On the question of defining illegal activities in the Ternopil sectionof the Polish-Soviet border during the Holodomor of 1932–1933
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2025.160.4
Keywords:
Polish-Soviet border, Tarnopol Voivodeship, the Holodomor of 1932–1933, illegal activities, KOP, refugeesAbstract
B a c k g r o u n d . The article is devoted to the study of the definition appellation of illegal activities (smuggling, espionage, personal and mass border crossings) on the Tarnopol section of the Polish-Soviet border during the Holodomor of 1932–1933.
M e t h o d s . The study is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. A set of general scientific and special historical methods was used: methods of synthesis, induction and analysis, as well as historical and typological methods.
R e s u l t s . By resorting to the process of defining (distinguishing the conceptual and nominal series) of illegal activities on the Tarnopol section
of the Polish-Soviet border in the context of the Holodomor of 1932–1933, it was possible to find out that the search for the Czech roots of the beginning of the use of the term "Holodomor" to describe the events of the genocide organized by the Soviet authorities was unjustified. For this purpose, the author analyzed the use of the term in Czech media sources, identified possible ways of introducing the definition and other borrowings
from the Czech language into Ukrainian publications (brochures and media) and the historical connotations of their use. The article focuses on the definitional series used to describe the events of the Holodomor of 1932–1933 and to attribute illegal activities (smuggling, espionage, personal and
mass border crossings).
It was found that instead of the definition of "Holodomor" to characterize the genocide of 1932–1933, the historical sources studied used the
concepts of "famine", "exorbitant famine (a terrible famine, of which no other examples are found)", and "famine catastrophe". Based on the analysis
of periodicals and archival sources (in particular, official documentation of the Border Guard Corps and the State Police of the Second Polish Republic), it was possible to establish that the following definitions were used to report on illegal migration on the Tarnopol section of the Polish-Soviet border during the Holodomor of 1932–1933 "refugees (in the Polish version "uchodźcy")", "fugitives", "escaper", "persons who illegally crossed the border".
C o n c l u s i o n s . In the process of defining, the conceptual and nominal series of the definition of illegal activities (smuggling, espionage, personal and mass border crossings) on the Tarnopol section of the Polish-Soviet border in the conditions of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 were considered and analyzed. The author also distinguishes the concepts used to define the genocide of the Ukrainian people organized by the Soviet
authorities in 1932–1933. The data obtained were verified by comparing the definitional series used in the Ukrainian and Polish press, as well as in
the official documentation of the Border Guard Corps (KOP), the State Police of the Second Polish Republic.
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