On November 1, 1918, another state formation appeared on the political map of Eastern Europe. In principle, there was nothing surprising in this. As a result of the defeat in the First World War, several empires collapsed at once. Germany lost all its colonies in Africa and Oceania, and the other two empires - Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman - completely ceased to exist, disintegrating into a number of independent states.
The course for the transformation of Galicia into a Ukrainian republic
Back on October 7, 1918, the Regency Council, which met in Warsaw, spoke about the need to restore Poland's political sovereignty. The Polish state was to include lands that, after the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, belonged to the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary and Prussia. Naturally, it was also about the lands of the modern western regions of Ukraine, which, as part of Austria-Hungary, were the so-called. "Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria". However, Ukrainian, or rather Galician, nationalists did not agree with the plans of the Polish statesmen. The political movement, diligently nurtured by the Austro-Hungarian ruling circles in the interests of fragmentation of the Eastern Slavs and countering pro-Russian sentiments, by the time of the end of the First World War had gained significant influence in Galicia. According to Ukrainian nationalists, the Galician lands should have become part of a sovereign Ukrainian state, and not become part of a revived Poland. Therefore, when on October 9, 1918, the deputies of the Austrian parliament from Poland decided to restore Polish statehood and extend its sovereignty to all the former lands of the Commonwealth, including Galicia, the reaction of Ukrainian nationalists followed immediately. On October 10, 1918, the Ukrainian faction headed by Yevgeny Petrushevich appointed for October 18, 1918 the convocation of the Ukrainian National Council (UNS) in Lviv. Yevgeny Petrushevich was elected its chairman, but he was in Vienna almost without a break, where he held consultations with the Austrian ruling circles. Therefore, the actual leadership of the council was carried out by Kost Levitsky, who, in fact, can be considered the "author" of the Galician statehood.
A native of the small town of Tysmenytsya (today it is located on the territory of the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine and is the regional center), Kost Levitsky was born on November 18, 1859 in the family of a Ukrainian priest of gentry origin. That is, at the time of the events in question, he was already under sixty. Levitsky received his education at the Stanislavsky gymnasium, and then at the law faculties at the Lviv and Vienna universities. In 1884 he became a Doctor of Jurisprudence, and in 1890 he opened his own law office in Lvov. At that time Lviv was not at all a Ukrainian city. Galicians lived here no more than 22% of the total urban population, and the bulk of the inhabitants were Poles and Jews. Lviv was considered a traditional Polish city, lectures at Lviv University from the end of the 19th century. were conducted in Polish as well. However, it was in Lviv, as the largest cultural center of Galicia, that the Western Ukrainian nationalist movement became active. Levitsky became one of his most important figures. He founded the first society of Ukrainian lawyers "Kruzhok Prava" in 1881, became a member of the creation of several Ukrainian trade and craft unions, including the society "People's Trade" and the insurance company "Dniester", as well as the Regional Credit Union. Levitsky was also engaged in translation activities, in particular, he translated into Ukrainian the legislative acts of Austria-Hungary written in German, compiled a German-Ukrainian legislative dictionary. Kostya Levytsky's political activity proceeded along the lines of Galician (Ukrainian) nationalism. So, in 1907-1918. he was a member of the Chamber of Ambassadors of the Austrian Parliament, president of the People's Committee of the Ukrainian National Democratic Party. It was Levitsky who headed the Main Ukrainian Rada, created by the Galician nationalist parties operating on the territory of Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the First World War.
Sich Archers and the uprising in Lviv
The council, assembled at the end of October 1918 under the leadership of Levitsky, called for the creation of an independent Ukrainian state on the territory of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia. As you can see, there was no talk of other lands joining the Ukrainian state so far. And the struggle for the sovereignty of Galicia was not easy - after all, 25% of the region's population were Poles, who, naturally, considered it necessary to include Galicia in the revived Polish state and in every possible way opposed the plans of Ukrainian nationalists to assert “independence”. Realizing that in the time of troubles caused by the defeat of Austria-Hungary in World War I, Galicia has every chance of self-determination, Ukrainian nationalists decided to enlist the support of the armed forces, which could protect the region's lands from Poland's territorial claims. This armed force was the regiments of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen - units of the old Austro-Hungarian army, staffed by immigrants from Galicia and Transcarpathia. As you know, the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen began to form before the start of the First World War from among the volunteers who lived in Galicia and were ready to fight under the Austro-Hungarian banners. The basis of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen was formed by the youth paramilitary organizations of Galician nationalists - "Sokol", "Plast". After the outbreak of World War I, the Main Ukrainian Rada, assembled by the three main political parties of Galicia (national democrats, social democrats and radicals) called on Ukrainian youth to join the ranks of the Sich Riflemen and fight on the side of the "central powers", that is, Germany and Austria. Hungary.
