Ludvik Rozenberg (1895–1941): between Ukrainian nationalists and communists

This research project focuses on the biography of Ludvik Rozenberg (1895–1941), a comrade-in-arms of Eugene Konovalets Ewgen Konowalez (1891–1938) during the time of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (Ukrainian: UNR), who later joined the Communist Party of Western Ukraine (Ukrainian: KPZU). His life represents an exceptional case that demands examination from various perspectives: First, it reflects Jewish-Ukrainian cooperation during the time of the UNR. Second, Rozenberg was a member of the KPZU which, as a constituent of the Communist Party of Poland, came under pressure from the Comintern and the Communist Party of the Ukraine. Third, Rozenberg’s fate reflects not only the dramatic history of Jewish refugees in the Soviet Union in the initial phase of World War Two, but also the politics of violence practiced by the Stalinist People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD).

This project is based on the hypothesis that Rozenberg’s biography is exemplary of the military and political constellations that shaped Central and Eastern Europe in the highly volatile period between the two World Wars. Rozenberg’s life is moreover exemplary of the entangled history of nation-building processes in the multinational border regions of Eastern Europe, in which Jews formed a minority.