Some Economic and Social Problems of the Jews of Eastern Galicia in the Period of Soviet Rule (1939–41)

Abstract

The establishment of Soviet rule in Eastern Galicia¹ in the autumn of 1939 heralded far-reaching changes in social structure and in the foundations of Jewish economic activity. The Jews of Eastern Galicia have undergone many political vicissitudes in recent times, but until the entry of the Soviets the basic principles of the economy were preserved — principles such as recognition of the ownership of property and capital and the means of production, and recognition of the right to carry on private enterprise. The Jewish economy was founded on these principles, and they applied to all sectors — industry, commerce, labour and agriculture. It is true that the overall political changes (Austrian rule, the Russian occupation at the beginning of the First World War, the independent government of the West Ukrainian Republic at the end of 1918 and in the first half of 1919, and finally the establishment of an independent Poland between the two world wars) led to grave incursions against Jewish property and the freedom of private enterprise and gave rise to the profound hardship experienced by Jews on Polish soil — but all the factors in the Jewish economy operated in accordance with the basic norms indicated above.

‘This essay is part of a study on the subject of The situation of East Galician Jewry in the period of Soviet rule (1939–1941)’, a study undertaken in the framework of a project co-ordinated by Dr Dov Levin on ‘The situation of the Jews in the areas annexed to the Soviet Union in 1939–1941’. The project is being carried out in the Institute of Contemporary Jewry in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, with the help of ‘the Memorial Fund for Jewish Culture’ (Keren haZikaron lema’an Tarbut Yehudit).