On September 3, 1914, the formed volunteer legion of "Ukrainian Sich Riflemen" took the oath of allegiance to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So the Habsburgs acquired soldiers from Galicia. However, for a long time, the archers were not entrusted with serious combat missions - the Austro-Hungarian command doubted the reliability of these units, although the archers in every possible way tried to demonstrate their belligerence. Initially, the legion of the Sich Riflemen consisted of two and a half kurens (battalions). Each kuren, in turn, included 4 hundreds (companies), and a hundred - 4 couples (platoons), 4 swarms (squads) of 10-15 riflemen each. In addition to foot kurens, the legion also included a hundred horse, machine-gun hundred, engineering hundred and auxiliary units. The command paid great attention to the ideological indoctrination of the Sichs, for which a special unit called the "printed apartment" was created to carry out agitation and propaganda tasks. It was the Sich Riflemen during the winter campaign of 1914-1915. defended the Carpathian passages, where they lost up to 2/3 of their first composition. Heavy losses forced the Austro-Hungarian command to switch to the practice of manning the legion at the expense of conscripts. Moreover, they began to call on local peasants - Rusyns, who sympathized with Russia and treated with hatred both the Austro-Hungarians and the Galicians (the last Rusyns of Transcarpathia were considered traitors to the “Russian” people). The transition to draft recruiting further reduced the fighting efficiency of the Sich Riflemen. Nevertheless, the legion of the Sichs continued to serve on the territory of Ukraine. By November 1, 1918, the main parts of the legion were stationed in the vicinity of Chernivtsi. It was on them that the nationalists decided, first of all, to rely on when declaring the independence of Galicia. In addition, the council hoped to take advantage of the support of those Austro-Hungarian units, which were largely staffed by Ukrainian conscripts. We are talking about the 15th Infantry Regiment in Ternopil, the 19th Infantry Regiment in Lviv, the 9th and 45th Infantry Regiments in Przemysl, the 77th Infantry Regiment in Yaroslav, the 20th and 95th Infantry Regiments in Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk), 24th and 36th infantry regiments in Kolomyia and 35th infantry regiment in Zolochiv. As you can see, the list of military units, on whose support the nationalists were going to rely, was very significant. Another thing is that the Poles also had significant armed formations at their disposal, which were simply not going to give Galicia to Ukrainian nationalists.
On the night of November 1, 1918, military units of the Sich Riflemen raised an armed uprising in Lvov, Stanislav, Ternopil, Zolochev, Sokal, Rava-Russkaya, Kolomyia, Snyatyn and Pechenezhin. In these cities, the authority of the Ukrainian National Council was proclaimed. In Lviv, about 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers and officers who served in parts of the Austro-Hungarian army occupied the building of the Austrian military command, the administration of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, the Diet of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, the building of the railway station, post office, army and police barracks. The Austrian garrison did not offer resistance and was disarmed, and the commandant general Lvov was placed under arrest. The Austro-Hungarian Governor of Galicia handed over power to Vice Governor Volodymyr Detskevich, whose candidacy was supported by the Ukrainian National Council. On November 3, 1918, the Ukrainian National Council published a manifesto on the independence of Galicia and proclaimed the creation of an independent Ukrainian state on the territory of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia. Almost simultaneously with the performance of the Sich Riflemen, the uprising in Lviv was raised by the Poles, who were not going to recognize the authority of the Ukrainian National Council. In addition, in other areas of the alleged Western Ukrainian state was restless. In Bukovina, the local Romanian community said it wanted to join not the Ukrainian state, but Romania. In Transcarpathia, the struggle between the pro-Hungarian, pro-Czech, pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian factions began. In Galicia itself, the Lemkos, a local group of Rusyns, spoke out, proclaiming the creation of two republics - the Russian People's Republic of Lemkos and the Republic of Comancha. The Poles announced the creation of the Tarnobrzeg Republic. The date of November 1, 1918 actually dates back to the beginning of the Polish-Ukrainian war, which lasted until July 17, 1919.
