They carried out terror in Poland. They were blessed by Hitler himself.
After expelling the Poles, whites and interventionists from most of Ukraine, the Bolsheviks, hoping for the loyalty of the nationalist-minded population, enthusiastically took up the fight against Great Russian chauvinism and the total Ukrainization of Little Russia.
The situation was fundamentally different in Western Ukraine, which was almost completely part of Poland. The Poles, as centuries before, considered Ukrainians to be cattle, in every possible way preventing their national self-determination. In such a situation, the most active figures of Ukraine went underground, moving from political discussions to armed struggle. On this path, they did not hesitate to collaborate with the Nazis and brutal reprisals
On guard of fictitious “ideals”
Two men walked through the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris. One was clearly over forty, the other no more than 30. Their fit figures and strong-willed faces revealed that they were former military men. Having reached almost the end of the cemetery, they stopped at a modest tombstone with the name of Symon Petlyura. The men crossed themselves. There was silence.
The younger one took a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped a handful of earth in it from the grave of the former ruler. In response to his comrade’s surprise, the young man explained: “I will take this soil from Petliura’s grave to Ukraine, we will plant a tree in his memory and take care of it.” The action delighted his senior comrade. It was Yevhen Konovalets, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. He had lived in exile for more than 10 years and believed that one day he would be able to return and seize power in Ukraine. Such young and ideological fighters as his companion, a member of the nationalist underground in the Ukrainian SSR Pavel Valyukh, should have helped him in this.
Konovalets didn’t know that he was moved to tears by the act of a man who would become a living legend .
Evgeniy Konovalets
The struggle for an independent Ukrainian state during the Civil War ended in the defeat of the national forces. In 1919-1920, the Sich Riflemen, the Galician Army and other Ukrainian formations virtually ceased to exist and were interned by the Poles, who captured Western Ukraine. Not counting those who joined the ranks of the Ukrainian Galician Army (UGA). When the situation on the outskirts of the former Russian Empire calmed down, tens of thousands of emigrants were left out of work. The same cannot be said about their leaders.
Leaders of the Ukrainian national movement dreamed of creating a fundamental new organization, which could effectively fight the occupying Polish and Bolshevik regimes from underground.
M1: Here it should be clarified that because Ukraine as a state never existed (thousand-year-old myths do not count),The Ukrainian SSR, organized by the Bolsheviks, and its government could not possibly be an occupation one. Just as before 2014, there were no Ukrainian national fighters for anything at all. Just keep in mind that this article was written at the request of Lenta.ru.
In the summer of 1920 in Prague they founded the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO). Its leader was Colonel of the Ukrainian* Sich Riflemen Yevgeny Konovalets, known for the brutal suppression of the January Uprising in Kyiv in 1918. The participants of the UVO proclaimed the struggle for “full conciliarity and independence of Ukraine,” which was not achieved during the Civil War. This goal was supposed to be achieved thanks to the “revolutionary explosion of the Ukrainian people.”
* - M1: not Ukrainian, but Austro-Hungarian. It was the Austrians who created these units for the war with Russia and exactly the same Ukrainians, only they did not live in Galicia. This is where the hatred of the Galicians began for 7 centuries, who did not live with the others. Now they have imposed their Bandera power on the whole of Ukraine. 100 years ago they were created for this purpose.
The nation justifies the means
How exactly Konovalets and his comrades planned to achieve their goal became clear very soon. In November 1921, in Lviv, a former officer of the Galician Army, Stepan Fedak, attempted to assassinate the dictator of Poland, Jozef Pilsudski. He turned out to be a lousy shooter and only wounded Pilsudski's comrade-in-arms, the Lvov governor Grabowski. Interestingly, two years before the assassination attempt, at the end of 1919, Konovalets sought the assistance of the Polish dictator in creating a Ukrainian national army.
Jozef Pilsudski with his associates
Any terror must be justified somehow. If only to justify the bloodshed. Dmitry Dontsov (quite a Russian man) began to spiritually nourish the fighters for Ukrainian independence. On the eve of the First World War, he, while in the pay Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, justified the need for Ukrainians to fight Russia and advocated the creation of an “independent” Ukraine under Austrian protectorate. At the UVO, he became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Literary and Scientific Bulletin.
M1: Please note that this “under protectorate” remains unchanged for 100 years. The rest of Ukraine and Ukrainians live well together with the other branches of the Russian (and non-Russian) peoples. And this nickname haunts the Galicians and their “protectors.”
