THE WEST UKRAINIAN PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC IN HISTORICAL WORKS OF VASYL KUCHABSKYI

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyze V. Kuchabsky's historical views on the process of creation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic of 1918-1921. In his works of the first half of the 1930s the scientist highlighted the internal situation of Ukraine, in particular its political and military conditions, and at the same time revealed international relations that had a determinative influence on the future of Ukrainian statehood: Poland and Russia, the Bolsheviks and counterrevolution, the tendency for a new revival of the Russian Empire and the tendency for its collapse, the situation in Central Europe, the Paris Peace Conference and the Eastern European policy of the Western powers. The most significant work of V. Kuchabskyi, "Western Ukraine in the struggle against Poland and Bolshevism in 1918–1923," is a historical study, which objectively reflects the national history without a shadow of tenderness and political inspiration. More than eighty years have passed since its writing, but it still influences on the development of historical science in Ukraine, remains critical for the study of problems associated with the topic. V. Kuchabskyi tried to find out the reason for Ukrainians to lose their own statehood. For the first time in the 14th century, when the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia was conquered by Poland. And then in the 18th century when the Cossack state was annexed by Russia. The desire of Ukrainians to restore the united and independent state failed due to unjustified orientations to Moscow, then to Poland and Turkey. A similar situation, according to the historian, occurred in 1918–1921: while the Ukrainians fought against the Bolsheviks and the White Army, the Poles struck them back, capturing Galicia and Volyn. By signing the Treaty of Riga in 1921, they wanted to restore the division of Ukraine of 1667. The scientist called on the Galician to leave the inter-party controversy and unite for positive creativity and self-organization, to make a lasting peace between themselves, because external factors are often non-reliable and have their own aims, directly opposite to Ukrainian. V. Kuchabskyi warned not to rely on the rapid fall of Bolshevism, relying on the intervention of the capitalist world. On his thought, the damage of this view was disorienting citizens, turning their attention away from what actually was a question of life and death for Ukraine. Estimating the Ukrainian Galician Army, V. Kuchabskyi believed that it could be organized and turned into regular combat power only through significant victories in an actively waged war. But the Ukrainians did not have such commanders, which would turn the mechanically assembled army into a single military organism by their inspiration. According to V. Kuchabskyi, the political experience of the Ukrainian state of 1918–1921 remained undervalued, although it would have been enough to educate a new generation of state-oriented thinkers, creative people. That is why he put the realization of the state idea in direct dependence on the level of the political culture of the masses. This meant that the Galician intellectuals had to get rid of the conservative passivity, which manifested itself in a narrow worldview, the weakness of the will, and spiritual laziness. Only in this case, the national elite will build a democratic state, which will provide conditions for the cultural development of the people, will guarantee equal political and economic rights. Keywords Western Ukraine, Eastern Galicia, Lviv, National Revolution, November Action, ZUNR, UHA, Stanislav, Ukrainian National Council.