Communists in the Lutsk Prison: Sources to Study

Abstract

The article is devoted to the research of the archival sources for studying the stay of communists in the Lutsk prison in the years 1919-1939. In the interwar period the communist movement tried to separate Volhynia and Eastern Galicia from the Second Polish Republic and was a serious threat to the Polish authorities in the region. According to the Polish law, communist activity was illegal and criminalised. The Lutsk prison was one of the institutions of the penitentiary
system of Poland where those convicted for communist activities served their sentences and where investigations against others were continued.
It is revealed that the materials of the State Archives of the Volhynia Region in Lutsk (Ukraine), the Central State Archive of Public Organisations of Ukraine in Kyiv (Ukraine) and the Polish Central Archives of Modern Records (Poland) are sufficiently reflective of the research on the communists’ stay in the Lutsk prison between the two world wars. Taking into account the statistics of that time and comparing the documents of these institutions with the materials of
other archival institutions, the memories of prisoners and representatives of the authorities, as well as the interwar press allows us to create a complete picture of the daily life of the communist prisoner in Lutsk prison from their imprisonment until their release from its walls.