West Ukrainian National Republic
Encyclopedia
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
. It is often referred to by its Ukrainian-language acronym, ZUNR. The West Ukrainian People's Republic was politically dominated by the Ukrainian National Democrats, a democratic political party that was guided by varying amounts of Greek Catholic
, liberal, and socialist ideology although several other political parties were also represented.
The coat of arms
of the West Ukrainian People's Republic showed a yellow lion against a blue background looking to the left. The colors of the flag were blue and yellow.
, 1,351,000 (approximately 25%) were Poles
, 660,000 (approximately 12%) were Jews
, and the rest included Germans
, Hungarians, Romanians
, Czechs, Slovaks
, Romani, Armenians
and others. The cities and towns of this largely rural region were mostly populated by Poles and Jews, while the Ukrainians dominated the countryside. This would prove problematic for the Ukrainians, because the largest city, Lviv
, had a majority Polish population and was considered to be one of the most important Polish cities. Conflict
between the West Ukrainian People's Republic and Poland
was thus inevitable.
in Galicia and Bukovina) had planned to declare the West Ukrainian People's Republic on November 3, 1918 but moved the date forward to November 1 due to reports that the Polish Liquidation Committee
was to transfer from Kraków
to Lviv
. Shortly after the republic proclaimed independence from the Austro-Hungarian
Empire a popular uprising
took place in Lviv, where most residents were Polish and did not want to be part of a non-Polish state. A few weeks later Lviv's rebellious Poles received support from Poland. On November 9 Polish forces attempted to seize the Drohobych oil fields by surprise but, outnumbered by the Ukrainians, they were driven back. Thus a stalemate resulted, in which the Poles retained control over Lviv and a narrow strip of land around a railway linking Lviv to Poland, while the rest of eastern Galicia was under the control of the West Ukrainian National Republic.
An agreement to unite western Ukraine with the rest of Ukraine was made as early as December 1, 1918. The government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic officially united with the Ukrainian People's Republic
on January 22, 1919. This was mostly a symbolic act
, however. Because western Ukraine experienced different legal, social and political norms than did the rest of Ukraine it was to enjoy autonomy within the united Ukraine. Furthermore, western Ukrainians retained their own Ukrainian Galician Army
and government structure. And despite the formal union, the Western Ukrainian Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic fought separate wars. The former was preoccupied with a conflict with Poland while the latter struggled with Soviet and Russian
forces.
Relations between the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) and the Kiev-based Ukrainian People's Republic
were somewhat strained. The leadership of the former tended to be more conservative in orientation. Well-versed in the culture of the Austrian parliamentary system and an orderly approach to government, they looked upon the socialist revolutionary attitude
of their Kiev-based peers with some dismay and with the concern that the social unrest in the East should not spread to Galicia. Likewise, the West Ukrainian troops were more disciplined while those of Kiev's Ukrainian People's Army
were more chaotic and prone to committing pogroms, something actively opposed by the western Ukrainians. The poor discipline and insubordination by military leaders of Kiev's Ukrainian People's Army shocked representatives from Galicia to Kiev.
During the Polish-Ukrainian War
the army of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was able to hold off Poland for approximately nine months. By July 1919 Polish forces took over most of the territory claimed by the West Ukrainian People's Republic.
), while most of the army, consisting of about 50,000 soldiers, crossed into the territory of the Ukrainian People's Republic
and continued the struggle for Ukrainian independence there.
