On September 8, 2024, Ukraine commemorated the 80th anniversary of the deportation of Ukrainians from the ethnic lands of Lemkivshchyna, Nadsyannya, Kholmshchyna, Podlasie, Lubachivshchyna, and Western Boikivshchyna in 1944-1951. On this occasion, the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church addressed the head of the All-Ukrainian Society “Lemkivshchyna” and participants of the memorial events to honor the memory of their deported ancestors.
This was reported by the Information Department of the UGCC.
In the letter, His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized that it is important to remember the many victims of these terrible events.
“As believers, we know the unchanging truth that God remembers all. Even if a person can lose sight of some important event or is forced to do so, the Lord never does,” the Head of the UGCC emphasized.
“Today, in our churches in Ukraine and abroad, we stand before the eternal God to pray and commemorate hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians - innocent victims of deportation during the “prison of peoples”, as historians of the USSR called it,” said the Head of the UGCC and added: ”Prayer unites us in the conviction that criminal acts must be revealed and the victims must be properly honored.'
The letter of His Beatitude Sviatoslav was read by Fr Oleksa Petriv, Head of the Department of External Relations of the UGCC in Ukraine, during the memorial events at St. Basil the Great Church in Kyiv on Lviv Square.
Reference.
The official deportation of the Ukrainian population began on September 9, 1944. As a result of the Agreement between the Government of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Polish National Liberation Committee “On the Evacuation of the Ukrainian Population from the Territory of the Polish Republic and Polish Citizens from the Territory of the Ukrainian SSR,” and the Agreement between the USSR and the Polish People's Republic “On the Exchange of State Territories” of February 15, 1951, more than 700 thousand Ukrainian autochthons were forcibly relocated.
This was the largest deportation of the Ukrainian ethnic group, which is considered the most severe form of political repression and is equated with ethnocide.
By the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of 8.11.2018 No. 8603 “On the commemoration at the state level of the 75th anniversary of the deportation of autochthonous Ukrainians from Lemkivshchyna, Nadsyannya, Kholmshchyna, Podlasie, Western Boikivshchyna in 1944-1951”, to commemorate the victims of forced deportation from Ukrainian lands, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine decided to establish the Day of Remembrance of Ukrainians - victims of forced eviction in Ukraine, which is celebrated annually on the second Sunday of September.