The beginning of the Polish-Ukrainian war
At first, the war had the character of periodic clashes between armed groups of Poles and Ukrainians that took place on the territory of Lvov and other cities and regions of Galicia. Success accompanied the Poles, who raised an uprising in Lvov as soon as the Ukrainian secheviks came out. In five days, the Poles managed to take control of almost half of the territory of Lviv, and the Ukrainian villagers were unable to cope with the Polish troops, relying on the support of the townspeople - the Poles. In Przemysl, a detachment of 220 armed Ukrainian militias managed to liberate the city from the Polish militia on November 3 and arrest the commander of the Polish forces. After that, the number of the Ukrainian militia in Przemysl was brought to 700 people. However, the power of the Ukrainians over the city lasted only a week. On November 10, regular Polish troops of 2,000 soldiers and officers arrived in Przemysl, with several armored vehicles, artillery pieces and an armored train. As a result of the battle of the Poles with the Ukrainian militia, the city came under the control of the Polish army, after which the Poles began an offensive against Lviv, where local Polish formations continued to conduct street battles against the Sich Riflemen. The Ukrainians, trying to take revenge, acted in several combat groups, the largest of which "Staroye Selo", "Vostok" and "Navariya" operated near Lvov, and the "North" group - in the northern regions of Galicia. In Lviv itself, street battles between Polish and Ukrainian troops did not stop. On November 1, only 200 Polish men from the Polish Military Organization, which united veterans of the First World War, opposed the Ukrainians. But the very next day, 6,000 Polish men, boys and even teenagers joined the veterans. In the composition of the Polish detachments there were 1,400 high school students and students, who were nicknamed "Lviv eaglets". By November 3, the ranks of the Poles had grown by another 1,150 soldiers. It should be noted that in the ranks of the Polish detachments there were much more professional military - non-commissioned officers and officers than in the ranks of the Ukrainian archers, who were represented either by people without military training, or by former privates of the Austro-Hungarian army.
During the week, from 5 to 11 November, battles between Polish and Ukrainian troops took place in the center of Lviv. On November 12, the Ukrainians managed to gain the upper hand and the Poles began to retreat from the center of Lviv. The Ukrainians took advantage of this. On November 13, 1918, the Ukrainian National Council proclaimed the independent West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) and formed its government - the State Secretariat. The 59-year-old Kost Levitsky became the head of the State Secretariat. At the same time, it was decided to form the regular forces of the ZUNR - Galician Army. However, their creation was slow. Neighboring states acted more quickly and efficiently. So, on November 11, 1918, Romanian troops entered the capital of Bukovina, Chernivtsi, effectively annexing this region to Romania. In Lviv, already on November 13, the Poles were able to repel the onslaught of the Ukrainians, the next day, luck accompanied the Ukrainian units, but on November 15, Polish units in cars broke into the city center and drove the Ukrainians back. On November 17, an agreement was reached on a temporary ceasefire for two days. The ZUNR government tried to use these days to call for reinforcements from the non-belligerent provinces of Galicia. However, since there was practically no mobilization system in the republic, the ZUNR leadership failed to assemble numerous units, and individual volunteers arriving in Lviv did not significantly influence the course of the confrontation. The system of military organization of the Poles turned out to be much more effective, who, after the capture of Przemysl, transferred 1,400 soldiers, 8 artillery pieces, 11 machine guns and an armored train to Lviv by rail. Thus, the number of Polish military units in the city reached 5,800 soldiers and officers, while the ZUNR had 4,600 people at its disposal, of which half had no army training at all.
