The history of the Ukrainian minority in Poland dates back to the Late Middle Ages, preceding the 14th century Galicia–Volhynia Wars between Casimir III the Great of Poland, and Liubartas of Lithuania. Following the extinction of the Rurikid dynasty in 1323, the Polish Kingdom extended further east in 1340 to include the lands of Przemyśl and in 1366, Kamianets-Podilskyi (Kamieniec Podolski). After the Union of Lublin (1569), principalities of Galicia and Western Volhynia became, what is known as, the Ruthenian Voivodeship of the Polish Crown, while the rest of Red Ruthenia together with Kyiv came under Lithuanian control. The Polish borders reached as far east as Zaporizhzhia and Poltava.
Kingdom of Poland and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth The annexation of Red Ruthenia by Casimir III (Kazimierz) came about as a result of the Polish–Lithuanian peace treaty signed in 1366. It was a two-stage affair, according to Hustyn Chronicle by Zakhariia Kopystensky (d.1627). The Polish King vowed to respect the Orthodox faith, but also, bestowed the Ruthenian gentry with the same rights as the Polish. Kopystensky—the re-discoverer of the ancient Hypatian Codex of southern Rus – regarded the eastern Slavs as "one nation in the medieval sense of the term, descended from a common ancestor." He "clearly differentiates between Muscovy and Ukraine-Rus'" in his work. The total area of Ruthenian lands annexed by Poland was about , and most of the population spoke Ruthenian (a linguistic predecessor of both modern Ukrainian and BelarusianPatricia Kennedy Grimsted. The Ruthenian (Volhynian) Metrica: Polish Crown Chancery Records for Ukrainian Lands, 1569–1673. In: Harvard Ukrainian Studies. Vol. 14/nr 1–2. Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. June 1990. p. 9.).
The local nobility gradually became polonized, and many members of the Ruthenian szlachta converted to Roman Catholicism. Among the most famous Ruthenian families who polonized themselves were the Wiśniowiecki, Zbarascy, Zasławski, and Czartoryski families. Others, such as the Ostrogski, Sanguszko, and Kisiel families, resisted polonization. All these noble Ruthenian families were very influential in pre-1795 Poland, and one of the Polish kings, Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki, was the son of a notable Ruthenian magnate Jeremi Wiśniowiecki. Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky and representative of populist movement in Ukraine, attacked Poland, claiming: "the four centuries of Polish rule had left particularly destructive effects (...) economic and cultural backwardness in Galicia was the main "legacy of historical Poland, which assiduously skimmed everything that could be considered the cream of the nation, leaving it in a state of oppression and helplessness".C. M. Hann, Paul Robert Magocsi. Galicia: A Multicultured Land. University of Toronto, 2005. . Google Print, Page 85.
Second Polish Republic Poland re-established its sovereignty in 1918 after a century of rule by Austria-Hungary, the German, and the Russian Empires; however, Poland's western and eastern borders were not determined at inception. The Soviet, Polish and Ukrainian claims over the disputed territories led to the Polish–Ukrainian and Polish–Soviet wars. The end of open warfare was achieved with the logistical aid by France. A formal treaty, the Peace of Riga, was signed on 18 March 1921, establishing Polish borders for the period between the World Wars. A process of economic recovery followed.Prof. Władysław Filar, Wołyń w okresie międzywojennym (Wołyń Voivodeship in the interwar period.) Retrieved 15 August 2011
After the Polish-Ukrainian War, the eastern part of Galicia and Volhynia were captured by Poland. Ukrainian leaders at that time were retained a strong sense of honor. During the entire time of its existence, there were no cases of mass repressions against national minorities in territories held by the West Ukrainian government;Yaroslav Hrytsak (1996). Нариси Історії України: Формування модерної української нації XIX-XX ст (Ukrainian; Essays on the History of Ukraine: the Formation of the Modern Ukrainian Nation). Kyiv, Ukraine: Chapter 3. the Ukrainian forces controlling the city even neglected to arrest Polish nationalist leaders and intelligentsia, enabling the latter to rebel against the Ukrainian government.Ukrainian Collaboration in the Extermination of the Jews during the Second World War: Sorting Out the Long-Term and Conjunctural Factors by John-Paul Himka, University of Alberta. Taken from The Fate of the European Jews, 1939–1945: Continuity or Contingency, ed. Jonathan Frankel (New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), Studies in Contemporary Jewry 13 (1997): 170–189.
Polish forces captured Lviv after a week-long battle with the Ukrainian forces. They claimed they were fired at in the streets by civilians when they entered the city, and retaliated. They burned the Ukrainian and Jewish sections and killed approximately 270 Ukrainians; however, the British mission also noted that there were no clear conclusions as to the specific motive behind the massacre. The percentage of Jews killed corresponds to the demographics in Lviv at that time.Lviv#Demographics
In the eastern half of Galicia, Ukrainians made up approximately 65% of the population while Poles made up 22% of the population and Jews made up 12%. Of the 44 administrative divisions of Austrian eastern Galicia, Lviv (, ), the biggest and capital city of the province, was the only one in which Poles made up a majority of the population. Ukrainians represented about 16% of the total population of the pre-war Poland. Over 90% of them lived in the countryside, 3–6 percent were industrial workers, and close to 1% belonged to Intelligentsia. As to religion, 60 percent were Uniate Catholics and 39 percent professed Eastern Orthodox faith. While national consciousness among the Galician Ukrainians was strong, the Ukrainians of Volhynia had little national orientation and were largely influenced by Russophile and pro-Soviet trends.
