Communist Party of Western Ukraine

Communist Party of Western Ukraine was a political party in eastern interwar Poland. Until 1923 it was known as the Communist Party of Eastern Galicia (Komunistyczna Partia Wschodniej Galicji). Young Communist League of Western Ukraine was the youth league of the party. According to Timothy D. Snyder, the Communist Party of Western Ukraine was an illegal and conspiratorial organization in interwar Galicia and Volhynia. It had a small formal membership, but had a large influence via front organizations. Its membership was mostly Ukrainian in the countryside and Jewish in towns. The party was more influential during the NEP era in the Bolshevist Russia and the Soviet Union, and the Ukrainization in the Soviet Ukraine. Its influence faded away in 1930s due to Stalin's regime in the USSR and execution of his policies in Ukraine by Pavel Postyshev and Lazar Kaganovich. At times, the Communist Party of Western Ukraine was split into different wings, the pro-Soviet faction and more independent one. In 1927, the majority of the Central Committee of the CPWU supported the 'nationalist' faction of Alexander Shumsky in the CPU(B). Consequently, Kaganovich, who was the general secretary of the CPU(B), accused the Western Ukrainian communists of treason. The CPWU split into majority 'nationalist' faction and a pro-Kaganovich minority. On 18 February 1928 the majority-CPWU led by Ivan Krilyk and Roman Turyansky was expelled from the Comintern. By the end of 1928, the CPWU (majority) disbanded itself and its leaders who expressed regrets because of their 'errors' went to the USSR, where they were later repressed. The pro-Soviet minority continued as CPWU.