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The Galician SSR was established on 15 July 1920 when the Galician Revolutionary Committee (Halrevkom), a "revkom" (provisional government) headed by Volodymyr Zatonsky (Vladimir Zatonsky) and created on 8 July in Kyiv under the auspices of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Ukraine (CP(b)U), issued its declaration.
The communist government moved to Tarnopol (today Ternopil) in Eastern Galicia on 1 August 1920 upon occupation of the region by the Red Army. The same day the Halrevkom adopted a decree "About establishing of Soviet power in Galicia". The national languages (of equal status) were declared to be Polish, Ukrainian and Yiddish. With its decrees, the communist government abolished private ownership of the means of production, established an eight-hour workday, separated church from state and nationalised church estates, established a single labour school with seven-year education, and nationalised the land. By the end of August, the Halrevkom tried to conduct elections to establish a permanent Soviet government and convene the All-Galician Congress of Soviets.
With the Polish offensive on 15 September, those plans failed and the Halrevkom withdrew from Tarnopol. On 21 September 1920, the republic was officially abolished and its revolutionary committee was transformed into the Galician Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. With the signing of the Peace of Riga in March 1921, the bureau was liquidated.
Halrevkom did not control the most important area of East Galicia: the Lviv area with its oilfields of Boryslav and Drohobych.
Red Ruthenia or Red Rus' (; ""; ; ; ; ) is a term used since the Middle Ages for the south-western principalities of the Kievan Rus', namely the Principality of Peremyshl and the Principality of Belz. Nowadays the region comprises parts of western Ukraine and adjoining parts of south-eastern Poland. It has also sometimes included parts of Lesser Poland, Podolia, "Right-bank Ukraine" and Volhynia. Centred on Przemyśl (Peremyshl) and Belz, it has included major cities such as: Chełm, Zamość, Rzeszów, Krosno and Sanok (now all in Poland), as well as Lviv and Ternopil (in Ukraine).
First mentioned by that name in a Polish chronicle of 1321, Red Ruthenia was the portion of Ruthenia incorporated into Poland by Casimir the Great during the 14th century. The disintegration of Rus', Red Ruthenia was contested by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the Gediminids), the Kingdom of Poland (the Piasts), the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Ruthenia. After the Galicia–Volhynia Wars, for about 400 years most of Red Ruthenia became part of Poland as the Ruthenian Voivodeship.
A minority of ethnic Poles have lived since the beginning of the second Millennium in northern parts of Red Ruthenia. The exonym "Ruthenians" usually refers to members of the Rusyn and/or Ukrainian ethnicity.
The first known inhabitants of northern Red Ruthenia were Lendians and White Croats, while subgroups of Rusyns, such as Boykos and Lemkos, lived in the south.
Later Walddeutsche ("Forest Germans"), Jews, Armenians and Poles also made up part of the population. According to Marcin Bielski, although Bolesław I Chrobry settled Germans in the region to defend the borders against Hungary and Kievan Rus' the settlers became farmers. Maciej Stryjkowski described German peasants near Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Sanok, and Jarosław as good farmers. Casimir the Great settled German citizens on the borders of Lesser Poland and Red Ruthenia to join the acquired territory with the rest of his kingdom. In determining the population of late medieval Poland, colonisation and Polish migration to Red Ruthenia, Spiš and Podlachia (whom the Ukrainians called "Mazury"—poor peasant migrants, chiefly from Mazowsze) should be considered.
During the second half of the 14th century, the Vlachs arrived from the southeastern Carpathians and quickly settled across southern Red Ruthenia. Although during the 15th century the Ruthenians gained a foothold, it was not until the 16th century that the Wallachian population in the Bieszczady Mountains and the Lower Beskids was Ruthenized. From the 14th to the 16th centuries Red Ruthenia underwent rapid urbanization, resulting in over 200 new towns built on the German model (virtually unknown before 1340, when Red Ruthenia was the independent Kingdom of Halych).
During the early Middle Ages, the region was part of Kievan Rus' and, from 1199, the independent Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia.
It came under Polish control in 1340, when Casimir the Great acquired it. During his reign from 1333 to 1370, Casimir the Great founded several cities, urbanizing the rural province.