In July 1919 the West Ukrainian People's Republic established a government-in-exile in the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi
. Relations between the exiled Western Ukrainian government and the Kiev-based government continued to deteriorate, in part because the Western Ukrainians saw the Poles as the main enemy (with the Russians a potential ally) while Symon Petliura in Kiev considered the Poles a potential ally against his Russian enemies. In response to the Kiev government's diplomatic talks with Poland, the Western Ukrainian government sent a delegation to the Soviet 12th Army
, but ultimately rejected Soviet conditions for an alliance. In August 1919, Kost Levytsky, head of the Western Ukrainian state secretariat, proposed an alliance with Anton Denikin's White Russians
which would involve guaranteed autonomy within a Russian state. Western Ukrainian diplomats in Paris sought contact with Russian counterparts in that city. The Russian Whites had mixed views of this proposed alliance. On the one hand, they were wary of the Galicians' Russophobia and concerned about the effect of such an alliance on their relationship with Poland. On the other hand, the Russians respected the discipline and training of the Galician soldiers and understood that an agreement with the Western Ukrainians would deprive Kiev's Ukrainian People's Army
, at war with the Russian Whites, of its best soldiers. In November 1919 the Ukrainian Galician Army
, without authorization from their government, signed a ceasefire with the White Russians and placed their army under White Russian authority. In talks with Kiev's Directorate government, Western Ukrainian president Petrushevych argued that the Whites would be defeated anyway but that the alliance with them would strengthen relations with the Western powers, who supported the Whites, and would help the Ukrainian military forces for their later struggle against the victorious Soviets. Such arguments were condemned by Petliura. As a result, Petrushevych recognized that the West Ukrainian government could no longer work with Petliura's Directorate and on November 15 the government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic left for exile in Vienna.
In April 1920 Poland
and Kiev's Ukrainian People's Republic agreed in the Treaty of Warsaw
to a border on the river Zbruch
, officially recognizing Polish control over the disputed territory of Eastern Galicia, which brought great discontent among the Galician Ukrainians who felt betrayed by the Kiev-based Directorate of Symon Petliura. The exiled Western Ukrainian government did not agree to this treaty and continued pressing for its interests during the negotiations following World War I at the Paris Peace Conference
. These efforts ultimately resulted in the League of Nations declaring on February 23, 1921 that Galicia lay outside the territory of Poland, that Poland did not have the mandate to establish administrative control in that country, and that Poland was merely the occupying military power of eastern Galicia, whose fate would be determined by the Council of Ambassadors at the League of Nations. After a long series of further negotiations, on March 14, 1923 it was decided that eastern Galicia would be incorporated into Poland "taking into consideration that Poland has recognized that in regard to the eastern part of Galicia ethnographic conditions fully deserve its autonomous status." The government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic then disbanded, while the Polish government reneged on its promise of autonomy for eastern Galicia.
Elections on Ukrainian-controlled territory were held from November 22 to November 25 for the 150-member Ukrainian National Council that was to serve as the legislative body. Yevhen Petrushevych
, the chairman of the Council and a former member of the Austro-Hungarian
parliament, automatically became the Republic's president. Under him was the State Secretariat, whose members included Kost Levytsky
(president of the secretariat and the Republic's minister of finance), Dmytro Vitovsky
(head of the armed forces), Lonhyn Tsehelsky
(secretary of internal affairs), and Oleksander Barvinsky
(secretary of education and religious affairs), among others. The country was essentially ruled through a two-party system and was dominated by the Ukrainian National Democrats
and its smaller rival, the Ukrainian Radical Party
. The ruling National Democrats gave some of their seats to minor parties in order to ensure that the government represented a broad national coalition.
The West Ukrainian People's Republic governed an area with a population of approximately 4 million people for much of its nine-month existence. Its capital was Lviv
from November 1 until the loss of that city to Polish forces on November 21, Ternopil
until late December 1918 and then Stanislaviv (now named Ivano-Frankivsk
) until May 26, 1919. Despite the war, the West Ukrainian People's Republic maintained the stability of the pre-war Austrian administration intact, employing Ukrainian and Polish
professionals. The boundaries of counties and communities were kept the same as they had been during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The county, regional, and local courts continued to function as they had while the country had been a part of Austria, as did schools, the postal service, telegraphs and railroads. Austrian laws remained temporarily in force. Likewise, the government generally retained the Austrian system of tax collection, although war losses had impoverished the population and the amount of taxes collected was minimal. Most of the government's revenue came from the export of oil and salt.
