Ukrainian and Polish archivists published a book about the first months of the beginning of World War II. It describes ways of the Soviet power used to terror the population of Western Ukraine in order to eliminate hostile forces. The abovementioned information was previously classified and became available to the public due to the openness of the SSU Sectoral State Archive, where records are stored.

The presentation of the book was held in Warszawa and it commemorates 24^th anniversary of cooperation between the scientists of both countries. Particularly, they prepared series of books regarding “Poland and Ukraine in 30-ties and 40-ties years of the 20^th century”. Previously unknown records of special services archives”.

“It has been 10^th anniversary volume of series and known as “Order No.001353. Proscription operation of NKVD internal troops during 1939–1941 years”.
The volume was published in 2020 and has already drawn a great attention”, noted the Director of the SSU Sectoral State Archive Andrii Kohut.

According to the SSU, secret documents were published in this book for the first time. In particular, it contains data about NKVD repressions against statesmen, servicemen, employees of special and law enforcement agencies of the Second Polish Republic in Western Ukraine, which was occupied by the Soviet in spring of 1939.

Andrii Kohut pointed out that release of the book was made possible due to cooperation of the SSU Sectoral State Archive with the Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance (Poland) under the agreement on the cooperation of the SSU and the Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation.

“Our common research is valuable not only for Poland and Ukraine, but also for the whole Europe. Despite the fact that we were working on the controversial questions of 20^th century, we managed to publish 10 volumes of archival documents. It is of great significance that records belonged to the former soviet security services,” said Andrii Kohut.

To note:

Thanks to 25 years of cooperation, 10 volumes of the series were published:

• Polish Underground State 1939–1941. Lviv-Kolomyia-Stryi-Zolochiv (1998);
• Population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine 1944–1946 (2000);
• Polish Underground State 1939‒1941. From Volhynia to Pokuttya (2004);
• Polish and Ukrainian between two totalitarian systems 1942–1945 (2005);
• Operation Vistula 1947 (2006);
• Operation Seim 1944–1946 (2007);
• Terror Famine 1932–1933 (2008);
• Great Purge: polish operation 1937–1938 (2010);
• Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in Poland 1944–1950. Elimination of governing structures (2018);
• Order No.001353. The proscription operation of the NKVD internal troops 1939–1941 years (2020).

Moreover, an English-language version of the 7^th volume about Holodomor in Ukraine (Holodomor. The Great Famine in Ukraine, 1932‒1933) was published in 2009.

In 2010, scientists released an English-language collection with the most interesting documents from previous volumes. In 2018 - an album about the activities of the working group (Poland and Ukraine in 30-ties and 40-ties years of the 20^th century. 20 years of the joint Polish-Ukrainian project).