Political Repressions Against Polish Intellectual Class in the Uman Region in the 1920s-1930s
Authors: Kuznets Tetyana , Skus Olga 
Published: July 2020

The article deals with the peculiarities of the national policy of the Bolshevik regime during the 1920s and 1930s in Ukraine. The main attention is paid to the mechanism of political repressions against representatives of the intellectual class of the Polish national minority in the Uman region. The article used not only problem-chronological and comparative-historical methods of research, but also the biographical method. The purpose of the work was to study and highlight the process of mass terror against the Polish intellectual class in the Uman region taking into consideration a personalized approach.

It has been established that political repressions in the Uman region date back to the early 1920s, just when the policy of «localization» was introduced. At the same time, giving impact to the cultural and educational development of the national minority, the government controlled the manifestations of local nationalism. Starting from the case of «Umanska pliatsuvka» on accusation of G.Z. Yagodzinska and 26 other residents of the Uman Region, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs periodically made arrests of people of Polish nationality. Given the previous activities of Polish intellectual class in the territory of Ukraine, the penal authorities had a convenient reason for further substantiation and investigation of the so-called «counter-revolutionary nationalist organizations». Based on a study of previously unavailable archival and investigative cases of the Departmental State Archive of the Security Office of Ukraine, the facts of mass falsifications on accusations of the Polish intellectual class of the Uman region for espionage in favor of Poland were revealed. Simultaneously with the closing up process of the policy of «localization» in 1933, political repressions gained extraordinary activity and were carried out in order to execute successive resolutions and decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party(b) of Ukraine, inclusive until 1938. In the territory of Ukraine and the Uman Region, in particular, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs falsified criminal case materials mainly on the basis of the mythologization of the activities of the former Polish military organization – «PMO». In addition to the central Ukrainian cities, in particular, Kyiv, Kharkiv, the formation of this organization was also «revealed» in various regions. An archival investigative case No. 64463 on the accusation of the Uman citizens F.P. Budzylevych and others was revealed and may serve as an example. According to the decision of the Special Meeting of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR of November 28, 1937 P.I. Sulyma-Saliichuk and S.F. Kravchuk were executed by shooting and F.P. Budzylevych was sentenced to 10 years of labor camps.

According to the of the author’s study generalization the conclusion has been made of the multi-faceted historical problem, which actualizes further study and analysis of the crimes mechanism of the totalitarian communist system in national, regional and social aspects.