Although a small minority in the rural areas, prior to World War I almost 39% of eastern Galician lands had been in the hands of large Polish landowners. The Western Ukrainian People's Republic passed laws that confiscated vast manorial estates from private landlords and distributed this land to landless peasants. Other than in those limited cases, the right to private property was made fundamental and expropriation of lands was forbidden. This differentiated the policies of the West Ukrainian People's Republic from those of the socialistic
Kiev-based Ukrainian government.
The territory of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was divided into 12 military districts whose commanders were responsible for conscripting soldiers. The government was able to mobilize 100,000 soldiers in the spring of 1919, but due to a lack of military supplies only 40,000 were battle-ready.
In general, the government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was orderly and well-organized. This contrasted with the chaotic state of the Ukrainian governments
that arose on the territory of the former Russian Empire.
the state language. According to this law, however, members of national minorities had the right to communicate with the government in their own languages.
Although relations between Poles and the West Ukrainian People's Republic were antagonistic, those between the Republic and its Jewish citizens was generally neutral or positive. Deep-seated rivalries existed between the Jewish and Polish communities, and antisemitism, particularly supported by the Polish National Democratic Party, became a feature of Polish national ideology. As a result, many Jews came to consider Polish independence
as the least desirable option following the first world war. Although Jewish political organizations declared their neutrality in the Polish-Ukrainian struggle, many individual Jews offered their support or sympathized with the West Ukrainian government in its conflict with Poland, particularly after they were recognized as a national minority by the Ukrainian government. Jewish officers of the defunct Austro-Hungarian army joined the West Ukrainian military, and Jewish judges, lawyers, doctors and railroad employees joined the West Ukrainian civil service. Jews were also able to create their own police units and fielded their own battalion in the army of the Western Ukrainian National Republic
. The Council of Ministers of the West Ukrainian National Republic bought Yiddish-language
textbooks and visual aids for Jewish schools and provided assistance to Jewish victims of the Polish pogrom in Lviv
. Approximately one-third of the seats in the national parliament, an amount roughly equal to the share of the population, were reserved for the national minorities (Poles, Jews, Slovaks and others). The Poles boycotted the elections, while the Jews, despite declaring their neutrality in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict, participated and were represented by approximately 10 percent of the delegates. The government fought antisemitic acts by punishing robbery with execution, and respected Jewish declared neutrality during the Polish-Ukrainian conflict. By the orders of Yevhen Petrushevych
it was forbidden to mobilize Jews against their will or to otherwise force them to contribute to the Ukrainian military effort.
The republic issued about one hundred types of postage stamp
s during its brief existence, all but two of which are overprint
s on existing stamps of Austria
or Bosnia
.
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
and Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
and included the cities of Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, Przemyśl
Przemysl
Przemyśl is a city in south-eastern Poland with 66,756 inhabitants, as of June 2009. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship....
, Kolomyia
Kolomyia
Kolomyia or Kolomyya, formerly known as Kolomea , is a city located on the Prut River in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast , in western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative centre of the Kolomyia Raion , the city is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
, and Stanislaviv
Ivano-Frankivsk
Ivano-Frankivsk is a historic city located in the western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast, municipality....
. It is often referred to by its Ukrainian-language acronym, ZUNR. The West Ukrainian People's Republic was politically dominated by the Ukrainian National Democrats, a democratic political party that was guided by varying amounts of Greek Catholic
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...
, liberal, and socialist ideology although several other political parties were also represented.
The coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
of the West Ukrainian People's Republic showed a yellow lion against a blue background looking to the left. The colors of the flag were blue and yellow.
Background
According to the Austro-Hungarian census of 1910, the territory claimed by the West Ukrainian People's Republic had about 5.4 million people. Of these, 3,291,000 (approximately 60%) were UkrainiansUkrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
, 1,351,000 (approximately 25%) were Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, 660,000 (approximately 12%) were Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, and the rest included Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, Hungarians, Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
, Czechs, Slovaks
Slovaks
The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...
, Romani, Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
and others. The cities and towns of this largely rural region were mostly populated by Poles and Jews, while the Ukrainians dominated the countryside. This would prove problematic for the Ukrainians, because the largest city, Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, had a majority Polish population and was considered to be one of the most important Polish cities. Conflict
Polish-Ukrainian War
The Polish–Ukrainian War of 1918 and 1919 was a conflict between the forces of the Second Polish Republic and West Ukrainian People's Republic for the control over Eastern Galicia after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.-Background:...
between the West Ukrainian People's Republic and Poland
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...
was thus inevitable.
