The Polish–Ukrainian War, from November 1918 to July 1919, was a conflict between the Second Polish Republic and Ukrainian forces (both the West Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic).
The conflict had its roots in ethnic, cultural, and political differences between the Polish and Ukrainian populations living in the region, as Poland and both Ukrainian republics emerged from the collapse of the Russian and Austrian empires.
The war started in Eastern Galicia after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and spilled over into the Chełm and Volhynia regions formerly belonging to the Russian Empire.
Poland won the disputed territory on 18 July 1919.
Background
The origins of the conflict lie in the complex nationality situation in Galicia at the turn of the 20th century. As a result of the House of Habsburg's relative leniency toward national minorities, Austria-Hungary was the perfect ground for the development of both Polish and Ukrainian national movements. During the 1848 Revolution, the Austrians, concerned by Polish demands for greater autonomy within the province, gave support to Ruthenians, the name of the East Slavic people that later was recognized as Ukrainians; their goal was to be recognized as a distinct nationality.
Schools teaching Ruthenian language were established, Ruthenian political parties formed and attempts were begun to revive their national culture. In the late 1890s and the first decades of the next century, the populist Ruthenian intelligentsia adopted the term Ukrainians to describe their nationality. They endeavored to promote a national culture, including efforts toward standardization of the Ukrainian language, and the establishment and support of Ukrainian cultural institutions such as scientific societies, theater, and a national museum in Lviv; beginning in the early 20th century, a national consciousness developed among the broader Ruthenian population, which was mainly rural.
Multiple incidents between the two nations occurred throughout the late 19th century and the early 20th century. In 1903, both Poles and Ukrainians held separate conferences in Lviv: the Poles in May and Ukrainians in August. Afterwards, the two national movements developed with contradictory goals, which was a cause of the later clash.
The ethnic composition of Galicia underlaid the conflict between the Poles and Ukrainians there. The Austrian province of Galicia consisted of Ruthenian Voivodeship territory that was part of Poland from 1434, and was seized by Austria in 1772, during the First Partition of Poland. The land included the territory of historical importance to Poland, including the ancient capital of Kraków, and had a majority Polish population, but the east Galicia included the heartland of the historic territory of Galicia-Volhynia and had a Ukrainian majority. In eastern Galicia, Ukrainians made up 65% of the population, Poles – 22% and Jews – 12%. However, the eastern Galician cities and towns were mostly populated by Poles and Jews, with Polish people forming the largest group of urban inhabitants.
In the city of Lwów (Lviv), the population in 1910 was approximately 60% Polish and 12% Ukrainian. Poles considered Lviv to be one of Poland's cultural capitals and not having a control over the city was unthinkable for them.
The religious and ethnic divisions corresponded to social stratification. Galicia's leading social class were Polish nobles or descendants of Rus' gentry who had been Polonized in the past, but in the east of the province, Ruthenians (Ukrainians) were the majority of the peasants. Poles and Jews were responsible for most of the commercial and industrial development in Galicia in the late 19th century.
Throughout the 19th and the early 20th centuries, the local Ukrainians attempted to persuade the Austrians to divide Galicia into Western (Polish) and Eastern (Ukrainian) provinces. The Austrians eventually agreed in principle to divide the province of Galicia. In October 1916, Emperor Karl I promised to do so once the war had ended.
Prelude
Due to the intervention of Archduke Wilhelm of Austria, who adopted a Ukrainian identity and considered himself a Ukrainian patriot, in October 1918 two regiments of mostly Ukrainian troops were garrisoned in Lemberg (modern Lviv). As the Austro-Hungarian government collapsed, on October 18, 1918, the Ukrainian National Council (Rada), consisting of Ukrainian members of the Austrian parliament and regional Galician and Bukovynan diets as well as leaders of Ukrainian political parties, was formed. The council announced the intention to unite the West Ukrainian lands into a single state. As the Poles were taking their own steps to take over Lviv and Eastern Galicia, Captain Dmytro Vitovsky of the Sich Riflemen led the group of young Ukrainian officers in a decisive action and during the night of October 31 – November 1, the Ukrainian military units, consisting of 1,400 soldiers and 60 officers, took control over Lviv. The West Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed on November 13, 1918, with Lviv as its capital.
The timing of proclamation of the Republic caught the Polish ethnic population and administration by surprise. The new Ukrainian Republic claimed sovereignty over Eastern Galicia, including the Carpathians up to the city of Nowy Sącz in the West, as well as Volhynia, Carpathian Ruthenia and Bukovina (the last two territories were also claimed by Hungary and Romania respectively). In Lviv, the Ukrainian residents enthusiastically supported the proclamation. The city's significant Jewish minority accepted or remained neutral towards the Ukrainian proclamation, while the city's Polish majority was shocked to find themselves in a proclaimed Ukrainian state. Since the West Ukrainian People's Republic was not internationally recognized and Poland's boundaries had not yet been defined, the issue of ownership of the disputed territory was reduced to a question of military control.
