Ukraine in the Age of Mass Violence
Terror and Occupation 1930–1947
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The territory of today’s Ukraine has been the scene of collective violence for decades. The Holodomor in the early 1930s, the Great Terror in 1937 and 1938, the Holocaust by bullets from 1941 onwards, and the mutual deportations and massacres of Ukrainians and Poles in the 1940s – until the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was forbidden to remember any of these crimes in Ukraine. Instead, historical facts were falsified or distorted to prevent commemoration of the victims. This can be seen in the treatment of Bykivnia, where 12,000 victims of Stalinism were buried, and Babyn Yar, which served the Germans as an execution site. Ukraine’s European orientation is now facilitating the reassessment of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict and reconciliation between the two nations.
(Osteuropa 5-6/2023, pp. 169–186)