Ukrainian nationalism in Galicia
Ukrainian nationalists gained wide influence in Galicia in the interwar period (1920-1939). In 1920 the secret Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO in Ukrainian) was founded by veterans of WWI and the civil war, headed by Colonel Yevhen Konovalets. From its very beginning the organization applied terror15 as a way of destabilizing Polish control over the Ukrainian population. In 1929 UVO was transformed into a broader underground movement, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
The major aim of the OUN was unification of all Ukrainian ethnic lands into an independent state. The aim was to be achieved by violent means (through revolution and establishment of a dictatorship).
The ideology of the OUN was based on the writings of Dmytro Dontsov (1883-1973). Dontsov’s nationalism, which came to be known as integral nationalism, proclaimed that a nation was an absolute value (‘The Nation above All’). Everything, including human lives, should be sacrificed in the name of the nation, according to this teaching. Integral nationalists wanted to create a new type of Ukrainian, one who was unconditionally committed to the nation and to independent statehood.
According to the integral nationalists, the political system of a future state must be based on the rule of one nationalist party (all other parties should be banned) under the leadership of a strong leader (“вождь”) with unlimited powers. He must be responsible only to God. The nation should be purified and consist of Ukrainians only (‘Ukraine for Ukrainians!’). Democratic ideas were proclaimed decadent. Integral nationalists believed that it was impossible to achieve independence by democratic means. Hence is their skeptical attitude to democracy.
The integral nationalists paid special attention to Ukrainian history which should be rewritten and mythologized (all negative aspects were to be silenced and the cult of heroes created) to bring up nationalistic youth. The ideological writings of such Ukrainian national leaders as Drahomanov, Franko, and Hrushevsky were condemned as too soft and “feminine” (because they praised democracy and humanism). The idea of creating a merciless super human being was widely propagated among youth.
Ukrainian integral nationalism was a typically totalitarian movement with elements of fascism. Similar movements were popular in Europe in the 1920s. Such half-fascist nationalistic movements as the Iron Guard in Romania, the Ustashi in Croatia, the Arrow Cross in Hungary, the Iron Wolves in Lithuania, and related movements in other countries were quite influential in the interwar period. Italian and German fascists gave an example of creating a powerful nationalistic state. Dontsov himself admired Hitler and Mussolini and published their speeches in his journal. Hitler was an enemy of both Poland and Bolsheviks. Thus he seemed a natural ally for the OUN leaders who established contacts with the Abwehr (German military intelligence service).
The OUN was quite intolerant to other political views except its own. In its practical activity the OUN carried out acts of terror aimed at Polish officials and those Ukrainians who favored compromise with the Poles. A popular brochure published in Lviv in 1929 said, “Треба крові – дамо море крові! Треба терору – учинимо до пекельності. Не встидаймось убивств, грабунків і підпалів. У боротьбі не існує етики.”16
A number of high-ranking Polish politicians and liberal Ukrainians (who cooperated with the Poles) were assassinated. In fact, more Ukrainians were killed by OUN terrorists than Poles. By using terror OUN leaders wanted not only to destabilize Polish rule, but also to provoke the Ukrainian masses to rebellion. Stepan Bandera, the most popular OUN leader, believed that the Ukrainian people were ready for rebellion; they needed only to be awakened by terrorist acts.17 Hatred for OUN enemies (the Poles) was cultivated to unite the nation. Dontsov wrote: “Hatred for the enemy must be felt even if he has done nothing harmful to you”.
The OUN managed to attract widespread support among Ukrainian youth. Its stress on revolutionary action, radical solutions, and creation of a new type of “super Ukrainians” appealed to youth who wanted to be heroes. The OUN leaders believed that using terror would help them to destabilize the situation in Poland until the government collapsed. Older generation usually condemned the terror unleashed by the OUN. Many parents criticized the OUN for the involvement of their immature and inexperienced teenagers into terrorist activity that often ended tragically. The Creek Catholic Church condemned using terror as political means. Its head, metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, asked Ukrainians to stop killing people in terrorist acts as it would bring only harm to Ukraine. He believed that ‘a person who sheds the innocent blood of his political opponent is just as much as murderer as one who does it for robbery.’ The metropolitan advocated the policy of cooperation between Poles and Ukrainians. All legal Ukrainian parties publicly denounced the terrorist activities of the OUN. The OUN in its turn condemned all legal Ukrainian parties as collaborationists.
The reaction of Polish authorities to the terrorist activity of the OUN was often brutal. The most notorious action was the so-called “pacification campaign,” (September-October 1930). During the campaign Polish police forces and army units encircled Ukrainian villages and brutally searched for terrorists, humiliating the local population.
The underground movement in Galicia consisted of two major political forces. One was the OUN. The other one was the Communist Party of Western Ukraine (CPWU). The Communists wanted to separate Galicia from Poland through a revolution and join it to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The influence of the CPWU dropped significantly when it became known about large-scale repressions and Holodomor in Soviet Ukraine.18