Western Ukraine vs Poland: unsuccessful attempt of the Galician statehood
1 November 1918. Another state formation appeared on the political map of Eastern Europe. In principle, there was nothing surprising in this. As a result of defeat in the First World War several empires collapsed at once. Germany lost all its colonies in Africa and Oceania, and the other two empires, the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman, completely ceased to exist, breaking up into a whole series of independent states.
The course of the transformation of Galicia into the Ukrainian Republic
As early as October 7. The 1918 of the Regency Council, which met in Warsaw, spoke of the need to restore Poland’s political sovereignty. The territory of the Polish state was supposed to enter, after the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth belonged to the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary and Prussia. Naturally, they also talked about the lands of the modern western regions of Ukraine, which, as part of Austria-Hungary, were so-called. "Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria". However, Ukrainian, and more specifically Galician, nationalists did not agree with the plans of the Polish statesmen. The political movement, diligently nurtured by the Austro-Hungarian ruling circles in the interests of crushing the Eastern Slavs and countering pro-Russian sentiments, had acquired significant influence in Galicia by the time of the end of the First World War. According to the Ukrainian nationalists, the Galician lands should have been incorporated into the sovereign Ukrainian state, and not become part of a reviving Poland. Therefore, when 9 in October 1918, the deputies of the Austrian parliament from Poland decided to restore Polish statehood and extend its sovereignty to all the former lands of Rzeczpospolita, including Galicia, the reaction of Ukrainian nationalists followed immediately. 10 in October 1918, the Ukrainian faction, headed by Yevgeny Petrushevich, appointed a convocation of the Ukrainian National Council (ONS) in Lviv on October 18. Yevgeny Petrushevich was elected its chairman, but he was virtually without a break in Vienna, where he held consultations with the Austrian ruling circles. Therefore, the actual leadership of the council was exercised by Kost Levitsky, who, in fact, can be considered the “author” of Galician statehood.
A native of the small town of Tysmenytsya (today it is located in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine and is a district center), Kost Levitsky was born on November 18 1859 in the family of a Ukrainian priest of gentry origin. That is, at the time of the events in question, he was already under sixty. Levitsky was educated at the Stanislavov Grammar School, and then at law faculties at Lviv and Vienna universities. In 1884, he became a doctor of jurisprudence, and in 1890, he opened his own law office in Lviv. At that time, Lviv was not at all a Ukrainian city. Galicians here lived no more than 22% of the total urban population, and the majority of residents were Poles and Jews. Lviv was considered a traditional Polish city, lectures at Lviv University since the end of the 19th century. were conducted in Polish. However, it was in Lviv, as the largest cultural center of Galicia, that the Western Ukrainian nationalist movement became more active. Levitsky became one of his most important personalities. He founded the first Ukrainian Lawyers ’Circle of Law Society in 1881, became a participant in the creation of several Ukrainian trade and craft unions, including the People’s Commerce Society and the Dniester Insurance Company, as well as the Regional Credit Union. Levitsky was also engaged in translation activities, in particular, he translated into German the laws of Austro-Hungary written in German, compiled the German-Ukrainian legislative dictionary. The political activities of Kostya Levitsky proceeded along the lines of Galician (Ukrainian) nationalism. So, in 1907-1918. He was a member of the House of Ambassadors of the Austrian Parliament, President of the People’s Committee of the Ukrainian National Democratic Party. It was Levitsky who headed the Main Ukrainian Rada, created by Galician nationalist parties operating in Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the First World War.
Sich Riflemen and Uprising in Lviv
1918, assembled at the end of October, under the leadership of Levitsky, advocated the creation of an independent Ukrainian state on the territory of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia. As you can see, the inclusion of other lands into the Ukrainian state has not been discussed yet. And the struggle for the sovereignty of Galicia was not easy - after all, the 25% of the region’s population were Poles, who naturally considered it necessary for Galicia to become part of the reviving Polish state and strongly opposed the plans of the Ukrainian nationalists for the approval of “separatist”. Understanding that in the time of trouble, caused by the defeat of Austria-Hungary in the First World War, Galicia has every chance of self-determination, the Ukrainian nationalists decided to enlist the support of the armed forces that could protect the lands of the region from the territorial claims of Poland. This armed force was the regiments of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen - units of the old Austro-Hungarian army, staffed by immigrants from Galicia and Transcarpathia. As you know, the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen began to form before the beginning of the First World War from among volunteers who lived in Galicia and were ready to fight under the Austro-Hungarian flags. The basis of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen were youth militant organizations of the Galician nationalists - "Falcon", "Plast". After the outbreak of the First World War, the Main Ukrainian Rada, assembled by the three main political parties of Galicia (national democrats, social democrats and radicals), called on Ukrainian youth to join the ranks of the Sich riflemen and fight on the side of the “central powers” Of Hungary.
September 3 The 1914, formed by the volunteer legion of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, took the oath of allegiance to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So the Habsburgs got soldiers from Galicia. However, for a long time serious artillery missions were not assigned to the artillery - the Austro-Hungarian command doubted the reliability of these units, although the archers tried their best to demonstrate their militancy. Initially, the Legion of the Sich Riflemen included two and a half kuren (battalion). Each hut, in turn, included 4 hundreds (companies), and a hundred - 4 couples (platoon), 4 swarm (branches) for 10-15 archers. In addition to the foot smokers, the legion also included the hundreds of horse, hundreds of machine guns, hundreds of engineering and auxiliary units. The command paid great attention to the ideological treatment of the Suevikov, for which purpose a special unit was created under the name “print flat”, which carried out agitation and propaganda tasks. It was Sich archers during the winter campaign 1914-1915. defended the Carpathian aisles, where they lost their first team to 2 / 3. Great losses forced the Austro-Hungarian command to move to the practice of recruiting the legion at the expense of conscripts. Moreover, they began to call upon local peasants - Rusyns, who sympathized with Russia and treated with hatred both Austro-Hungarians and Galicians (the last Rusins of Transcarpathia were considered traitors to the “Russian” people). The transition to conscription recruiting further reduced the combat capability of the Sich Riflemen. However, the legion of the Sich continued to serve in Ukraine. By November 1 1918, the main units of the Legion were stationed in the vicinity of Chernivtsi. It was on them and decided, first of all, to rely on the nationalists in declaring the independence of Galicia. In addition, the council hoped to use the support of those Austro-Hungarian units, which were largely staffed by Ukrainian conscripts. We are talking about the 15 Infantry Regiment in Ternopil, the 19 Infantry Regiment in Lviv, the 9 and 45 Infantry Regiments in Peremyshl, the 77 Infantry Regiment in Yaroslav, the 20 and 95 Infantry Regiments in the Yaroslav Infantry Regiment, the 24 and 36 Infantry Regiments, the 35 Infantry Regiment in Yaroslav, the XNUMX and XNUMX Infantry Regiments, the XNUMX Infantry Regiment in Yaroslav, XNUMX and XNUMX Infantry Regiments (Ivano-Frankivsk), XNUMX-m and XNUMX-m infantry regiments in Kolomyya and XNUMX-m infantry regiment in Zolochiv. As you can see, the list of military units, which the nationalists were going to rely on, was very significant. Another thing is that the Poles also had at their disposal significant armed formations that simply did not intend to give up Galicia to the Ukrainian nationalists.
