The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

Army. The mayor of Lviv did not want to surrender the city. Finally at the
night between 21-22 th of September, the mayor of Lviv decided to surrender the
city. The mayor of Lviv added conditions to the protocol of capitulation: 1. The
autonomy of the city authorities has to be held. 2. The management of hospitals
and schools has to be held. 3. Polish as an official language has to be held. 4.
The freedom of confession has to be held. 26 General Langer signed the act of
capitulation on the 22nd of September at 8 o’clock a.m. The act of capitulation
was also signed by the Soviet agency. Soviets had an ambition to seize the city
very quickly. In the Red Army there were officers who remembered the fact,
when in 1920 Red Army could not seize Lviv. 27 On the same day the Red
Army entered into the city. The agreement of capitulation guaranteed freedom
for Polish officers and soldiers. Soviets did not keep their word. Most of the
Polish officers were arrested and murdered by the NKVD (Народный
Комиссариат Внутренних Дел) in 1940. Soviets rejected the conditions added
by the mayor of Lviv to the protocol of capitulation. Later a large number of
Polish professors were also arrested and finally deported to lagers or
murdered. 28
Before September 1939 Lemberg had never been under Russian authority
(except the short time from September 1914 to June 1915). Almost none of the
inhabitants could speak Russian. On the 24 th of September general Langer was
talking in Tarnopol (a city about 150 kilometers from Lviv) with Nikita
Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Никита Сергеевич Хрущёв), who assured him of
adhering to the agreements of capitulation. A few days later general Langer
was transported to Moscow. On the 27 th of September the Polish mayor of Lviv
Stanisław Ostrowski was arrested by the NKVD and transported later do
Moscow. 29
On the 28 th of September the German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty
was signed in Moscow by Ribbentrop and Molotov. After the „universal
referendum” on the 31 th of October Lviv and eastern Galicia were formally
included to the Soviet Union as a part of Ukrainian Soviet Republic. In the
official propaganda the results of the referendum showed the political will of the
inhabitants of Eastern Galicia to join to the Soviet Union, which had been
expected even before the referendum. 30 After the referendum Molotov
announced in Moscow: „the end of former Poland”. He said: „There is nothing
left from the grotesque formation created by The Treaty of Versailles, which was
26
Ibidem. 58.
27
LEINWALD, Artur: Obrona Lwowa we wrześniu 1939 roku. In: Rocznik Lwowski [red.]
WASYLKOWSKI, Janusz. Warszawa, 1992. 42.
28
DRAUS, Jan: Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza we Lwowie 1918-1946. Portret kresowej
uczelni. Kraków, 2007. 91-103.
29
Kronika 2350 dni wojny i okupacji Lwowa 1IX 1939 – 5 II 1946, [edited by] MAZUR,
Grzegorz, SKWARA, Jerzy, WĘGIERSKI, Jerzy. Kraków, 2007. 67-69.
30
„Czerwony Sztandar” 18.10.1939; see also: „Czerwony Sztandar” 21.10.1939.
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