Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance
Encyclopedia
The Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, (UNDO) was the largest Ukrainian
political party
in the Second Polish Republic
, active in territory that is currently Western Ukraine. It dominated the mainstream political life of the Ukrainian minority in Poland
, which with almost 14% of Poland's population was the largest minority within that country. UNDO was founded in 1925 and dissolved during the Soviet annexation of western Ukraine
in 1939.
of western Ukraine. It sought to promote Ukrainians' well-being within the Polish state until independence could be achieved, and in so doing opposed the terrorism and violence of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
because such actions resulted in negative repercussions on the Ukrainian population. UNDO was essentially democratic in nature, guided by varying amounts of Catholic, liberal, and socialist ideology. UNDO supported constitutional democracy
and the "organic development" of Ukrainian society that would prepare it for independence once the opportunity arose. The approach of "organic development" focused on building up Ukrainian institutions, promoting Ukrainian education, and fostering Ukrainian self-reliance organizations that could operate independently from the Polish authorities. In so doing, UNDO hoped to achieve through peaceful means that which was not attained through war. UNDO supported agrarian reform and the development and expansion of the Ukrainian cooperative movement
, particularly agricultural and financial
cooperatives. UNDO also maintained close relations with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
. Ukrainian women's organizations actively participated in UNDO, which sent a woman representative to the Ukrainian parliament where she attained the position of party spokesperson.
UNDO pursued a dual policy with respect to Poland's next largest minority, the Jews. UNDO protested acts of antisemitism and cooperated with Jewish representatives in the Polish parliament. It supported Jewish civil rights and fought against Polish attempts to limit Jewish cultural practices. For example, UNDO's representatives in the Polish parliament joined their Jewish colleagues in voting against an attempt to limit kosher slaughtering. UNDO's support for the Jews was largely driven by the belief that actions against Jews would set a precedent for future discrimination against Ukrainians. Following a Polish pogrom against Jews in 1936, an UNDO leader published an article called "After the Jews Will Come Our Turn." Despite its rejection of violence and discrimination against Jews, UNDO also engaged in an economic struggle against them by supporting Ukrainian cooperatives through boycotting non-Ukrainian (and thus, often, Jewish) businesses. While rejecting Polish offers of cooperation against Jews, UNDO spokesmen also blamed Jews for spreading Communism in Ukrainian villages.
Seeing Poland as the main enemy, in the 1920s while Soviet Ukraine was experiencing a cultural revival
, a significant segment of the UNDO leadership had a pro-Soviet orientation. Dmytro Levytsky
, party leader, wrote in 1925, "We are firmly convinced that, much like abstract communism
, the Soviet form of government is alien to the mindset of the Ukrainian nation. But as we register facts, we cannot make note of certain facts while ignoring others. Therefore, we state the well-known and unquestionable fact that the national idea is growing, strengthening, and developing in Soviet Ukraine." After Ukrainization ended, and news of Soviet crimes devastating Ukrainian society in the 1930s (such as the Holodomor
) filtered into western Ukraine, UNDO radically altered its position towards the Soviet Union
, coming to consider it the principal enemy of Ukraine. With this in mind, UNDO's programme evolved into seeking a new understanding with Poland. This alienated some of its supporters and brought it into conflict with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.
UNDO was founded at a party congress in 1925 through the merger of three western Ukrainian political parties, under the leadership of Dmytro Levytsky. It was the direct descendant of the prewar Ukrainian National Democratic Party, which had been the leading western Ukrainian political party during Austrian rule
through western Ukraine's failed war of independence against Poland. The vast majority of western Ukraine's intelligentsia
and clergy were members of UNDO. Prominent figures in the party included Kost Levytsky
, former head of the government of the West Ukrainian National Republic
, Dmytro Levytsky
, who led the party for ten years, and Vasyl Mudry
, who would become the speaker of Poland's parliament (the Sejm
). UNDO's members controlled many of the region's Ukrainian financial, cooperative, and cultural institutions, including the principal western Ukrainian newspaper Dilo. During the elections, it obtained approximately 600,000 votes and a large majority of the Ukrainian seats in the Polish parliament. Its main competitor within the Ukrainian community, the socialist Ukrainian Radical Party
, received 280,000 votes.
