Colonial Policies in Soviet Ukraine during WWII

Colonial Policies in Soviet Ukraine: Stalin, Hitler, and the 'Traitor Nations'

How did Stalin and Hitler use repression, forced labour, and ethnic cleansing to reshape Ukraine and its peoples during World War II?

This lecture explores the devastating effects of Soviet and Nazi colonial policies on Ukraine’s diverse population. Both totalitarian regimes treated ethnic identity as a tool — or threat — in their imperial strategies, targeting millions through deportation, execution, and manipulation.

🔍 Topics covered include:
– Ethnic repression in the USSR (Polish, German, Greek operations)
– Mass deportations before and during WWII
– How Nazi Germany divided and ruled Ukrainian territory
– Ukrainian nationalist activity and its suppression under occupation
– The role of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
– The deportation and genocide of the Crimean Tatars
– The legacy of the ‘traitor nation’ myth in Soviet and Russian propaganda

Learn how the Ukrainian population was trapped between two brutal empires — and how this shaped both wartime experience and long-term memory.

📚 This lecture is part of the course Ukraine: The (Un)finished Second World War — exploring Ukraine in WWII, global conflict, historical narratives, and modern “memory wars” over the “Ukrainian question.” The full course with additional teaching materials and tests is available here:
https://www.udemy.com/course/ukraine-the-unfinished-second-world-war/?srsltid=AfmBOoqrwFcB17zFLVFpLttL_IT942c4rpfa5Anar_RlF9a6XQG2vzjx

🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and explore the full series on Ukraine’s history in the 20th century.

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