On November 21, 1918, at about 6 am, Polish troops launched an offensive against Lvov. The forces of the 5th Infantry Regiment under the command of Major Mikhail Tokarzhevsky-Karashevich broke into Lviv first, after which, by evening, the Poles managed to encircle Ukrainian troops in the center of Lvov. On the night of October 22, Ukrainian detachments finally left Lviv, after which the ZUNR government hastily fled to Ternopil. However, even in such difficult conditions, the nationalists did not give up hope for the implementation of their plans. Thus, on November 22-25, 1918, elections were held for the Ukrainian People's Council. This body of 150 deputies, according to the nationalists, was supposed to play the role of the Ukrainian parliament. It is significant that the Poles ignored the elections to the People's Council, although deputy seats were reserved for them. Realizing that they would not be able to confront the Poles, Romanians, and Czechoslovakians on their own, the leaders of the Galician nationalists established contacts with the leadership of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which by that time had been proclaimed in Kiev. By this time, the UNR Directory managed to gain the upper hand over the troops of Hetman Skoropadsky.
Galician Army of Western Ukraine
On December 1, 1918, in Fastov, representatives of the ZUNR and the UPR signed an agreement on the unification of the two Ukrainian states on a federal basis. By the beginning of December 1918, the Galician Army also acquired more or less organized features. In the ZUNR, universal military service was established, according to which male citizens of the republic aged 18-35 were subject to conscription into the Galician Army. The entire territory of the ZUNR was divided into three military regions - Lvov, Ternopil and Stanislav, headed by generals Anton Kravs, Miron Tarnavsky and Osip Mikitka. On December 10, General Omelyanovich-Pavlenko was appointed commander-in-chief of the army. The number of the Galician Army by the time under review reached 30 thousand people, armed with 40 artillery pieces.
A distinctive feature of the Galician Army was the absence of divisions. It was divided into corps and brigades, and the brigades included a headquarters, a mace hundred (headquarters company), 4 kurens (battalions), 1 horse hundred, 1 artillery regiment with a workshop and a warehouse, 1 sapper hundred, 1 post office, a transport warehouse and brigade hospital. The cavalry brigade consisted of 2 cavalry regiments, 1-2 horse-artillery batteries, 1 horse technical hundred and 1 horse hundred communications. At the same time, the military command of the ZUNR did not attach much importance to the development of cavalry, since the war was waged mainly positional and sluggish, without rapid horse attacks. In the Galician army, specific national military ranks were introduced: archer (private), senior archer (corporal), vistun (junior sergeant), foreman (sergeant), senior foreman (senior sergeant), mace (foreman), cornet (junior lieutenant), cetar (lieutenant), lieutenant general (senior lieutenant), centurion (captain), otaman (major), lieutenant colonel, colonel, cetar general (major general), lieutenant general (lieutenant general), centurion general (colonel general). Each of the military ranks had a specific patch on the sleeve of the uniform. In the first months of its existence, the Galician Army used the old Austrian army uniform, on which the national symbols of the ZUNR were sewn on. Later, their own uniform with national symbols was developed, but the old Austrian uniform also continued to be used, given the shortage of new uniforms. The Austro-Hungarian structure of headquarters units, logistic and sanitary service, gendarmerie was also taken as a model for similar units in the Galician Army. The leadership of the Galician Army in the ZUNR was carried out by the State Secretariat of Military Affairs, headed by Colonel Dmitry Vitovsky (1887-1919) - a graduate of the law faculty of Lviv University, who in 1914 volunteered to the front as part of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and held the position of commander of a hundred in a half-kuren Stepan Shukhevych. The state secretary of the ZUNR for military affairs subordinated 16 departments and offices. When August 2, 1919Dmitry Vitovsky died in a plane crash (crashed on the way from Germany, where he flew, trying to negotiate military assistance to Ukrainian nationalists), Colonel Viktor Kurmanovich (1876-1945) replaced him as Secretary of State for Military Affairs, unlike Vitovsky who was a professional military man. A graduate of the cadet school in Lviv and the military academy, Kurmanovich met the First World War with the rank of captain of the Austrian General Staff. After the creation of the ZUNR and the Galician Army, he commanded units that fought in the south against the Polish troops.