On the night of November 1 1918, military units of the Sich Riflemen raised an armed uprising in Lviv, Stanislav, Ternopil, Zolochiv, Sokale, Rava-Russkaya, Kolomyia, Snyatyn, and Pechenezhin. The power of the Ukrainian National Council was proclaimed in these cities. In Lviv, around 1,5, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and officers who served in units of the Austro-Hungarian army occupied the building of the Austrian military command, the administration of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, the Diet of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, the building of the railway station, post office, army and police barracks. The Austrian garrison did not resist and was disarmed, and the commandant-general of Lvov was placed under arrest. The Austro-Hungarian governor of Galicia handed over power to the vice-governor Volodymyr Detskevich, whose candidacy was supported by the Ukrainian National Council. 3 November 1918 The Ukrainian National Council published a manifesto on the independence of Galicia and proclaimed the creation of an independent Ukrainian state in the territory of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia. Almost simultaneously with the performance of the Sich riflemen, the uprising in Lviv was raised by the Poles, who were not going to recognize the authority of the Ukrainian National Council. In addition, in other areas of the proposed Western Ukrainian state was restless. In Bukovina, the desire to join is not in the Ukrainian state, but in Romania, the local Romanian community said. The struggle of the Provenger, Pro-Czechoslovak, Pro-Ukrainian and Pro-Russian factions began in Transcarpathia. In the very Galicia, the Lemkis made a speech - a local group of Rusyns, proclaiming the creation of two republics - the Russian People's Republic of Lemko and the Republic of Comanche. The Poles announced the creation of the Tarnobrzeg Republic. The date of November 1 1918 actually dates the beginning of the Polish-Ukrainian war, which lasted until July 17 1919.
The beginning of the Polish-Ukrainian war
At first, the war had the character of periodic clashes between armed groups of Poles and Ukrainians that took place on the territory of Lviv and other cities and regions of Galicia. The success was accompanied by the Poles, who had revolted in Lviv as soon as the Ukrainian Sich were. For five days, the Poles managed to put under control almost half of the territory of Lviv, and the Ukrainian Sich were unable to cope with the Polish troops, relying on the support of the townspeople - the Poles. In Przemysl, a detachment of 220 armed Ukrainian militia forces succeeded on November 3 to liberate the city from the Polish police and arrest the commander of the Polish forces. After that, the number of Ukrainian militia in Przemysl was brought to 700 people. However, the power of Ukrainians over the city lasted only a week. On November 10, regular Polish troops of 2000 soldiers and officers arrived in Przemysl, with several armored vehicles, artillery pieces and an armored train. As a result of the battle of the Poles with the Ukrainian militia, the city came under the control of the Polish army, after which the Poles launched an offensive against Lviv, where local Polish formations continued to conduct street battles against the Sich riflemen. Ukrainians, trying to take revenge, acted by several militant groups, the largest of which were the “Old Village”, “Vostok” and “Navariya” operating near Lviv, and the “North” group in the northern regions of Galicia. In Lviv, street fighting between Polish and Ukrainian troops did not stop. On November 1, only 200 Polish men from the Polish Army Organization, which united World War I veterans, opposed the Ukrainians. But the very next day 6000 of Polish men, boys and even teenagers joined the veterans. The Polish squads included 1400 high school students and students, who were called "Lviv eaglets". By November 3, the ranks of the Poles had grown by another 1150 fighters. It should be noted that in the ranks of the Polish detachments there were much more professional military - non-commissioned officers and officers than in the ranks of the Ukrainian archers, which were represented either by people without military training or by former privates of the Austro-Hungarian army.
During the week, from 5 to 11 in November, battles between Polish and Ukrainian troops took place in the center of Lviv. November 12 Ukrainians managed to take over and the Poles began to retreat from the center of Lviv. Ukrainians took advantage of this. 13 November 1918 the Ukrainian National Council proclaimed an independent West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) and formed its government - the State Secretariat. 59-year-old Kost Levitsky became the head of the State Secretariat. At the same time, a decision was made on the formation of a regular ZUNR force - the Galician Army. However, their creation was slow. Neighboring states acted more quickly and efficiently. So, 11 November 1918, the Romanian troops entered the capital of Bukovina, Chernivtsi, actually joining this region to Romania. In Lviv, 13 November, the Poles were able to repel the onslaught of the Ukrainians, the next day, the luck accompanied the Ukrainian troops, but on November 15, Polish troops in cars broke into the city center and drove the Ukrainians back. 17 November agreement was reached on a temporary ceasefire for two days. The government of ZUNR tried to use these days in order to call for help reinforcements from the non-military provinces of Galicia. However, since the mobilization system in the republic was practically absent, the NUNR leadership failed to collect numerous units, and individual volunteers arriving in Lviv did not have a significant impact on the course of the confrontation. Much more effective was the system of the military organization of the Poles, who, after the capture of Przemysl, transferred 1400 soldiers, 8 artillery guns, 11 machine guns and an armored train to Lviv by rail. Thus, the number of Polish military units in the city reached 5800 soldiers and officers, while the ZUNR had at its disposal 4600 people, half of whom had no army training at all.
21 November 1918, around 6 o'clock in the morning, Polish troops launched an offensive against Lviv. The forces of the 5 Infantry Regiment under the command of Major Michael Tokarzhevsky-Karashevich broke into Lviv first, after which the Poles managed to surround Ukrainian troops in the center of Lviv by evening. On the night of October 22, the Ukrainian troops finally left Lviv, after which the government of ZUNR in a hurry fled to Ternopil. However, even in such difficult conditions, the nationalists did not give up hope for the implementation of their plans. So, 22-25 on November 1918 was held elections of the Ukrainian People's Council. This body of 150 deputies, according to nationalists, was supposed to play the role of the Ukrainian parliament. It is indicative that the Poles ignored the elections to the People’s Council, although deputy seats were reserved for them. Understanding that they would not be able to resist the Poles, Romanians, and Czechoslovakians on their own, the leaders of the Galician nationalists established contacts with the leadership of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, which by that time had been proclaimed in Kiev. By this time, the Directorate of the UNR was able to prevail over the troops of Hetman Skoropadsky.
Galician Army of Western Ukraine
1 December 1918 in Fastov, representatives of ZUNR and UNR signed an agreement on the unification of the two Ukrainian states on federal principles. By the beginning of December, 1918 had acquired more or less organized features and the Galician Army. In ZUNR, universal military service was established, in accordance with which citizens of the Republic of the male gender 18-35 years were subject to conscription to the Galician Army. The whole territory of ZUNR was divided into three military areas - Lviv, Ternopil and Stanislav, headed by generals Anton Kravs, Miron Tarnavskiy and Osip Mikitka. On December 10, General Omelyanovich-Pavlenko was appointed commander-in-chief of the army. By this time, the number of Galician Army had reached 30, thousands of people armed with 40 artillery guns.