The theorist developed the ideology of integral Ukrainian nationalism. This differed from other types of nationalism by its refusal to engage in any discussions with opponents and promoted rapid radical action to achieve national interests. For Dontsov, the nation was an absolute value. The highest goal for him was the independence of the state, and achieving this goal justified all means. The future independent Ukraine, according to the ideologist, was to be headed by a Leader with unlimited powers.
His ideas later formed the basis of the Decalogue of the Ukrainian Nationalist (also known as the Ten Commandments), the key ideological document of the OUN. In particular, his first point was: “You will win the Ukrainian state or you will die in the fight for it.” The Ukrainian nationalist was asked to hate the enemies of the nation, avenge the death of his comrades and be proud of the trident.
It was separately stipulated that a nationalist must unquestioningly carry out any orders if they are aimed at a good cause. The leaders of the organization had to determine how good certain deeds were.
Beat your own so that strangers will be afraid
In the 1920s, the UVO launched large-scale terrorist activities in Western Ukraine. The militants organized acts of sabotage, arson, explosions, robberies, and political assassinations. The first targets of the nationalists were representatives of the Polish, as they believed, occupation authorities. Therefore, their victims were officials, police officers and even employees of educational institutions.
The latter were especially hated, because they acted as conductors of Polish culture and ideology on Ukrainian lands. In October 1926, in Lvov, 19-year-old Roman Shukhevych, a future German Hauptmann and leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), shot and killed Polish school curator Jan Sobinsky. He was accused of persecuting Ukrainian schoolchildren, and therefore, according to nationalists, he deserved to die. The general account was replenished every year with dozens of killed.
M1: They killed first of all those Poles and Ukrainians who spoke out for the political rights of Ukrainians in Poland. Most of all, the OUN feared that political reforms in Poland would lead to the Galicians themselves taking up arms against them.
Despite the terror, among the Poles there were those who tried to find mutual understanding with the Ukrainians. Still, nationalists were, although active, a minority of the Ukrainian population of Poland. Some Polish politicians believed that mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence could be achieved with the majority of Ukrainians within the framework of single state. One of these was Tadeusz Gołówko. He advocated granting cultural autonomy to Ukrainians and a general liberalization of Poland's generally chauvinistic state ideology. All in vain. Ukrainian militants killed him while he was undergoing treatment at a monastery in the city of Truskavets.
In addition to the Poles, Ukrainians themselves - communists, supporters of cooperation with the Poles, and even those who simply did not share radical views - became victims of the nationalists. The first “wrong” Ukrainian who became a victim of his compatriots was the poet, journalist and public figure Sidor Tverdokhleb. He believed that it was most effective to fight for the cultural and political rights of Ukrainians through legal means; he ran for this purpose in the Polish Sejm, but after the next rally at which he spoke with his program, he was shot by nationalists.
Stepan Bandera
The organization of Yevgeny Konovalets was the largest and most radical, however, besides it, there were other fighters for Ukrainian happiness, such as the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine and the Union of Ukrainian Fascists. In 1929, they gathered in Vienna and proclaimed the creation of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The OUN was conceived as a political party, distanced from the terror of the UVO. She was supposed to be a legitimate spokesman for the Ukrainian national idea. However, once the terror had begun, it could no longer be stopped.
1934 was a landmark year for the Ukrainian national movement. The old leaders, personified by Konovalets, were gradually crowded out by the young ones. One of them was Stepan Bandera. Despite the direct ban on terrorist activities, he organized a number of political assassinations. Schoolteacher Babiy and student Bachinsky paid with their lives for collaborating with the Poles, then Soviet diplomat Mailov and Minister of Internal Affairs Bronislav Peratsky.
As Bandera later said at trial: “We know how to value our lives and those of others, but our idea is worth devoting millions of sacrifices to its implementation" There were many victims on his conscience, but it was the daring actions of 1934 that elevated him to the Ukrainian nationalist Olympus.
Sweets "Sudoplatovskie"
Another area of activity that today’s Ukrainian ideologists do not like to remember was the cooperation of the UVO-OUN with the Germans. These contacts began in 1921, shortly after the creation of the UVO. At that time, Germany was not worried best time, however, military intelligence (Abwehr) found people and money to help the enemies of their enemies.
The Germans were primarily interested in information about the Soviet Union. In particular, the degree of support for Soviet power in society and the state of the Red Army. Another interest of the Abwehr was Poland, which had significantly strengthened as a result of the First World War at the expense of German lands. Acts of sabotage in Western Ukraine, capable of shaking Polish power, fully met German interests.
Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany did not weaken Ukrainian-German contacts at all. On the contrary, in the 1930s Konovalets met with the Fuhrer twice. Thanks to these meetings, in particular, Ukrainian nationalists had the opportunity to study at the Nazi party school in Leipzig. As OUN ideologist Dontsov wrote: “For us, the most important thing in Hitlerism is the covenant of a decisive struggle against Marxism.”
Ukrainian militants began to study in special educational institutions of the Abwehr back in the 1920s. Two centers in Munich and one in Gdansk trained intelligence officers and saboteurs to conduct subversive activities in the interests of the German intelligence services. There was a school in Berlin that trained police personnel for the future occupation administration.
The UVO’s connections with the Abwehr had previously caused concern among the USSR leadership, and after the murder of the Soviet diplomat Mailov in 1934, the Soviet intelligence services took decisive action. For this purpose, an agent was sent to Konovalets foreign intelligence NKVD Pavel Sudoplatov. According to legend, he was a member of the nationalist underground in Soviet Ukraine, Pavel Valyukh. That young fighter who so touched Konovalets with his act at Petliura’s grave in Paris. Valyukh-Sudoplatov repeatedly demonstrated his devotion to the common cause and personally to Konovalets, warning him about the excessive strengthening of Bandera in the OUN, and quite quickly was able to win the trust of the leader.
The body of Yevgeny Konovalets, covered with cloth, at the scene of the explosion
Image: Public Domain/Wikimedia
Knowing the OUN leader’s love for sweets, Sudoplatov prepared a box for him chocolates with a "surprise". On May 23, 1938, at the Atlanta Hotel in Rotterdam, underground fighter Valyukh presented Konovalets with a modest present and slowly left. A few minutes later there was an explosion.
Ukrainian revenge
The removal of Konovalets caused a split in the OUN. Formally, his associate Andrei Melnik became the new leader. A conservative and an “intellectual,” he advocated the continuation of the policies of his deceased patron. However, younger nationalist leaders believed that the time had come for more decisive action, and therefore more decisive commanders.
In 1940, the revolutionary wing of the OUN was created in the party - the OUN (R), or more precisely, the OUN (B), since its sole leader was Stepan Bandera. The ideology of the OUN (B) had a clearly defined Nazi character. The main enemies here were seen as “Jews and Muscovites”, who were to be mercilessly destroyed when seizing power in Ukraine. As Bandera expressed the essence of his policy: “Our power will be terrible!” (“Our government will be terrible!”). However, the “Jews and Muscovites” still needed to be reached.
The Second was approaching World War, in which Ukrainian nationalists had high hopes for the Germans. They believed that with the help of Berlin they would still be able to create a Ukrainian state. Contacts with the Germans were so serious that in the summer of 1939, just weeks before the start of World War II, OUN leader Melnik personally met with the Abwehr chief, Admiral Canaris. As a result of those negotiations, the nationalists received specific instructions from the German command on how to conduct subversive activities on Polish territory. They were expected to commit sabotage at industrial and infrastructure facilities, terrorist attacks, murders of representatives of the Polish government, and create an atmosphere of fear and instability. Bandera’s supporters did not stand aside either. Under the leadership of the head of the OUN (B) military reference office, Roman Shukhevych, two Abwehr sabotage battalions were formed - “Nachtigall” and “Roland”.
Parade of Ukrainian nationalists in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk), October 1941
Immediately after the start of the Great Patriotic War, sabotage detachments crossed the Soviet-German border along with the Germans. By order of Bandera’s deputy Yaroslav Stetsk, combat detachments of Banderaites were created throughout the “liberated” territories, who were tasked with “cleaning out” the Jews. On June 29, 1941, advanced units of the German army and Ukrainian saboteurs entered Lviv, where the next day they announced the “Act of Proclamation of the Ukrainian State.”
Meanwhile, a fierce struggle for power flared up within the OUN itself. Ukrainian nationalists will spend the next 10 years in a fierce war of all against all.
To be continued…
* - 
legend of the Soviet special services, Lieutenant General Sudoplatov.
