continued till the autumn of 1944, when German
forces were turned out from Ukraine.
 Having guarantee of neutrality of the Soviet Union
Hitler attacked Poland, initiating the start of the
Second World War.
 On September 17 1939 the Soviet army went to
eastern Poland and occupied almost all territory,
settled by Ukrainians and Belorusians.
 In June 1940 the USSR forced Rumania to give back
Bessarabiya and Bukovyna
 Punitive bodies of the USSR arrested and deported
Ukrainian political leaders to the East of Russia.
 From 20 to 30 thousand Ukrainian activists run
away to Poland, occupied by the Germans.
 At the beginning many representatives of intelligence
were impressed, as they received job in soviet
educational and cultural establishments, but they
quickly understood, that became strictly controlled by
organization men of regime, and in case of violation of
directions arose threaten of arrest and deportation
 In the spring of 1940 the regime opened the mask of
democracy and began wile-ranging repressions – as
against the Ukrainians, as against Poles.
 The most popular and awful their type was deportation
to Siberia and Kazakhstan, where people died by the
whole families.
Ukrainians under the fascist occupation.
Movement of Opposition
 In 1939 about 550 thousand of Ukrainians from
Lemkivshina and Holemshina turned out in German
occupation zone in the eastern remote area of Poland
 Zacarpathian with 550 thousand Ukrainians formed a
part of Hungary.
 Soon after coming of Germans, in Ukraine appeared
the national movement of opposition.
 There also existed underground organizational system
of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)
 Partisans were mainly collected in northern west part
of the country – in the forests of Volyn, bogs of Polissya
and Carpathians.
 In the beginning of 1944 on the occupied lands of
Ukraine in general 47 thousand 800 people in the form
of partisan detachments and struggled with fascist
conquers.
 In 1942 members of different branches of Organization
of Ukrainian nationalists (OUN) created small elements
in Volyn.
 Ukrainian revolt army (URA) quickly grew in the big,
well-organized partisan army, which took control under
the significant parts of Volyn, Polissya and finally
Galychyna.
Return of the soviet power to
Ukraine
 The decisive crisis arose in the war in 1943: the soviet
army began the counter-offensive, the main purpose of
which was in liberation of the left-bank Ukraine.
 During the end of the summer-autumn of 1943 the
soviet army occupied left-bank and Donbas.
 On August 23 in result of desperate fight Kharkiv was
liberated. In September-October the Red army broke
powerful line of German defense at the Dnieper and on
November 6 entered to Kyiv.
 In January 1944 after the short stop almost 2,3
million of Red army began clearing from Germans
right-bank and Crimea.
 In September they crossed the Carpathians and till
the October 1944 all ethnic Ukrainian territory
appeared in soviet hands.
 Second World War took the lives at least 5,3 million
Ukrainians, or one from every six citizen of Ukraine
died in the struggle.
 2,3 million Ukrainians were taken out from the
forced labor in Germany.
 Completely or partly it were destroyed over 700 big
and small cities and 28 thousand villages, in result
of what 10 million people became homeless.
 As the war caused in Ukraine more damage, than in
any country in Europe, losses in the economy
gained huge measures.
 It was estimated, that Ukraine lost over 40 percent
of its economy.
Post-war reconstruction of
Ukraine
 Four years of war had a harmful effect on the
Ukrainian economy;
 Reconstruction of the hard industry swallowed up
85 percent of all investments, but it was successful.
 In 1950 Ukraine again became one from the leading
industrial countries in Europe;
 The life level of people improved very slowly;
 The currency reform of 1947 devaluated
karbovanets;
 Started in 1954, project on development the
lands of Kazakhstan required the use of huge
labor and material resources, and the big part
of those expenses took Ukraine.
 Though this program gave some positive
results, it exhausted resources of Ukraine and
weakened agricultural production of the
republic.
 The government did not manage to reach so
quick growing of agricultural production as it was
planned;
 The officials in the far Moscow continued to
decide, what cultures should cultivate collective
farms, how to sow them;
1918 50 karbovantsiv banknote
1942 5 karbovantsiv banknote
1991 5 karbovantsiv kupon
Destalinization
 After the death of Stalin in 1953 new government
tried to receive wider support among the
nonrussian nations and especially among
Ukrainians;
 Intelligentsia, students, workers and even partial
officials – all repeated that the special status of
the Russian language in the USSR did not mean,
than the Ukrainian language should be
discriminated;
 Many million of Ukrainians jailed in the
Siberian camps of forced labor, received
amnesty and the permission to come back
home;
 This partly liquidation of gigantic system of
concentration camp was precipitated by the
row of camp revolts.
