Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

WESTERN UKRAINIAN PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC. This short-lived state was established at Lemberg (L′viv), in October–November 1918, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed at the end of the First World War. In September 1918, a Ukrainian General Military Commission formed at L′viv and began preparations to use the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (of the Austro-Hungarian Army) for a military insurrection (the November Uprising). Meanwhile, in late October 1918, Ukrainian parties from the regional diets of Galicia and Bukovina formed the Ukrainian National Rada at L′viv, with Evhen Petrushevych at its head, and on 1 November 1918 proclaimed the existence of a Ukrainian state—the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic—that included lands chiefly occupied by Ukrainians in Galicia, Bukovina, and Transcarpathia. These lands (or parts of them), however, were also claimed by Poland, Romania, and the emerging Czechoslovakia, and when a Polish commission set out from Kraków to L′viv at the end of October, the Rada decided to take matters into its own hands: on 31 October–1 November 1918, the Sich Riflemen took control of the city.

In a manifesto of 3 November 1918, the Ukrainian National Rada set out its political credo, promising elections to a constituent assembly, guarantees of autonomy for national minorities, and land reform to assist landless and poor peasants (although recognizing and respecting the existence of private property in land). On 13 November 1918, the democratic and constitutional foundations of the new state were laid out in a Provisional Fundamental Law, which also defined the territory of the state, its coat of arms (a golden lion, rampant, on a blue background), and its flag (azure and gold), while a law on military service heralded the creation of the Ukrainian Galician Army.

The republic extended across an area inhabited by some four million people. Elections were held from 22 to 25 November 1918 for the 150-member Rada, which was to serve as the legislative body. Approximately one-third of the seats were reserved for the national minorities (Poles, Jews, and others). The Jews participated and were represented by about 10 percent of the delegates. However, the Polish population of the region, as well as the Polish government in Warsaw, were openly hostile to the Ukrainian aspirations to govern what they viewed as historically Polish territory. Consequently, the Poles boycotted the elections and began military operations against the new republic, thereby starting the Ukrainian–Polish War. By the end of November 1918, Polish forces had captured the city of L′viv (wherein Poles outnumbered Ukrainians), and the Ukrainian National Rada retreated, first to Ternopil (Ternopol′) and then to Stanyslaviv (Ivano-Franivsk).

On 22 January 1919, the Rada signed an act of union (the Act of Zluka) with the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR) at Kiev, but the political and military administrations of the two states remained quite separate. On 9 June 1919, as Polish forces pushed eastward into a small triangle of territory between the Zbruch and Dnestr Rivers, the government (Executive Committee) of the republic resigned and granted dictatorial powers to Petrushevych. However, when the army’s attempt to advance in June was turned by the Poles and it was forced back across the Zbruch, Petrushevych moved his administration to Kamianets-Podilskyi (the base of the UNR since the Red Army’s capture of Kiev in February 1919). There it lobbied for the Ukrainian authorities to come to an agreement for joint operations against the Red Army with the White forces of General A. I. Denikin, but the leader of the UNR, Symon Petliura, was utterly opposed to such a plan. Consequently, in November 1919 Petrushevych and his advisors moved to Vienna. From there, in exile, they led a campaign for international recognition of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic, but to no avail, as the Allied powers favored strong Polish, Romanian, and Czechoslovak states as a barrier against Soviet Russia. Thus, under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain (10 September 1919), the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1919), and the Treaty of Trianon (4 June 1920), Bukovina was granted to Romania and Transcarpathia to Czechoslovakia, while by the Allied definition of the Curzon Line (8 December 1919), Western Ukraine (Eastern Galicia) was granted to Poland.