In 1930, in response to terrorist activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Poland initiated a policy referred to as Pacification
, which involved mass arrests and beatings of Ukrainian activists, burning down of Ukrainian reading rooms and cooperatives, and closing of Ukrainian private schools. UNDO's representatives in the Polish parliament led the Ukrainian delegation in sponsoring a motion condemning these acts. After the motion's rejection, the Ukrainian parliamentarians appealed to the League of Nations
, which reprimanded the Polish government. During the parliamentary elections of that year, the Polish government tried to deter the Ukrainian people from voting for Ukrainian parties. UNDO formed a temporary coalition with the other Ukrainian parties that won 21 seats in the House of deputies (17 of which were held by UNDO) and four seats in the Senate (3 of which were held by UNDO). Despite UNDO's presence in the parliament, anti-Ukrainian actions by the Polish state accelerated. Laws were passed which stipulated that only people who could speak and write Polish could serve as county or city officials, and four fifths of Ukrainian judges were removed from their positions or transferred to Poland proper.
By 1932, the relentless Polish pressure combined with the perception, based in part on the Holodomor
and other Soviet atrocities affecting the Ukrainian population, that the Soviet Union not Poland was Ukraine's principal enemy, induced many of UNDO's leaders to seek some sort of accommodation with the Polish government. In March 1935, UNDO reached a compromise with the Polish government known as "Normalization." In exchange for UNDO agreeing to work with the Polish government, Ukrainians were guaranteed nineteen seats total in both houses of the Polish parliament, as well as the position of vice-marshal (speaker) of the Polish parliament, many Ukrainian political prisoners were amnestied, and credits were given to Ukrainian cooperatives. Russophile representation was also eliminated, and the status quo in Ukrainian schooling was maintained.
UNDO's efforts to reach an agreement with the Polish government led to fractures within the party. In 1933 a group of UNDO members led by Dmytro Paliiv left UNDO to form another party that was uncompromisingly opposed to both Poland as well as the Soviet Union. Although this new party was more nationalistic and authoritarian, it was legal and continued UNDO's opposition to the terrorism of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Because the Poles were only willing to apply concessions to Galicia, and not to Volhynia
, UNDO's leader Dmytro Levytsky
resigned from his post as head of the party. While not resigning from the party itself, he went into internal opposition. Levytsky was supported by many of UNDO's members and by the editorial board of the newspaper Dilo. This split incapacitated the party. Levytsky was replaced as head of the party by Vasyl Mudry
, who became speaker of the Polish parliament.
During Normalization, UNDO pressed the Polish government for more substantial changes, such as cultural autonomy in western Ukraine, improvement in elementary and secondary education, a Ukrainian university, self-government, elimination of Polish colonization of Ukrainian lands
, more access to administrative positions within the Polish state, and others. These demands were generally ignored by the Polish authorities, which led to a loss of credibility for Normalization among many Ukrainians. As a result, in 1938 UNDO proclaimed that Normalization had failed and that Poland opposed Ukrainian political life; it once again demanded autonomy for Poland's Ukrainian minority. At the same time, Germany's puppet government in Czechoslovakia granted autonomy to Slovakia's ethnic Ukrainian region, Carpatho-Ukraine
. When in December 1938 articles began to appear in the German press supporting a Ukrainian state that would include parts of Poland, UNDO's leader informed the German ambassador in Warsaw that he saw no hopes for Polish-Ukrainian cooperation and that he hoped for German support. As a result, Poland pressed Germany to allow Hungary to annex Carpatho-Ukraine and when Hungary did so in 1939 Poland exploited Ukrainian disappointment in order to improve relations, and once again promised autonomy.
When Germany invaded Poland
, UNDO declared its loyalty to the Polish state. After the Soviets annexed western Ukrainian territory
, UNDO's former leader, Dr. Dmytro Levitsky, who had once been chief of the Ukrainian delegation in the pre-war Polish parliament, as well as many of his colleagues, were arrested, deported to Moscow, and never heard from again. UNDO along with all other legal Ukrainian political parties was forced by the Soviet authorities to disband. As a result, the extremist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which already had an underground structure dating to its time of conflict with the Polish authorities, was left as the sole functioning, independent, political organization in western Ukraine.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in the Second Polish Republic
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
, active in territory that is currently Western Ukraine. It dominated the mainstream political life of the Ukrainian minority in Poland
Ukrainian minority in Poland
The Ukrainian minority in Poland is composed of 27,172 people according to the Polish census of 2002. Most of them live in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship , followed by West Pomeranian , Podkarpackie and Pomeranian Voivodeship ....
