ABSTRACT
In Eastern Galicia the post-war transformation took a different turn, mainly because the region was not subjected to the same kind of complete ethnic cleansing as was Lower Silesia. Citizen-authority relations had, in this particular respect, a similar character in Eastern Galicia, but the dynamic of the process was different when compared with Poland. Stalinism in Poland was a short-lived phenomenon and Polish Communism, as it developed after the war, differed in many respects from Soviet Communism. Post-war L'vov, therefore - like Wroclaw - became a transit point for people of all denominations and creeds: the nameless Galician child found abandoned by Soviet soldiers in Austria. Living conditions in Wroclaw were extremely harsh and established social bonds between people were put under great strain. The regional cultures also included a simultaneous suspicion towards formal authority, indicating a deficit of political capital.