Independence and struggle for existence
The West Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed on November 1, 1918, several days before Poland declared its own independence. The Ukrainian National Rada (a council consisting of all Ukrainian representatives from both houses of the Austrian parliament and from the provincial dietsDiet (assembly)
In politics, a diet is a formal deliberative assembly. The term is mainly used historically for the Imperial Diet, the general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, and for the legislative bodies of certain countries.-Etymology:...
in Galicia and Bukovina) had planned to declare the West Ukrainian People's Republic on November 3, 1918 but moved the date forward to November 1 due to reports that the Polish Liquidation Committee
Polish Liquidation Committee
The Polish Liquidation Committee was a temporary Polish government body in Galicia formed towards the end of World War I. Created on October 28, 1918, with its seat in Kraków, the Committee was headed by Wincenty Witos and Ignacy Daszyński...
was to transfer from Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
to Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
. Shortly after the republic proclaimed independence from the Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
Empire a popular uprising
Battle of Lwów (1918)
Battle of Lviv begun on 1 November 1918 and lasted till May 1919 and was a six months long conflict between the forces of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and local Polish civilian population assisted later by regular Polish Army forces for the control...
took place in Lviv, where most residents were Polish and did not want to be part of a non-Polish state. A few weeks later Lviv's rebellious Poles received support from Poland. On November 9 Polish forces attempted to seize the Drohobych oil fields by surprise but, outnumbered by the Ukrainians, they were driven back. Thus a stalemate resulted, in which the Poles retained control over Lviv and a narrow strip of land around a railway linking Lviv to Poland, while the rest of eastern Galicia was under the control of the West Ukrainian National Republic.
An agreement to unite western Ukraine with the rest of Ukraine was made as early as December 1, 1918. The government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic officially united with the Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
on January 22, 1919. This was mostly a symbolic act
Act Zluky
The Unification Act was an agreement signed on January 22, 1919 by the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic on the St. Sophia Square in Kiev...
, however. Because western Ukraine experienced different legal, social and political norms than did the rest of Ukraine it was to enjoy autonomy within the united Ukraine. Furthermore, western Ukrainians retained their own Ukrainian Galician Army
Ukrainian Galician Army
Ukrainian Galician Army , was the Ukrainian military of the West Ukrainian National Republic during and after the Polish-Ukrainian War. -Military equipment:...
and government structure. And despite the formal union, the Western Ukrainian Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic fought separate wars. The former was preoccupied with a conflict with Poland while the latter struggled with Soviet and Russian
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
forces.
Relations between the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) and the Kiev-based Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
were somewhat strained. The leadership of the former tended to be more conservative in orientation. Well-versed in the culture of the Austrian parliamentary system and an orderly approach to government, they looked upon the socialist revolutionary attitude
Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Ukrainian Social Democratic Labour Party was the leading party of the Ukrainian People's Republic and was also known as SDPists or Esdeky. The party was reformed in 1905 at the Second Congress of the RUP and was pursuing the Marxist ideology...
of their Kiev-based peers with some dismay and with the concern that the social unrest in the East should not spread to Galicia. Likewise, the West Ukrainian troops were more disciplined while those of Kiev's Ukrainian People's Army
Ukrainian People's Army
The Ukrainian People's Army , also known as the Ukrainian National Army were often quickly reorganized units of the former Russian Imperial Army or newly formed volunteer detachments that later joined the national armed forces. The army for a long period lacked a certain degree of uniformity,...
were more chaotic and prone to committing pogroms, something actively opposed by the western Ukrainians. The poor discipline and insubordination by military leaders of Kiev's Ukrainian People's Army shocked representatives from Galicia to Kiev.