According to the Polish census of 1931 the following areas hosted a large number of Ukrainian speakers by first language in Poland: Lwów; 63.48% Polish 7.77% Ukrainian, Lwów Voivodeship; 57.67% Polish, 18.53% Ukrainian, Stanisławów Voivodeship; 46.87% Ukrainian, 22.44% Polish, Tarnopol Voivodeship; 49.31% Polish, 25.12% Ukrainian, Wołyń Voivodeship; 68.01% Ukrainian, 16.62% Polish.
Two contradicting policies towards national minorities were competing in Poland at the time. The assimilationist approach advocated by Roman Dmowski (minister of foreign affairs) and Stanisław Grabski (minister of religion and education) clashed with the more tolerant approach advocated by the Polish chief of State Józef Piłsudski,Zbigniew Brzezinski in his introduction to Wacław Jędrzejewicz's "Pilsudski A Life For Poland" wrote: Pilsudski's vision of Poland, paradoxically, was never attained. He contributed immensely to the creation of a modern Polish state, to the preservation of Poland from the Soviet invasion, yet he failed to create the kind of multinational commonwealth, based on principles of social justice and ethnic tolerance, to which he aspired in his youth. One may wonder how relevant was his image of such a Poland in the age of nationalism.... Quoted from this website . whose project of creating the Międzymorze federation with other states failed in the aftermath of the Polish-Soviet War. The ultranationalist Roman Dmowski and his National Democrats, with its consistent militantly anti-Ukrainian policies, was supported by the Polish minority in Eastern Galicia.Orest Subtelny. (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pg. 428
From 1918 to 1924, Polish institutions officially acknowledged Ukrainian as a public language only Eastern Galicia. This changed with the language laws passed in 1924, which permitted members of the Ukrainian minority to use Ukrainian in public administration offices and local government bodies in the voivodeships of Lwów, Tarnopol, Stanisławów, Wołyń, and Polesie, as well as in courts.
Political and cultural life
The Polish authorities renamed the eastern part of Austrian Galicia "Eastern Little Poland" and created administrative units (Palatinates) designed to include as many non-Ukrainians as possible. In 1924 the Polish government under Władysław Grabski excluded the Ukrainian language from use in government institutions. It also avoided the official use of the word "Ukrainian", replacing it with the historical name "Ruthenian".
There were nine legal Ukrainian and Ruthenian parties, reflecting a full range of political opinion. Ukrainians during the interbellum had several representatives in the Sejm. In 1928–1930 there were 26 Ukrainian MPs in Polish parliament, including Marshall Deputy of the Sejm, Volodymyr Zahajkiewicz and the Secretary of the Sejm, Dymitr Ladyka. Ukrainian and Belarusian deputies created a powerful "Ukrainian-Belarusian Club" (Klub Ukrainsko-Bialoruski), whose members were very active in those years. In 1935 there were 19 Ukrainian deputies, and in 1938 – 14, including Vasyl Mudry – Deputy Marshal of the Polish Sejm.
On 12 July 1930, activists of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), together with Ukrainian Military Organization, began the so-called sabotage action, during which Polish estates were burned, roads, rail lines and telephone connections were destroyed. The OUN used terrorism and sabotage in order to force the Polish government into reprisals so fierce that they would cause the more moderate Ukrainian groups ready to negotiate with the Polish state to lose support. OUN directed its violence not only against the Poles, but also against Ukrainians who wished for a peaceful settlement of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict. In response to this terrorism, the Polish government implemented its so-called pacification in Galician villages suspected of support for UVO. Polish security forces conducted thorough search in Ukrainian houses and buildings, devastating many of them in the process, destroying Ukrainian books, folk dresses, as well as other cultural objects. They frequently forced Ukrainian villages to sign an oath of loyalty to Poland and renounce allegiance to the Ukrainian nation, and inflicted corporal punishment in the form of public whippings. According to Ukrainian sources, seven people were beaten to death while the Polish sources put the number of dead at two. In addition, several Ukrainian members of the Polish parliament, including Vasyl Mudry, were arrested after the Polish authorities discovered that there had been contact between the Ukrainian political parties and UVO. Ukrainian secondary schools were closed down. Poland's Pacification of Western Ukraine was condemned by Great Britain, France and Germany, although the League of Nations released a statement claiming that Polish activities were justified due to Ukrainian sabotage activities.
In 1935 the situation temporarily improved, as the Polish government reached an agreement with the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance (UNDO), the largest Ukrainian political party in Poland; most prisoners of the Bereza Kartuska prison were released. Ukrainian language education and their political representation improved. But key demands by the Ukrainians, such as local autonomy, a Ukrainian-language university, and an end to Polish colonization efforts on territories inhabited by Ukrainians, were never met. Ukrainian extremists continued their attacks on the Poles, and the moderates lost their bid to stabilize the situation. A Polish report about the popular mood in Volhynia recorded a comment of a young Ukrainian from October 1938: "we will decorate our pillars with you and our trees with your wives."