Petrushevich - ruler of the ZUNR
Throughout December 1918, battles between Polish and Ukrainian troops in Galicia continued with varying success. Meanwhile, on January 3, 1919, the first session of the Ukrainian People's Council began work in Stanislav, at which Evgen Petrushevich (1863-1940) was approved as president of the ZUNR. A native of Busk, the son of a Uniate priest, Evgen Petrushevich, like many other prominent figures of the Ukrainian nationalist movement of that time, was a graduate of the law faculty of Lviv University. After receiving his doctorate in law, he opened his own law office in Sokal and was engaged in private practice, at the same time participating in the social and political life of Galicia.
In 1916, it was Evgen Petrushevich who replaced Kostya Levitsky as head of the parliamentary representation of Galicia and Lodomeria. After the proclamation of independence of the ZUNR, Petrushevich was approved as president of the republic, but his functions were of a representative nature and, in fact, he did not have a real impact on the management of Galicia. Moreover, Petrushevich was on the liberal and constitutionalist positions, which were viewed by many nationalists as too soft and did not correspond to the harsh and brutal atmosphere of the civil war. On January 4, 1919, the permanent government of the ZUNR was headed by Sidor Golubovich.
It should be noted that the ZUNR stubbornly tried to create its own system of public administration, relying on the example of the Austro-Hungarian administrative system and attracting as consultants officials who worked during the time of Galicia and Lodomeria belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the ZUNR, a number of reforms were carried out aimed at ensuring support for the peasant population, which constitutes the bulk of the Ukrainians in the republic. Thus, the property of large landowners was redistributed (the landowners in Galicia and Lodomeria were traditionally Poles) in favor of the peasants (mostly Ukrainians). Thanks to the system of universal conscription, the ZUNR government managed to mobilize about 100,000 conscripts by the spring of 1919, although only 40,000 of them were assigned to army units and completed the necessary basic military training. In parallel with the development of its own control system and the construction of the armed forces, the ZUNR was working to unite with the "Petliura" UPR. So, on January 22, 1919 in Kiev, a solemn unification of the West Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic took place, according to which the ZUNR was part of the UPR with the rights of broad autonomy and received a new name - ZOUNR (Western Region of the Ukrainian People's Republic). At the same time, the real management of the ZOUNR remained in the hands of Western Ukrainian politicians, as well as control over the Galician Army. At the beginning of 1919, the leadership of the ZUNR made an attempt to annex Transcarpathia to the republic. Supporters of the annexation of the Transcarpathian lands to Ukraine were active here, but no less numerous were the supporters of Carpathian Rus as part of Czechoslovakia and Russian Krajina as part of Hungary. However, the Western Ukrainian detachments were never able to complete the task of capturing Transcarpathia. Uzhgorod was occupied by Czechoslovak troops as early as January 15, 1919, and since it was beyond the power of the ZUNR to fight not only with Poland, but also with Czechoslovakia, the campaign in Transcarpathia ended in nothing.
