Liberation struggles of the Ukrainian and Polish peoples in 1918-1921. According to the documents of the Polish archives regarding the interned Petliuvians

Abstract

The steady approach to the solution during the First World War has brought about dramatic changes in the prospect of solving the Polish and Ukrainian issues. Both peoples got a chance to take advantage of a rather favorable situation, when the oppressors were in hostile camps, and in mutual struggle they blew each other out. Correspondence, diaries, and archived documents show that staying abroad was a difficult ordeal for ex-soldiers as well as civilians who emigrated for various reasons. Comparing the conditions of Ukrainians in Czechoslovakia and Poland, researchers often note that yesterday’s allies of J. Pilsudski suffered greatly morally and materially. We have reason to believe that in the numerous camps located in large areas of the revived Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, internees found themselves in different conditions. According to O. Vyshka, the conditions in Alexandrov Kuyavsky’s camp were unbearable, while those in Piotrkow Trybunalski had the opportunity to meet basic spiritual needs and found temporary jobs. It should be borne in mind that Poland was under considerable pressure from Soviet Russia and later from the Soviet Union, so the presence of the former Petliurists in the 1920s and 1930s posed certain international problems for the authorities. In addition, the fate of the internees was to some extent affected by the internal political struggle between the Endeks and the Pilsudskis.