A distinctive feature of the Galician Army was the lack of divisions. She was divided into corps and brigades, and the brigades included headquarters, pin hundreds (staff company), 4 smoking (battalion), 1 equestrian hundred, 1 artillery regiment with workshop and warehouse, 1 sapper hundred, 1 liaison office, sign warehouse and team hospital. The cavalry brigade included the 2 cavalry regiment, the 1-2 cavalry artillery batteries, the 1 cavalry technical hundred and 1 equestrian communication hundred. At the same time, the military command of ZUNR did not attach much importance to the development of cavalry, since the war was predominantly positional and sluggish, without rapid equestrian attacks. In the Galician army, specific national military ranks were introduced: archer (private), senior archer (corporal), whistun (junior sergeant), foreman (sergeant), senior foreman (senior sergeant), mace (foreman), coruno (junior lieutenant), cetar (lieutenant), handler (senior lieutenant), centurion (captain), ataman (major), lieutenant colonel, colonel, general cetar (major general), general handler (lieutenant general), general centurion (colonel general). Each of the military ranks corresponded to a certain patch on the sleeve of his uniform. In the first months of its existence, the Galician Army used the old Austrian army uniform, on which the national symbols of ZUNR were sewn. Later, their own uniforms with national symbols were developed, but the old Austrian uniform also continued to be used, given the shortage of new uniforms. The Austro-Hungarian structure of staff units, logistics and sanitary services, gendarmerie was also taken as a sample of similar units in the Galician Army. The Galician Army headed ZUNR by the State Secretariat for Military Affairs, headed by Colonel Dmitry Vitovsky (1887-1919) - a graduate of the Law Faculty of Lviv University, who volunteered for the front as part of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and served as commander for hundreds in half-hens Stepan Shukhevych. In the subordination of the Secretary of State of ZUNR for military affairs were 1914 departments and offices. When 16 August 2, Mr. Dmitry Vitovsky died in a plane crash (crashed on the way from Germany, where he flew, trying to negotiate military assistance to Ukrainian nationalists), he was replaced by Colonel Viktor Kurmanovich (1919-1876) as Secretary of State for Military Affairs, in contrast from Vitovsky former professional military. A graduate of the cadet school in Lviv and the military academy, World War I Kurmanovich met with the rank of captain of the Austrian General Staff. After the creation of ZUNR and the Galician Army, he commanded units that fought in the southern direction against the Polish troops.
Petrushevich - the ruler of ZUNR
Throughout December 1918, with varying success, battles were fought between Polish and Ukrainian troops in Galicia. Meanwhile, on January 3, in 1919, in Stanislav, the first session of the Ukrainian People’s Council began, at which Yevgen Petrushevych (1863-1940) was approved as the President of ZUNR. A native of Busk, the son of a Uniate priest, Yevgen Petrushevich, like many other prominent figures of the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the time, was a graduate of the Law Faculty of Lviv University. After receiving his doctorate in law, he opened his own law office in Zokal and was engaged in private practice, while at the same time participating in the public life of Galicia.
In 1916, it was Yevgen Petrushevich who replaced Kostya Levitsky as the head of the parliamentary representation of Galicia and Lodomeria. After the independence of ZUNR was proclaimed, Petrushevich was confirmed as president of the republic, but his functions were representative and in fact he had no real influence on the management of Galicia. Moreover, Petrushevich was in a liberal and constitutionalist position, which many nationalists viewed as overly soft and not meeting the harsh and cruel environment of a civil war. The permanent government of ZUNR 4 in January 1919 was led by Sidor Golubovich.
It should be noted that ZUNR stubbornly tried to create its own system of state administration, relying on the example of the Austro-Hungarian administrative system and engaging as consultants officials who had worked while Galicia and Lodomeria belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A whole series of reforms was implemented in ZUNR aimed at providing support to the peasant population, which constitutes the bulk of Ukrainians in the republic. So, the property of large landowners was redistributed (landowners in Galicia and Lodomeria were traditionally Poles) in favor of the peasants (mostly Ukrainians). Thanks to the system of universal military service, the government of ZUNR by the spring of 1919 managed to mobilize around 100 000 recruits, although only 40 000 of them were reduced to army units and completed the necessary basic military training. In parallel with the development of its own command and control system and the construction of the armed forces, ZUNR carried out work on unification with the “Petliura” UNR. Thus, 22 in January 1919 in Kiev was the solemn unification of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic, according to which ZUNR was part of the UPR on the rights of broad autonomy and received a new name - ZOUNR (Western region of the Ukrainian People's Republic). At the same time, the real control of the ZONRR remained in the hands of Western Ukrainian politicians, as was the control over the Galician Army. At the beginning of 1919, the ZUNR leadership attempted to annex Transcarpathia to the republic. There were active supporters of the annexation of Transcarpathian lands to Ukraine, however, there were no less numerous supporters of Carpathian Rus as part of Czechoslovakia and Russian Krajina as part of Hungary. However, Western Ukrainian troops were not able to complete the task of seizing Transcarpathia. Uzhgorod was occupied by the Czechoslovak troops as early as 15 in January 1919, and since it was impossible to fight not only with Poland, but also with Czechoslovakia, the ZUNR was unable to do anything, the campaign in Transcarpathia ended in nothing.
The flight of the Galician Army and the occupation of Poland by Galicia
In February, the 1919 of the Galician Army of ZONRR continued fighting against the Polish troops. From 16 to 23 in February, the 1919 of the Galician Army conducted a Vovchukhov operation, the purpose of which was to liberate Lvov from Polish forces. Ukrainian formations were able to cut the railway communication between Lviv and Przemysl, which caused serious damage to the Polish units, surrounded in Lviv and lost communication with the main part of the Polish troops. However, on February 20, Polish units numbering thousands of soldiers and officers in 10,5 arrived in Lviv, after which the Poles launched an offensive. But only to 18 in March of 1919, the Polish troops managed to finally break through the Ukrainian entourage and push the Galician Army back from the outskirts of Lviv. After that, the Poles went on the offensive, moving eastward to the SOUNR. The Galician leadership, whose position was becoming worse and worse, was trying to find intercessors in the face of the Entente and even the Pope. The latter was addressed by the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Andrey Sheptytsky, who called on him to intervene in the conflict between the Catholics - the Poles and the Greek-Catholics - the Galician Ukrainians. The Entente countries did not remain aloof from the conflict. For example, 12 in May 1919 of the Entente proposed to divide Galicia into Polish and Ukrainian territories, however Poland was not going to abandon the plan for the complete elimination of the Western Ukrainian Republic and the subordination of the entire Galicia, as it was confident of its armed forces. The deterioration of the martial law of the republic forced Sidor Golubovich’s 9 government on June 1919 to resign, after which Yuggen Petrushevich, who received the title of dictator, assumed the authority of the president and the head of government. However, the overly liberal Petrushevich, who did not have a military education and military training of a revolutionary, was not capable of this role. Although the majority of the Galician nationalists supported the appointment of Petrushevich as a dictator, this was extremely negatively perceived in the UNR Directory. Yevgen Petrushevich was excluded from the list of members of the Directory, and a special ministry for the affairs of Galicia was formed in the UNR. Thus, there was a split in the Ukrainian nationalist movement and the ZONR continued to operate virtually independently of the UNR Directorate. At the beginning of June 1919, most of the territory of ZONR was already under the control of foreign troops. For example, Transcarpathia was occupied by Czechoslovak troops, Bukovina - by Romanian troops, and a significant part of Galicia - by Polish troops. As a result of the Polish counter-offensive, the positions of the Galician Army were dealt a severe blow, after which the Galician Army was finally ousted from the territory of ZOUNR by 18 July 1919. A certain part of the archers crossed the border with Czechoslovakia, but the main part of the Galician Army, with a total number of 50 000 people, moved to the Ukrainian People's Republic. As for the government of Evgen Petrushevich, it left for Romania and further to Austria, turning into a typical “government in exile”.