During the Polish-Ukrainian War
Polish-Ukrainian War
The Polish–Ukrainian War of 1918 and 1919 was a conflict between the forces of the Second Polish Republic and West Ukrainian People's Republic for the control over Eastern Galicia after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.-Background:...
the army of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was able to hold off Poland for approximately nine months. By July 1919 Polish forces took over most of the territory claimed by the West Ukrainian People's Republic.
Exile and diplomacy
Part of the defeated army found refuge in Czechoslovakia and became known there under the name Ukrajinská brigáda (in CzechCzech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
), while most of the army, consisting of about 50,000 soldiers, crossed into the territory of the Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
and continued the struggle for Ukrainian independence there.
In July 1919 the West Ukrainian People's Republic established a government-in-exile in the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi
Kamianets-Podilskyi
Kamyanets-Podilsky or Kamienets-Podolsky is a city located on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi...
. Relations between the exiled Western Ukrainian government and the Kiev-based government continued to deteriorate, in part because the Western Ukrainians saw the Poles as the main enemy (with the Russians a potential ally) while Symon Petliura in Kiev considered the Poles a potential ally against his Russian enemies. In response to the Kiev government's diplomatic talks with Poland, the Western Ukrainian government sent a delegation to the Soviet 12th Army
12th Army (Soviet Union)
The Soviet Union's 12th Army was a field army formed multiple times during the Russian Civil War and World War II.-Civil War & Polish-Soviet War:...
, but ultimately rejected Soviet conditions for an alliance. In August 1919, Kost Levytsky, head of the Western Ukrainian state secretariat, proposed an alliance with Anton Denikin's White Russians
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
which would involve guaranteed autonomy within a Russian state. Western Ukrainian diplomats in Paris sought contact with Russian counterparts in that city. The Russian Whites had mixed views of this proposed alliance. On the one hand, they were wary of the Galicians' Russophobia and concerned about the effect of such an alliance on their relationship with Poland. On the other hand, the Russians respected the discipline and training of the Galician soldiers and understood that an agreement with the Western Ukrainians would deprive Kiev's Ukrainian People's Army
Ukrainian People's Army
The Ukrainian People's Army , also known as the Ukrainian National Army were often quickly reorganized units of the former Russian Imperial Army or newly formed volunteer detachments that later joined the national armed forces. The army for a long period lacked a certain degree of uniformity,...
, at war with the Russian Whites, of its best soldiers. In November 1919 the Ukrainian Galician Army
Ukrainian Galician Army
Ukrainian Galician Army , was the Ukrainian military of the West Ukrainian National Republic during and after the Polish-Ukrainian War. -Military equipment:...
, without authorization from their government, signed a ceasefire with the White Russians and placed their army under White Russian authority. In talks with Kiev's Directorate government, Western Ukrainian president Petrushevych argued that the Whites would be defeated anyway but that the alliance with them would strengthen relations with the Western powers, who supported the Whites, and would help the Ukrainian military forces for their later struggle against the victorious Soviets. Such arguments were condemned by Petliura. As a result, Petrushevych recognized that the West Ukrainian government could no longer work with Petliura's Directorate and on November 15 the government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic left for exile in Vienna.
In April 1920 Poland
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...
and Kiev's Ukrainian People's Republic agreed in the Treaty of Warsaw
Treaty of Warsaw (1920)
The Treaty of Warsaw of April 1920 was an alliance between the Second Polish Republic, represented by Józef Piłsudski, and the Ukrainian People's Republic, represented by Symon Petlura, against Bolshevik Russia...
to a border on the river Zbruch
Zbruch River
Zbruch River is a river in Western Ukraine, a left tributary of the Dniester.It flows within the Podolia Upland starting from the Avratinian Upland. Zbruch is the namesake of the Zbruch idol, a sculpture of a Slavic deity in the form of a column with a head with four faces, discovered in 1848 by...
