Today Ukraine commemorates the forced deportation of Western Ukrainians to Siberia that happened on October 21, 1947. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko called on Ukrainians to remember this even and be strong, according to his Facebook.
“Today is the 70th anniversary of the mass deportation of the population of Western Ukraine regions to Siberia and Northern regions of the former Soviet Union, which bore the code name “West”. In just one day, 76.000 people were forced to move, and the aim was to weaken the Ukrainian liberation movement… Even when the bloodiest of wars – the Second World War – finished, Stalinist scourges continued terrorizing our people with repressions and deportations. But they couldn’t destroy our free spirit. Let’s remember that and be strong,” he wrote.
Operation “West” was the directive of the Soviet government to deport Western Ukrainians connected to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) to Siberia and North of Russia. The operation started on October 21, at 2 am.
26.644 families (76.192 people) were deported in a day. 22,174 of them were children. Forced labour in Siberia awaited them.