Thus, 18 July 1919, the Polish-Ukrainian war ended with the complete defeat of the Galician Army and the loss of the entire territory of Eastern Galicia, which was occupied by Polish troops and became part of Poland. 21 April 1920 Mr. Simon Petlyura, representing the UPR, agreed with Poland to hold a new Ukrainian-Polish border on the Zbruch River. However, this treaty had a purely formal meaning - by the time of the described event on the territory of modern Ukraine, the Polish troops and the Red Army had already fought each other, and the Petliura regime was living its last days. 21 March 1921 between Poland on the one hand and the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR on the other hand, concluded the Riga Treaty, according to which the territories of Western Ukraine (Eastern Galicia) and Western Belarus became part of the Polish state. 14 March 1923 The sovereignty of Poland over Eastern Galicia was recognized by the Council of Ambassadors of the Entente countries. In May, 1923 by Yevgen Petrushevich announced the dissolution of all state institutions of ZUNR in exile. However, the struggle for Eastern Galicia did not end there. After 16 years, in September 1939, as a result of the rapid raid of the Red Army on Polish territory, the lands of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia became part of the Soviet Union as an integral part of the Ukrainian SSR. A little later, in the summer of 1940, Bukovina joined the USSR, disconnected from Romania, and after the victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War, Czechoslovakia abandoned claims to Transcarpathia in favor of the Soviet Union. Transcarpathia also became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
The fate of "Galician seniors": from emigration to serving Hitler
As for the fates of the Galician military leaders and the main political figures of ZUNR, they took shape in different ways. The remnants of the Galician Army, transferred to the service of the UPR, already in early December 1919 entered into an alliance with the Armed Forces of Southern Russia, and at the beginning of 1920 they joined the Red Army and were renamed the Chervona Ukrainian Galician Army (PUCA). Until April, 1920, part of the PREPARATION PLANT was stationed in Balta and Ol'gopol, in the Podolsk province. The commander of the Galician Army, General-Khorunzh Mikhail Omelyanovich-Pavlenko joined the army of the UNR, then fought in the Soviet-Polish war on the side of the Poles, receiving the rank of lieutenant-general. After the end of the Civil War, Omelyanovich-Pavlenko emigrated to Czechoslovakia and was the head of the Union of Ukrainian Veteran Organizations. When World War II began, Pavlenko was appointed hetman of the Ukrainian free Cossacks and began to form Ukrainian military units in the service of Hitler's Germany. The Cossack units formed with the participation of Pavlenko were part of the guard battalions. Omelianovich-Pavlenko managed to avoid arrest by the Soviet or allied forces. In 1944-1950 he lived in Germany, from 1950 in France. In 1947-1948 he served as minister of military affairs of the UNR government in exile and was promoted to colonel general of the non-existent Ukrainian army. Omelianovich-Pavlenko died in 1952, at the age of 73 years in France.
His brother Ivan Vladimirovich Omelyanovich-Pavlenko (pictured) in June 1941 formed a Ukrainian armed unit as part of the Wehrmacht, then participated in the creation of the 109 police battalion of the Nazis, operating in the Podolsk region. The battalion commanded by Ivan Omelyanovich-Pavlenko acted in Belaya Tserkov and Vinnitsa, taking part in battles against Soviet partisans and massacres of civilians (although modern Ukrainian historians try to pass Omelianovich-Pavlenko as a “protector” of the local population, including Jews, into a similar “ charity "of the battalion commander of Hitler's auxiliary police is hard to believe). In 1942, Ivan Omelyanovich served in Belarus, where he also participated in the fight against partisans, and in 1944 he fled to Germany and later to the USA, where he died. The Soviet secret services did not manage to detain the Omelyanovich-Pavlenko brothers and bring them to justice for participation in the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany.
Liberal Yevgen Petrushevich, unlike his subordinate - the commander of Omelyanovich-Pavlenko, in emigration moved to the pro-Soviet position. He lived in Berlin, but regularly visited the Soviet embassy. However, then Petrushevich moved away from the pro-Soviet positions, but did not become a supporter of German Nazism, like many other Ukrainian nationalists. So, he condemned Hitler's attack on Poland, sending a protest letter to the German government. In 1940, Petrushevych died at the age of 77 years and was buried in one of Berlin's cemeteries. The former Prime Minister of ZUNR, Sydor Timofeevich Golubovich (1873-1938), returned to Lviv in 1924 and lived in this city until the end of his life, working as a lawyer and moving away from political activities. Kost Levitsky, the “founding father” of ZUNR, returned to Lviv. He also practiced law, and also wrote papers on stories Ukrainian people. After the annexation of the territory of Western Ukraine to the Ukrainian SSR in 1939, Levitsky was arrested and taken to Moscow. An elderly veteran of Ukrainian nationalism spent a year and a half in the Lubyanka prison, but was then released and returned to Lviv. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union and 30 on June 1941, the Ukrainian nationalists proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian state, Levitsky was elected chairman of the Council of Seniors, but 12 November 1941 died at the age of 81, before the Nazis dissolved the Ukrainian ruling . General Victor Kurmanovich, who headed the headquarters of the Galician Army, after the cessation of the existence of ZUNR in 1920, he moved to Transcarpathia. After the start of the Second World War, he stepped up his nationalist activities and began to cooperate with Ukrainian collaborators, taking part in the formation of the SS division "Galicia". The victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War did not leave Kurmanovich a chance to avoid responsibility for his activities. He was arrested by Soviet counterintelligence and transferred to the Odessa prison, where on October 18 1945 passed away. Many ordinary participants in the Polish-Ukrainian war and attempts to create a ZUNR later found themselves in the ranks of Ukrainian nationalist organizations and gangster groups that fought after the end of the Great Patriotic War in Western Ukraine against the Soviet troops and law enforcement agencies.
Today, the history of ZUNR is positioned by many Ukrainian authors as one of the most heroic examples of Ukrainian history, although in reality one can hardly call such an annual existence of such an amateur state formation in the chaos of the war years. Even Nestor Makhno succeeded, resisting against Petliurists, and against Denikinians, and against the Red Army, to keep the territory of Guliay-Polya under control for a much longer time than the Western Ukrainian republic existed. This testifies, firstly, to the absence of truly talented civilian and military leaders in the ranks of ZUNR, and secondly, to the absence of broad support from the local population. Trying to build Ukrainian statehood, the leaders of ZUNR forgot that on the territory of Galicia at that time almost half of the population were representatives of peoples who could not be attributed to the Ukrainians - Poles, Jews, Romanians, Hungarians, Germans. In addition, the Transcarpathian Rusyns also did not want to have anything in common with the Galician nationalists, with the result that the ZUNR policy in Transcarpathia was initially doomed to failure.