, which with almost 14% of Poland's population was the largest minority within that country. UNDO was founded in 1925 and dissolved during the Soviet annexation of western Ukraine
Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine, 1939–1940
On the basis of a secret clause of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union , the Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17, 1939, capturing the eastern regions of Poland , with Galicia and Volhynia, facing little Polish opposition and occupying the principal city of...
in 1939.
Political programme
UNDO like other western Ukrainian political parties considered Polish rule over current western Ukraine to be illegitimate, advocating the independenceIndependence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
of western Ukraine. It sought to promote Ukrainians' well-being within the Polish state until independence could be achieved, and in so doing opposed the terrorism and violence of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...
because such actions resulted in negative repercussions on the Ukrainian population. UNDO was essentially democratic in nature, guided by varying amounts of Catholic, liberal, and socialist ideology. UNDO supported constitutional democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and the "organic development" of Ukrainian society that would prepare it for independence once the opportunity arose. The approach of "organic development" focused on building up Ukrainian institutions, promoting Ukrainian education, and fostering Ukrainian self-reliance organizations that could operate independently from the Polish authorities. In so doing, UNDO hoped to achieve through peaceful means that which was not attained through war. UNDO supported agrarian reform and the development and expansion of the Ukrainian cooperative movement
Ukrainian cooperative movement
The Ukrainian Cooperative Movement was a movement based primarily in Western Ukraine that addressed the economic plight of the western Ukrainian people through the creation of financial, agricultural and trade cooperatives that enabled western Ukrainians to pool their resources, to obtain less...
, particularly agricultural and financial
Cooperative banking
Cooperative banking is retail and commercial banking organized on a cooperative basis. Cooperative banking institutions take deposits and lend money in most parts of the world....
cooperatives. UNDO also maintained close relations with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , Ukrainska Hreko-Katolytska Tserkva), is the largest Eastern Rite Catholic sui juris particular church in full communion with the Holy See, and is directly subject to the Pope...
. Ukrainian women's organizations actively participated in UNDO, which sent a woman representative to the Ukrainian parliament where she attained the position of party spokesperson.
UNDO pursued a dual policy with respect to Poland's next largest minority, the Jews. UNDO protested acts of antisemitism and cooperated with Jewish representatives in the Polish parliament. It supported Jewish civil rights and fought against Polish attempts to limit Jewish cultural practices. For example, UNDO's representatives in the Polish parliament joined their Jewish colleagues in voting against an attempt to limit kosher slaughtering. UNDO's support for the Jews was largely driven by the belief that actions against Jews would set a precedent for future discrimination against Ukrainians. Following a Polish pogrom against Jews in 1936, an UNDO leader published an article called "After the Jews Will Come Our Turn." Despite its rejection of violence and discrimination against Jews, UNDO also engaged in an economic struggle against them by supporting Ukrainian cooperatives through boycotting non-Ukrainian (and thus, often, Jewish) businesses. While rejecting Polish offers of cooperation against Jews, UNDO spokesmen also blamed Jews for spreading Communism in Ukrainian villages.
Seeing Poland as the main enemy, in the 1920s while Soviet Ukraine was experiencing a cultural revival
Ukrainization
Ukrainization is a policy of increasing the usage and facilitating the development of the Ukrainian language and promoting other elements of Ukrainian culture, in various spheres of public life such as education, publishing, government and religion.The term is used, most prominently, for the...
, a significant segment of the UNDO leadership had a pro-Soviet orientation. Dmytro Levytsky
Dmytro Levytsky
Dmytro Levytsky was a lawyer and major political figure in western Ukraine between the two world wars. Between 1925 and 1935 he headed the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, the largest Ukrainian political party in western Ukraine, and served as the chief of the Ukrainian delegation within...
