| Tarnopol Voivodeship Województwo tarnopolskie | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voivodeship ofPoland | |||||||||
| 1920–1939 | |||||||||
 Coat of arms | |||||||||
.png) Tarnopol Voivodeship (red) on the map ofSecond Polish Republic[1] | |||||||||
| Capital | Tarnopol | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• 1921 | 16,533 km2 (6,383 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1921 | 1,428,520 | ||||||||
• 1931 | 1,600,406 | ||||||||
| Government | |||||||||
| • Type | Voivodeship | ||||||||
| Voivodes | |||||||||
• 1921–1923 | Karol Olpiński | ||||||||
• 1937–1939 | Tomasz Malicki | ||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar period | ||||||||
• Established | 23 December 1920 | ||||||||
| 17 September 1939 | |||||||||
| Political subdivisions | 17powiats, 35 towns | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Ukraine | ||||||||
Tarnopol Voivodeship (Polish:Województwo tarnopolskie;Ukrainian:Тернопільське воєводство,romanized: Ternopilske voievodstvo) was an administrative region ofinterwarPoland (1918–1939), created on23 December1920, with an area of 16,500 km2 and provincial capital inTarnopol (now Ternopil,Ukraine). Thevoivodeship was divided into 17 districts (powiaty). At the end ofWorld War II, at the insistence ofJoseph Stalin during theTehran Conference of 1943 without official Polish representation whatsoever, the borders of Poland wereredrawn by the Allies. The Polish population wasforcibly resettled after the defeat ofNazi Germany and the Tarnopol Voivodeship was incorporated into theUkrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. Since 1991, the territory of the voivodeship has been split between the eastern part of theLviv region and the central and southern parts of theTernopil region in sovereignUkraine.
During the Naziinvasion of Poland in accordance with the secret protocol of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland on 17 September 1939. As the bulk of thePolish Army was concentrated in the west fighting the Nazi Germans (see:Polish September campaign), the Red Army met with limited resistance from Polish citizens and their troops quickly moved westward. Tarnopol was occupied as early as 18 September 1939 without substantial opposition from the Poles, and remained in Soviet hands untilOperation Barbarossa.[2] Monuments were destroyed, street names changed, bookshops closed, library collections stolen and transported inlorries to the Russian archives.[3] The province wasSovietized in the atmosphere of terror.[4] Families were deported to Siberia in cattle trains,[5] mainly Polish Christians.[6]
During the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Tarnopol was overrun by theWehrmacht on2 July 1941. A Jewish pogrom lasted from4 to11 July 1941, with homes destroyed, synagogues burned and Jews killed indiscriminately at various locations, estimated between 1,600 (Yad Vashem)[7] and 2,000 (Virtual Shtetl).[8] The killings were perpetrated by the SS-Sonderkommando 4b attached toEinsatzgruppe C,[citation needed] and by theUkrainian People's Militia,[7] formed by theOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists – renamed the following month to theUkrainian Auxiliary Police.[9]
In September 1941, the German occupation authorities establishedJewish ghettos in a number of towns including theTarnopol Ghetto with 12,000–13,000 prisoners. Death penalty was introduced, and food severely rationed.[5] Forced labour camps forJewish slave workers were established by the Germans in the settlements of Kamionki, Hłuboczek Wielki, Zagrobela,[10] and inPodwołoczyska.[8] The Tarnopol ghetto was liquidated between August 1942 and June 1943. The victims were deported toBelzec extermination camp.[7] Many Jews were denounced by Ukrainian nationalists including shortly before the Soviets took over the area in 1944. A number survived by hiding with the Poles.[7]
The capital of Tarnopol Voivodeship wasTarnopol. After the rebirth of Poland, according toPolish census of 1921, the province was inhabited by 1,428,520 people with population density at 88 persons per km2. The national census revealed that a staggering number of people could not read or write due to repressive policies of thepartitioning powers; amounting to over half of the regional population of the Republic. Within the total number of inhabitants there were 447,810Roman Catholics, and 847,907Greek Catholics, as well as 128,967Orthodox Christians. Ten years later, thenext national census of September 1931 was conducted using different criteria. The respondents were asked about theirmother tongue and religion. The population density grew to 97 persons per km2.[11]
The overall number of inhabitants in the province amounted to 1,600,406 people in 1931 of whom 789,114 spoke Polish, 401,963 spoke Ukrainian as their first language, 326,172 spoke Ruthenian (Ukrainian), 71,890 spoke Yiddish, 7,042 spoke Hebrew, 2675 spoke German, and 287 spoke Belarusian, Czech and Lithuanian. Among the Poland's Ukrainian speakers, 397,248 belonged to Greek Catholic Church, and 3,767 were Roman Catholics similar to the majority of Polish language speakers at home; nevertheless, among the Polish language speakers 157,219 belonged to Greek Catholic Church also, like the majority of those who spoke Ukrainian as their mother tongue. The overlapping of religious denominations presented the community as integrated to a considerable degree. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of Ruthenian (Ukrainian) speakers were Greco Catholics, like Ukrainians, and only 7,625 of them were Roman Catholics.[12] Jews constituted 44% of the diverse multicultural makeup of Tarnopol, speaking both,Yiddish andHebrew.[11]
Religion was 50% Greek Catholic, 41% Roman Catholic, 9% Jewish. EthnicUkrainianGreek Catholics and Polish-speaking secularJews were in some cases classified as gentilePoles in the ethnic census[citation needed], and not asUkrainians or Jews; this explains the difference between the religious and ethnic census numbers.
