The impact of the Second World War on Ukraine was not only devastating but unusually far-reaching.

In many crucial ways, the Ukraine that emerged from the war was very different from what it had been previously. Its borders had been greatly expanded; its political and economic significance in the USSR grew; the composition of its population changed radically; and, most important, for the first time in centuries all Ukrainians found themselves within the borders of a single state. Both Ukrainian society and the Soviet regime sought to adjust to these changes and their attempts to do so constitute the major theme in the history of postwar Ukraine.