Розділ 9 Сприйняття українцями Галичини й Волині початку Другої світової війни

There was no unity in Eastern Europe's assessment of the events of the first weeks of September 1939 by Ukrainians in Galicia and Volyn. It can be argued that among the vast majority of them (as, after all, among the majority of people of other nationalities in the mentioned regions) the perception of reality as the German-Polish war prevailed, and at the same time there was no awareness that the Second World War began as a global geopolitical conflict and what colossal human costs and it will cause material losses. Comparing the beginning of the Second World War on September 1, 1939 and Russia's aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, which could have triggered the beginning of the Third World War, one can draw clear parallels and draw an unambiguous conclusion: the emergence of a military conflict in the center of Europe inevitably brought the Ukrainian issue into focus. Both at the beginning of the Second World War, and from 2014, and especially from February 24, 2022, Ukraine was at the center of interest of the countries of the world. In 1939, Stalin's Russia under the name of the Soviet Union occupied the territory of Western Ukraine, held a quasi-referendum in order to give the appearance of legitimacy to the war crime, annexed the conquered territories and pursued a policy of political and cultural (and after 1945, also linguistic) Russification and terror In 2014, the situation was repeated. Putin's Russia occupied Crimea, held a pseudo-plebiscite in order to create the appearance of the will of its residents to join the occupying state, and carried out the same policy of Russification and persecution of people who did not agree with the occupation regime. At the same time, one cannot fail to note the fundamental difference between the social and political situation of Ukrainians at that time and at the present stage, because the situation at that time was fundamentally different from today. If in September 1939 Ukrainians, Poles and residents of other nationalities in the two western regions of Ukraine were under the threat of occupation by the Soviet Union and the establishment of the Stalinist regime, as of February 24, 2022, Ukraine was under threat loss of statehood and in the perception of Ukrainians, the Russian Federation became a clear and undoubted enemy, aggression united Ukrainians. On the other hand, comparing the situation at that time and today, one cannot fail to note the fact that the countries of the world have learned the lesson of the real threat to their security from ignoring aggressive wars in Eastern Europe and therefore provide Ukraine with incomparably greater support than Poland received in September 1939 from the official allies – Great Britain and France.