heir first priority to destroy the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and exterminate its leaders. Mass arrests, torture and executions of Ukrainians and Poles followed. The Soviets also carried out mass deportations of the "enemies of the working class" to Kazakhstan. In practice, this translated into members of the former state administration, police, border service, land and business owners.
In 1941 the city was occupied by the Germans who continued exterminating the population by murdering the Jews and sending Ukrainians as forced labour to Germany. 1941-1943 center of Armia Krajowa District. In April 1944 the city was retaken by the Red Army, the remaining Polish population having been previously expelled. During the Soviet reoccupation in March and April 1944, the city was encircled and completely destroyed. In March 1944 the city was declared a fortified place by Adolf Hitler, to be defended until the last round was shot. The stiff German resistance caused extensive use of heavy artillery by the Red Army, resulting in the complete destruction of the city and killing of nearly all German defenders. (55 survivors out of 4,500) Unlike many other occasions, where the Germans had practised a scorched earth policy during their withdrawal from territories of the Soviet Union, the devastation was caused directly by the hostilities. After World War II Ternopil was rebuilt in typically Soviet style. Only a few buildings were reconstructed.
Since 1991 Ternopil has been a part of independent Ukraine, along with other cities of western Ukraine. Ternopil has became an important center of Ukrainian national revival.
Jewish Ternopil
Polish Jews settled in Ternopil beginning at its founding and soon formed a majority of the population. During the 16th and 17th centuries there were 300 Jewish families in the city. The Great Synagogue of Ternopil was built in Gothic Survival style between 1622 and 1628. Among the towns destroyed by Bohdan