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| History of the Ukrainian army | |
|---|---|
| Army of Ancient Rus' | |
| 20px | Army of the Galicia-Volyn Principality |
| 20px | Army of Zaporozhye Cossacks |
| 20px | Black Sea Cossack Army Azov Cossack Army Bug Cossack Army Danube Cossack Army |
| 20px | Transdanubian Sich |
| 20px | Armed Forces of Austria-Hungary |
| 20px | Russian Imperial Army |
| 20px | Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic |
| 20px | Army of the Ukrainian State |
| 20px | Ukrainian Galician Army |
| 22px | Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine |
| 22px | Carpathian Sich |
| 22px | Nationalist military units |
| 22px | Ukrainian nationalist squads |
| 22px | Polesie Sich |
| 22px | Ukrainian Liberation Army |
| 22px | SS Division "Galicia" |
| 22px | Ukrainian National Army |
| 22px | Ukrainian Insurgent Army |
| 20px | USSR Armed Forces |
| 20px | Armed Forces of Ukraine |
History of origin and existence
The Galician army was created on the basis of the legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (USS), stationed on November 1, 1918 in the Chernivtsi region (270 km from Lvov), as well as units of the Austro-Hungarian army, consisting entirely or mostly of Ukrainians. These on November 1, 1918 were the 15th Infantry Regiment (Ternopil), the 19th Infantry Regiment (Lvov), the 9th and 45th Infantry Regiments (Przemysl), the 77th Infantry Regiment (Yaroslav), the 20th and the 95th Infantry Regiments (Stanislav, currently Ivano-Frankivsk), the 24th and 36th Infantry Regiments (Kolomyia), the 35th Infantry Regiment (Zolochev).
The conscription of men 18-35 years old into the Galician Army was carried out on the basis of the Law on Universal Military Service of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. According to this law, the territory of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic was divided into 3 military regions (with centers in the cities of Lviv, Ternopil, Stanislav), each of which was divided into 4 military districts. Commanders - Anton Kravs, Miron Tarnavsky, Osip Mikitka.
The birth of the army
The first field units of the Galician Army were created spontaneously during the creation of an independent Western Ukrainian state - the Western Ukrainian People's Republic - in response to the creation of Polish combat groups that opposed the independence of Galicia. Already on November 1, 1918, the Poles raised an uprising in Lviv, and on November 11 they occupied the strategically important city of Przemysl. Until the end of December 1918, the Galician Army consisted of heterogeneous combat groups that could not be called a regular army. There were fifteen of them in total. The most powerful groups were those operating near Lvov: “Navariya”, “Staroe Selo” and “Vostok”. In the north of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, the "North" group was created by Colonel Osip Mykytka. South-west of Lvov, the regional command in Stryi (Colonel Grits Kossak) had at its disposal the groups “Comancha”, “Lyutoviska”, “Stary Sambir”, “Glyboka”, “Krukenichi”, “Rudki”, “Yug-1” and “ South-2". All of them practically acted in isolation from each other and often had no connection with the High Command. As a result of replenishment numerical composition the army grew. On December 10, 1918, when the army was led by General Omelyanovich-Pavlenko, its strength was about 30,000 people with 40 guns, not counting the Dnieper units.
At that time, the front ran from Tisna in the southwest to Khirov and, bypassing Przemysl, to Lvov; the front line went around the city, then went to Yavorov and past Lyubachev to Rava-Russkaya - Belz, adjacent to the UPR forces in the Kholm region. In January-February 1919, the Galician Army was reorganized into three corps and became a truly regular army.
Participation in hostilities
From November 1918 to July 1919, the Galician Army took part in the Polish-Ukrainian War during the siege of Lviv, the Vovchukhov and Chertkov operations. From July to September 1919, together with the active UPR Army, it took part in battles with the Red Army in Right Bank Ukraine.
Having met in August 1919 with units of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia advancing from Donbass and Odessa, she did not enter into military clashes with them, clarifying their attitude towards the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
After the opening of hostilities with the Armed Forces of the South of Russia in September 1919, she took part in battles against them together with the current Army of the UPR. In November 1919, according to the agreement of the Supreme Command of the Galician Army and the commander of the Troops of the Novorossiysk Region of the AFSR, the Galician Army (renamed Ukrainian Galician Army) after the signing of the agreement in Zyatkovtsy on November 6, 1919 and the denunciation by the government of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic in early December 1919 of the "Act of Zluka", concluded a military alliance with the Armed Forces of the South of Russia.
Being almost completely incapable of combat due to a typhus epidemic, the Ukrainian Galician Army at the beginning of 1920 went over to the side of the advancing Red Army, after which it was renamed and reorganized into CHUGA (Chervona Ukrainian Galician Army), or Red Ukrainian Galician Army. From December 1919 to April 1920, the army was stationed mainly in the Baltic and Olgopol districts of the Podolsk province. The army headquarters was located in Balta.