The course of the transformation of Galicia into the Ukrainian Republic
As early as October 7. The 1918 of the Regency Council, which met in Warsaw, spoke of the need to restore Poland’s political sovereignty. The territory of the Polish state was supposed to enter, after the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth belonged to the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary and Prussia. Naturally, they also talked about the lands of the modern western regions of Ukraine, which, as part of Austria-Hungary, were so-called. "Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria". However, Ukrainian, and more specifically Galician, nationalists did not agree with the plans of the Polish statesmen. The political movement, diligently nurtured by the Austro-Hungarian ruling circles in the interests of crushing the Eastern Slavs and countering pro-Russian sentiments, had acquired significant influence in Galicia by the time of the end of the First World War. According to the Ukrainian nationalists, the Galician lands should have been incorporated into the sovereign Ukrainian state, and not become part of a reviving Poland. Therefore, when 9 in October 1918, the deputies of the Austrian parliament from Poland decided to restore Polish statehood and extend its sovereignty to all the former lands of Rzeczpospolita, including Galicia, the reaction of Ukrainian nationalists followed immediately. 10 in October 1918, the Ukrainian faction, headed by Yevgeny Petrushevich, appointed a convocation of the Ukrainian National Council (ONS) in Lviv on October 18. Yevgeny Petrushevich was elected its chairman, but he was virtually without a break in Vienna, where he held consultations with the Austrian ruling circles. Therefore, the actual leadership of the council was exercised by Kost Levitsky, who, in fact, can be considered the “author” of Galician statehood.
A native of the small town of Tysmenytsya (today it is located in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine and is a district center), Kost Levitsky was born on November 18 1859 in the family of a Ukrainian priest of gentry origin. That is, at the time of the events in question, he was already under sixty. Levitsky was educated at the Stanislavov Grammar School, and then at law faculties at Lviv and Vienna universities. In 1884, he became a doctor of jurisprudence, and in 1890, he opened his own law office in Lviv. At that time, Lviv was not at all a Ukrainian city. Galicians here lived no more than 22% of the total urban population, and the majority of residents were Poles and Jews. Lviv was considered a traditional Polish city, lectures at Lviv University since the end of the 19th century. were conducted in Polish. However, it was in Lviv, as the largest cultural center of Galicia, that the Western Ukrainian nationalist movement became more active. Levitsky became one of his most important personalities. He founded the first Ukrainian Lawyers ’Circle of Law Society in 1881, became a participant in the creation of several Ukrainian trade and craft unions, including the People’s Commerce Society and the Dniester Insurance Company, as well as the Regional Credit Union. Levitsky was also engaged in translation activities, in particular, he translated into German the laws of Austro-Hungary written in German, compiled the German-Ukrainian legislative dictionary. The political activities of Kostya Levitsky proceeded along the lines of Galician (Ukrainian) nationalism. So, in 1907-1918. He was a member of the House of Ambassadors of the Austrian Parliament, President of the People’s Committee of the Ukrainian National Democratic Party. It was Levitsky who headed the Main Ukrainian Rada, created by Galician nationalist parties operating in Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the First World War. Sich Riflemen and Uprising in Lviv
1918, assembled at the end of October, under the leadership of Levitsky, advocated the creation of an independent Ukrainian state on the territory of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia. As you can see, the inclusion of other lands into the Ukrainian state has not been discussed yet. And the struggle for the sovereignty of Galicia was not easy - after all, the 25% of the region’s population were Poles, who naturally considered it necessary for Galicia to become part of the reviving Polish state and strongly opposed the plans of the Ukrainian nationalists for the approval of “separatist”. Understanding that in the time of trouble, caused by the defeat of Austria-Hungary in the First World War, Galicia has every chance of self-determination, the Ukrainian nationalists decided to enlist the support of the armed forces that could protect the lands of the region from the territorial claims of Poland. This armed force was the regiments of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen - units of the old Austro-Hungarian army, staffed by immigrants from Galicia and Transcarpathia. As you know, the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen began to form before the beginning of the First World War from among volunteers who lived in Galicia and were ready to fight under the Austro-Hungarian flags. The basis of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen were youth militant organizations of the Galician nationalists - "Falcon", "Plast". After the outbreak of the First World War, the Main Ukrainian Rada, assembled by the three main political parties of Galicia (national democrats, social democrats and radicals), called on Ukrainian youth to join the ranks of the Sich riflemen and fight on the side of the “central powers” Of Hungary.
September 3 The 1914, formed by the volunteer legion of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, took the oath of allegiance to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So the Habsburgs got soldiers from Galicia. However, for a long time serious artillery missions were not assigned to the artillery - the Austro-Hungarian command doubted the reliability of these units, although the archers tried their best to demonstrate their militancy. Initially, the Legion of the Sich Riflemen included two and a half kuren (battalion). Each hut, in turn, included 4 hundreds (companies), and a hundred - 4 couples (platoon), 4 swarm (branches) for 10-15 archers. In addition to the foot smokers, the legion also included the hundreds of horse, hundreds of machine guns, hundreds of engineering and auxiliary units. The command paid great attention to the ideological treatment of the Suevikov, for which purpose a special unit was created under the name “print flat”, which carried out agitation and propaganda tasks. It was Sich archers during the winter campaign 1914-1915. defended the Carpathian aisles, where they lost their first team to 2 / 3. Great losses forced the Austro-Hungarian command to move to the practice of recruiting the legion at the expense of conscripts. Moreover, they began to call upon local peasants - Rusyns, who sympathized with Russia and treated with hatred both Austro-Hungarians and Galicians (the last Rusins of Transcarpathia were considered traitors to the “Russian” people). The transition to conscription recruiting further reduced the combat capability of the Sich Riflemen. However, the legion of the Sich continued to serve in Ukraine. By November 1 1918, the main units of the Legion were stationed in the vicinity of Chernivtsi. It was on them and decided, first of all, to rely on the nationalists in declaring the independence of Galicia. In addition, the council hoped to use the support of those Austro-Hungarian units, which were largely staffed by Ukrainian conscripts. We are talking about the 15 Infantry Regiment in Ternopil, the 19 Infantry Regiment in Lviv, the 9 and 45 Infantry Regiments in Peremyshl, the 77 Infantry Regiment in Yaroslav, the 20 and 95 Infantry Regiments in the Yaroslav Infantry Regiment, the 24 and 36 Infantry Regiments, the 35 Infantry Regiment in Yaroslav, the XNUMX and XNUMX Infantry Regiments, the XNUMX Infantry Regiment in Yaroslav, XNUMX and XNUMX Infantry Regiments (Ivano-Frankivsk), XNUMX-m and XNUMX-m infantry regiments in Kolomyya and XNUMX-m infantry regiment in Zolochiv. As you can see, the list of military units, which the nationalists were going to rely on, was very significant. Another thing is that the Poles also had at their disposal significant armed formations that simply did not intend to give up Galicia to the Ukrainian nationalists.