Flight of the Galician Army and the occupation of Galicia by Poland
In February 1919, the Galician Army of the ZUNR continued military operations against the Polish troops. From February 16 to February 23, 1919, the Galician Army carried out the Vovchukhov operation, the purpose of which was to liberate Lvov from the Polish troops. Ukrainian formations were able to cut off the railway communication between Lvov and Przemysl, which caused serious damage to the Polish units surrounded in Lvov and lost communication with the main part of the Polish troops. However, already on February 20, Polish units of 10, 5 thousand soldiers and officers arrived at Lviv, after which the Poles went on the offensive. But only by March 18, 1919, the Polish troops managed to finally break through the Ukrainian encirclement and push the Galician Army back from the outskirts of Lvov. After that, the Poles went on the offensive, advancing to the east of the ZOUNR. The Galician leadership, whose situation was getting worse and worse, tried to find intercessors in the person of the Entente and even the Pope. The latter was approached by the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Andriy Sheptytsky, who urged him to intervene in the conflict between Catholics - Poles and Greek Catholics - Galician Ukrainians. The Entente countries did not remain aloof from the conflict. So, on May 12, 1919, the Entente proposed dividing Galicia into Polish and Ukrainian territories, but Poland was not going to abandon the plan for the complete elimination of the ZUNR and the subordination of all Galicia, as it was confident in its armed forces. The deterioration of the republic's martial law forced the government of Sidor Golubovich to resign on June 9, 1919, after which the powers of both the president of the country and the head of government passed to Evgen Petrushevich, who received the title of dictator. However, the overly liberal Petrushevich, who did not have a military education and the combat training of a revolutionary, was not capable of this role. Although the majority of Galician nationalists supported the appointment of Petrushevich as dictator, this was extremely negatively perceived in the UPR Directory. Evgen Petrushevich was expelled from the members of the Directory, and a special ministry for Galicia affairs was formed in the UPR. Thus, a split occurred in the Ukrainian nationalist movement and the ZOUNR continued to act virtually independently from the Directory of the UPR. At the beginning of June 1919, most of the territory of the ZUNR was already under the control of foreign troops. Thus, Transcarpathia was occupied by Czechoslovak troops, Bukovina by Romanian troops, and a significant part of Galicia by Polish troops. As a result of the counter-offensive of the Polish troops, a strong blow was struck at the positions of the Galician Army, after which, by July 18, 1919, the Galician Army was finally driven out of the territory of the ZOUNR. A certain part of the archers crossed the border with Czechoslovakia, but the main part of the Galician Army, totaling 50,000 people, moved to the Ukrainian People's Republic. As for the government of Yevgen Petrushevich, it went to Romania and further to Austria, becoming a typical "government in exile".
Thus, on July 18, 1919, the Polish-Ukrainian war ended with the complete defeat of the Galician Army and the loss of the entire territory of Eastern Galicia, which was occupied by Polish troops and became part of Poland. On April 21, 1920, Simon Petliura, representing the UPR, agreed with Poland to draw a new Ukrainian-Polish border along the Zbruch River. However, this treaty had a purely formal meaning - by the time of the described event, Polish troops and the Red Army were already fighting among themselves on the territory of modern Ukraine, and the Petliura regime was living out its last days. March 21, 1921Between Poland on the one hand and the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR on the other, the Riga Treaty was concluded, according to which the territories of Western Ukraine (Eastern Galicia) and Western Belarus became part of the Polish state. On March 14, 1923, Poland's sovereignty over Eastern Galicia was recognized by the Council of Ambassadors of the Entente countries. In May 1923, Evgen Petrushevich announced the dissolution of all state institutions of the ZUNR in exile. However, the struggle for Eastern Galicia did not end there. 16 years later, in September 1939, as a result of a rapid raid by the Red Army on Polish territory, the lands of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia became part of the Soviet Union as an integral part of the Ukrainian SSR. A little later, in the summer of 1940, Bukovina, detached from Romania, became part of the USSR, and after the victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War, Czechoslovakia abandoned its claims to Transcarpathia in favor of the Soviet Union. Transcarpathia also became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
The fate of the "Galician seniors": from emigration to service to Hitler
As for the fate of the military leaders of the Galician Army and the main political figures of the ZUNR, they developed in different ways. The remnants of the Galician Army, which went over to the service of the UPR, already at the beginning of December 1919 entered into an alliance with the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, and at the beginning of 1920 they became part of the Red Army and were renamed into the Chervona Ukrainian Galician Army (ChUGA). Until April 1920, ChUGA units were stationed in Balta and Olgopol, in the Podolsk province. The commander of the Galician Army, cornet-general Mikhail Omelyanovich-Pavlenko, joined the UPR army, then fought in the Soviet-Polish war on the side of the Poles, receiving the rank of lieutenant general. After the end of the Civil War, Omelyanovich-Pavlenko emigrated to Czechoslovakia and was the head of the Union of Ukrainian Veteran Organizations. When the Second World War began, Pavlenko was appointed hetman of the Ukrainian Free Cossacks and began to form Ukrainian military units in the service of Hitlerite Germany. Formed with the participation of Pavlenko, the Cossack units were part of the security battalions. Omelyanovich-Pavlenko managed to avoid arrest by Soviet or allied troops. In 1944-1950. he lived in Germany, from 1950 in France. In 1947-1948. he served as minister of military affairs of the UPR government in exile and was promoted to colonel general in the defunct Ukrainian army. Omelyanovich-Pavlenko died in 1952 at the age of 73 in France.
