People's Assembly of Western Ukraine

People's Assembly of Western Ukraine [Народні збори Західної України; Narodni zbory Zakhidnoi Ukrainy]. A purportedly representative body established in October 1939 by the Soviet occupational authorities to provide a legal basis for the USSR’s annexation of Western Ukrainian territories formerly ruled by Poland. Its close to 1,500 deputies were elected on 22 October 1939 in fixed, strictly controlled elections. The assembly convened in Lviv on 26–28 October and formally approved the proclamation of Soviet rule and the ‘re-union’ of Western Ukraine with the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR. A special commission of 66 deputies presented the decision to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. Having served its purpose, the assembly was dissolved.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]