, party leader, wrote in 1925, "We are firmly convinced that, much like abstract communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, the Soviet form of government is alien to the mindset of the Ukrainian nation. But as we register facts, we cannot make note of certain facts while ignoring others. Therefore, we state the well-known and unquestionable fact that the national idea is growing, strengthening, and developing in Soviet Ukraine." After Ukrainization ended, and news of Soviet crimes devastating Ukrainian society in the 1930s (such as the Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
) filtered into western Ukraine, UNDO radically altered its position towards the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, coming to consider it the principal enemy of Ukraine. With this in mind, UNDO's programme evolved into seeking a new understanding with Poland. This alienated some of its supporters and brought it into conflict with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.
History
Austrian partition
The Austrian partition refers to the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired by the Austrian Empire during the partitions of Poland in late 18th century.-History:...
through western Ukraine's failed war of independence against Poland. The vast majority of western Ukraine's intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
and clergy were members of UNDO. Prominent figures in the party included Kost Levytsky
Kost Levytsky
Kost Levytsky was a Ukrainian politician. He was a founder of the Ukrainian National Democratic movement and the leader of the State Representative Body of the Ukrainian government declared on June 30, 1941-Biography:...
, former head of the government of the West Ukrainian National Republic
West Ukrainian National Republic
The West Ukrainian People's Republic was a short-lived republic that existed in late 1918 and early 1919 in eastern Galicia, that claimed parts of Bukovina and Carpathian Ruthenia and included the cities of Lviv , Przemyśl , Kolomyia , and Stanislaviv...
, Dmytro Levytsky
Dmytro Levytsky
Dmytro Levytsky was a lawyer and major political figure in western Ukraine between the two world wars. Between 1925 and 1935 he headed the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, the largest Ukrainian political party in western Ukraine, and served as the chief of the Ukrainian delegation within...
, who led the party for ten years, and Vasyl Mudry
Vasyl Mudry
Vasyl Mudry , was a Ukrainian journalist and politician who led the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, the largest Ukrainian political party in interwar Poland, and who served as speaker of the Polish parliament.-Biography:...
, who would become the speaker of Poland's parliament (the Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
). UNDO's members controlled many of the region's Ukrainian financial, cooperative, and cultural institutions, including the principal western Ukrainian newspaper Dilo. During the elections, it obtained approximately 600,000 votes and a large majority of the Ukrainian seats in the Polish parliament. Its main competitor within the Ukrainian community, the socialist Ukrainian Radical Party
Ukrainian Radical Party
The Ukrainian Radical Party, , founded in October 1890 and based on the Radical movement in western Ukraine dating from the 1870s, was the first modern Ukrainian political party with a defined program, mass following, and registered membership...
, received 280,000 votes.
In 1930, in response to terrorist activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Poland initiated a policy referred to as Pacification
Pacification of Ukrainians in Eastern Galicia (1930)
Pacification of Ukrainians refers to the punitive action by police and military of the Second Polish Republic against the Ukrainian minority in Poland in September–November 1930 in response to a wave of more than 2,200 acts of sabotage against Polish property in the region...
, which involved mass arrests and beatings of Ukrainian activists, burning down of Ukrainian reading rooms and cooperatives, and closing of Ukrainian private schools. UNDO's representatives in the Polish parliament led the Ukrainian delegation in sponsoring a motion condemning these acts. After the motion's rejection, the Ukrainian parliamentarians appealed to the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
, which reprimanded the Polish government. During the parliamentary elections of that year, the Polish government tried to deter the Ukrainian people from voting for Ukrainian parties. UNDO formed a temporary coalition with the other Ukrainian parties that won 21 seats in the House of deputies (17 of which were held by UNDO) and four seats in the Senate (3 of which were held by UNDO). Despite UNDO's presence in the parliament, anti-Ukrainian actions by the Polish state accelerated. Laws were passed which stipulated that only people who could speak and write Polish could serve as county or city officials, and four fifths of Ukrainian judges were removed from their positions or transferred to Poland proper.