 For youth became unbearable the monotone
of the soviet life, old-fashioned manner to
dress and very ideological system of
studying.
Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev
 Ceded Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the
Ukrainian SSR in 1955.
 Met with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower at
Camp David, Maryland in September 1959. He was
the first Soviet leader to visit the United States in a
diplomatic capacity.
 Coping with housing crisis by quickly building
millions of apartments according to simplified floor
plans (khrushchovkas).
 Created a minimum wage in 1956.
The Khrushchev era saw increased construction of
rapidly built, prefabricated apartment complexes.
Leonid Brezhnev
Dissident movement
 During 1960 the part of Ukrainians, living in cities,
reached 55 percent.
 In Ukraine grew the quantity of specialists with
higher education;
 Censorship continued strictly regulation of all,
that were allowed to read, to see and to hear;
 Communist party retained absolute monopoly on
the politic power.
 A dissident is a person who actively challenges an
established policy.
 The term “dissident” was used in the USSR
during the period of 1965-1985 for citizens who
criticized the authority of the Communist party.
 An important part of the activity of dissidents
was informing society about human rights.
 The first demonstration of this movement took
place at the end 1950th – the beginning of
1960th, when in the Western Ukraine it was
organized several small secret groups.
 They called to execution of the legal right of
Ukraine on going out of the Soviet Union.
 After disclosure of these groups their
participants were sentenced to the long
period imprisonment.
Social and economic
development in 60-80th years
 In 1976-1980 five-year plan, in Ukraine real
income per man increased by 15 %.
 Putting in order the automate machines and
equipment lines promoted intensive
development of hard industry, building, transport
field, agriculture and power industry. Actively
developed airplane building and motor-car
industry.
 Ukraine became food donor for all the USSR.
 Implementation of compulsory general secondary
education, enlargement of the system of
secondary-special and higher educational
institutions in Ukraine.
 The field of functioning of the Ukrainian language
greatly narrowed.
 At the low level was social development of
villages.
 During 1966-1985 years 4,6 people, mostly youth
left Ukrainian villages.
 But in spite of all Ukrainian culture became firmly
established.
 Also impressed the achievements of the Ukrainian
sportsmen, who appeared on the international
arena under the soviet flag.
DneproGES hydro-electric power plant, one of the symbols
of Soviet economic power
Soviet Soyuz rockets like
the one pictured above
were the first reliable
means to transport
objects into Earth orbit.
“Dynamo
Kyiv” -- the Cup Winners.
Oleh Blokhin -- the Best European player 1975.
Chornobyl
 Chornobyl was a city in nothern Ukraine in the Kyiv
Oblast near the border with Belarus.
 Prior to its evacuation the city was inhabited by
about 15000 residents.
 On April 26, 1986 the fourth reactor of the
Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded at 01:23
AM.
 Further explosions and the resulting fire sent a
“cloud” of highly radioactive fallout into the
atmosphere.
 Four hundred times more fallout was released
than had been by the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima.
 The “cloud” drifted over extensive parts of the
western Soviet Union, Eastern, Western and
Northern Europe and eastern North America.
 Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were
badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation
of over 336 000 people.
 It is difficult to accurately tell the number of
deaths caused by the events at Chornobyl.
 The Soviet government hid the lists of victims and
later forbade doctors to write “radiation” on
deaths certificates.
 The overall costs of the disaster is estimated at
$200 billion. This places the Chornobyl disaster as
the costliest disaster in modern history.
 The Zone of Alienation is the 30km exclusion
zone around the site of the Chornobyl nuclear
reactor disaster.
 Now Chornobyl is a home to more than 500
residents.
References :
 1. Subtelny, Orest. Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University
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of Toronto Press (1988).
2. Andrew Wilson. The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation.
Yale University Press; 2nd edition (2002).
3. Anna Reid. Borderland: A Journey Through the History
of Ukraine. London, Orion Books; 4th impression (1998,
preface 2003).
4. Paul Robert Magocsi. A History of Ukraine. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press (1996).
5. Mykhailo Hrushevsky. History of Ukraine-Rus’ in 9
volumes.