In October 1372, Władysław Opolczyk was deposed as count palatine. Although he retained most of his castles and goods in Hungary, his political influence waned. As compensation, Opolczyk was made governor of Hungarian Galicia. In this new position, he contributed to the economic development of the territories entrusted to him. Although Opolczyk primarily resided in Lwów, at the end of his rule he spent more time in Halicz. The only serious conflict during his time as governor involved his approach to the Orthodox Church, which angered the local Catholic boyars. Under Polish rule 325 towns were founded from the 14th century to the second half of the 17th century, most during the 15th and 16th centuries (96 and 153, respectively).
Ruthenia was subject to repeated Tatar and Ottoman Empire incursions during the 16th and 17th centuries and was impacted by the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648–1654), the 1654–1667 Russo-Polish War and Swedish invasions during the Deluge (1655–1660); the Swedes returned during the Great Northern War of the early 18th century. Red Ruthenia consisted of three voivodeships: Ruthenia, whose capital was Lviv and provinces were Lviv, Halych, Sanok, Przemyśl and Chełm; Bełz, separating the provinces of Lviv and Przemyśl from the rest of the Ruthenian voivodeship; and Podolia, with its capital at Kamieniec Podolski.
Red Ruthenia (except for Podolia) was conquered by the Austrian Empire in 1772 during the First Partition of Poland, remaining part of the empire until 1918. Between World Wars I and II, it belonged to the Second Polish Republic. The region is currently split, with its western portion in southeastern Poland (around Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Zamość and Chełm) and its eastern portion (around Lviv) in western Ukraine.
The Romanian occupation of Pokuttia () took place in early 1919, when, as a result of alliances concluded between Romania and Poland, the former entered the southeastern corner of the former Austro-Hungarian ruled province of Galicia. During the interwar period, Romania was Poland's main ally in Eastern Europe ("see Polish–Romanian alliance"). Both nations were bound by several treaties and history of this alliance dates back to the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. However, to actively cooperate, governments in Bucharest and Warsaw emphasized the necessity of a shared border. Discussions about the border started in Paris some time at the beginning of 1919 and continued during the following months.
The proposal for occupation was first advanced by the Romanian government of Ion I. C. Brătianu on May 8, 1919. Brătianu suggested this as a means to separate both Czechoslovakia and Hungary from Soviet influences, thus consolidating the position of both Greater Romania and the Second Polish Republic, as well as help the Poles get in touch with their Romanian ally.
The proposal was accepted by the Polish leader, Marshal Józef Piłsudski and on May 24, 1919, the Romanian Army 7. Infantry Division, led by General Iacob Zadik, entered Pokuttya. After three days, the Romanians met the Poles in the area of Kalusz. As Polish Army was involved in other conflicts (chiefly with the Soviets), the Romanians stayed in Pokuttia until late August 1919. Their units were stationed in such towns as Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kolomyia. In late summer of 1919 Polish troops entered Pokuttya ("see Polish-Ukrainian War") and the Romanians withdrew to their country.
Also, the mutual cooperation resulted in Romanian permit for the free passage of the 4th Riflemen Division (under General Lucjan Żeligowski). This unit was kept in Romanian province of Bukovina for political purposes, and on June 17, 1919 the Romanians allowed it to enter Poland.
During the Holocaust, the Jewish population of over 3000 in Bolekhiv (Yiddish: Bolechov, בולוחוב or באלעכוב, Polish: Bolechów) in 1940, with additional thousands of Jews brought in from the surrounding villages and towns in 1941 and 1942, was mostly annihilated, brutally, by the Germans with local Ukrainian collaborators. Only 48 of Bolekhiv's Jews were known to have survived the war.
A wealth of documentation exists about the atrocities committed in this town, beginning already in 1935, before World War II, by the local population and government, and ending with the total annihilation of the Jewish population by 1943. A book, "" by Daniel Mendelsohn, tells the story of the town and the demise of its Jews, according to testimony, most of which was found at the Yad Vashem holocaust museum in Jerusalem. A survivor, Shlomo Adler, published a book "I am a Jew Again" about the town in Hebrew, and a German writer Anatol Regnier who married an Israeli singer the daughter of a Jewish Bolechov survivor, wrote another version of the town story "Damals in Bolechów: Eine jüdische Odyssee".
