Ukrainian Armies 1914–55

An extract from ‘The struggle for Independence 1917–21’

The Western Ukrainian People’s Republic (ZUNR), 1918–20

When led to the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire its subject peoples all tried to assert their independence. A Ukrainian Rada in Galicia did so in November 1918, and formed the Zakhidno Ukrainska Narodnia Republika or ZUNR (Western Ukrainian People’s Republic). The flag was horizontal stripes of light blue over yellow – the reverse of the original UNR arrangement. The tryzub was adopted as the state symbol, though the Galician lion sometimes replaced it.

The Polish section of the population immediately rebelled and called for help from the new Polish government in Warsaw. Galicia had been Polish territory before it became part of Austria, so the Poles claimed the province again and sent troops to help the rebels.

The ZUNR’s army was known as the Ukrainska Halytska Armiia or UHA (Ukrainian Galician Army). Its nucleus was provided by the legionaries of the Ukrainian Sich Rifles, who were reinforced by Ukrainians from other Austro-Hungarian units and by a number of local guerrilla detachments. The basic unit was the battalion-sized kuren, three to five of which formed a Group, though there was little uniformity of either organization or equipment. Universal conscription was decreed in November 1918, and a territorial organization of three military districts (Lviv, Ternopil and Stanyslaviv). The new army was organized along Austro-Hungarian lines, though there was a shortage of staff officers and the ex-Russian UNR army had to provide two of the UHA’s commanders. In December 1918 the Groups were placed under a central command, and in January 1919 they began to be combined into three Corps. Each had four brigades (of two to five battalions, and an artillery regiment of three to five batteries with four to six guns each), a cavalry detachment, an engineer unit and service units. The battalion had four rifle companies and a MG company. There were 45 battalions and 40 artillery batteries, but the weak cavalry was limited to several detachments of 40–50 men each. The artillery arm was relatively powerful, being equipped with Austrian 75mm, 78mm and 105mm field guns and 100mm or 122mm howitzers; each regiment also had a heavy battery of two 155mm guns.

The 1st Corps had the 5th Sokal, 6th Rava Ruska, 9th Uhniv (later Belz) and 10th Yaniv or Yavoriv Brigades; the 2nd Corps, the 1st Ukrainian Sich Rifles, 2nd Kolomyia, 3rd Berezhany and 4th Zolochiv Bdes; the 3rd Corps, 7th Stryi (later Lviv), 8th Sambir, 11th Stryi, 12th and 1st Mountain Brigades. In April 1919 the 2nd Corps brigades were reorganized into two regiments of three kurens each, and in June new 4th and 5th Corps were organized, though these were quickly disbanded for lack of manpower.

The main battles fought by the UHA were for possession of Lviv and the other towns. The more urbanized Poles managed to hold on to these, and in April 1919 the arrival of Haller’s French-equipped ‘Blue Army’ gave them a decisive advantage. Although the Poles remained the main enemy, the ZUNR also claimed Bukovyna, and this brought them into conflict with the Romanians. The latter attacked in the south in May, forcing the UHA to retreat. It counter-attacked the Poles in June, but they recovered in July and forced the main UHA body out of Galicia and into UNR territory. The UHA’s Mountain Bde had already been cut off by the Haller offensive and forced to retreat into Czechoslovakia. It helped the Czechs to fight Bela Kun’s Hungarians and was then reorganized as the ‘Ukrainian Bde’; the Czechs maintained it for a period, fearing conflict with the Poles, but dissolved it in the early 1920s.

Meanwhile, the main body of the UHA crossed into the ex-Russian Ukraine and joined the UNR forces. However, the latter’s action in allying themselves with the Poles led to the Galicians going over to Denikin’s forces in November 1919 (the White Russians had no claim on Galicia). Denikin’s Whites were in full retreat by this period, and the UHA found itself short of supplies and, like the UNR army, weakened by the typhus epidemic of November 1919.

In January 1920 it went over to the Reds and became the ‘Red UHA’. In March this was reorganized to form three brigades (each with three regiments of three battalions, one artillery regiment, one heavy artillery battery and one cavalry regiment). The old 2nd Corps became the 1st Red Ukrainian Sich Rifles Bde, the 1st Corps the 2nd Bde and the 3rd Corps the 3rd Brigade. These formed part of the Red army which confronted the joint Polish-Ukrainian forces at the start of the latter’s Ukraine campaign in April 1920. The 2nd and 3rd Bdes promptly changed sides again, and the 1st Bde surrendered after being surrounded. Most of the men were interned, but some joined the UNR army’s 6th Division. When the Poles retreated again in June, they crossed into Czechoslovakia and were interned there.