Tarnopol Voivodeship

Tarnopol Voivodeship (Polish: Województwo tarnopolskie; Ukrainian: Тернопільське воєводство, romanized: Ternopilske voievodstvo) was an administrative region of interwar Poland (1918–1939), created on 23 December 1920, with an area of 16,500 km2 and provincial capital in Tarnopol (now Ternopil, Ukraine).

At the end of World War II, at the insistence of Joseph Stalin during the Tehran Conference of 1943 without official Polish representation whatsoever, the borders of Poland were redrawn by the Allies.

The Polish population was forcibly resettled after the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Tarnopol Voivodeship was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.

Tarnopol was occupied as early as 18 September 1939 without substantial opposition from the Poles, and remained in Soviet hands until Operation Barbarossa.

[2] Monuments were destroyed, street names changed, bookshops closed, library collections stolen and transported in lorries to the Russian archives.

A Jewish pogrom lasted from 4 to 11 July 1941, with homes destroyed, synagogue burned and Jews killed indiscriminately at various locations, estimated between 1,600 (Yad Vashem)[7] and 2,000 (Virtual Shtetl).

[5] Forced labour camps for Jewish slave workers were established by the Germans in the settlements of Kamionki, Hłuboczek Wielki, Zagrobela,[10] and in Podwołoczyska.

After the rebirth of Poland, according to Polish 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 the partitioning powers; amounting to over half of the regional population of the Republic.

The results of the 1931 census (questions about mother tongue and about religion) are presented in the table below: Ukrainian/Ruthenian and Greek Catholic/Orthodox majority minority counties are highlighted with yellow.

The south-easternmost place was the famous Polish stronghold Okopy Swietej Trojcy (Ramparts of the Hole Trinity), which for some time was protecting Poland from the invasions of the Turks and the Tartars.

However, agricultural production was good, due to moderate climate and rich, fertile black soil common in these areas of Europe.

Tarnopol Voivodeship until 17 September 1939
Administrative division, 1938