A documentary movie "Neighbors and Murderers" was made, about the books and their authors, following the survivors' stories, and those of some of the Ukrainian neighbors who witnessed what happened, also confronting some of the Ukrainian perpetrators' family. The movie ends with the sister in law of one of the murderers from the Ukrainian police, herself a victim of the communist regime sent to Siberia for many years, asking forgiveness, and the survivor asking if he is allowed to forgive.
A Jewish community existed in Bolekhiv (Yiddish pronunciation: Bolechov) since its establishment by Nicholas Gydzincki. The town founder proclaimed equal rights to Jews as Christians, and this was confirmed by Sigismund III Vasa, the king of the new Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formerly crown prince of Poland, the grand duke of Lithuania, and later to become king of Sweden.
By 1890, seventy-five percent of the population of Bolekhiv (4237 people) was Jewish.
Two Jewish residents of Bolekhiv, Moshe Weiss and Josef Rotte, established and participated in the first Kibbutz by the Shomer Hatzair movement in Palestine, and were members of the Shomriya Workers Battalion.
By 1940 the Jewish population of Bolekhiv reached about 3000.
In 1941 and 1942, thousands of Jews were added to the population, from the surrounding towns.
Only 48 Jews of the town survived World War II
A book about 19th century Bolekhiv, "Memoirs of Reb Bear of Bolechov" is known to be one of the important historical documents about Jewish life in Galicia and eastern Europe in those times.
A Hassidic Rebbe, rabbi Shneibalg, 'the Rebbe of Bolechov', had a large Hassidic court in the town.
In 1935 with the death of the Polish leader Joseph Pilsudski, antisemitism began to prevail. The Polish government encouraged citizens to boycott Jewish businesses, and Christian business owners were warned not to do business with Jewish owned companies. These measures caused a deterioration in the economic status of the Jews of Galicia and among them of the Jews of Bolekhiv. From newspaper reports of the time, it is known that the number of violent attacks against Jews was on a rise, and hundreds of Jews were shot and killed.
In 1940 the thriving Jewish population of Bolekhiv was about 3000, with 4 major Synagogues.
On 28 and 29 October 1941, four months after capturing the town, and 16days after the first mass murders in Galicia at Stanislavov the German police carried out a first "Aktion" (German annihilation operation) in Bolekhiv: About 1000 of the richer Jews, doctors, and others including the Rabbis, were taken from their homes, rounded up in the town square and marched to the "Dom Katolicki" - the catholic center at the north of the town, where they were tortured for 24hours, especially the rabbis, and many killed. They were then taken to the nearby Taniawa forest where they were shot and dropped into a pit and then buried, many of them still alive.
At around the same time the population grew by a few thousand, when Jews from surrounding towns were brought to Bolekhiv.
Ms. Rivka Mondshein gave evidence about this first 'Aktion':
About a year later, on 3 to 5 September 1942, the Germans committed a second 'Aktion' in which about 1,500 Jews were murdered, many of them children, and an additional 2,000 Jews were sent to the Belzec death camp where most were subsequently murdered.
The Jews had received a warning message from the Judenrat of Drohobitz that a murderous attack was ensuing. Local Ukrainian residents decided to begin the massacre before the Germans arrived. Mostly children were brutally murdered, one baby stamped upon after being grabbed from his tortured mother while giving birth. The Gestapo soldiers bragged that they killed 600 children, and one Ukrainian civilian said that he alone killed 97 children. (Following the war, a son of this man, living in the US, and serving as a priest read about these atrocities and dedicated the rest of his life helping commemorate the Jewish community of Bolekhiv).
A total of 600-700 children and 800-900 adults were killed that day. Two thousand others were gathered and sent to the Belzec death camp. While marching to the train station they were forced to sing, mostly the song "Belz mein shtetele Belz".
In 1946 Ms. Mathilda Geleranter gave the following evidence about the second Aktion in Bolechov:
Most of the Jews gathered from the nearby towns or originally living in Bolechov were murdered during 1942. Very few hid in dug out caves in the forest and stole food from nearby farms, or joined the Partisans, and survived the war, but mostly all the Jews left in Bolechov were killed.
A list of deportations to the Belzec death camp list 2000 Jews sent on 3 to 6 August 1942 (perhaps this is a mistake and should be 3 to 6 September during the 2nd action) and then 400 Jews deported there on 21 October and another 300 Jews on 20 to 23 November.
