The Opera House is one of the most famous buildings in Lviv, where, in addition to various artistic events, official political events also took place. On October 26-28, 1939, the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine was held there. The deputies of the assembly unanimously voted for the declarations on the establishment of Soviet rule in the entire territory of Western Ukraine and for the reunification with Soviet Ukraine.
A lawyer, an
expert in international law, whose testimony was recorded by Milena Rudnytska,
recalled how ashamed he was to participate in such a strange
"election":
I attended pre-election meetings and followed the election campaign,
but I did not notice any enthusiasm or even interest anywhere... And most
importantly, everyone understood that this election was a comedy in which we played
the role of puppets... Here the result of the election was known in advance...
one would have expected the voter turnout to be minimal. And yet, as it proved
to be on the election day, the hypnosis of the election campaign worked with
mathematical certainty: the puppets behaved as Moscow’s arrangers wanted.
I was one of these reluctant puppets too, and on Sunday, October 22,
I went to the polls. When a hero tells you that he did not vote, I advise you
not to believe him: everyone voted. There was a long queue in front of the
polling station located in the school of my district. I can't say I felt good
when I took a place in the queue. However, when I saw two Camaldolese monks
standing in front of me and, a minute later, a well-known Lviv University professor,
a Pole and a member of the National Democratic party, taking his place in line behind
me, I felt better. When, after entering the polling station, I saw at the table
two of our “well-wishers”, who until recently considered me and my fellow
citizens to be at least "opportunists" and "compromisers",
I completely stopped being ashamed, both before people and before myself.
1484 delegates
were elected to the People’s Assembly on that day. Among them, there were many
well-known Lviv residents: Halyna Hurska, Vasyl Barvinsky, Filaret Kolessa, as
well as Kyrylo Studynsky and Maryan Panchyshyn, who found themselves in the
Presidium of the People’s Assembly of Western Ukraine.
The new administration
ignored Dr. Panchyshyn's authority and status and, unfortunately, often used
well-known figures, leaving them little choice. From the memoirs of Ivan
Prokopiv, an employee of the regional health department:
Dr. Maryan Panchyshyn was elected a delegate to the People’s
Assembly. He prepared his speech and had it typewritten by Kunynets. Then, at
the request of the Provisional Administration, he gave them this speech for
review. 50% of his speech was deleted and some points were added. "Do you
see what they did with my speech?!" he showed me a typescript with many places
crossed out. "They’ve told me to rewrite it and to say at the assembly
what they have blessed. There is nothing you can do. If it is necessary, it is
necessary," he said and told the typist to retype it.
It was in this “voluntary
and compulsory” way that the following decisions were made: on the
establishment of Soviet rule in Western Ukraine, on the accession of Western
Ukraine to the USSR and on the reunification with the USSR, on the confiscation
of landowners’ and monastic lands, and on the nationalization of banks and
large-scale industry. Later, for many years of Soviet rule (and still in some
places) the term "reunification" was used in relation to the events
of September 1939. Instead, in Western and, increasingly, in contemporary
Ukrainian historiography, the term "occupation" has been used in
relation to the period of 1939-1941. The victory in World War II effectively
legitimized the new borders of the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR as its constituent
part.
One can read more about the activities of the
Lviv Opera during the war in the article "Opera House: between ideology
and culture".
