Lessons of Consolidation Processes of Ukrainian Community of Western Ukraine in the First Quarter of the Xx Century

The domestic and foreign policy circumstances of the consolidation aspirations of Ukrainians in Western Ukraine in the first quarter of the twentieth century is analyzed. The search for a common path, unification of political parties and their consolidation for the common goal of protecting the socio-economic and national-political rights of Ukrainians formed on both sides of the Dnipro River awareness of the need for unity, independence and unity in creating their own state. The ways and means of political struggle of various parties and organizations indicated the search for a common course in overcoming the denial by international structures of the existence of young sprouts of Ukrainian statehood. The reasons for its failures and the consequences for further consolidation of national- patriotic forces in Western Ukraine have been clarified.

At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century’s, political parties and organizations in Eastern Galicia clearly outlined the program of their activities: protection of socio-economic and national-political rights of Ukrainians in the  Austro-Hungarian Empire and consolidation of the Ukrainian people and intellectual structures to restore state independence and unity.

Depending on the domestic and international situation, the program of actions of political parties was improved and concretized. This is the time of the First World War and the Ukrainian national-democratic revolution in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, with the proclamation of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic, during the struggle against Poland’s attempts to annex Eastern Galicia in 1918–1923.

After the decision of the Council of Ambassadors of the Entente on March 14, 1923 on the transfer of Eastern Galicia to Poland, the national and patriotic forces of the region, deeply analyzing the reasons for the defeat of national liberation struggles, tried to understand the real situation and determine further action. It is clear that various political parties and groups have assessed the causes of the defeat in their own way, as well as ways and means of overcoming this situation, offering their vision of resolving the Ukrainian issue in Galicia and all Ukrainian lands enslaved by foreign states.