Between Two Leviathans: Ukraine during the Second World War

Abstract

Ukrainians found themselves in a most difficult position when the Second World War broke out. They were divided among states such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, forming different communities who called themselves Ukrainians, or in some cases, by the archaic name Rusyny. These communities differed in terms of their level of national consciousness and by degree of political commitment to national emancipation or, to put it simply, to the idea of Ukrainian statehood. The most politically developed community was that of Galicia which, despite rather hard Polish rule, managed to develop an entire social, cultural and economic infrastructure, factors which translated into political power, or at least into a significant power base.