By 1932, the relentless Polish pressure combined with the perception, based in part on the Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
and other Soviet atrocities affecting the Ukrainian population, that the Soviet Union not Poland was Ukraine's principal enemy, induced many of UNDO's leaders to seek some sort of accommodation with the Polish government. In March 1935, UNDO reached a compromise with the Polish government known as "Normalization." In exchange for UNDO agreeing to work with the Polish government, Ukrainians were guaranteed nineteen seats total in both houses of the Polish parliament, as well as the position of vice-marshal (speaker) of the Polish parliament, many Ukrainian political prisoners were amnestied, and credits were given to Ukrainian cooperatives. Russophile representation was also eliminated, and the status quo in Ukrainian schooling was maintained.
UNDO's efforts to reach an agreement with the Polish government led to fractures within the party. In 1933 a group of UNDO members led by Dmytro Paliiv left UNDO to form another party that was uncompromisingly opposed to both Poland as well as the Soviet Union. Although this new party was more nationalistic and authoritarian, it was legal and continued UNDO's opposition to the terrorism of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Because the Poles were only willing to apply concessions to Galicia, and not to Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
, UNDO's leader Dmytro Levytsky
Dmytro Levytsky
Dmytro Levytsky was a lawyer and major political figure in western Ukraine between the two world wars. Between 1925 and 1935 he headed the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, the largest Ukrainian political party in western Ukraine, and served as the chief of the Ukrainian delegation within...
resigned from his post as head of the party. While not resigning from the party itself, he went into internal opposition. Levytsky was supported by many of UNDO's members and by the editorial board of the newspaper Dilo. This split incapacitated the party. Levytsky was replaced as head of the party by Vasyl Mudry
Vasyl Mudry
Vasyl Mudry , was a Ukrainian journalist and politician who led the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, the largest Ukrainian political party in interwar Poland, and who served as speaker of the Polish parliament.-Biography:...
, who became speaker of the Polish parliament.
During Normalization, UNDO pressed the Polish government for more substantial changes, such as cultural autonomy in western Ukraine, improvement in elementary and secondary education, a Ukrainian university, self-government, elimination of Polish colonization of Ukrainian lands
Osadnik
Osadniks was the Polish loanword used in Soviet Union for veterans of the Polish Army that were given land in the Kresy territory ceded to Poland by Polish-Soviet Riga Peace Treaty of 1921 .-Colonization process:Shortly before the battle of Warsaw on August 7, 1920, the Premier of Poland,...
, more access to administrative positions within the Polish state, and others. These demands were generally ignored by the Polish authorities, which led to a loss of credibility for Normalization among many Ukrainians. As a result, in 1938 UNDO proclaimed that Normalization had failed and that Poland opposed Ukrainian political life; it once again demanded autonomy for Poland's Ukrainian minority. At the same time, Germany's puppet government in Czechoslovakia granted autonomy to Slovakia's ethnic Ukrainian region, Carpatho-Ukraine
Carpatho-Ukraine
Carpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent republic on March 15, 1939, but was occupied by Hungary between March 15 and March 18, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the Nazi occupation of Hungary in...
. When in December 1938 articles began to appear in the German press supporting a Ukrainian state that would include parts of Poland, UNDO's leader informed the German ambassador in Warsaw that he saw no hopes for Polish-Ukrainian cooperation and that he hoped for German support. As a result, Poland pressed Germany to allow Hungary to annex Carpatho-Ukraine and when Hungary did so in 1939 Poland exploited Ukrainian disappointment in order to improve relations, and once again promised autonomy.
When Germany invaded Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
, UNDO declared its loyalty to the Polish state. After the Soviets annexed western Ukrainian territory
Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine, 1939–1940
On the basis of a secret clause of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union , the Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17, 1939, capturing the eastern regions of Poland , with Galicia and Volhynia, facing little Polish opposition and occupying the principal city of...
, UNDO's former leader, Dr. Dmytro Levitsky, who had once been chief of the Ukrainian delegation in the pre-war Polish parliament, as well as many of his colleagues, were arrested, deported to Moscow, and never heard from again. UNDO along with all other legal Ukrainian political parties was forced by the Soviet authorities to disband. As a result, the extremist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, which already had an underground structure dating to its time of conflict with the Polish authorities, was left as the sole functioning, independent, political organization in western Ukraine.