Didkovska Valeriia

Ukrainian Minorities in the Interwar

Period

31/10/2012

Table of Contents

Ukrainian Minorities

Poland

Romania

Czechoslovakia

Issues

Political

Cultural

Religious

Ukrainian Territories:

The Soviet Union - most of Ukraine;

Poland - Galicia, Volhynia, Pollisia (western part

of Ukraine);

Romania – Bukovina, Bessarabia, Maramures

(South-West part of Ukraine);

Czechoslovakia – Subcarpathian Rus (North-

West part of Ukraine).

The right of national minorities equality before

law, to maintain their own schools and use their own language in public life were guaranteed by:

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

Treaty of Riga (1921)

National constitutions

"free intellectual development, the

use of their national language, and

the exercise of their religion"

POLAND

Polish State Policy Towards National Minorities:

More tolerant and less assimilationist approach advocated by Józef Piłsudski

Assimilationist approach

advocated by Roman Dmowski and Stanisław Grabski

(National Democratic movement).

Most influential political force in the new postwar state was the National Democratic movement. The last promoted the idea of a unitary nation-state. Peoples other than Poles (Lithuanians, Belarusans, Ukrainians) should be assimilated into the Polish nationality. Linguistic assimilation was considered to be a major factor for "unifying the state."

Polish Minister for Religion and Public Education in 1923 and 1925–1926, wrote that "Poland may be preserved only as a state of Polish people. If it were a state of Poles, Jews, Germans, Rusyns, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Russians, it would lose its independence again"; and that "it is impossible to make a nation out of those who have no 'national self-identification,' who call themselves 'local'(National Democratic movement).

The Eastern part of Poland inhabited 5 million Ukrainians (about 13% of all population in Poland).

Ukrainians were the largest national minority.

In the early 1920s, the antagonism between the Polish State and the Ukrainian population (mostly in Eastern Galicia where the national as well political and economic consciousness was advanced) remained strong. Ukrainians refused to recognize themselves as subjects of alien rule for many years to come.

Educational policy: Provincial school administration based in L’viv (functioned in

Austria-Hungarian empire) was abolished. Since then all decisions were to be made in Warsaw.

The plan to establish Ukrainian university in L’viv (this demand was fulfilled before WWI by Ausrtro-Hungarian authorities) was eliminated by the Polls.

Polonization in L’viv high educational establishment. Head positions were possessed by polish professors.

Higher education was mostly accessible only to Polish citizens.

Polish administration closed many of the popular ProsvitaSociety reading rooms (the number of these rooms reduced more than three times (from 2879 in 1914 to 843 in 1923).

According to the law passed in 1924 the use of Ukrainian language in governmental agencies was banned.

According to the law passed in 1924 bilingual schools were organized. The numbed of Ukrainian unilingual schools lessened rapidly.

Oppositions Movement: Establishment of Underground Ukrainian University in

L’viv – self-proclaimed illegal humanitarian university giving education in the Ukrainian language.

Ukrainian professors were required to take a formal oath of allegiance to Poland; most of them refused and left the university in early 1920s.

Plast National Scout Organization of Ukraine (simply Plast) – movement which popularized Ukrainian culture among youth, inculcating youth with a Ukrainian national identity.

Ukrainian Church: The Polish policy in Ukraine initially aimed at keeping

Greek Catholic Galicians from further influencing Orthodox Volhynians.

Greek Catholic church flourished (Greek Catholic Theological Academy was established in L’viv, theological and scholarly journals were published).

Two "revindication campaigns" were held. The aim was to deprive the Orthodox of those churches that had been Greek Catholic before Orthodoxy was imposed by the tsarist Russian government.

Many Ortodox churches were closed, destroyed or converted into Roman Catholic churches.

Land reform: The land reform designed to favor the Poles in mostly Ukrainian

populated areas.