In June Dina Ostrover, a survivor of the train ride to Belzec from Stryi, who was in Bolechov with false papers as a Ukrainian, heard that the next day 30 German soldiers were coming to town. It was obvious that they were coming to finish off the Jews. She saved a Jewish accountant who came regularly to the farm and his wife, and hid them in the attic, till the end of the war.
On 25 August 1943, 3200 Jews, who were most of, or the last of the remaining Jews in Bolechov, were deported to the Stanislavov Ghetto or to a camp nearby.
At some stage in 1943, when there were only about 900 Jews left, working at local makeshift "work camps" for a few days, groups of 100 and 200 Jews were marched to the town cemetery nearby and shot. The sounds were heard well in the town, and one woman testified that her mother, who was then at the age of 40, felt obliged to drown out the sound with an old pedal powered sewing machine.
Surviving Jews testified that several local Ukrainians took a major part in the atrocities.
According to Rab Van der Laarse, in an article written for a conference of the European Union Archaeologist Society, Eastern European "national amnesia" is now (since around 2000 and till today at 2014) being contested, with national and international affiliations, including at times affiliation with the Nazi regime as anti-communist, and emphasizing communist post-war atrocities, as well as pre-war and during the war mass murders and other crimes.
In the documentary movie "Neighbors and Murderers", neighbours of the cemetery, who remember the killing in the cemetery, differ on the perpetrators. One says that "the Jews were taken like a herd of sheep, the Germans surrounded the Jews in cemetery from three sides..." but another, when asked who did the actual shooting, said: "They were all our policemen. Nine Ukrainian policemen, there were no Germans at all." Shlomo Adler, one of the Jewish survivors, discovers that the Ukrainian collaborator that disclosed the hiding place of three families living in a cave, was the brother of the woman that saved his own life and hid him throughout the last years of the war.
In the same movie, the sister in law of Matwiecki is confronted by Adler (mistaking her for Matwiecki's actual sister), and upon hearing of her brother in law's actions, at first cannot believe it and claims it's a mistake, but finally realizes the truth and cries along with Adler.
The District of Galicia (, , ) was a World War II administrative unit of the General Government created by Nazi Germany on 1 August 1941 after the opening of Operation Barbarossa. Initially, during the invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, the territory temporarily fell under the Soviet occupation in 1939 as part of Soviet Ukraine.
Then Adolf Hitler (Document No. 1997-PS of 17 July 1941) formed a capital in Lemberg (Lviv), the "Galizien" province existed from 1941 until 1944. It ceased to exist after the Soviet counter-offensive.
District of Galicia comprised mainly the pre-war Lwów Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic, today part of western Ukraine. The territory was taken over by Nazi Germany in 1941 after the attack on USSR and incorporated into the General Government, governed by "Gauleiter" Hans Frank since the invasion of 1939. The region was taken over again by the Soviet Union in 1944.
The district area was managed by Frank's brother-in-law Karl Lasch (, ) from 1 August 1941 to 6 January 1942, and by SS Brigadeführer Dr. Otto Wächter from 6 January 1942 to September 1943. Wächter utilised the district capital Lemberg as a recruitment base for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia (1st Ukrainian). In the course of the Holocaust in occupied Poland starting from the year of the invasion, the largest Jewish extermination ghettos were created in Lwów (Lemberg) and in Stanisławów (Stanislau).
The Kerensky offensive (), also commonly known as the July offensive () or Galician offensive, was the last Russian offensive in World War I. It took place in July 1917. It was decided by Alexander Kerensky, Minister of War in the Russian provisional government, and led by General Aleksei Brusilov. Such a decision was ill-timed, because, following the February Revolution, there were strong popular demands for peace, especially within the Russian Army, whose fighting capabilities were quickly deteriorating.
The Russian provisional government was greatly weakened by this military catastrophe, and the possibility of another revolution by the Bolsheviks became increasingly real. Far from strengthening Russian army morale, this offensive proved that Russian army morale no longer existed. No Russian general could now count on the soldiers under his command actually doing what they were ordered to do. This offensive also helped the start of the July Days. One last fight took place between the Germans and the Russians in this war. On September 1, 1917, the Germans attacked and captured Riga. The Russian soldiers defending the town refused to fight and fled from the advancing German troops.
The offensive was ordered by Alexander Kerensky, Minister of War in the Russian provisional government, and led by General Aleksei Brusilov. Such a decision was ill-timed, because, following the February Revolution, there were strong popular demands for peace, especially within the army, whose fighting capabilities were quickly deteriorating.
