Architecture of the western regions of Ukraine between the two world wars

At the time of Ukraine's accession to the Soviet Union, the history of our country and its culture was considered exclusively in the context of the history of the USSR. After the declaration of Ukraine's independence, a complex and controversial process of understanding its national history and culture began. The history of Ukrainian architecture, as an integral part of the general history of Ukraine, remains a little-known page of world culture and needs its careful consideration and study. But Ukrainian architecture has always been complicated by the fact that over the centuries Ukraine was part of different states and felt the influence of different cultures. One of the «white spots» of our history is the architectural heritage left on the lands of Ukraine, which were part of other states between the two world wars: Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. The activities of the architects of these countries left many first-class architectural objects on the territory of Ukraine. The value of these architectural monuments is that they are another cultural bridge connecting Ukraine with other European countries. At a time when Ukrainian architects were forced to work under the ideological pressure of the Bolshevik government, at a time when Stalin's policy in the field of culture disrupted the natural course of the evolution of architectural ideas, architects from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were able to create freely without censorship. Thus, the development of ideas in this region generally coincided with the development of European architecture, unlike other regions of Ukraine. As in other European countries, here one can observe not the dominance of only the official state architectural style, but free competition between the main architectural styles of that time: modern, art deco, historicism, and others. The article provides an overview of the architecture of these regions of Ukraine, shows the most important architectural objects and indicates their authors. The important contribution of this cultural heritage to the common history of not only Ukrainian architecture, but also the architecture of the whole world was noted.