A prayer vigil was held in Lviv to mark the 80th anniversary of the deportations of Ukrainians. Today, on 8 September, a memorial service and a public assembly were held at the monument to deported Ukrainians from Zakerzonia.
This is how Ukrainians from Lemkivshchyna, Nadsyannya, Kholmshchyna, Southern Podlasie, Lubachivshchyna, and Western Boikivshchyna, who were deported in 1944-1951, were honoured.
Dozens of people came to honour the memory of deported Ukrainians. Flowers were placed at the memorial to the deported Ukrainians and lamps were lit. The ensemble performed folk songs.
Natalia Alekseeva, manager of the executive committee of the Lviv City Council, joined the event on behalf of the city community.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the deportation of Ukrainians from Lemkivshchyna, Nadsyannya, Kholmshchyna, Southern Podlasie, Lubachivshchyna, and Western Boikivshchyna in 1944-1951. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were deported forcibly, out of court. In total, according to official figures, 482,800 people were resettled to the USSR in 1944-1946.
In 1947, the remnants of the Ukrainian population – about 150,000 people from the historical Ukrainian lands within Poland – were deported to the north and north-west of Poland as part of the Vistula Operation. In the following years (until 1951), about 50,000 more people were resettled to the Ukrainian SSR from Poland.
The deportation was accompanied by terror, repression, confiscation of property, the establishment of a regime of special settlements for deported Ukrainians, and restrictions on their political, social, economic and cultural rights.