, officially recognizing Polish control over the disputed territory of Eastern Galicia, which brought great discontent among the Galician Ukrainians who felt betrayed by the Kiev-based Directorate of Symon Petliura. The exiled Western Ukrainian government did not agree to this treaty and continued pressing for its interests during the negotiations following World War I at the Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
. These efforts ultimately resulted in the League of Nations declaring on February 23, 1921 that Galicia lay outside the territory of Poland, that Poland did not have the mandate to establish administrative control in that country, and that Poland was merely the occupying military power of eastern Galicia, whose fate would be determined by the Council of Ambassadors at the League of Nations. After a long series of further negotiations, on March 14, 1923 it was decided that eastern Galicia would be incorporated into Poland "taking into consideration that Poland has recognized that in regard to the eastern part of Galicia ethnographic conditions fully deserve its autonomous status." The government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic then disbanded, while the Polish government reneged on its promise of autonomy for eastern Galicia.
Government
Yevhen Petrushevych
Yevhen Petrushevych was a Ukrainian lawyer, politician, and president of the Western Ukrainian National Republic formed after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918.-Biography:He was born on June 3, 1863, in the town of Busk, of Galicia in the clerical...
, the chairman of the Council and a former member of the Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
parliament, automatically became the Republic's president. Under him was the State Secretariat, whose members 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:...
(president of the secretariat and the Republic's minister of finance), Dmytro Vitovsky
Dmytro Vitovsky
Dmytro Vitovsky was a Ukrainian politician and military leader....
(head of the armed forces), Lonhyn Tsehelsky
Lonhyn Tsehelsky
Lonhyn Tsehelsky was a western Ukrainian lawyer, journalist and political leader who served in the Austrian parliament, who became Secretary of Internal Affairs and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs within the government of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, and who was one of the founders of...
(secretary of internal affairs), and Oleksander Barvinsky
Oleksander Barvinsky
Oleksander Barvinsky was an important western Ukrainian cultural figure and politician, a founder of the Christian Social Party in western Ukraine. He also was a member of the Austrian parliament, chaired the Shevchenko Scientific Society and held the post of secretary of education and religious...
(secretary of education and religious affairs), among others. The country was essentially ruled through a two-party system and was dominated by the Ukrainian National Democrats
Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance
The Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, 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...
and its smaller rival, the 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...
. The ruling National Democrats gave some of their seats to minor parties in order to ensure that the government represented a broad national coalition.
The West Ukrainian People's Republic governed an area with a population of approximately 4 million people for much of its nine-month existence. Its capital was Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
from November 1 until the loss of that city to Polish forces on November 21, Ternopil
Ternopil
Ternopil , is a city in western Ukraine, located on the banks of the Seret River. Ternopil is one of the major cities of Western Ukraine and the historical region of Galicia...
until late December 1918 and then Stanislaviv (now named Ivano-Frankivsk
Ivano-Frankivsk
Ivano-Frankivsk is a historic city located in the western Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast, municipality....
) until May 26, 1919. Despite the war, the West Ukrainian People's Republic maintained the stability of the pre-war Austrian administration intact, employing Ukrainian and Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
professionals. The boundaries of counties and communities were kept the same as they had been during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The county, regional, and local courts continued to function as they had while the country had been a part of Austria, as did schools, the postal service, telegraphs and railroads. Austrian laws remained temporarily in force. Likewise, the government generally retained the Austrian system of tax collection, although war losses had impoverished the population and the amount of taxes collected was minimal. Most of the government's revenue came from the export of oil and salt.
Although a small minority in the rural areas, prior to World War I almost 39% of eastern Galician lands had been in the hands of large Polish landowners. The Western Ukrainian People's Republic passed laws that confiscated vast manorial estates from private landlords and distributed this land to landless peasants. Other than in those limited cases, the right to private property was made fundamental and expropriation of lands was forbidden. This differentiated the policies of the West Ukrainian People's Republic from those of the socialistic
Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party
Ukrainian Socialist-Revolutionary Party was a political party in the Russian Empire from 1907-1917. It was simply referred as Essery and was one of the most influential in Ukraine as it was representing the interest of the major social class - peasants...
Kiev-based Ukrainian government.
The territory of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was divided into 12 military districts whose commanders were responsible for conscripting soldiers. The government was able to mobilize 100,000 soldiers in the spring of 1919, but due to a lack of military supplies only 40,000 were battle-ready.
