Galicia and the international scene, 1918-1923

Writings that deal with the period 1919 to 1923, when the legal status of eastern Galicia was not yet decided upon in the international forum, consist primarily of studies and documents on four subjects: the initial years of the Polish administra­tion; the diplomatic efforts launched first at home and then abroad by Ukrainian and Polish leaders; the reaction of the Entente to the problem of eastern Galicia; and the establishment of a short-lived Soviet Galician Republic.

Mykhailo Lozyns’kyi and Petro Karmans’kyi have provided the most detailed account of Polish rule between 1918 and 1920. Their account, interspersed with numerous quotations from the contemporary press and lists of arrested Ukrain­ians, stresses the various kinds of repression that accompanied the Polish ad­vance.²⁶ There are several other documentary reports compiled by Ukrainians,²⁷ as well as similar documents and polemics by Polish authors who describe the same events in terms of the alleged “Ruthenian terror” in Galicia.²⁸

With regard to diplomatic efforts, several memoranda are available indicating that, while leaders from the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic were calling for independence or union with Ukrainians in the former Russian Empire, local Russophile leaders were proposing unification of Galicia with a democratic Russia,²⁹ and when that option proved impractical, they hoped for union at least of the Lemkian region with other “Carpatho-Russians” in the new state of Czechoslovakia.³⁰

26 Mykhailo Lozyns’kyi and P. Karmans’kyi, Krivava knyha, pt 1: Materialy do pot’s'koi invazii na ukrains’ki zemli Skhidnol Halychyny 1918-1919 (Vienna 1919) and pt 2: Ukrains’ka Halychyna pid okupatsiieiu Pol’shchi v rr. 1919-1920 (Vienna: Vydannia Uriadu Zakhidno- Ukra'ins’koi Narodn’oi Republyky 1921).

27 Das Buch der blutigen Greueltaten: Beiträge zur Martyrologie der ukrainischen Bevolkerung Ostgaliziens während der polnischen Invasion, 1918/19 ([Vienna]: Regierung der Westukrainischen Volksrepublik 1919), translated into English as The Bloody Book: Returns Concerning the Invasion of the Poles in Ukrainian Territory cf East-Galicia in 1918! 19 ([Vienna]: Government of the West Ukrainian Republic 1919) and reprinted in Seeds of Conflict Series I, vol.

28 Henri Grappin, La terreur ruthene en Galicie (Paris 1919); Documents rutheno-ukrainiens (Paris: Bureau polonais de publications politiques 1919).

29 Supplique: les Russes des Karpathes delaisses et dignes de protection (Marburg 1917?); Dmitrij Markoff, Memoire sur les aspirations nationales des petits-russiens de l anden empire austro-hongrois (n.p. 1918); La Russie Carpathique: les raisons de sa reunion ä la Russie (Paris 1919).

30 Anthony Beskid and Dimitry Sobin, The Origin of the Lems, Slavs of Danubian Provenance: Memorandum to the Peace Conference Concerning their National Claims (Presov 1919); Dimitrij Sobin, Protet contre le partage de la contree russe des Carpathes: appel ä la justice du Congres de la Paix ä Paris (Prague: Ed. Gregr et fils 1919).

See also the Soviet explanation of these developments in R.H. Symonenko, “Do pytannia pro Skhidnu Halychynu naperedodni Paryz’koi myrnoi konferentsii 1919 r.,” in Naukovi zapysky Instytutu istorii, vol. IX (Kiev: AN URSR 1957). For Czechoslovak policy toward the Ukrainian problem during this period, including eastern Galicia, see Krzysztof Lewandowski, Sprawa ukrainska w polityce zagranicznej Czechoslowacji w latach 1918-1932 (Wroclaw: ZNIO-PAN 1974).

The more important, although ultimately unsuccessful, diplomatic efforts were carried out by the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic headed by levhen Petrushevych. By late 1919 this government had its headquarters in exile in Vienna and its representatives in several European capitals, most especially at the Paris Peace Conference.

