ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COMMAND CENTER OF THE UKRAINIAN MILITARY ORGANIZATION IN EMIGRATION

Abstract

After the defeat of the Ukrainian National Revolution of 1917–1921, in fact the only force that was organized to continue the struggle for the revival of statehood on the Ukrainian lands occupied by the RSFSR and Poland became the Ukrainian Military Organization (until approximately 1924, the name Military Organization was used – VO) . This organization began to be formed by the command staff of the Sich Riflemen (Sichovykh strilʹtsiv) of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. It is gradually being joined by veterans of UGA and public and political figures. The organizational center was concentrated in Lviv. The material basis initially became the saved funds of the Sichovykh strilʹtsiv, in parallel, financial support was established from Ukrainian emigration to the USA. The fall of 1920 – the fall of 1922 was the period of formation of the command structure, understanding between the founders, a certain even competition for dominance and promotion of their vision of the development of VO. It was difficult to establish cooperation with public and political organizations of Galicia, state centers of ZUNR and UNR. The challenge was the ideological basis. What are we fighting for in Galicia? For the revival of statehood only in Galicia or on all Ukrainian lands. The command of the VO managed to preserve the Sobornytsky principles of activity. In mid-October 1922, the killing of S. Tverdokhlib, a Ukrainian, by members of the Military Organization, for cooperating with the Polish authorities, caused a wave of arrests. In connection with this, the head of VO Yevhen Konovalets was also forced to emigrate. This became a new challenge for the organization, because it was necessary to start organizing the leadership of the Higher Education Institution on emigration and establishing funding. There was no desire to stop at what had been achieved in 1922, but on the contrary, there was a desire to continue the struggle. Financial aid from Ukrainian emigration to the USA became more and more difficult to obtain. Yevhen Konovalets applied to the leadership of ZUNR to receive emigrant funds for the struggle. He believed that VO has the right to these funds. The leadership of ZUNR agreed to allocate a part of the money received from Ukrainian emigration to the USA for VO. In 1923, Y. Petrushevich, whose activities were subsidized by the Soviet government, began to allocate a part of these funds to VO as well. This information is represented in the documents of the Soviet special services. Keywords Military organization, Yevhen Konovalets, ZUNR (WUPR), Yaroslav Chizh, Yevhen Petrushevich, Ukrainian emigration.