Zakerzonnia

Zakerzonnia (Закерзоння). The popular name used for the territories west of the Curzon Line that were inhabited by Ukrainians. Zakerzonnia included the Lemko region and the Sian region, parts of Liubachiv, Rava-Ruska, and Sokal counties, the Kholm region, and Podlachia. During the Second World War the military units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Zakerzonnia were commanded by Yaroslav Starukh (code name: Stiah). After the war those lands (approximately 19,000 sq km) were transferred to Poland, according to the Soviet-Polish agreement of 16 August 1945. Virtually all the Ukrainians in Zakerzonnia (close to 1,000,000) were forcibly resettled either to Soviet Ukraine, or to other regions of Poland, during Operation Wisła.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]