The ban on national symbols, persecution of clergy in the army, and the spread of enmity between officers and soldiers led to dissatisfaction among personnel with the conditions of service. According to the head of the branch of the National Institute of Strategic Studies in Odessa, this is what led to the fact that in April 1920, the cavalry regiment led by Ataman Edmund Sheparovich went over to the enemy side during the spring offensive of the Polish army and the UPR. After this, by order of the CHUGA field headquarters, most of the Galicians were sent to the front. To close the hospital, where there were still wounded, a “team of units” was created. On April 8, the “team of units” was arrested by security officers. The Cheka appealed to all UGA military personnel with a demand to register - under threat of execution. Arrests began. Many UGA servicemen hid in private houses in Odessa and from there moved to villages. The patients in the hospital were starving. In Odessa, the “Ukrainian Women’s Committee” was founded, which collected money, bread, milk, and other food products. On April 20, Lieutenant Galitsky arrived in Odessa with powers from the central government in Kyiv. Those arrested were released, and it was allegedly decided to take them out of Odessa. On the evening of April 23, they boarded a train at the freight station. But the locomotive was not delivered, and the people went to bed. At night, the carriage was surrounded by a Cheka detachment and fired at with machine guns. Between 20 and 60 people died (Soviet newspapers stated that they “fell victim to the wrath of the working class, outraged by their betrayal”). The wounded were sent to the hospital, the rest were arrested. Then there were arrests in the hospital. On charges of “counter-revolution,” the Cheka liquidated the “Ukrainian Women’s Committee.” Subsequently, many of the Galician officers were shot, and those Galicians who managed to escape abroad ended up in Polish concentration camps, where most of them died from hunger, infectious diseases and cruel treatment.
Branch of the military
70% of the personnel consisted of infantry(buttonholes and sleeve patches are blue).
Artillery(buttonholes and red sleeve patches) was armed with more than 60 batteries. IN initial period Austro-Hungarian 8 cm FK M.5 guns were used, later Russian 76 mm divisional guns of the 1902 model were used.
Cavalry was not given of great importance, since it was intended to conduct a positional war, it was formed mounted brigade(buttonholes and sleeve patches are yellow).
There was also aviation regiment with an air base in the village. Krasne, created, among other things, with the help of former officers of the Russian imperial army and was armed with about 40 aircraft, including 16 Brandenburg types, 12 L.F.G, Nieuwports from the army of the former Russian Empire and German Fokkers. The regiment was commanded by Colonel B. Guber, after his death in an explosion at the airfield - Colonel Kanukov. The regiment included a flight school, hundreds of technical and airfield services. The result of the regiment's military operations was the downing of 16 Polish aircraft. Also carried out reconnaissance and bombing missions of enemy positions.
Parts technical support included 5 sapper hundreds, communications regiment with telephone hundreds. The UGA convoy consisted of 36 cars, 42 motorcycles and was reorganized into self-propelled smokehouse. Technical and engineering units had gray buttonholes and sleeve patches. Armored vehicles in the UGA it was represented by 8 armored cars and 2 armored trains.
Sanitary service was organized on the model of the Austrian-Hungarian sanitary service and had at its disposal 2-5 field hospitals and a sanitary train.
In addition, there was field gendarmerie, intelligence service, veterinary departments at headquarters, field mail posts, etc.
Organization
The Ukrainian Galician Army (UGA) did not have divisions, but only corps and brigades. The brigade consisted of a headquarters, a headquarters (mace) hundred, 4 kurens (battalions) of infantry, one cavalry hundred, one artillery regiment with an artillery workshop and an ammunition depot, one engineer hundred, one communications department, a supply depot and a brigade hospital. Some brigades had more infantry kurens (5-6), and in some these kurens were also united into regiments of three kurens. The cavalry brigade consisted of 2 cavalry regiments, to which 1-2 cavalry artillery batteries, a cavalry technical hundred and a cavalry signal hundred could be attached. The beginnings of them already existed in the cavalry brigade.
