National liberation movement in western Ukrainian political trends (1921-1939)

Abstract

After Ukraine gained independence, Ukrainian historians adopted a new approach to assessing the interwar period. There appeared comprehensive monographs by L. Aleksievets, M. Kuhutyak, S. Kacharaba, O. Krasivsky, M. Lytvyn and K. Naumenko, V. Marchuk, O. Malyarchuk and many other Ukrainian scholars.

Having conquered Eastern Halychyna and Western Volyn, the Polish government resorted to terror and a policy of national, religious, and economic oppression. The Ukrainians living in Halychyna refused to recognize the legality of the Polish government. In return for this, it unleashed a reign of mass terror and arrests. The political views of the time reflected the deplorable post-war situation. The abuse of power practised by the Polish authorities, unemployment, and economic decline enhanced a feeling of hopelessness. The idea of restoring good relations between Ukraine and Poland was becoming more and more influential among the older generation. Eastern Halychyna, which was part of Poland, had to support the population of Volyn, Polissya, Kholmshchyna, Pidlyashshya, who presented their demands for granting autonomy to all Western Ukrainian lands on 6 June 1920. Under the new political conditions, there were no prospects for autonomy, because none of the ruling political circles of Poland recognized Western Ukraine's national or territorial autonomy.

In the national liberation movement in Western Ukraine during the interwar period, there emerged five main trends represented both by democratic organizations (which used legal means of struggle) and by two illegal political forces. Ukrainian nationalists and communists had radical views. The leading political forces tried to consolidate the national liberation movement and to build their organizational structure.

In conditions of state and legislative instability of Halychyna, the Polish party tried to foster a spirit of sycophancy in Ukrainian parties. It was necessary to do it so that the world could see that Ukrainians had resigned themselves to the situation. The Polish political forces tried to involve Ukrainians in autonomy negotiations without actually intending to realize their promise. On 31 August 1920, the sergeant majors from the Ukrainian Halych Army and the Sich Riflemen (Sichovi Striltsi) established the Ukrainian Military Organization (UMO), which was the region's reaction to Polish occupation. UMO intended to continue armed struggle for "Ukraine's independence".

The radical views in Ukrainian villages reflected two political trends - Ukrainian nationalism and communism. Ukrainian nationalism was based on the feeling of national inferiority, which had dominated for centuries. Both dynamic trends proposed quick and simple solutions to agrarian and political problems. As such solutions were easy for ignorant villagers to understand, it was natural that this very trend enjoyed the poorest villagers' support.

The opposition of the various liberation conceptions testified to the crisis of Ukrainian social and political movement. Each of the political teams had its own goal, struggle forms and methods. Random civil disturbances had no common objective, which was advantageous for the Polish government. The region's difficult religious situation prevented the Ukrainian community from consolidating their actions.

The fall of Ukrainian statehood, refusal to cooperate with the Polish government, and the injured feeling of national identity urged the active strata of Halych society to consolidate with a view to struggle for state independence. The historical circumstances made the national forces search for grounds for political and ideological unification. On 11 July1925, inLviv, there was an all-party congress, where a new political force was created - the Ukrainian National Democratic Union (UNDU). The party, which found itself in the centre of social and democratic life, displayed a strong opposition to the Polish occupation of Western Ukraine and a readiness for a compromise with Soviet Ukraine. It was supported by priests from various faith communities, the intelligentsia, students, workers, citizens, villagers.

On the eve of World War II, Eastern Halychyna and Western Volyn got caught in "the crossfire" from Poland's imperial policy and the myths of "communist paradise" in Soviet Ukraine. The Bilshovyk policy of modernizing the society on class grounds appealed to the poorest rural strata. Communist ideology had a certain impact, and tens of thousands of repressed patriots from Halych fell prey to it.