On the night of November 1 1918, military units of the Sich Riflemen raised an armed uprising in Lviv, Stanislav, Ternopil, Zolochiv, Sokale, Rava-Russkaya, Kolomyia, Snyatyn, and Pechenezhin. The power of the Ukrainian National Council was proclaimed in these cities. In Lviv, around 1,5, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and officers who served in units of the Austro-Hungarian army occupied the building of the Austrian military command, the administration of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, the Diet of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, the building of the railway station, post office, army and police barracks. The Austrian garrison did not resist and was disarmed, and the commandant-general of Lvov was placed under arrest. The Austro-Hungarian governor of Galicia handed over power to the vice-governor Volodymyr Detskevich, whose candidacy was supported by the Ukrainian National Council. 3 November 1918 The Ukrainian National Council published a manifesto on the independence of Galicia and proclaimed the creation of an independent Ukrainian state in the territory of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia. Almost simultaneously with the performance of the Sich riflemen, the uprising in Lviv was raised by the Poles, who were not going to recognize the authority of the Ukrainian National Council. In addition, in other areas of the proposed Western Ukrainian state was restless. In Bukovina, the desire to join is not in the Ukrainian state, but in Romania, the local Romanian community said. The struggle of the Provenger, Pro-Czechoslovak, Pro-Ukrainian and Pro-Russian factions began in Transcarpathia. In the very Galicia, the Lemkis made a speech - a local group of Rusyns, proclaiming the creation of two republics - the Russian People's Republic of Lemko and the Republic of Comanche. The Poles announced the creation of the Tarnobrzeg Republic. The date of November 1 1918 actually dates the beginning of the Polish-Ukrainian war, which lasted until July 17 1919.
The beginning of the Polish-Ukrainian war
At first, the war had the character of periodic clashes between armed groups of Poles and Ukrainians that took place on the territory of Lviv and other cities and regions of Galicia. The success was accompanied by the Poles, who had revolted in Lviv as soon as the Ukrainian Sich were. For five days, the Poles managed to put under control almost half of the territory of Lviv, and the Ukrainian Sich were unable to cope with the Polish troops, relying on the support of the townspeople - the Poles. In Przemysl, a detachment of 220 armed Ukrainian militia forces succeeded on November 3 to liberate the city from the Polish police and arrest the commander of the Polish forces. After that, the number of Ukrainian militia in Przemysl was brought to 700 people. However, the power of Ukrainians over the city lasted only a week. On November 10, regular Polish troops of 2000 soldiers and officers arrived in Przemysl, with several armored vehicles, artillery pieces and an armored train. As a result of the battle of the Poles with the Ukrainian militia, the city came under the control of the Polish army, after which the Poles launched an offensive against Lviv, where local Polish formations continued to conduct street battles against the Sich riflemen. Ukrainians, trying to take revenge, acted by several militant groups, the largest of which were the “Old Village”, “Vostok” and “Navariya” operating near Lviv, and the “North” group in the northern regions of Galicia. In Lviv, street fighting between Polish and Ukrainian troops did not stop. On November 1, only 200 Polish men from the Polish Army Organization, which united World War I veterans, opposed the Ukrainians. But the very next day 6000 of Polish men, boys and even teenagers joined the veterans. The Polish squads included 1400 high school students and students, who were called "Lviv eaglets". By November 3, the ranks of the Poles had grown by another 1150 fighters. It should be noted that in the ranks of the Polish detachments there were much more professional military - non-commissioned officers and officers than in the ranks of the Ukrainian archers, which were represented either by people without military training or by former privates of the Austro-Hungarian army.
During the week, from 5 to 11 in November, battles between Polish and Ukrainian troops took place in the center of Lviv. November 12 Ukrainians managed to take over and the Poles began to retreat from the center of Lviv. Ukrainians took advantage of this. 13 November 1918 the Ukrainian National Council proclaimed an independent West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) and formed its government - the State Secretariat. 59-year-old Kost Levitsky became the head of the State Secretariat. At the same time, a decision was made on the formation of a regular ZUNR force - the Galician Army. However, their creation was slow. Neighboring states acted more quickly and efficiently. So, 11 November 1918, the Romanian troops entered the capital of Bukovina, Chernivtsi, actually joining this region to Romania. In Lviv, 13 November, the Poles were able to repel the onslaught of the Ukrainians, the next day, the luck accompanied the Ukrainian troops, but on November 15, Polish troops in cars broke into the city center and drove the Ukrainians back. 17 November agreement was reached on a temporary ceasefire for two days. The government of ZUNR tried to use these days in order to call for help reinforcements from the non-military provinces of Galicia. However, since the mobilization system in the republic was practically absent, the NUNR leadership failed to collect numerous units, and individual volunteers arriving in Lviv did not have a significant impact on the course of the confrontation. Much more effective was the system of the military organization of the Poles, who, after the capture of Przemysl, transferred 1400 soldiers, 8 artillery guns, 11 machine guns and an armored train to Lviv by rail. Thus, the number of Polish military units in the city reached 5800 soldiers and officers, while the ZUNR had at its disposal 4600 people, half of whom had no army training at all.
21 November 1918, around 6 o'clock in the morning, Polish troops launched an offensive against Lviv. The forces of the 5 Infantry Regiment under the command of Major Michael Tokarzhevsky-Karashevich broke into Lviv first, after which the Poles managed to surround Ukrainian troops in the center of Lviv by evening. On the night of October 22, the Ukrainian troops finally left Lviv, after which the government of ZUNR in a hurry fled to Ternopil. However, even in such difficult conditions, the nationalists did not give up hope for the implementation of their plans. So, 22-25 on November 1918 was held elections of the Ukrainian People's Council. This body of 150 deputies, according to nationalists, was supposed to play the role of the Ukrainian parliament. It is indicative that the Poles ignored the elections to the People’s Council, although deputy seats were reserved for them. Understanding that they would not be able to resist the Poles, Romanians, and Czechoslovakians on their own, the leaders of the Galician nationalists established contacts with the leadership of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, which by that time had been proclaimed in Kiev. By this time, the Directorate of the UNR was able to prevail over the troops of Hetman Skoropadsky.
