Polish Democrats in Ukraine: Ideology and Attitude to Ukrainian State Formation (1917-1921)

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper is to clarify the essence of the ideology of Polish democrats in Ukraine and the factors that influenced it, and to determine and substantiate their attitude to the processes of Ukrainian statehood formation.

The scientific novelty of the study is in presenting the political positions of Polish democrats in Ukraine during the period of Ukrainian state formation, determining the motives and reasons for supporting the Ukrainian government, and clarifying their participation in the social and political life of Ukraine.

Conclusions. The unification of Polish democratic groups into the ‘Polish Democratic Central’ party at the 3^rd Congress of Polish Public Organizations in Kyiv in June 1917 distinguished them as a separate political camp in Ukraine. It included progressive landowners, entrepreneurs, and liberal-minded intellectuals. Ideologically, they opposed the representatives of the conservative-nationalist camp, as they advocated concessions to the working masses, recognition of the rights of peoples to political development, in particular the Ukrainian people, and supported the Polish authorities formed in the territories occupied by Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The formation of democratic views of the representatives of the camp occurred because of the striving to preserve national identity in conditions of statelessness and restrictions on the Polish population in the Russian Empire, their participation in student self-education circles, and student organizations ‘Korporacja’ and ‘Filarecja’. Thanks to active participation in public and political life while studying at universities in Kyiv, Moscow, and Dorpat, they became acquainted with advanced ideas for the protection of human rights, recognized the need to fight for the freedom of peoples, and shared socialist ideas for building a just society.

During the Ukrainian National Revolution, Polish democrats supported the Ukrainian Central Rada, joined the Mala Rada (Small Council) and the Ukrainian government, having formed the Vice-Secretariat for Polish Affairs. Under the Hetmanate, the democrats contributed to the establishment of official relations between the Regency Council in Warsaw and the UNR, participated in negotiations between the Directory and the government of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1919, and were members of the Directory government in 1920.

Support for the state independence of Ukraine was based on the ideas of Prometheism (pol. Prometeizm), accepting Ukrainians as allies in the fight against Russia and Bilshovysm, and defending their own interests – preserving private property on Ukrainian lands. Those positions were also the starting point for ensuring state interests and forming the eastern borders of the Second Polish Republic.