For example, while the carrying out the agrarian reform (agriculture was the dominant element in the economy of Poland’s Ukrainian lands, so the agrarian question was most pressing). By the 1938 800 thousands hectares were redistributed, but not in favor of Ukrainian peasants. About 40%of lands Volhynia and Polissia had been awarded to veterans of Poland’s war for independence, in eastern Galicia much land had been given to Polish peasants from the western provinces.

About 80% of Ukrainian peasants owned less than 5 hectares of land that is considered to be insufficiently to provide family with necessary amount of food.

20% of population lost their homes and farm during WWI and got no government support to rebuilt it.

Political Life:

Legal (Political parties, Political Oraganizations)

Illegal (Ukrainian Military Organization, West Ukrainian government-in-exile)

Among Illegal bodies the most influential were:• The Ukrainian Military Organization.

• The West Ukrainian government-in-exile.

Ukrainian Military Organization Tough policy was encountered with an underground war

(1919-1922) fought by the nationalistic movements concentrated around Yevhen Konovalets (first the Ukrainian Military Organization, latter the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists — OUN since 1929).

That was the most influential right-wing organization on the Ukrainian political scene in Poland.

In fact, UVO was not a political party, but an activist of the national movement – the secret army of the Ukrainian state fighting for national rights and independence (terrorist methods such as sabotage, killings, and repudiations were used).

Purposes of UVO: Mobilization of the Ukrainian society;

To sabotage the occupiers and spread fear across the administration and the Polish citizens in Eastern Poland.

In 1930’s OUN became a highly disciplined underground revolutionary movement dedicated to the overthrow of Polish, Romanian and Soviet rule on Ukrainian territories and to establish Ukrainian Independent state.

Ideological leader of the movement was Dmytro Dontsov. He believed that to achieve this aim, an aggressive will and the ability were to take action, preferably under the direction of e strong leader, were needed. That idea was translated by OUN into terroristic activity.

The OUN’s purpose: to destabilized the situation in Poland until the government finally collapsed.

(OUN opposed UNDO and other political parties which worked through legal channels. Legal political parties and other groups, as well as still-prestigious Greek Catholic metropolitan Andrei Steptets’kyi, publicly denounced the terrorist activities of OUN).

Western Ukrainian Government-in-exile:

Western Ukrainian state (1918-1919) an

independent state in eastern Galicia.

During World War I efforts were made to create

an independent and united Ukrainian state.

Soon after the West Ukrainian People’s Republic

defeat by the Polish Army, eastern Galicia was

incorporated into a newly reborn Polish state.

In July 1919 the West Ukrainian People's Republic established a

government-in-exile in the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi (they tried

to negotiate with international community to recognize WUPR as

independent state. But in fact territories were under the polish

government).

In 1923 it was decided that eastern Galicia would be

incorporated into Poland

"taking into consideration that Poland has recognized that in regard

to the eastern part of Galicia ethnographic conditions fully deserve

its autonomous status.“

National movement was represented by set of organizations:

The Union of Ukrainian Nationalist Youth

The League of Ukrainian Nationalists

They had orientation according to which the

Ukrainians should seek the inspiration in the

Ukrainian history, culture and tradition.

Political parties in Polish Ukraine: Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance (UNDO) – as ideological descendant of

prewar Ukrainian National Democratic party stood for proclaiming independent

Ukrainian state. But in difficult circumstances of polish domination hoped to

obtain positive changes for Poland’s Ukrainians through legal means. It was

strongest party in both the Sejm and the Senate was UNDO.

Ukrainian Social-Radical party – favored the introduction of socialism, but not of

the Marxist variety.

Communist party of West Ukraine (KPZU) – was an autonomous branch of

Polish Communist party. Since 1924 the party functioned underground.

Russian Peasant party and Russian agrarian party – drew their support from the

Old Ruthenian and Russophile cultural institutions.

Romania

Ukrainian population: 582,000 (official report), 1 million (unofficial data).

