Introduction

In Ukraine and Byelorussia, the focus was more on the domestic ramifications of Stalinism—revealing how Stalinist nationality policies sought to crush republican political and economic autonomy, leading to tragedies such as the Ukrainian “Terror-Famine” and the massacres in the Kuropaty Woods. In their support for broader sovereignty for each of their republics, the national movements in the western republics came up against some of the most conservative local Party regimes in the Soviet Union. Not surprisingly, the Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Moldavian Communist Parties, as led by Volodymyr Shcheibitskiy, Yefrim Ye. Yet as political reform broadened, contributing to national movements’ freedom of action as well as political support, the hostile stance of these Parties moderated—most considerably in Moldavia, less so in Ukraine, and least of all in Byelorussia. While nationalist mobilization visibly strengthened in Ukraine and Byelorussia, public opinion appeared to hesitate, favoring greater national autonomy over full-blown state independence.