Suchergebnisse

Po Pierwszej wojnie światowej i zawarciu szeregu międzynarodowych umów prawnych
większość ziem zachodnio-ukraińskich została włączona w skład Rzeczypospolitej.
Ukraińcy, którzy zgodnie z prawem polskim zostali obywatelami kraju, podlegali
rekrutacji do wojska. Zaczynając z 1921 r. na tereny byłego Imperium Rosyjskiego,
a z 1922 r. – byłej Monarchii Austro-Węgierskiej została poszerzona praktyka
przeprowadzenia ogólnej rekrutacji do wojska chłopców, którzy skończyli 21 lat.
Rekrutów "Rusinów"/"Ukraińców" przeważnie powoływano do służby w piechocie,
kawalerii, artylerii, w większości wypadków w centralnych i zachodnich regionach kraju.
W wojsku rekruci doznawali twardej rzeczywistości życia wojskowego, co stawało się
przyczyną dezercji wielu rekrutów bez względu na narodowość. Pewną część zbiegów
składali Ukraińcy. W artykule została podjęta próba analizy zjawiska dezercji Ukraińców
z wojska polskiego w okresie międzywojennym. Wydarzenia wojny polsko-ukraińskiej
w latach 1918-1919, stosunek ofi cerów i młodszych ofi cerów do rekrutów, zaopatrzenie
materialne wojskowych, życie prywatne, życie rodzinne stały się głównymi czynnikami,
pobudzającymi rekrutów do dezercji. Jednocześnie na podstawie literatury naukowej i materiałów archiwalnych został zbadany stosunek cywilnej ludności ukraińskiej do
dezerterów i jego ewolucja w okresie międzywojennym, zostały ustalone główne
kraje, dokąd próbowali uciec dezerterzy, ratując się od prześladowań i w poszukiwaniu
lepszego losu. W artykule również zostały przedstawione główne wnioski
i przedsięwzięcia przywódców politycznych i wojskowych Rzeczypospolitej niezbędne
do zwalczania tego haniebnego dla wojska zjawiska.

The practice of conducting general army calls has been initiated since 1921 on the territory of former Russian empire and since 1922 in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. That caused the rise in the number of servicemen from the national minorities, particularly, Ukrainians.The regulation of life in the army, insufficient material support (lack of uniform, malnutrition, unequipped barracks), commanders' abuse of office (beating of privates, using the punishments and methods that were not provided in military statutes), problems at home or in the private life, illnesses, and also other factors promoted privates to desertion. Regarding Ukrainians, to continue the list above it is worth mentioning the fresh memories about the events of Polish-Ukrainian war 1918–1919, political agitation before the army call and during the service.Much of the deserters were trying to escape abroad. One of such countries was the USSR, particularly the Soviet Ukraine, in the 1920's the choice of which was largely due to NEP policy, communist's agitation in Poland, correspondence with relatives or friends who lived in the USSR and due to illusive dreams of better life. According to the analysis of personal data of the deserters, the commander office stated that mainly the representatives of rural poor residents, unskilled workers from cities who didn't see any perspectives in life after demobilization were among those who deserted to the USSR. They were mainly the natives of Eastern voivodeships, particularly of Eastern Galicia, and also of coal mining regions, as Silesia. There were some rare cases of escape for personal reasons, for example the desire to get married to the citizen of the USSR.Having got to the USSR, the former privates were thoroughly examined by the Soviet state security authorities, who were trying to collect mostly military information during the questioning process. The further fate of the deserters were different: some were adapted to the life in the Soviet country, sometimes even trying to make a career, others, having looked at Bolshevism, wanted to return to Poland despite the punishment waiting for them. During the 1930's the number of deserters' escapes to the USSR decreased that crediblywas due to the information about repressions, famine, collectivization, and most importantly, the deportation of many of them back to Poland ; Дезертирство стало важливою проблемою польської армії у міжвоєнний період, особливо у перші повоєнні роки. Регламентованість життя у війську, недостатнє матеріальне забезпечення, зловживання з боку командирів, особисті проблеми спонукали рядовиків дезертирувати. У випадку українців додатковою причиною дезертирства були свіжі спогади про події польсько-української війни 1918–1919 рр., політична агітація напередодні призову і під час служби. Однією з країн, до якої прямували дезертири, став СРСР, зокрема радянська Україна. Потрапивши до СРСР, колишні рядовики проходили перевірку радянськими органами держбезпеки, їх реєстрували з правом тимчасового проживання і перспективою отримати громадянство. Подальша доля дезертирів була різною: одні пристосовувались до життя в країні Рад, інколи навіть намагаючись зробити кар'єру, інші, придивившись, до більшовизму прагнули повернутися до Польщі, незважаючи навіть на те, що їх очікувало покарання.