31 Mykhailo Lozyns’kyi, Halychyna v rr. 1918-1920 (Vienna: Institut sociologique ukrainien 1922), reprinted with intro, by Ivan Kedryn (New York: Chervona kalyna 1970); idem, Moie spivrobitnytstvo z Prezydentom Petrushevychom (L’viv 1925).

32 L’ongin Tsehel’s’kyi, Vid legend do pravdy: spomyny pro podii v Ukraini zviazani z pershym lystopadom 1918 r. (New York and Philadelphia: Bulava 1960).

33 Les documents les plus importants de la republique ukrainienne de I'ouest (Vienna 1918); Ivan Khrapko, Zbirnyk zakoniv i postanov ukrains’koho pravytel'stva vidnosno zakordonnykh instytutsii (Vienna 1919).

34 Michael Lozynsky, Decisions du conseil suprème sur la Galicie orientale (Paris: Bureau ukrainien 1919); Mykhailo Lozyns’kyi, Pol's'ka koi’onizatsiia Skhidnoi Halychyny (Vienna: ‘Ukra'ins’kyi Prapor’ 1921); Politychne pytannia Skhidnoi Halychyny (Memorial Z.U.T. Ligy Natsiì na VII. Konferentsiiu Tov. Ligy Natsii u Vidni) (Vienna 1923); For Galicia! Appeal to world democracy (Geneva: Ukrainian Socialistic Revolutionary Party 1920); Julian Batchinsky, Protest of the Ukrainian Republic to the United States against the delivery of Eastern Galicia to the Polish domination (Washington, DC 1919); To the civilised nations of the world (Geneva: Committee of the Independent Ukraine 1920); E. Petrusevic [Petrushevych], Memoire concernant les territories ukrainiens sous la domination polonaise presente par la president du Conseil National Ukrainien à la 5me Assemblee de la Societe des Nations (Geneva 1924).

35 The arguments that eastern Galicia was potentially an economically self-sufficient unit were put forth most forcefully in La situation economique de la Galicie Orientale et son importance pour la reconstruction de 1’Europe (Geneva: Conseil national ukrainien 1922); and Eastern Galicia an Independent Commonwealth (n.p.: National Council of Eastern Galicia n.d.). See also S.R. [Stepan Rudnyts’kyi], Ekonomichni osnovy halyts’koiderzhavnosti (L’viv and Vienna: ‘Ukra'ins’kyi prapor’ 1921); and S.R. [Stepan Rudnyts’kyi], Halychyna i novi derzhavy levropy (Vienna: Ukra'ins’kyi prapor 1921).

The political argument that a Ukrainian-Galician state could become the Switzerland of the east is found in Mykhailo Lozyns’kyi, Za derzhavnu nezalezhnist' Halychyny: chomu are also studies of the Western Ukrainian government’s presence during the negotiations and its protests over the treaty signed at Riga on March 18, 1921, when Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine recognized Polish control over all of Galicia.^{[532] [533]} The diplomatic activity of the Polish government at the Paris Peace Conference regarding eastern Galicia is revealed in a collection of over 100 documents from late 1918 and 1919,^[534] as well as in two solid studies by the Polish scholars Zofia Zaks and Andrzej Partyka, who also discuss the aborted Polish proposals for autonomy in the region.^[535]

With regard to the Entente and its participation in redrawing the map of eastern Europe after World War I, there are still no general studies of western policy toward Galicia during this period. Certain aspects have been treated, however, such as the views of western experts and Peace Conference advisers regarding eastern Galicia,^[536] the interest of certain countries, especially France and England, in the oil fields of eastern Galicia,⁴⁰ the problem of eastern Galicia as a factor during the Polish-Soviet war of 1920,⁴¹ and the role-as viewed by Soviet wri- ters-of “American imperialists” in making eastern Galicia part of the mid-Euro- pean buffer zone against Bolshevik Russia.⁴²

Soviet interest in Galicia immediately after World War I took several concrete forms.