In general, the government of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was orderly and well-organized. This contrasted with the chaotic state of the Ukrainian governments
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
that arose on the territory of the former Russian Empire.
Policies towards national minorities and inter-ethnic relations
The Ukrainian nationalism that developed before the First World War in Austria, while anti-Polish, was not very xenophobic and not antisemitic. and the West Ukrainian People's Republic sought to guarantee the rights of its national minorities. In November 1918 a decision was made to include cabinet-level state secretaries of Polish, Jewish and German affairs. During the entire time of its existence, there were no cases of mass repressions against national minorities in territories held by the West Ukrainian People's Republic. This differentiated the Ukrainian government from that of Poland. On February 15, 1919, a law was passed that made UkrainianUkrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
the state language. According to this law, however, members of national minorities had the right to communicate with the government in their own languages.
Although relations between Poles and the West Ukrainian People's Republic were antagonistic, those between the Republic and its Jewish citizens was generally neutral or positive. Deep-seated rivalries existed between the Jewish and Polish communities, and antisemitism, particularly supported by the Polish National Democratic Party, became a feature of Polish national ideology. As a result, many Jews came to consider Polish independence
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...
as the least desirable option following the first world war. Although Jewish political organizations declared their neutrality in the Polish-Ukrainian struggle, many individual Jews offered their support or sympathized with the West Ukrainian government in its conflict with Poland, particularly after they were recognized as a national minority by the Ukrainian government. Jewish officers of the defunct Austro-Hungarian army joined the West Ukrainian military, and Jewish judges, lawyers, doctors and railroad employees joined the West Ukrainian civil service. Jews were also able to create their own police units and fielded their own battalion in the army of the Western Ukrainian National Republic
Ukrainian Galician Army
Ukrainian Galician Army , was the Ukrainian military of the West Ukrainian National Republic during and after the Polish-Ukrainian War. -Military equipment:...
. The Council of Ministers of the West Ukrainian National Republic bought Yiddish-language
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
textbooks and visual aids for Jewish schools and provided assistance to Jewish victims of the Polish pogrom in Lviv
Lwów pogrom (1918)
The Lwów pogrom of the Jewish population of Lwów took place on November 21–23, 1918 during the Polish-Ukrainian War. In the course of the three days of unrest in the city, an estimated 52-150 Jewish residents were murdered and hundreds injured, with widespread looting carried out by Polish...
. Approximately one-third of the seats in the national parliament, an amount roughly equal to the share of the population, were reserved for the national minorities (Poles, Jews, Slovaks and others). The Poles boycotted the elections, while the Jews, despite declaring their neutrality in the Polish-Ukrainian conflict, participated and were represented by approximately 10 percent of the delegates. The government fought antisemitic acts by punishing robbery with execution, and respected Jewish declared neutrality during the Polish-Ukrainian conflict. By the orders of Yevhen Petrushevych
Yevhen Petrushevych
Yevhen Petrushevych was a Ukrainian lawyer, politician, and president of the Western Ukrainian National Republic formed after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918.-Biography:He was born on June 3, 1863, in the town of Busk, of Galicia in the clerical...
it was forbidden to mobilize Jews against their will or to otherwise force them to contribute to the Ukrainian military effort.
Postage stamps
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
s during its brief existence, all but two of which are overprint
Overprint
An overprint is an additional layer of text or graphics added to the face of a postage stamp or banknote after it has been printed. Post offices most often use overprints for internal administrative purposes such as accounting but they are also employed in public mail...
s on existing stamps of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
or Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
.
See also
- Ukrainian Galician ArmyUkrainian Galician ArmyUkrainian Galician Army , was the Ukrainian military of the West Ukrainian National Republic during and after the Polish-Ukrainian War. -Military equipment:...
, or UHA - the military of the West Ukrainian National Republic - Galician Soviet Socialist RepublicGalician Soviet Socialist RepublicThe Galician Soviet Socialist Republic existed from July 8, 1920 to September 21, 1920 during the Polish-Soviet War within the area of the South-Western front of the Red Army...
, revolutionary government installed by Soviet Russia in 1920