Riots and mutineering at the front became common and officers were often the victims of soldier harassment and even murder. Furthermore, the policy of the new government towards the war effort was one of fulfilling obligations towards Russia's allies, as opposed to fighting for the sake of total victory, thus giving soldiers a less credible motivation to fight.
However, Kerensky hoped that an important Russian victory would gain popular favour and restore the soldiers' morale, thus strengthening the weak provisional government and proving the effectiveness of "the most democratic army in the world", as he referred to it. Brusilov deemed this the 'last hope to which he could resort', as he saw the collapse of the army as inevitable.
Starting on July 1, 1917 the Russian troops attacked the Austro-Hungarian and German forces in Galicia, pushing toward Lviv. The operations involved the Russian 11th, 7th and 8th Armies against the Austro-Hungarian/German South Army (General Felix Graf von Bothmer) and the Austro-Hungarian 7th and 3rd Armies.
Initial Russian success was the result of powerful bombardment, such as the enemy never witnessed before on the Russian front. At first, the Austrians did not prove capable of resisting this bombardment, and the broad gap in the enemy lines allowed the Russians to make some progress, especially against the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army. However, the German forces proved to be much harder to root out, and their stubborn resistance resulted in heavy casualties among the attacking Russians.
As Russian losses mounted, demoralisation of infantry soon began to tell, and the further successes were only due to the work of cavalry, artillery and special "shock" battalions, which General Kornilov had formed. The other troops, for the most part, refused to obey orders. Soldiers' committees discussed whether the officers should be obeyed or not. Even when a division did not flatly refuse to fight, no orders were obeyed without preliminary discussion by the divisional committee, and if the latter decided to obey orders it was usually too late to be of any use.
The Russian advance collapsed altogether by July 16. On July 19, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians counterattacked, meeting little resistance and advancing through Galicia and Ukraine as far as the Zbruch River. The Russian lines were broken on July 20 and by July 23, the Russians had retreated about (Vinny). "The only limit to the German advance was the lack of the logistical means to occupy more territory".
The Russian provisional government was greatly weakened by this military catastrophe, and the possibility of a Bolshevik Revolution became increasingly real. Far from strengthening Russian army morale, this offensive proved that Russian army morale no longer existed. No Russian general could now count on the soldiers under his command actually doing what they were ordered to do.
This offensive helped the start of the July Days, and also affected the situation in Romania. Romanian and Russian forces, which first broke the Austro-Hungarian front at the Battle of Mărăști in support of the Kerensky offensive, were stopped.
One further fight took place between the Germans and the Russians in 1917. On September 1, 1917, the Germans attacked and captured Riga. The Russian soldiers defending the town refused to fight and fled from the advancing German troops.
The Russian National Party or Russian People's Party (), founded in 1900, was a political party created by Western Ukrainian Russophiles in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria to represent their interests. It represented radicalization among western Ukrainian Russophiles towards the end of the 19th and beginning of the twentieth centuries, promoting the standard literary Russian language without local linguistic features and conversion to Russian Orthodoxy. The Russian National Party had ties to Russian nationalist parties in the Russian Empire and received subsidies from the Russian government. Its members actively helped the Russian administration during its rule in western Ukraine during the first world war.
In parliamentary elections, it was a member of the Ukrainian parliamentary association of Austria-Hungary.
Drohobych Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
The Drohobych Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, commonly referred to as the Drohobych CPU obkom, was the position of highest authority in the Drohobych Oblast, in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. The position was created on November 1939 following the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland during the ongoing World War II and abolished in 21 May 1959. On 21 May 1959 the Drohobych Regional Committee was merged into the Lviv Regional Committee.
The First Secretary was a de facto appointed position usually by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine or the First Secretary of the Republic.
Sambir (, , , "Sambor") is a city in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Sambir Raion (district), it is designated as a city of oblast significance and does not belong to the raion. It is located close to the border with Poland. Population:
Sambir is situated on the left bank of the Dniester river. The city stands at the crossroads. It is the cultural, industrial and tourist center of modern Ukraine.
The fifth largest city in Lviv Oblast. Distance to the regional center by rail for 78 miles, by road 76 km length of the city from the South-West to North-East is 10.5 km, and from North-West to South-East 4.5 km from the hotel. The area is 24 km2.
