The Pacification of Ukrainians in Eastern Galicia was a punitive action against Ukrainians in Galicia, carried out by police and military of the Second Polish Republic from September until November 1930 in reaction to a wave of sabotage and acts of terror perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists.
It took place in 16 Polish counties of three southeastern voivodeships. During the Interbellum this area was part of the so-called Eastern Lesser Poland province. Therefore, in Ukrainian and Polish literature this event is called "Pacification of/in Eastern Galicia" () () and "Pacification of Eastern Lesser Poland" ().
Background Annexation of Galicia by Poland
The ethnic composition of Eastern Galicia in 1931: in Lwów Voivodeship Poles made up 57,7% of population, Ukrainians and Ruthenians 34,1%, and 7,5% of inhabitants were Jews, who identified mostly as Polish Jews or just Jewish; in Tarnopol Voivodeship 49,3% was Polish, 45,5% Ukrainian and Ruthenian, 4,9% Jewish; Stanisławów Voivodeship was 68,8% Ukrainian and Ruthenian, 22,4% Polish and 7,4% Jewish. Territories east of the Curzon line were incorporated into the Second Polish Republic after Austria-Hungary's collapse and the defeat of the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR).
During the Polish-Ukrainian war of 1918–1919 up to 30–35 thousand of Ukrainians, including prisoners of war and hostages, were held in Polish POW and internment camps, collection stations and prisons. Of this number, about 1.5–2 thousand people successfully escaped, and a further 1.5 thousand prisoners, internees, and hostages died due to epidemic diseases, starvation, or natural causes. After the war, in 1920–1921, approximately 100,000 Ukrainians, most of them from UNR, but also some from ZUNR were held in internment camps by the Polish government, where they were often denied food and medicine; some of them died from starvation, disease or suicide. The victims included not only soldiers and officers but also priests, lawyers and doctors who had supported the Ukrainian cause. The death toll from diseased at these camps was estimated at 20,000 people.Jochen Böhler. (2019). Civil War in Central Europe, 1918-1921: The Reconstruction of Poland. Oxford University Press, pg. 81 "100,000 Ukrainians were subsequently interred in the camps of the ultimately victorious Polish Army. One fifth of them fell to infectious diseases." During the war the West Ukrainian government had also interned Poles in camps which contributed to ethnic tensions in the interwar period.
After the establishment of Polish rule, the name of Ukrainians in official documents was replaced with the historic term "Ruthenians", Galicia's autonomy was abolished and its territory was divided into three voivodeships, known collectively as "East Lesser Poland". In order to prevent the consolidation of ethnic minorities, the Polish government manipulated census data, as a result of which the number of people identifying themselves as tutejszy ("locals") grew from 38,000 in 1921 to 707,000 ten years later, the vast majority of the "Tutejszy" people were located in Polesia, a part of the region that is now in modern-day Belarus and was not part of Eastern Galicia. The Ukrainian language was banned in government agencies in 1924 and support was steadily withdrawn from Ukrainian schools.
At the same time, government attitudes in respect to Ukrainians differed between Galicia and Volhynia: in the former, Lwów University professor Stanisław Grabski promoted total assimilation of Ukrainian ethnicity, meanwhile Volhynian governor Henryk Józewski supported recognition of local Ukrainians as fellow Polish citizens. Józewski fostered Ukrainian and Polish-Ukrainian organizations. In education, he supported the teaching of the Ukrainian language and argued for the introduction of Ukrainian as the local official language, as Piłsudski, Józewski espoused a multicultural and multinational view, he opposed Soviet influences over Poland's Ukrainians and criticized certain Ukrainian organizations that he viewed as too Soviet-dependent or too extremist (e.g. Prosvita).
However, due to the economic state of Poland during the Great Depression, local leaders were not replaced, so Ukrainian organizations were taken over by the state, but mostly run at a local level by the same people. During the 1920s, the so-called "Sokal border" was established by Polish authorities between the two regions in order to stop the spread of Ukrainian press and prevent the establishment of Ukrainian cooperatives and Prosvita societies in Volhynia. Józewski's efforts were greatly feared by Stalin, who was fearful that Wołyń would end up as a Piedmont to Ukrainian nationalism and engulf Soviet Ukraine.
Formation of Ukrainian resistance The transfer of Galicia under Polish control by the Entente in 1919 was officially justified by the need to defend the area from Bolshevik troops, who during that time had reached the Zbruch river on its eastern borders. Nevertheless, the local Ukrainian population tended to recognize the government of West Ukrainian People's Republic headed by Yevhen Petrushevych as their legitimate authority. Despite this, in 1923 Entente countries formally recognized Galicia as part of Poland in exchange for Polish promises to grant the region local autonomy and establish a Ukrainian university. None of the latter measures were implemented by Warsaw.
