Abstract

In the 1930s, the political strategy implemented by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) contained various projects for solving the ‘Polish question’ during the future national revolution: from the forced repatriation of colonists resettled in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in the 1920s and 1930s to the ‘final solution’ of the question by exterminating some of the Poles and expelling the rest to their ethnic lands. The last concept, proposed by Mykhailo Kolodzins’kyi, was supported by the most radical group of OUN activists. At first, they had no decisive influence on decision-making. After the outbreak of World War II, a series of events led to the strengthening of the OUN’s radical wing. The turning point was the proposal by the military referents of the OUN(b) at the end of 1942 to carry out the forced eviction of Poles during future general mobilisation. At the beginning of 1943, the concept of ‘cleansing the territory’ of the Polish population finally prevailed in the Volhynian leadership of the OUN(b).

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