The Two "Reunifications" of Western Ukraine: The Lviv and Mukachevo Congresses

During World War II, the Soviet authorities extended their control over the territories of Western Ukraine, incorporating them into the Ukrainian SSR. This process was legitimized not only through military presence and intergovernmental agreements, but also through specially organized representative assemblies designed to demonstrate the "will of the people" for reunification with Soviet Ukraine. The first such event was the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine in Lviv on October 26–28, 1939, which sanctioned the annexation of Galicia and Volhynia to the USSR. The second was the Congress of People's Committees of Transcarpathian Ukraine in Mukachevo on November 26, 1944, which initiated the process of Transcarpathia's incorporation into Soviet Ukraine.

This Urban Seminar will be devoted to comparing these two events as political rituals through which the Soviet authorities constructed the image of popular sovereignty and national reunification. The researcher focuses on the mechanisms of preparing the congresses, the role of local elites and Soviet officials in their organization, the use of urban space to stage the new authority, as well as the political consequences of these events for Galicia and Transcarpathia.

Urban Seminar will be held in a workshop format. Researchers are invited to discuss scholarly projects, research at various stages of development, and completed research that is being prepared for publication.

Participation in the Urban Seminar requires preliminary reading and discussion of the researcher's text. If you would like to join the Seminar, please email Anastasiia Fabirovska (a.fabirovska@lvivcenter.org), and we will send you the materials in advance.