The policies of the interwar Polish government led to a radicalization of Ukrainian society in Galicia. In order to oppose Polish control over their land, in 1920 Ukrainian veterans of World War I and following conflicts established the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO), which engaged in underground activities against the government and organized political murders of Ukrainians viewed as Polish collaborationists, for example Sydir Tverdokhlib. In 1921 Ukrainian Stepan Fedak attempted to assassinate Polish leader Józef Piłsudski during the latter's visit to Lviv. As part of their activities, Ukrainians in Galicia organized a boycott of the 1922 Polish parliamentary election and established a Secret Ukrainian University, which provided education to over 1200 students. In 1924 another assassination attempt was organized against Polish president Stanisław Wojciechowski.
Ukrainian resistance organizations established close contacts with the Weimar Republic and, later, Nazi Germany, while others kept in contact with the new Soviet government to the east. Polish-Ukrainian relations further deteriorated during the Great Depression, leading to much economic disruption, with the rural areas being hit particularly hard. In this atmosphere, radical Ukrainian nationalists propagating active resistance to Polish domination found a ready response from Ukrainian youth. In 1929 a congress of Ukrainian activists in Vienna established the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). In its activities, the organization employed methods of anti-government terror and "expropriations", similar to those once employed by Piłsudski's Polish Socialist Party.
OUN sabotage campaign
In July 1930, activists of the extremist OUN began sabotage actions, during which warehouses and cereal fields owned by Poles were burned, Polish and Jewish homes were destroyed, bridges were blown up, state institutions, rail lines and telephone connections were damaged. The organizer of the action was Yevhen Konovalets. Financing was provided and weaponry was illegally smuggled with Weimar German support.
The main reason behind the sabotage campaign was the mainstream Ukrainian parties' decision to participate in the Polish elections, coupled with Józef Piłsudski's policy of tolerance, which threatened the OUN's position in Ukrainian society. The organization reacted by adopting a tactic designed to radicalize Ukrainian public opinion and block any form of compromise with Polish authorities. 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 all Ukrainians wishing for a peaceful settlement of the Polish-Ukrainian conflict.
Over time, local Ukrainians, many of whom saw the Poles as occupiers of their land, joined the action. Offices of the Polish paramilitary Riflemen's Association were burned, as were the stands of the popular trade fairs in Lwów (Lviv). Government offices and mail trucks were attacked. This situation lasted until September, with some sporadic incidents happening as late as November. Between July and November 1930, there were 197 cases of terrorist and sabotage activities. The vast majority, 172 incidents, were directed against private civilian property, mostly belonging to Polish and Jewish civilians, only 25 cases involved state-owned property, this shows that the violent acts were mostly aimed at terrorizing civilian population, while attacks on state infrastructure accounted for only a small portion of the total. The terror action was limited to Galicia, and did not take place in Volhynia.
Government response In response, Polish authorities decided to pacify the turbulent province. The decision to carry out the action was made by Marshal Józef Piłsudski in his capacity as Prime Minister of the Second Polish Republic. According to historian Roman Wysocki, the acts of sabotage merely served as a pretext for the pacifications with them being chiefly aimed at distracting the government's critics in the run up to elections. Recognizing that terrorist actions carried out by the OUN did not amount to an insurrection, Piłsudski ordered a police action, rather than a military one, and deputized the Minister of Interior, Felicjan Sławoj Składkowski with its organization. Sławoj Składkowski in turn ordered regional police commanders to prepare for it in the Lwów Voivodeship, Stanisławów Voivodeship and Tarnopol Voivodeship. The commander of the planned action was Lwów Voivodeship's chief of police, Czesław Grabowski.
Before the action commenced, around 130 Ukrainian activists, including a few dozen former Sejm (Polish parliament) deputies were arrested. Among those detained were not only Ukrainians, but also Polish politicians opposed to Piłsudski's government, including former prime minister Wincenty Witos. The action itself began on 14 September 1930, in several villages of Lwów Voivodeship, where the 14th Jazlowiec Uhlan Regiment was directed, even though the detailed plan for the action was not established until 18 September.
Forces involved From 20 to 29 September, 17 companies of police (60 policemen each) were used. Of these, 9 came from the police academy in Mosty Wielkie (Velyki Mosty), 3 from Lwów Voivodeship, 2.5 from Stanisławów Voivodeship, 2.5 from Tarnopol Voivodeship (a total of 1,041 policemen and officers). The main operations with the participation of military units took place in the first half of October.
Overall, the action affected: Lwów Voivodeship: police action - 206 places in 9 different counties, military action - 78 places in 8 different counties. Stanisławów Voivodeship: police action - 56 places in 2 counties, military action - 33 places in one county Tarnopol Voivodeship - police action - 63 places in 4 counties, military action - 57 places in 5 counties.
Or in total 494 villages. Timothy Snyder and other sources give the figure of 1000 policemen used in the operation, affecting 450 villages.
Nature of the action The operation was carried out in three stages. First, a basic edict was issued authorizing a particular action. Second, police units were brought in. Third units of the regular army carried out "operational maneuvers".