The results of the 1931 census (questions aboutmother tongue and about religion) are presented in the table below:
Ukrainian/Ruthenian and Greek Catholic/Orthodoxmajority minority counties are highlighted with yellow.
| County Polish name | County | Pop. | Polish | % | Ukrainian & Ruthenian | % | Roman Catholic | % | Uniate & Orthodox | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borszczów | Borshchiv | 103277 | 46153 | 44.7% | 52612 | 50.9% | 28432 | 27.5% | 65344 | 63.3% |
| Brody | Brody | 91248 | 32843 | 36.0% | 50490 | 55.3% | 22521 | 24.7% | 58009 | 63.6% |
| Brzeżany | Berezhany | 103824 | 48168 | 46.4% | 51757 | 49.9% | 41962 | 40.4% | 54611 | 52.6% |
| Buczacz | Buchach | 139062 | 60523 | 43.5% | 70336 | 50.6% | 51311 | 36.9% | 77023 | 55.4% |
| Czortków | Chortkiv | 84008 | 36486 | 43.4% | 40866 | 48.6% | 33080 | 39.4% | 42828 | 51.0% |
| Kamionka Strumiłowa | Kamianka-Buzka | 82111 | 41693 | 50.8% | 35178 | 42.8% | 29828 | 36.3% | 45113 | 54.9% |
| Kopyczyńce | Kopychyntsi | 88614 | 38158 | 43.1% | 45196 | 51.0% | 31202 | 35.2% | 50007 | 56.4% |
| Podhajce | Pidhaitsi | 95663 | 46710 | 48.8% | 45031 | 47.1% | 38003 | 39.7% | 52634 | 55.0% |
| Przemyślany | Peremyshliany | 89908 | 52269 | 58.1% | 32777 | 36.5% | 38475 | 42.8% | 44002 | 48.9% |
| Radziechów | Radekhiv | 69313 | 25427 | 36.7% | 39970 | 57.7% | 17945 | 25.9% | 42928 | 61.9% |
| Skałat | Skalat | 89215 | 60091 | 67.4% | 25369 | 28.4% | 45631 | 51.1% | 34798 | 39.0% |
| Tarnopol | Ternopil | 142220 | 93874 | 66.0% | 42374 | 29.8% | 63286 | 44.5% | 60979 | 42.9% |
| Trembowla | Terebovlia | 84321 | 50178 | 59.5% | 30868 | 36.6% | 38979 | 46.2% | 40452 | 48.0% |
| Zaleszczyki | Zalishchyky | 72021 | 27549 | 38.3% | 41147 | 57.1% | 17917 | 24.9% | 48069 | 66.7% |
| Zbaraż | Zbarazh | 65579 | 32740 | 49.9% | 29609 | 45.2% | 24855 | 37.9% | 36468 | 55.6% |
| Zborów | Zboriv | 81413 | 39624 | 48.7% | 39174 | 48.1% | 26239 | 32.2% | 49925 | 61.3% |
| Złoczów | Zolochiv | 118609 | 56628 | 47.7% | 55381 | 46.7% | 36937 | 31.1% | 70663 | 59.6% |
| Województwo Tarnopolskie | Tarnopol Voivodeship | 1600406 | 789114 | 49.3% | 728135 | 45.5% | 586603 | 36.7% | 873853 | 54.6% |
The voivodeship's area was 16,533 square kilometers. It was located in the southeastern corner of Poland, bordering the Soviet Union to the east,Lwów Voivodeship andStanisławów Voivodeship to the west,Romania to the south andVolhynian Voivodeship to the north. The landscape was hilly, with thePodole upland covering large part of the Voivodeship. The northwestern part of the voivovodeship was the location of theHolohory mountain range, whose highest peak is that of the Kamula mountain, 473 metres (1,552 ft) above sea level, though the peak itself was located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) beyond Tarnopol Voivodeship's border, in the Lwów Voivodeship. The southern part of the Tarnopol Voivodeship was known for its wineries and peach orchards.
TheDniester and theSeret were the main rivers. TheZbruch River formed the border with the Soviet Union along its entire course, and the border with Romania was formed by the Dniester. The southeasternmost location in the voivodeship was the famous Polish strongholdOkopy Swietej Trojcy (Ramparts of the Holy Trinity), which for some time defended Poland againstTurkish andTatar invasions.
The Tarnopol Voivodeship was created formally on 23 December 1920.[1] It consisted of 17powiats (counties), 35 towns, and 1087 villages. Its capital was also its largest city, with population of some 34,000 (as for 1931). Other important municipal centers of the voivodeship were:Czortków (pop. 19,000),Brody (pop. 16,400),Złoczów (pop. 13,000),Brzeżany (pop. 12,000) andBuczacz (pop. 11,000).
The Tarnopol Voivodeship consisted of 17powiats (counties):
(1125 km2)
(734 km2)
(1018 km2)
(876 km2)
(1231 km2)
(684 km2)Tarnopol Voivodeship was located in the so-called Poland "B", which meant that it was underdeveloped, with scarce industry. However, agricultural production was good, due to moderate climate and rich, fertile black soil common in these areas of Europe. The southern part of the voivodship was popular among tourists, with the main center inZaleszczyki – a border-town, located on the Dniestr, where one could spot grapevines, unique to this part of Poland. The railroad network was better developed in the south, with numerous local connections. Major rail junctions were: Tarnopol, Krasne, Kopczynce. On 1 January 1938, total length of railroads within the Voivodeship's boundaries was 931 kilometers (5.6 km per 100 km²)
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