Viktor Matviienko
Doctor of History, Full Professor
ORCID 0000-0002-0012-5175
Mykola Doroshko
Doctor of History, Full Professor
ORCID 0000-0003-0173-9416
Abstract. The article describes the internal political situation in the UPR and Poland before the conclusion of the Treaty of Warsaw in 1920. The authors argue that in the context of the end of World War I and the rebuilding of the world geopolitical order the UPR and the Republic of Poland were destined to establish allied relations with a view to strengthening their restored statehood and ensuring security in the Baltic-Black Sea region. However, the signature of the Treaty of Warsaw failed to preserve stable interstate cooperation between Ukraine and Poland due to a range of internal political and external factors. This situation cast a shadow over the preservation of the independence of the UPR and Ukrainian-Polish partnership. The military and political alliance of Ukraine and Poland broke apart due to inextricable external and internal aspects. It was a rearguard action and could not struggle against the strengthened Bolshevist Russia without the support of the Entente states.
In the meantime, the 1920 Treaty of Warsaw was significant not only for Ukrainians who continued to fight for the independence of the UPR with the assistance of Poland until the end of 1921. The authors assume that the joint opposition of Ukraine and Poland in the summer of 1920 dashed the Kremlin’s marches on Poland, Romania, and Germany that could turn into a tragedy for those states and Europe as a whole.
The authors stress that the Baltic states such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania gained their independence because of the military and political alliance of Ukraine and Poland and its struggle against the Bolshevist Russia. Poland got a chance to strengthen its statehood, as Moscow was significantly weakened by the war with the UPR and peasants’ insurrections in Ukraine.
Keywords: UPR, Republic of Poland, Entente, Treaty of Warsaw, allied relations.
References
1. Shelukhin, S. (1926). Varshavskyi dohovir mizh poliakamy i Petliuroiu 21 kvitnia 1920 roku [The Treaty of Warsaw between the Poles and Peltiura of 21 April 1920]. Prague: Nova Ukraina. [in Ukrainian]; Hud, B., Holubko, V. (1997). Nelehka doroha do porozuminnia: do pytannia henezy ukrainsko-polskoho spivrobitnytstva 1917–1921 rr. [An Uneasy Road to Mutual Understanding: On the Issue of the Genesis of Ukrainian-Polish Cooperation in 1917–1921]. Lviv: Ukr. technolohii. [in Ukrainian]; Lisevych, I. (1997). ‘Politychni aspekty ukrainsko-polskoho soiuzu 1920 r.’ [The Political Aspects of the Ukrainian-Polish Alliance of 1920], in Polska i Ukraina. Sojusz 1920 roku i jego następstwa. Torun, pp. 81-97. [in Ukrainian]; Matviienko, V. (2002). Ukrainska dyplomatiia 1917–1921 rokiv: na terenakh postimperskoi Rosii [Ukrainian Diplomacy in 1917–1921: On the Expanses of the Post-Imperial Russia]. Kyiv: Vydavnycho-polihrafichnyi tsentr ‘Kyivskyi universytet’. [in Ukrainian]; Tereshchenko, Yu. (1999). ‘Varshavskyi dohovir 1920 roku i yoho otsinka ukrainskoiu dyplomatiieiu’ [The Treaty of Warsaw of 1920 and its Assessment by Ukrainian Diplomacy], in Symon Petliura v konteksti ukrainskykh natsionalno-vyzvolnykh natsionalno-vyzvolnykh zmahan: Zb. nauk. pr. [Symon Petliura in the Context of the Ukrainian National Liberation Struggle: A Collection of Scientific Works]. Fastiv, pp. 130-139. [in Ukrainian]; Wandycz, P. (1969). Soviet-Polish Relations, 1917–1921. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. [in English]
2. Dotsenko, O. (1924). Litopys ukrainskoi revolutsii. Materialy i dokumenty do istorii ukrainskoi revolutsii. 1917–1923 [A Chronicle of the Ukrainian Revolution. Materials and Documents of the History of the Ukrainian Revolution], vol. 2(5). Kyiv, p. 7. [in Ukrainian]
3. Tsentralnyi derzhavnyi arkhiv vyshchykh orhaniv vlady ta upravlinnia Ukrainy ( dali – TsDAVO Ukrainy). F. 3696. Op.1. Spr.31. Ark.10, 13, 39. [in Ukrainian]
4. Stakhiv, M. (1965). Ukraina v dobi Dyrektorii UNR [Ukraine in the Era of the UPR Directorate], vol. 7. Vykhid iz kryzy [Overcoming the Crisis]. Toronto: NTSh, pp. 152-153. [in Ukrainian]
5. Dotsenko, Litopys, p. 8.
6. Robitnycha hazeta (1919), 1 February [in Ukrainian]
7. Stakhiv, Ukraina, pp. 158-159. [in Ukrainian]
8. Lozynskyi, M. (1922). Halychyna v rokakh 1918–1920 [Halychyna in 1918–1920]. Prague, p. 77. [in Ukrainian]
9. Stakhiv, Ukraina, pp. 168-169. [in Ukrainian]
10. Stakhiv, Ukraina, p. 180. [in Ukrainian]
11. Hud, Holubko, Nelehka doroha, pp. 13-14.
12. Hunchak, T. et al. (eds). (1979). Peltiura Symon. Statti, lysty, dokumenty [Petliura Symon. Articles, Letters, Documents]. New York: UVAN, pp. 357-358. [in Ukrainian]
13. Ukraina (1919), 6 September [in Ukrainian]
14. TsDAVO Ukrainy. F. 3696. Op. 1. Spr. 34. Ark. 30-32. [in Ukrainian]
15. TsDAVO Ukrainy. F. 3696. Op. 2. Spr. 275. Ark. 63 zv. [in Ukrainian]
16. Dotsenko, Litopys, p. 225.
17. Shelukhin, Varshavskyi dohovir, p. 30.
18. TsDAVO Ukrainy. F. 3696. Op. 2. Spr. 370. Ark. 169. [in Ukrainian]
19. Shulhin, O. (1931). ‘Prokliati pytannia’ [The Cursed Issues], in idem, Derzhavnist chy haidamachchyna? (Zbirnyk statei ta dokumentiv) [Statehood or the Haidamak Movement]. Tryzub, part 1, pp. 6-7. [in Ukrainian]
20. TsDAVO Ukrainy. F. 2486. Op. 1. Spr.1. Ark. 23. [in Ukrainian]
21. TsDAVO Ukrainy. F. 3696. Op. 2. Spr. 278. Ark. 6. [in Ukrainian]
22. TsDAVO Ukrainy. F. 3696. Op. 3. Spr. 26. Ark. 27. [in Ukrainian]
23. TsDAVO Ukrainy. F. 3696. Op. 3. Spr. 26. Ark. 27 zv. [in Ukrainian]
24. Wandycz, Soviet-Polish Relations, p. 190-196.
25. Ibid., p. 166.
26. Ibid., p. 149.
27. Drazhevska, L. et al. (1956). Petliura S. Statti, lysty, dokumenty: Vydano v 30 richnytsiu z dnia smerti [Petliura S. Articles, Letters, Documents: Published on the 30th Anniversary Since Death]. New York: UVAN, p. 391. [in Ukrainian]
28. Hud, Holubko, Nelehka doroha, p. 32.