2020-09-24
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In the fall of 1918 the Central Powers lost the war. The Austro-Hungarian Empire started to disintegrate. Poles and Ukrainians, the two major nations in Austrian-ruled Western Ukraine, began their struggle for independence. The Ukrainians planned to create the West Ukrainian People’s Republic consisting of Galicia, Bukovyna, and Transcarpathia. That intention brought them into conflict with the Poles who planned to revive the Great Poland “from sea to sea” (from the Baltic to the Black Sea). All West Ukraine’s lands were to be included in the Great Poland. At first Ukrainians were victorious. On 1 November they captured Lviv and proclaimed their independent republic with Ievhen Petrushevych as its head. A powerful 40, 000 ‘Galician Army’ was organized.
The republic, however, could not control all the territories it claimed. Bukovyna was occupied by Romania, and Transcarpathia remained under Hungarian control until the Allies (Entente) gave it to the new state of Czechoslovakia. Lviv was also lost. It was not a big surprise since the population of the city consisted of 68% of Poles, 20% of Jews, and only 18% of Ukrainians who were mostly Catholicized and Polonized.
On 22 January 1919 the ZUNR (Western Ukrainian People’s Republic) united with the UNR (Ukrainian People’s Republic). The ZUNR got a wide autonomy and was renamed into ZOUNR (West Oblast of the UNR) which included Eastern Galicia, Bykovyna, and Transcarpathia.[12] This act went down into history as злука (unification), but in fact it was mostly symbolic because at that time Petliura’s armies were losing its territories to the Bolsheviks and West Ukrainians were losing their territories to Poland which got a strong 80,000 army of General I. Galler formed of former Polish prisoners (who had fought in the German army) in France. France provided this army with officers and arms. France wanted to prevent the reemergence of a powerful Germany on its eastern border. Thus Paris decided to create a strong and allied to France Polish state to counterbalance Germany from the East. That is why France wanted to strengthen Poland at the expense of western Ukraine. By 18 July 1919 all Galicia had been occupied by the Polish army. But the Galician Army managed to avoid encirclement. It crossed the Zbruch River and united with Petliura’s troops.[13]
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After leaving western Ukraine the Galician Army fought in union with Petliura against the Reds. In November 1919 it came under the command of white General A. Denikin and fought with him against the Reds. There were serious disagreements between West and East Ukrainians concerning Ukraine’s enemies. West Ukrainians did not consider the Whites their enemies as their enemy was Poland. Petliura, on the contrary, considered Denikin to be Ukraine’s major enemy. Denikin promised not to use the Galician Army against Petliura. In January 1920, when the Whites were loosing the war, the Galician Army joined the Reds under the name of ‘Red Galician Army.’
Petliura’s alliance with Poland
At the end of 1919 the position of Petliura’s army was difficult. He had to fight against the Reds and the Whites at the same time. As he had no chances to defeat his powerful enemies he turned to Poland for help. Petliura agreed to Poland’s incorporation of Galicia and western Volhynia in return for Polish military help against the Bolsheviks. That enraged West Ukrainians who accused him of treason. Poles were interested in war with the Bolsheviks not so much to defeat them as to create a buffer East Ukrainian state between themselves and Soviet Russia.
The Polish-Ukrainian offensive was successful at first. By 6 May the allied forces, took Kyiv. Petliura and the Polish generals expected Ukrainian peasants to rebel against the Reds but it did not happen. By June the Bolsheviks launched a counterattack which brought them great success. The Polish capital Warsaw was under threat. The Poles were ready to renounce considerable parts of western Ukraine and western Belarus but Lenin decided to attack Warsaw and start all-European revolution from there. The threat of loosing independence inflamed patriotism in Poland. Poland conducted mobilization and counterattacked the Reds. The Bolsheviks were forced to retreat and lost western Ukraine and western Belarus. Exhausted by the war the Reds and the Poles decided to divide Ukraine. As a result of the war with Soviet Russia the Poles got the lands promised by Petliura but failed to establish a buffer Ukrainian state. Unable to fight against the Soviets alone Petliura’s army retreated to the Polish side of the border and was interned. The war for Ukrainian independence was finally over.
