From this stage the history of the two sev ered portions of the Ukraine form part of the history of Russia or of Austria. But about the middle of the 19th century the Austrian government adopted a new attitude toward Galicia, intended to check Polish preponderance and to reduce the pressure of Russia on the east. This policy consisted in encouraging the ideal of Ukrainian independence, with the ob ject of creating a powerful or at least a large buffer state by reviving the Ukrainian nation, in other words, uniting the Ruthenes with their brethren on Russian territory. Ruthenianism was fostered in Galicia by the foundation of professorships at Lemberg and the wholesale production of Ukrainian propaganda literature. which was circulated on the Russian side of the frontier. Toward the end of the 19th cen tury the Ruthenians came to blows with their Polish overlords in Galicia, a conflict which the Austrian government could do little to sup press. In 1902 a general strike of Ruthenians broke cut with the demand that Eastern Galicia be constituted a separate Ukrainian province. The Russian revolution of 1905 strengthened the movement against Polish suppression, and in 1908 the Polish governor of Galicia was shot dead by a Ukrainian student, who afterward es caped to the United States. Early in the Euro pean War the Russians overran Galicia and be gan the Russification of the territory by making the Russian language obligatory and forbidding the Ukrainian. In the following year, how ever, the Russians were expelled from Galicia by the Austro-German armies under Von Mack ensen and the Central Powers made a bid for Polish support— Poland being also occupied by them — with the promise of a reunited Poland under Austro-German patronage. This pros pect alarmed the Ukrainians and led them to strive anew for independence. The Russian revolution of 1917, which swept away the Ro manoff dynasty and finally developed into the greatest disorder under Bolshevism, gave them their opportunity. A national assembly, the Rada, was convened at Kiev, the old capital, in April 1917, and advocated a union with free Russia on a federal basis. Lvov and Kerensky, for the short time they were in power, opposed the plan. With the advent of Lenin and Trot zky, however, the Ukraine broke loose alto gether from Russia, though maintaining a sym pathetic connection with the Russian people struggling to found a genuine democracy. The Central Powers, being desirous of breaking up Russia, aided the Ukrainian movement, with the result that the Ukrainian nation was recognized as an independent state, which finally concluded a separate peace with Germany and Austria. Poland was not represented at Brest-Litovsk; her independence had been an article of faith of the Russian provisional government, while her self-determination was the policy of the Bolsheviki. The Ukrainians were divided on two distinct ideals. Their large peasant popu lation was chiefly anxious to acquire the land from the great Polish proprietors, while in the towns there existed a strong intelligent national ism. But the Bolsheviki were opposed, to both desires. As Socialists they objected to the in dividualist peasant proprietors, and as central ists or internationalists they had little sym pathy with provincial chauvinism. On 20 Nov. 1917 the Rada issued a proclamation, trans ferring the land to the peasants, establishing an eight-hour day, giving labor the control over in dustry and defining the frontiers of the repub lic. This bold attempt to forestall Bolshevism succeeded for the moment. The Ukrainians al lied themselves with General Kaledin and the Cossacks of the Donetz basin, and with Ru mania and Bessarabia. They occupied Odessa and fought steadily against the rising tide of Bolshevist troops. In December 1917 Trotzky sent them an ultimatum threatening war unless they ceased to bar the forces pf Bolshevism, to which the Rada replied that they could not tol erate the interference of Bolshevik elements in their national government.
The collapse of Austria liberated the Ruthe nians, who hastened to unite with their kindred over the Russian border, a program that was distasteful to the Polish nobility. With the Ukrainian occupation of Eastern Galicia a war broke out between them. The Poles recaptured Lemberg, which city was again besieged by the Ukrainians in January 1919. During March the Ukrainians again occupied Lemberg after sev eral days' hard fighting and a siege of three months; they had captured Przemysl on the 18th and brought up their heavy guns to reduce Lem berg. The Ukrainians, headed by General Pet lura, sought alliance with the Entente Powers to save them from Poles and Bolsheviki alike. The advance of the Bolshevist hosts upon Odessa during May was carried on with mur der and rapine, turning the rich agricultural dis tricts of the Ukraine into a wilderness. The rule of Bolshevism was introduced, with na tionalization, confiscation and outrage. Instead of the Ukraine supplying the rest of Russia with grain, as Lenin had intended, that country was itself brought to the verge of famine. The Poles demanded that the new Poland should in clude Eastern Galicia on the ground that at least 35 per cent of the soil was owned by Poles. The natives objected that this ownership dated from feudal times and was manifestly unjust, seeing that the Ukrainian population was by far preponderant in the country. Early in June 1919, however, the Peace Conference authorized the military occupation of Eastern Galicia by Poland, having fixed with the Allied and Associated Powers an agreement whose clauses shall guarantee so far as possible the autonomy of this territory, and the political and religious liberty of its inhabitants. This agreement shall be based on the right of free disposition, which, in the last resort, the inhabitants of Eastern Galicia are to exercise regarding their political allegiance." The motive prompting the Confer ence appears to have been that of uniting mil lions of Ukrainians with Poland and Czec.ho Slovakia, with a view to later junction with Ru mania, thereby creating a great barrier between Germany and Russia in the future. The ancient title of hetman had been revived in May 1918 and conferred upon General Skoropadsky, a former general in the imperial Russian army. His attempt to hold the Ukraine for Russia with German aid failed. The National Union raised a volunteer army of 60,000 men and overthrew Skoropadsky. In August 1919 the Ukraine ceded Eastern Galicia to Poland and in Septem ber the anti-Bolshevist General Denikine re captured Kiev for the Ukraine. Two months later the city fell again into the hands of the Soviet forces.
Bjorkman, E., Pollock and others,
Claim to Freedom) (New York 1915) Butler, R.,