World War II in Ukraine

This summer I visited Ukraine (Odessa, Kiev, Lviv) and I returned to Lviv for a week during autumn break.

I post some pictures of Kiev later, but first I wanted to focus attention on Lviv. During the times of the Austrian Hungarian Empire the city was named Lemburg. Then it came under Polish control and the city was named Lwow. When the Soviets invaded Poland they took the city and annexed the region, adding it to the Ukrainian SSR. After WW II all the Poles still in the region (that survived Stalins purges, the massacres by the Germans and Ukrainian nationalists and the second onslaught of the Red Army) were expelled to make way for Ukrainians. Now it’s a lovely city to visit with good atmosphere and friendly locals. Definitely worth a visit.

Top: architecture in Lviv from Austrian and Polish times.
One below: Citadel built by the Austrians. At the end of WW II Polish resistance fighters revolted and took over the city. In the citadel weapons were stored so they took that one. Not sure if the bullet holes are from WW 1 (Battle of Lemberg 1914) or WW 2, but I asume the latter.
Below: a former NKVD prison in Łącki street (National Museum-Memorial of Victims of the Occupation Regimes) were 1000s of political prisoners were slaughtered by the NKVD when the nazis started Operation Barbarossa. The building is a museum now and had an eerie atmosphere.

LvivSeries01KK

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