Galician Army of Western Ukraine
1 December 1918 in Fastov, representatives of ZUNR and UNR signed an agreement on the unification of the two Ukrainian states on federal principles. By the beginning of December, 1918 had acquired more or less organized features and the Galician Army. In ZUNR, universal military service was established, in accordance with which citizens of the Republic of the male gender 18-35 years were subject to conscription to the Galician Army. The whole territory of ZUNR was divided into three military areas - Lviv, Ternopil and Stanislav, headed by generals Anton Kravs, Miron Tarnavskiy and Osip Mikitka. On December 10, General Omelyanovich-Pavlenko was appointed commander-in-chief of the army. By this time, the number of Galician Army had reached 30, thousands of people armed with 40 artillery guns. A distinctive feature of the Galician Army was the lack of divisions. She was divided into corps and brigades, and the brigades included headquarters, pin hundreds (staff company), 4 smoking (battalion), 1 equestrian hundred, 1 artillery regiment with workshop and warehouse, 1 sapper hundred, 1 liaison office, sign warehouse and team hospital. The cavalry brigade included the 2 cavalry regiment, the 1-2 cavalry artillery batteries, the 1 cavalry technical hundred and 1 equestrian communication hundred. At the same time, the military command of ZUNR did not attach much importance to the development of cavalry, since the war was predominantly positional and sluggish, without rapid equestrian attacks. In the Galician army, specific national military ranks were introduced: archer (private), senior archer (corporal), whistun (junior sergeant), foreman (sergeant), senior foreman (senior sergeant), mace (foreman), coruno (junior lieutenant), cetar (lieutenant), handler (senior lieutenant), centurion (captain), ataman (major), lieutenant colonel, colonel, general cetar (major general), general handler (lieutenant general), general centurion (colonel general). Each of the military ranks corresponded to a certain patch on the sleeve of his uniform. In the first months of its existence, the Galician Army used the old Austrian army uniform, on which the national symbols of ZUNR were sewn. Later, their own uniforms with national symbols were developed, but the old Austrian uniform also continued to be used, given the shortage of new uniforms. The Austro-Hungarian structure of staff units, logistics and sanitary services, gendarmerie was also taken as a sample of similar units in the Galician Army. The Galician Army headed ZUNR by the State Secretariat for Military Affairs, headed by Colonel Dmitry Vitovsky (1887-1919) - a graduate of the Law Faculty of Lviv University, who volunteered for the front as part of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and served as commander for hundreds in half-hens Stepan Shukhevych. In the subordination of the Secretary of State of ZUNR for military affairs were 1914 departments and offices. When 16 August 2, Mr. Dmitry Vitovsky died in a plane crash (crashed on the way from Germany, where he flew, trying to negotiate military assistance to Ukrainian nationalists), he was replaced by Colonel Viktor Kurmanovich (1919-1876) as Secretary of State for Military Affairs, in contrast from Vitovsky former professional military. A graduate of the cadet school in Lviv and the military academy, World War I Kurmanovich met with the rank of captain of the Austrian General Staff. After the creation of ZUNR and the Galician Army, he commanded units that fought in the southern direction against the Polish troops.
Petrushevich - the ruler of ZUNR
Throughout December 1918, with varying success, battles were fought between Polish and Ukrainian troops in Galicia. Meanwhile, on January 3, in 1919, in Stanislav, the first session of the Ukrainian People’s Council began, at which Yevgen Petrushevych (1863-1940) was approved as the President of ZUNR. A native of Busk, the son of a Uniate priest, Yevgen Petrushevich, like many other prominent figures of the Ukrainian nationalist movement of the time, was a graduate of the Law Faculty of Lviv University. After receiving his doctorate in law, he opened his own law office in Zokal and was engaged in private practice, while at the same time participating in the public life of Galicia.
In 1916, it was Yevgen Petrushevich who replaced Kostya Levitsky as the head of the parliamentary representation of Galicia and Lodomeria. After the independence of ZUNR was proclaimed, Petrushevich was confirmed as president of the republic, but his functions were representative and in fact he had no real influence on the management of Galicia. Moreover, Petrushevich was in a liberal and constitutionalist position, which many nationalists viewed as overly soft and not meeting the harsh and cruel environment of a civil war. The permanent government of ZUNR 4 in January 1919 was led by Sidor Golubovich. It should be noted that ZUNR stubbornly tried to create its own system of state administration, relying on the example of the Austro-Hungarian administrative system and engaging as consultants officials who had worked while Galicia and Lodomeria belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A whole series of reforms was implemented in ZUNR aimed at providing support to the peasant population, which constitutes the bulk of Ukrainians in the republic. So, the property of large landowners was redistributed (landowners in Galicia and Lodomeria were traditionally Poles) in favor of the peasants (mostly Ukrainians). Thanks to the system of universal military service, the government of ZUNR by the spring of 1919 managed to mobilize around 100 000 recruits, although only 40 000 of them were reduced to army units and completed the necessary basic military training. In parallel with the development of its own command and control system and the construction of the armed forces, ZUNR carried out work on unification with the “Petliura” UNR. Thus, 22 in January 1919 in Kiev was the solemn unification of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic, according to which ZUNR was part of the UPR on the rights of broad autonomy and received a new name - ZOUNR (Western region of the Ukrainian People's Republic). At the same time, the real control of the ZONRR remained in the hands of Western Ukrainian politicians, as was the control over the Galician Army. At the beginning of 1919, the ZUNR leadership attempted to annex Transcarpathia to the republic. There were active supporters of the annexation of Transcarpathian lands to Ukraine, however, there were no less numerous supporters of Carpathian Rus as part of Czechoslovakia and Russian Krajina as part of Hungary. However, Western Ukrainian troops were not able to complete the task of seizing Transcarpathia. Uzhgorod was occupied by the Czechoslovak troops as early as 15 in January 1919, and since it was impossible to fight not only with Poland, but also with Czechoslovakia, the ZUNR was unable to do anything, the campaign in Transcarpathia ended in nothing.
The flight of the Galician Army and the occupation of Poland by Galicia
In February, the 1919 of the Galician Army of ZONRR continued fighting against the Polish troops. From 16 to 23 in February, the 1919 of the Galician Army conducted a Vovchukhov operation, the purpose of which was to liberate Lvov from Polish forces. Ukrainian formations were able to cut the railway communication between Lviv and Przemysl, which caused serious damage to the Polish units, surrounded in Lviv and lost communication with the main part of the Polish troops. However, on February 20, Polish units numbering thousands of soldiers and officers in 10,5 arrived in Lviv, after which the Poles launched an offensive. But only to 18 in March of 1919, the Polish troops managed to finally break through the Ukrainian entourage and push the Galician Army back from the outskirts of Lviv. After that, the Poles went on the offensive, moving eastward to the SOUNR. The Galician leadership, whose position was becoming worse and worse, was trying to find intercessors in the face of the Entente and even the Pope. The latter was addressed by the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Andrey Sheptytsky, who called on him to intervene in the conflict between the Catholics - the Poles and the Greek-Catholics - the Galician Ukrainians. The Entente countries did not remain aloof from the conflict. For example, 12 in May 1919 of the Entente proposed to divide Galicia into Polish and Ukrainian territories, however Poland was not going to abandon the plan for the complete elimination of the Western Ukrainian Republic and the subordination of the entire Galicia, as it was confident of its armed forces. The deterioration of the martial law of the republic forced Sidor Golubovich’s 9 government on June 1919 to resign, after which Yuggen Petrushevich, who received the title of dictator, assumed the authority of the president and the head of government. However, the overly liberal Petrushevich, who did not have a military education and military training of a revolutionary, was not capable of this role. Although the majority of the Galician nationalists supported the appointment of Petrushevich as a dictator, this was extremely negatively perceived in the UNR Directory. Yevgen Petrushevich was excluded from the list of members of the Directory, and a special ministry for the affairs of Galicia was formed in the UNR. Thus, there was a split in the Ukrainian nationalist movement and the ZONR continued to operate virtually independently of the UNR Directorate. At the beginning of June 1919, most of the territory of ZONR was already under the control of foreign troops. For example, Transcarpathia was occupied by Czechoslovak troops, Bukovina - by Romanian troops, and a significant part of Galicia - by Polish troops. As a result of the Polish counter-offensive, the positions of the Galician Army were dealt a severe blow, after which the Galician Army was finally ousted from the territory of ZOUNR by 18 July 1919. A certain part of the archers crossed the border with Czechoslovakia, but the main part of the Galician Army, with a total number of 50 000 people, moved to the Ukrainian People's Republic. As for the government of Evgen Petrushevich, it left for Romania and further to Austria, turning into a typical “government in exile”.