War
Initial stages
Fighting between Ukrainian and Polish forces was concentrated around the declared Ukrainian capital of Lviv and the approaches to that city. In Lviv, the Ukrainian forces were opposed by local self-defence units formed mostly of World War I veterans, students and children. However, skillful command, good tactics and high morale allowed Poles to resist the poorly planned Ukrainian attacks. In addition, the Poles were able to skillfully buy time and wait for reinforcements through the arrangement of cease-fires with the Ukrainians. While Poles could count on widespread support from the civilian population, the Ukrainian side was largely dependent on help from outside the city. Other uprisings against Ukrainian rule erupted in Drohobych, Przemyśl, Sambir and Jarosław. In Przemyśl, local Ukrainian soldiers quickly dispersed to their homes and Poles seized the bridges over the River San and the railroad to Lviv, enabling the Polish forces in that city to obtain significant reinforcements.
After two weeks of heavy fighting within Lviv, an armed unit under the command of Lt. Colonel Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski of the renascent Polish Army broke through the Ukrainian siege on November 21 and arrived in the city. The Ukrainians were repelled, the entire Ukrainian Sich Riflemen regiment sent to support the Ukrainians being annihilated. Immediately after capturing the city, some in the local Jewish militia attacked Polish troops, while at the same time elements of the Polish forces as well as common criminals looted the Jewish and Ukrainian quarters of the city, killing up to 340 civilians. The Poles also interned a number of Ukrainian activists in detention camps. The Ukrainian government provided financial assistance to the Jewish victims of the violence and were able to recruit a Jewish battalion into their army. Some factions blame these atrocities on the Blue Army of General Haller. This is unlikely as this French-trained and supported fighting force did not leave France and the Western Front until April 1919, well after the rioting.
On November 9 Polish forces attempted to seize the Drohobych oil fields by surprise, but, outnumbered by the Ukrainians, they were driven back. The Ukrainians retained control over the oil fields until May 1919.
On 6 November, a new Ukrainian polity was proclaimed in the Northern half of the region of Bukovina: Ukrainian Bukovina under President Omelyan Popovych. The new state had its capital at Chernivtsi. It was dissolved on 11 November, when the Romanian Army occupied Chernivtsi. The Ukrainian administration and its military support retreated from the city the day before.
By the end of November 1918, Polish forces controlled Lviv and the railroad linking Lviv to central Poland through Przemyśl, while Ukrainians controlled the rest of Eastern Galicia east of the river San, including the areas south and north of the railroad into Lviv. Thus, the Polish-controlled city of Lviv (Lwów) faced Ukrainian forces on three sides.
Battles over Volhynia
Immediately after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Polish forces had captured the Kholm (Polish: Chełm) area; shortly thereafter the Austrian commandants in southwestern Volhynia (Volodymyr-Volynskyi and Kovel) handed over the government to the local Polish national committees. In November–December 1918, the Poles also advanced into Podlachia and Western Polesia, but were stopped in western Volhynia by the troops of general Osetsky.
As Polish units tried to seize control of the region, the forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic under Symon Petlura tried to recover the territory of Kholm Governorate already controlled by the Polish troops.
According to Richard Pipes, the first major pogrom in this region took place in January 1919 in the town of Ovruch, where Jews were robbed and killed by regiments of Kozyr-Zyrka affiliated with Symon Petlura's government. Nicolas Werth claims that armed units of the Ukrainian People's Republic were also responsible for rapes, looting, and massacres in Zhytomir, in which 500–700 Jews lost their lives.
After two months of heavy fighting the conflict was resolved in March 1919 by fresh and well-equipped Polish units under General Edward Rydz-Śmigły.
Stalemate in Eastern Galicia
Thanks to fast and effective mobilization in December 1918, the Ukrainians possessed a large numerical advantage until February 1919 and pushed the Poles into defensive positions. According to an American report from the period of January 13 – February 1, 1919, Ukrainians eventually managed to surround Lviv on three sides. The city's inhabitants were deprived of water supply and electricity. Ukrainian army also held villages on both sidelines of the railway leading to Przemyśl.
Ukrainian forces continued to control most of eastern Galicia and were a threat to Lviv itself until May 1919. During this time, according to Italian and Polish reports, Ukrainian forces enjoyed high morale (an Italian observer behind Galician lines stated that the Ukrainians were fighting with the "courage of the doomed") while many of the Polish soldiers, particularly from what had been Congress Poland, wanted to return home because they saw no reason to fight for an alien land; the Polish forces were outnumbered by two to one and lacked ammunition. Despite being initially outnumbered, the Poles had certain advantages. Their forces had many more and better-trained officers resulting in a better discipline and more mobile force; the Poles also enjoyed excellent intelligence and, due to their control of railroads behind their lines, were able to move their soldiers quite quickly. As a result, although the Poles had fewer total troops than did the Ukrainians, in particularly important battles they were able to bring in as many soldiers as did the Ukrainians.
On December 9, 1918, Ukrainian forces broke through the outer defences of Przemyśl in the hope of capturing the city and thus cutting off Polish-controlled Lviv from central Poland. However, the Poles were able to quickly send relief troops and by December 17 the Ukrainians were forced back. On December 27, bolstered by peasant troops sent to Galicia from Eastern Ukraine in the hopes that the Western Ukrainians would be able to form a disciplined force out of them, a general Ukrainian offensive against Lviv began. Lviv's defences held, and the eastern Ukrainian troops mutinied.