During the 1920s Romanian political life was dominated by the liberal party who's goal was to create a centralized state (Before WWI romanianregions such as Transylvania and Bukovina were autonomic but today all the government became centralized and the regional autonomies seized to exist).

The ukrainians in southern Bessarabia were permitted to have their own elementary schools (120 schools) few cooperatives and representatives in the romanian parliament.

Process of Romanization of Ukrainians:

Previously the multinational administrative and cultural center of Chernivtsi was transformed to a Romanian city.

Northern Bukovina gradually started to become romanian: Romanian schools, civic organizations and Romanian new papers were founded.

Ukrainian elementary schools in Bukovina were actively closed (by 1927 there was not a single Ukrainian elementary school left).

Higher educational establishments in Bukovina were teaching in Romanian.

The language of internal administration has become solely Romanian.

Liturgy was conducted in romanian.

All Ukrainian cultural societies were closed, Ukrainian newspapers were banned and court has disbanded ukrainian from its official use.

The department of Ukrainian subjects set up during the Austrian rule were abolished at the university of Chernivtsi.

Political life:

Ukrainians status had somewhat improved in

1928 after a new Ukrainian National party was

established in 1927 by the Ukrainian national

leader and art historian Volodymyr Zalozetskyi-

Sas.

By the end of the decade Romanian democratic

parliament had become meaningless as soon as

the state transformed into an authoritarian

dictatorship under King Carol II who had little

sympathy to national minorities.

Czechoslovakia

Political life: Subcarpathian Rusyns who were simply called Rusyns voluntarily joined

the newly created Czechoslovak republic in 1919.

Czechoslovakia’s capital, Prague, became the leading intellectual center of Ukrainian immigrants in Europe during the interwar period.

Czechoslovakian president Masarik appointed a governor named Zhatkovych who tried to build an autonomy consisting of both Subcarpathian Rusyns and Slovakian Rusyns but the immaturity of the local habitats participating in modern democratic processes and the influence of Greek Catholic clergy who favored a return to Hungarian rule denied the birth of the autonomy.

The direct rule of Prague ended in 1928 when Czechoslovakia was divided into four provinces, one of which was Subcarpathian Rus. Governors were appointed from the local population but de-facto nothing changed as a Czechoslovakian vice governor was ruling the region and thus never fulfilling most Subcarpathians political demands for autonomy to unite all Rusyns/ Ukrainians.

Although the political demands of Subcarpathian Rus were never fulfilled the habitants of the region began participating actively in politics and some Subcarpathians were elected to Czechoslovakian parliament between 1924 and 1935 taking an active part in the legislative process so the Ukrainians of Subcarpathian Rus had found it themselves in favorable political environment.

Ukrainian status has been improving in Czechoslovakia unlike in Poland and Romania.

With time according to Czechoslovak law, Rusyns were the “state nationality” in Subcarpathian Rus and they were even enjoying their own unique national anthem.

Culture:

Between 1920 and 1923 the number of schools in Subcarpathian Rus has doubled from 495 to 879 schools.

A Dramatical increase in Eastern Slavic language (vernacular Rusyn, Ukrainian and Russian) teaching schools from 337 to 556.

The Prosvita and Dujhnovych Society was established in Subcarpathian Rus imitating the Galician model, setting up branches and reading rooms through the province.

The cultural societies were partly supported by Czechoslovakian government.

Religion:

In the 1920s a dispute between the Greek Catholic Church and

the Orthodox church escalated due to the new democratic

environment.

The nationality question was one of the factors increasing the

rivalry between the churches.

Conclusions The newly born Polish and Romanian states

imposed aggressive policies towards national minorities assimilating the Ukrainians. Polish policy evoked national resistance mostly in

Galicia providing a reason for radical aggressive nationalistic Ukrainian bodies to be born but with no success.

Romanian Ukrainians didn’t pose much resistance to the assimilation unlike Polish Ukrainians.

Czechoslovakian Ukrainians flourished and were able to hold their identity thanks to some governmental support.