Thus, 18 July 1919, the Polish-Ukrainian war ended with the complete defeat of the Galician Army and the loss of the entire territory of Eastern Galicia, which was occupied by Polish troops and became part of Poland. 21 April 1920 Mr. Simon Petlyura, representing the UPR, agreed with Poland to hold a new Ukrainian-Polish border on the Zbruch River. However, this treaty had a purely formal meaning - by the time of the described event on the territory of modern Ukraine, the Polish troops and the Red Army had already fought each other, and the Petliura regime was living its last days. 21 March 1921 between Poland on the one hand and the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR on the other hand, concluded the Riga Treaty, according to which the territories of Western Ukraine (Eastern Galicia) and Western Belarus became part of the Polish state. 14 March 1923 The sovereignty of Poland over Eastern Galicia was recognized by the Council of Ambassadors of the Entente countries. In May, 1923 by Yevgen Petrushevich announced the dissolution of all state institutions of ZUNR in exile. However, the struggle for Eastern Galicia did not end there. After 16 years, in September 1939, as a result of the rapid raid of the Red Army on Polish territory, the lands of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia became part of the Soviet Union as an integral part of the Ukrainian SSR. A little later, in the summer of 1940, Bukovina joined the USSR, disconnected from Romania, and after the victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War, Czechoslovakia abandoned claims to Transcarpathia in favor of the Soviet Union. Transcarpathia also became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
The fate of "Galician seniors": from emigration to serving Hitler
As for the fates of the Galician military leaders and the main political figures of ZUNR, they took shape in different ways. The remnants of the Galician Army, transferred to the service of the UPR, already in early December 1919 entered into an alliance with the Armed Forces of Southern Russia, and at the beginning of 1920 they joined the Red Army and were renamed the Chervona Ukrainian Galician Army (PUCA). Until April, 1920, part of the PREPARATION PLANT was stationed in Balta and Ol'gopol, in the Podolsk province. The commander of the Galician Army, General-Khorunzh Mikhail Omelyanovich-Pavlenko joined the army of the UNR, then fought in the Soviet-Polish war on the side of the Poles, receiving the rank of lieutenant-general. After the end of the Civil War, Omelyanovich-Pavlenko emigrated to Czechoslovakia and was the head of the Union of Ukrainian Veteran Organizations. When World War II began, Pavlenko was appointed hetman of the Ukrainian free Cossacks and began to form Ukrainian military units in the service of Hitler's Germany. The Cossack units formed with the participation of Pavlenko were part of the guard battalions. Omelianovich-Pavlenko managed to avoid arrest by the Soviet or allied forces. In 1944-1950 he lived in Germany, from 1950 in France. In 1947-1948 he served as minister of military affairs of the UNR government in exile and was promoted to colonel general of the non-existent Ukrainian army. Omelianovich-Pavlenko died in 1952, at the age of 73 years in France.
His brother Ivan Vladimirovich Omelyanovich-Pavlenko (pictured) in June 1941 formed a Ukrainian armed unit as part of the Wehrmacht, then participated in the creation of the 109 police battalion of the Nazis, operating in the Podolsk region. The battalion commanded by Ivan Omelyanovich-Pavlenko acted in Belaya Tserkov and Vinnitsa, taking part in battles against Soviet partisans and massacres of civilians (although modern Ukrainian historians try to pass Omelianovich-Pavlenko as a “protector” of the local population, including Jews, into a similar “ charity "of the battalion commander of Hitler's auxiliary police is hard to believe). In 1942, Ivan Omelyanovich served in Belarus, where he also participated in the fight against partisans, and in 1944 he fled to Germany and later to the USA, where he died. The Soviet secret services did not manage to detain the Omelyanovich-Pavlenko brothers and bring them to justice for participation in the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany. Liberal Yevgen Petrushevich, unlike his subordinate - the commander of Omelyanovich-Pavlenko, in emigration moved to the pro-Soviet position. He lived in Berlin, but regularly visited the Soviet embassy. However, then Petrushevich moved away from the pro-Soviet positions, but did not become a supporter of German Nazism, like many other Ukrainian nationalists. So, he condemned Hitler's attack on Poland, sending a protest letter to the German government. In 1940, Petrushevych died at the age of 77 years and was buried in one of Berlin's cemeteries. The former Prime Minister of ZUNR, Sydor Timofeevich Golubovich (1873-1938), returned to Lviv in 1924 and lived in this city until the end of his life, working as a lawyer and moving away from political activities. Kost Levitsky, the “founding father” of ZUNR, returned to Lviv. He also practiced law, and also wrote papers on stories Ukrainian people. After the annexation of the territory of Western Ukraine to the Ukrainian SSR in 1939, Levitsky was arrested and taken to Moscow. An elderly veteran of Ukrainian nationalism spent a year and a half in the Lubyanka prison, but was then released and returned to Lviv. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union and 30 on June 1941, the Ukrainian nationalists proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian state, Levitsky was elected chairman of the Council of Seniors, but 12 November 1941 died at the age of 81, before the Nazis dissolved the Ukrainian ruling . General Victor Kurmanovich, who headed the headquarters of the Galician Army, after the cessation of the existence of ZUNR in 1920, he moved to Transcarpathia. After the start of the Second World War, he stepped up his nationalist activities and began to cooperate with Ukrainian collaborators, taking part in the formation of the SS division "Galicia". The victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War did not leave Kurmanovich a chance to avoid responsibility for his activities. He was arrested by Soviet counterintelligence and transferred to the Odessa prison, where on October 18 1945 passed away. Many ordinary participants in the Polish-Ukrainian war and attempts to create a ZUNR later found themselves in the ranks of Ukrainian nationalist organizations and gangster groups that fought after the end of the Great Patriotic War in Western Ukraine against the Soviet troops and law enforcement agencies.
Today, the history of ZUNR is positioned by many Ukrainian authors as one of the most heroic examples of Ukrainian history, although in reality one can hardly call such an annual existence of such an amateur state formation in the chaos of the war years. Even Nestor Makhno succeeded, resisting against Petliurists, and against Denikinians, and against the Red Army, to keep the territory of Guliay-Polya under control for a much longer time than the Western Ukrainian republic existed. This testifies, firstly, to the absence of truly talented civilian and military leaders in the ranks of ZUNR, and secondly, to the absence of broad support from the local population. Trying to build Ukrainian statehood, the leaders of ZUNR forgot that on the territory of Galicia at that time almost half of the population were representatives of peoples who could not be attributed to the Ukrainians - Poles, Jews, Romanians, Hungarians, Germans. In addition, the Transcarpathian Rusyns also did not want to have anything in common with the Galician nationalists, with the result that the ZUNR policy in Transcarpathia was initially doomed to failure.
- P P 'SЊSЏ RџRѕR "RѕRЅSЃRєRёR№
- http://relicfinder.info/, volnodum.livejournal.com
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