The center is located at the height of 305,96 m above sea level.
The city is an important road connecting Eastern and Western Europe, North and South. Through Sambor electrified railway tracks, trunk pipelines and power lines.
The history of the cities Sambir and Staryi Sambir, which are both situated in Halychyna (which is now part of Ukraine), in Lviv Oblast by the Dnister river, begins in a place currently known as Staryi Sambir ("Old Sambir"). This was founded in the 12th century and served as an important center of the Halych Princedom. In the 13th century, the Tatars destroyed it, and in the year 1241 it was burnt down.
Part of the Stariy Sambir population, especially the weavers, moved to a village called Pohonich, at a distance of some twelve kilometers from the old town, and it was called Novyi Sambor (New Sambor) to distinguish it from old Sambor. The latter began to be called Staryi-Sambor, or the old city. The village of Pohonicz was first under the rule of Rus; in 1340 became part of the Kingdom of Poland.
The foundations of the future city of Sambir were laid in 1390 by the voivode of Kraków, Spytek of Melsztyn, a companion and adviser to the Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło (1396–1434) in his war expeditions. The king granted his loyal companion, for his military services, enormous pieces of land, from Dobromyl to Stryi. Spytek (also Spytko), evaluating the importance of Pohonicz, left a document dated 13 December 1390 addressed to the Wojt (Mukhtar), Henrik from Landshut, permitting him to establish a city in Pohonicz to be called Novyi-Sambor, granting it the rights of Magdeburg.
It is not possible to determine exactly when the village of Pohonicz was founded because of the lack of historical sources. It may be assumed that, it being on the important commercial and strategic crossroads near the Dniester and its tributary Mlinuvka, it served as a worth center for fortification and defense. Despite the fact that the village of Pohonicz was raised to the status of a city and its name changed to Novi-Sambor, we find in official documents up to the year 1450 that the city was called by two names: Sambor or Novi-Sambor, formerly Pohonicz.
Sambir is situated on what is almost an island formed between two parallel rivers, the one distant from the other by a few kilometers – the Dniester on one side and the Strwiaz on the other – which come together after Sambir in the vicinity of Dolubova. In the pre-historic period the Dniester, at a distance of about three kilometers from Sambor, created a special kind of tributary called Mlinuvka, which, separating completely from the Dniester, falls into the river Strwionz. The Dniester and the Mlinuvka add a natural charm to Sambor. The grant of municipal rights led to people flocking to the city – Poles, Germans, Russians and Jews.
From the city's founding, Spytko saw to its development and granted it many rights. In January 1394, King Wladyslaw Jagiello, at Spytko's request, exempted the inhabitants from paying various taxes. Not for very long, however, did Sambor benefit from his actions for the good of the city. In 1399 Spytko participated in the war against the Tatars, in which he was killed on 12 August 1399 near the river Worskla (see: Battle of the Vorskla River). After his death, the Sambor properties passed to his wife, Elzbieta Melsztynska.
In the earliest times, Sambir had natural conditions for development of commerce, lying as it did on the important commercial route where the Baltic Sea, through the river San, and the Black Sea, through the river Dniester, are connected. The Dniester had already played an important role as a natural water route leading to Akerman near the Black Sea. From there, the Greek merchants reached the land of Scythia with their products. Through Sambor, an important dry land route also led to Hungary, and by this passage to the borders of Poland, merchandise was brought such as timber, salt, cattle, fox and bear skins, honey, and from Hungary, particularly wines. The Sambor merchants would purchase from the Hungarian merchants wines, horses, leather, cloth and various fruits.
From Sambir there was also a road to Lviv through Rudki and Komarno, which connected it with the commercial center of goods from the east, making Sambor an important commercial juncture.
Sambir was rebuilt several times. In 1498, when Poland was attacked by the Turks and the Tatars, it was burnt down completely. And before the population had recovered from this disaster, the city was threatened, in 1515, by an invasion by the Tatars.
In the 16th century, a new Sambor was established on the ruins of the burnt-out wooden houses.
In 1530, in view of all the invasions and attacks on the city, the Starosta (district governor) Krzysztof Odrowaz Szydlowski surrounded it with a thick wall and deep trenches, to enable it to be defended. For two hundred and fifty years, Sambor, thus enclosed, was compelled to shrink, limiting itself to narrow streets, without any possibility of expanding and developing naturally. The city was frozen into restricting borders until the first years of the Austrian conquest in 1772 (see: Partitions of Poland).