40 Zofia Zaks, “Walka dyplomatyczna o naft? wschodniogalicyjskj 1918-1923,’’ in Z dziejdw stosunkdw polsko-radzieckich, vol. IV (Warsaw: Ksijzka i Wiedza 1969), pp. 37-60; Barbara Ratyhska, Rola nafty w ksztahowaniu stosunku panstw zachodnich do sprawy Galicji Wschodniej 1918-1919 (Warsaw: Polski Instytut Spraw Mifdzynarodnych 1957).

41 Zofla Zaks, “Problem Galicji Wschodniej w czasie wojny polsko-radzieckiej,” in Studia z dziejdw ZSRR i Europy Srodkowej, vol. VIII (Wroclaw, Warsaw, Cracow, and Gdansk: ZNIO- PAN 1972), pp. 79-109.

42 O.H. Tsybko, “Amerykans’ki imperialisty-orhanizatory i natkhnennyky zakhvatu zakhidno­ukrains’kykh zemeT pol’s’kymy panamy,” Naukovi zapysky LDU, XXV: Seriia istorychna, 5 (L’viv 1953), pp. 47-54.

43 H. Barbara, Drohobyts’ke povstannia (L’viv: Tsentral’nyi komitet KPZU 1929); I. Bohodyst, Borot’ba trudiashchykh Halychyny za Radians'ku vladu v 1918-1920 rr. (L’viv: Knyzhkovo- zhurnal’ne vyd-vo 1952); O.Iu.Karpenko, “Borot’ba robitnychoho klasu Skhidnoi Halychyny proty vlady ukrains’koi burzhuazii pid chas isnuvannia ZUNR,” Z istorii zakhidnoukrains’kykh zemei, vol. Ill, ed. I.P. Kryp”iakevych (Kiev: AN URSR 1958), pp. 69-96; O.Iu. Karpenko, “Z istorii revoliutsiinoi borot’by zakhidnoukrains’kykh trudiashchykh za vladu Rad, za vozz”iednannia z Radians’koiu Ukrainoiu (1918-1919 rr.),” Visnyk LDU: Seriia istorychna [I] (L’viv 1965), pp. 64-71.

44 B.I. Tyshchyk, Halyts’ka sotsialistychna Radians'ka respublika (1920) (L’viv: LU 1970).

See also the memoirs of Galicians who were in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution and then returned home to propagate revolution: Za vladu Rad: spohady uchasnykiv Velyko'i Zhovtnevo'i sotsialistychnoi revoliutsii ta borot’by za Radians’ku vladu na zakhidnoukrain- s'kykh zemliakh (L’viv: Knyzhkovo-zhurnal’ne vyd-vo 1957).

45 A.D. Iaroshenko, “Vplyv Zhovtnevo’i revoliutsii na rozvytok revoliutsiinoho rukhu trudiashchykh zakhidnoukrains’kykh zemei’ (1917-1919 rr.),” in Bil’shovyky Ukrainy v borot’bi za peremohu Zhovtnevo'i revoliutsii (Kiev 1957), pp. 377-410; V. Osechyns’kyi and P. Chelak, “Vplyv velyko'i zhovtnevo'i sotsialistychnoi revoliutsii na revoliutsiino-vyzvol’nu borot’bu trudiashchykh Zakhidnoi Ukrainy 1918-1923,” in 40 rokiv Velykoho Zhovtnia (L’viv 1957), pp. 153-186.

See also the Polish writer on this period: Janusz Radziejowski, "Ideologiczne i organizacyjne ksztaftowanie sif ntchu komunistycznego na terenie Ukrainy Zachodniej w latach 1918-1923,” Z Pola Walki, XIV, 2 (Warsaw 1971), pp. 27-48. tional is Zofia Zaks’ analysis of Soviet Russia’s continued interest (1920-1923) in eastern Galicia, first as a stepping stone to a potentially revived Soviet Hunga­ry, then as terrain for revolutionary activity against Polish rule.^[537]