Serhii Humennyi

This project aims to explore the specific reality of the “Zbruch border,” its changes in the Austrian-Russian and Polish-Soviet periods (used for generalization, these periods can be divided into shorter time intervals based on the analysis of border characteristics), the impact on the local environment (including the role in the formation of Ukrainian, Polish national movements, displacement of Jews due to pogroms in Russia in the early twentieth century), and the impact on the economy that is tangible to this day. Surveys of refugees from the USSR during the Holodomor of 1932-1933 testify to the purposeful genocide against the Ukrainian people, and the further modification of the ethnic composition of refugees indicates anti-Polish or anti-Semitic measures of the Soviet authorities. The study of illegal migration from the totalitarian USSR is essential not only for modern historical science but the experience of public organizations with refugees in the interwar years can also be helpful today.