A HISTORY LESSON
The territory of today's Ukraine in the XX century inter World War period was split essentially between a repressive Polish dictatorship and a savage and genocidal Soviet Russian regime. Small portions were under Czechoslovakian and Romanian control. In the case of the Soviets, some 7-10 million Ukrainians were starved to death in the 1932-33 years alone. The Molotov Ribbentrop Pact between Berlin and Moscow of September 1939 changed the political map but did not mitigate the dire conditions governing the indigenous Ukrainian population. When Poland was ousted, its repression was replaced by Soviet savagery.
In 1939 the Soviets brought their genocidal policies into Western Ukraine, populated primarily by Ukrainians in the villages and Poles and Jews in the cities. The Ukrainians and Poles were fiercely persecuted. Jews in great numbers served their new masters. When the Germans reneged on their Soviet pact in June 1941, the Soviets chose to retreat employing a scorched earth policy. Many Ukrainians and Poles were simply slaughtered.