Since 1921 on the territories of ex-Russian empire that according to the conditions of the Treaty of Rome was a part of Rzeczpospolita (Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) and since 1922 in eastern Galicia the government of the country started general call to military service. The aim of this article is to define and analyze the principle factors that determined the attitude of Ukrainian servicemen to military service in Polish army, to look into and describe how units' commanders characterized Ukrainian recruits, and to clarify who were Ukrainians in Polish army "ours" or "alien". The first calls of Ukrainians to military service in Polish army took place at the time of the biggest tensions in the bilateral relations caused by the defeat of West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR), uncertain Public Legal Status of Eastern Galicia, increase in dissatisfaction with government's reform, particularly with the agrarian one. In routine life the level of tension/hostility depended on the level of engagement of Polish/Ukrainians/others in recent military and political battles, changes that happened/ were happening in the life of people resulted from social, economic and political transformations. These factors strengthened by the stereotypes that formed during previous decades/centuries influenced the relations among the officers and Ukrainian recruits. Although the representatives of national minority were considered to be the citizens of the country that had to perform their military duty, suspicion and sometimes the persuasion in their anti-state moods or tendency to perceive and spread anti-Polish slogans was really strong.Showing excessive and groundless suspicion became numerous but not system facts of intolerant and sometimes even hostile attitude from the officers to Ukrainian recruits. That was one of the reasons for desertion of the latter and deepening their distrust towards the commanding staff of the army unit. General headquarters acknowledged the existence of abuse and made some efforts to provide healthy work environment in the army. It was successful to some extend as during the interwar period there were no obvious conflicts based on national or religious beliefs.The suspicions of military political leadership of Rzeczpospolita in political disloyalty of Ukrainian servicemen were mainly groundless and exaggerated. Based on the archival material analysis we can state that the recruits with low level of education or illiterate at all, with a weak sense of national consciousness and not engaged into military competition of 1918–1919 were considered in the army as good/capable soldiers and politically loyal citizens. One can say about such servicemen that they performed their military duty as they were persuaded that "the law/order of the government must be obeyed" but not with the sense of duty to the country. At the same time people who were elleducated,with the strong sense of national consciousness, active in social and political life, participants of armed Polish-Ukrainian standoff were suspected in disloyalty and were considered as potentially dangerous elements in the army. Not paying attention to the suspicions the latter, with the exception of some minor cases, didn't run anti-state political campaign in the army, they tried to develop skill in military affairs and to be exemplary soldiers. This group wasn't numerous and made up only a small percentage of the total amount of Ukrainians. Due to the distribution to different units these people were not dangerous for the army. This way we can state that the usage of the term "alien" by military and political leadership of Poland for indicating people of other nationality than Polish in the army was contingent and it didn't correspond to its direct meaning. Non-polish soldiers were not considered to be hostile elements in the army, but rather "not ours" among "ours". However, according to the archival documents the state government had strong doubts concerning the readiness of representatives from other nationalities to defend the country in case of war actions. ; У результаті закінчення Першої світової війни, невдачі національно-визвольних змагань українців і укладення низки міжнародно-правових угод, більшість західноукраїнських земель були включені до складу Польщі. Українці, згідно з польським законодавством, вважалися громадянами держави і підлягали призову на строкову службу. Перша спроба призвати представників непольської національності на військову службу під час польсько-більшовицької війни з об'єктивних причин зазнала невдачі. Втім, починаючи з 1921 р., на теренах колишньої Російської імперії, що за умовами Ризького договору увійшли до складу Речі Посполитої, а з 1922 р. і в Східній Галичині, керівництво країни почало проводити загальний призов. Як наслідок, у війську різко зросла чисельність українців, які по різному були налаштовані до Польської держави. Ця обставина змушувала військово-політичне керівництво країни враховувати важливість національного чинника у збройних силах.

The spread of mandatory military service for all citizens in II Rzeczypospolita caused the rapid growth of representatives of national minority in the army, Ukrainians in particular, who were often indifferent or sometimes even hostile to the country. One of the main reasons for indifference or hostile from Ukrainians was the events of Polish-Ukrainian war 1918–1919, the fight for Lviv, the defeat of ZUNR (West Ukrainian People's Republic), in which Poland was considered to be guilty. At the same time the level of national and civil consciousness of many Poles was low enough. Taking all that into consideration, military and political authorities realized the necessity of organizing some educational activities for recruits. In the army there were some regular educational lectures with tendentiously chosen historical examples, whose aim was to smooth tensions in bilateral relations, to integrate Ukrainians into society, to bring up the sense of patriotism to Motherland, country of residence and finally to assimilate. To reach this aim, excursions, theatres and cinemas were also used for this reason.