THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE USSR CONTROL OVER WESTERN UKRAINE AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE RESISTANCE OF THE POLISH UNDERGROUND (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 1939) IN UKRAINIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

The ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war necessitates a critical reassessment of Ukrainian historiography regarding the military-political outcomes of the Soviet Union’s establishment of control over Western Ukraine. This reassessment takes into account the emergence of resistance from Polish underground organizations, composed of both former military personnel and local civilians, in the absence of active participation by the former structures of the Polish state. The study provides a generalized and critical evaluation of Ukrainian historical research from the first quarter of the 21st century concerning the prerequisites, specific features, and forms of activity of various Polish underground resistance structures opposing Soviet control in Eastern Galicia and Western Volhynia in the autumn of 1939. The Ukrainian historiography of Polish underground structures in Western Ukraine during the military operations of the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army and the expansion of Soviet state security agencies is analysed. The military-political situation in the South-Eastern voivodeships on the eve of and during the undeclared Soviet-Polish war of September 1939 is assessed. The study reveals the specific nature, forms, and methods of activity of the first Polish underground armed structures in Western Ukraine under the establishment of Soviet repressive-punitive organs. It highlights the directions of organizational development of Polish underground structures in territories under Stalinist totalitarian rule in Eastern Galicia and Western Volhynia, where ethnic Poles constituted a significant portion of the population. The methodology of this research is based on the application of general philosophical and scientific methods, as well as historical research approaches. These are grounded in the principles of scientific rigor, objectivity, systematization, and a comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of the Polish armed underground in the former South-Eastern voivodeships of the Polish state. These territories, with a substantial Polish ethnic presence, were occupied by the Ukrainian Front of the Red Army in September 1939 with the support of Soviet totalitarian repressive structures. The article highlights the initial stage of the emergence and development of the Polish armed underground during the undeclared Soviet-Polish war of September 1939 and the first post-war months before the establishment of total control of the Stalinist regime in the newly formed western regions of the Ukrainian SSR.