His brother Ivan Vladimirovich Omelyanovich-Pavlenko (pictured) in June 1941 formed a Ukrainian armed unit as part of the Wehrmacht, then participated in the creation of the 109th police battalion of the Nazis, operating in the Podolsk region. The battalion under the command of Ivan Omelyanovich-Pavlenko operated in Belaya Tserkov and Vinnitsa, taking part in battles against Soviet partisans and massacres of civilians (although modern Ukrainian historians are trying to pass off Omelyanovich-Pavlenko as a “protector” of the local population, including Jews, in a similar “charity of the battalion commander of the Nazi auxiliary police is hard to believe). In 1942, Ivan Omelyanovich served in Belarus, where he also participated in the fight against partisans, and in 1944 he fled to Germany and later to the United States, where he died. The Soviet special services failed to detain the Omelyanovich-Pavlenko brothers and bring them to justice for their participation in the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany.
Liberal Evgen Petrushevich, unlike his subordinate, commander Omelyanovich-Pavlenko, moved to pro-Soviet positions in exile. He lived in Berlin, but regularly visited the Soviet embassy. However, then Petrushevich moved away from the pro-Soviet positions, but did not become a supporter of German Nazism, like many other Ukrainian nationalists. Thus, he condemned Hitler's attack on Poland by sending a letter of protest to the German government. In 1940, Petrushevich died at the age of 77 and was buried in one of the Berlin cemeteries. Former prime minister of ZUNR Sidor Timofeevich Golubovich (1873-1938) returned to Lvov in 1924 and lived in this city until the end of his life, working as a lawyer and retiring from political activities. Kost Levitsky, the "founding father" of the ZUNR, also returned to Lviv. He was also engaged in advocacy, and in addition he wrote works on the history of the Ukrainian people. After the annexation of the territory of Western Ukraine to the Ukrainian SSR in 1939, Levitsky was arrested and taken to Moscow. The aged veteran of Ukrainian nationalism spent a year and a half in Lubyanka prison, but then he was released and returned to Lvov. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union and on June 30, 1941, Ukrainian nationalists proclaimed the creation of the Ukrainian state, Levitsky was elected chairman of its Council of Seniors, but on November 12, 1941, he died at the age of 81, before the Nazis disbanded the Ukrainian parliament. … General Viktor Kurmanovich, who headed the headquarters of the Galician Army, after the termination of the existence of the ZUNR in 1920, moved to Transcarpathia. After the outbreak of World War II, he stepped up his nationalist activities and began to cooperate with Ukrainian collaborators, taking part in the formation of the SS "Galicia" division. The victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War left Kurmanovich no chance to avoid responsibility for his activities. He was arrested by the Soviet counterintelligence and convoyed to the Odessa prison, where he died on October 18, 1945. Many ordinary participants in the Polish-Ukrainian war and attempts to create the ZUNR subsequently ended up in the ranks of Ukrainian nationalist organizations and bandit groups that fought against Soviet troops and law enforcement agencies after the end of World War II in Western Ukraine.
Today, the history of the ZUNR is positioned by many Ukrainian authors as one of the most heroic examples of Ukrainian history, although in reality it is hardly possible to call such a one-year existence of such an independent state entity in the chaos of the war years. Even Nestor Makhno succeeded, resisting both the Petliurists, and the Denikinites, and the Red Army, to keep the territory of Gulyai-Polye under control for a much longer time than the West Ukrainian republic had existed. This testifies, firstly, to the absence of truly talented civil and military leaders in the ranks of the ZUNR, and secondly, to the lack of broad support from the local population. Trying to build Ukrainian statehood, the leaders of the ZUNR forgot that on the territory of Galicia at that time, almost half of the population were representatives of peoples who could not be attributed to Ukrainians - Poles, Jews, Romanians, Hungarians, Germans. In addition, the Transcarpathian Rusyns also did not want to have anything to do with the Galician nationalists, as a result of which the ZUNR policy in Transcarpathia was initially doomed to failure.