The city's walls, gates and towers were of much concern to the city fathers, who imposed heavy taxes on the population to cover the costs of safeguarding them for defense. Furthermore, each of the eleven artisans' guilds in the city had to take upon itself the obligation to guard and defend a certain part of the wall, as well as provide arms at its own expense.
In the center of the market place stood "Ratusz" (City Hall), with a clock tower on it. This building, the most important in the rebuilt city, was entirely destroyed in 1637 in a fire that wiped out almost all of Sambor. The new "Ratusz" was completed only in 1668, and then, for the first time, at the top of the tower the city emblem was unfurled: a deer with an arrow in its throat.
Second in importance for defense was the royal palace, which was situated outside the city walls, in the suburb of Blich. At first it was built of wood and was burnt down in 1498. When the Starosta Shidlovski rebuilt it in 1530, near the Dniester, he built it as a fortress, surrounded by moats, behind which were earthen walls.
In the royal palace, which was the seat of the Starosta, there was, besides the service workers numbering sixty-five in 1569, a garrison composed of infantry and cavalry. This army was intended not only to protect the palace, but also to safeguard the peace and security of Sambor and the vicinity. Furthermore, it was needed to stamp out gangs which would infiltrate from Hungary and spread panic in the neighborhood.
The royal palace of Sambor had the honor to host within it almost all the kings of Poland and heads of state; many splendid receptions were held there with the participation of the city's notables.
Church of Nativity of the Theotokos in Sambir built of wood in the late 1570s, in the town of Sambir, (in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), commissioned by the Ruthenians (), Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania Bona. This decision provoked protests and complaints in a multi-confessional environment of the community of Sambir. However, the "dispute was successfully resolved in favor of the Lord" and a wooden The Church of Nativity of the Theotokos was built, which served until 1738, when it was rebuilt in stone.
The stone church, preserved with minor rearrangements and side-chapels (see photo) was built in 1738. Funds for its construction and design were donated by a wealthy family of Galician nobles, the Komarnickis.
The architectural lines of the building have a simple and clear form. On the facade, a balcony and loft house statues of guardian angels. Inside, there is a painting by the artist-painter Yablonski.
There were around 8,000 Jews living in the town of Sambor in 1939, predominantly in the city-centre. There was a Jewish school and a synagogue. The Jews were merchants, craftsmen and artisans.
The German occupation of Sambor began on June 30, 1941. In March 1942, an open ghetto was established in the village. In May, there were around 6,500 Jews in the ghetto because a lot of Jews had managed to flee before the German occupation. Between August and October 1942, there were four Jewish actions carried out in the village. The first action took place on August 4, 1942. A selection was organized in the stadium by the German gendarmerie, Ukrainian police and a team of the Security police. 150 Jews were murdered. On August 6, these Jews were transferred to Lviv. Other Jews were brought to the camp. During this action which lasted three days, 4,000 Jews were shot.
The second action took place on September 25–26, 1942. The Jewish Council selected 300 Jews who were shot in the forest of Ralivka, also called Radlowicze.
On October 17–18 and 22, 1942, a third and then fourth action was perpetrated by the German gendarmerie, Schutzpolizei, and the Ukrainian police. Jews were collected from the jail and from nearby villages.
During the third action, 1,000 Jews were sent to Belzec extermination camp and during the fourth action, 460 Jews were sent to Belzec. During the four actions which were perpetrated from August to October 1942, 5000 Jews were sent from Sambir to Belzec. The open ghetto became a closed ghetto in December 1942. Several actions took place in the ghetto from February to June 1943. During the first action, on February 13, 1943, 500 Jews were executed in the forest of Ralivka. On April 14, 1943, a second action was carried out during which 1,200 Jews were selected and 900 were shot in the cemetery.
On May 20–22, 1943, a third ghetto action was carried out and several hundreds of Jews “incapable of working” were shot in the forest of Ralivka. The liquidation of the ghetto took place on June 5, 1943 and 1,000 Jews were shot in the forest of Ralivka.
There were about 160 Jewish survivors, many of them hidden by local farmers, both Poles and Ukrainians.

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