Individual UGA brigades had the following names:
- 1st Ukrainian Sich Riflemen
- 4th Zolochivskaya
Command
All military affairs in the Western Ukrainian People's Republic were in charge of the State Secretariat (Ministry) of Military Affairs (SSVD). It operated until June 9, 1919 and consisted of 16 departments and an office. It was headed by Colonel Dmitry Vitovsky, and after his death in a plane crash in German Silesia (flying to Berlin for German help) - Colonel Viktor Kurmanovich. From the moment of the proclamation of the dictatorship (June 9, 1919), the functions of the department passed partly to the Supreme Command of the UGA, and partly to the newly created Military Chancellery of the dictator (chief - Colonel Karl Dolezal, a Czech by nationality). The High Command headed all units located at the front and leading fighting. All other units were subordinated through the rear district commands of the State Military Internal Affairs Directorate. The structure of command and staff completely copied the Austro-Hungarian one.
Uniforms and insignia
In the initial period of its existence, the army personnel wore mainly Austrian-style uniforms, supplemented with elements of national symbols. On January 31, 1919, the head of the written department of the State Military Internal Affairs Directorate, Chetar Bobersky, was instructed to begin developing a new type of uniform and insignia. Some intermediate developments were demonstrated to the military leadership at a meeting on March 26. The final version was approved by Order XLVI of the State Military Internal Affairs Directorate dated April 22, 1919, published in early May, in the 11th part of the “Bulletin of the State Secretariat of Military Affairs”.
A single uniform was established for all branches of the military, consisting of a Mazepinka hat, a field uniform, trousers and an overcoat. The uniform was field and dress uniform at the same time. For military priests, a special cut uniform was provided - the so-called “spiritual zhupan”. The material was woolen cloth of a greenish-earthy color; in the absence of such, the use of material of other colors was allowed.
The overcoat (officially a cloak) was fastened with six buttons, in two rows, placed on flaps sewn to the left edge. At the back there was a slit fastened with buttons - two for infantrymen and four for cavalrymen and artillerymen. There were shoulder straps similar to the shoulder straps of a uniform. The collar had a special tab with a button, which made it possible to fix the collar in the raised state. On the overcoat, as well as on the uniform, buttonholes were placed in the color of the branch of service.
The pants are loose at the hips and knees, fitting below the knees, with two pockets. Petty officers and sub-sergeants were allowed to wear long, loose-fitting trousers outside of duty, made of black material with edges in the color of the branch of service. Shoes were boots with windings or boots.
The buttonholes (forks) were rectangular in shape, 7.5 cm long, and had three triangular cutouts at the top and bottom, giving them a characteristic jagged shape. As mentioned above, the buttonholes were the colors of the branch of service:
On the left sleeve it was necessary to wear signs of military specialty, in the form of letters, and they partially duplicated the colors of the military branch:
Badges (springs) in the lower part of the sleeve served as insignia. Up to and including the rank of colonel - on a cloth lining in the colors of the branch of service. The appearance of the patches, with a dark blue (infantry) color lining, is shown in the table below (it should be noted that privates (strelmen) were not entitled to patches):
| 90px | 90px | 90px | 90px | 90px |
| Senior Sagittarius |
Whistun | Foreman | Senior foreman (Podkhorunzhy) |
Bulavny |
| 90px | 90px | 90px | 90px | 90px |
| Cornet | Cetar | Lieutenant | Centurion | Otaman |
| 90px | 90px | 90px | 90px | 90px |
| Lieutenant colonel | Colonel | General Chetar |
General handyman |
General centurion |
Awards
In August 1928, in Berlin, the College of Sergeants of the Ukrainian Galician Army (UGA) established the Order of the Galician Cross. The Knights of the Order included the commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army, General-Coronet Myron Tarnavsky, Lieutenant-General Mikhail Omelyanovich-Pavlenko, General-Coronet Anton Kravs and others (a total of 15 full members and 10 candidates). The award was made in Vienna. It was awarded to UGA soldiers and civilians, and it was planned to award various degrees to all UGA officers and military personnel.
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Notes
White movement technique: Artillery · Tanks · Armored cars · Armored trains · Aviation
An excerpt characterizing the Galician army
Suddenly Arno screamed like a wounded animal and fell to the ground, next to the terribly mutilated body of his wife (?)... In him, like during a storm, emotions raged in wild whirlwinds - anger replaced hopelessness, rage obscured melancholy, then developing into inhuman pain, from which there was no escape... He rolled on the floor screaming, unable to find a way out for his grief... until finally, to our horror, he completely fell silent, no longer moving...Well, naturally - having opened such a stormy emotional “squall”, and dying with it, he at that moment became an ideal “target” for capture by any, even the weakest “black” creatures, not to mention those who later so stubbornly pursued behind him in order to use his powerful energy body as a simple energy “suit”... to then carry out, with his help, his terrible, “dirty” deeds...
“I don’t want to watch this anymore...” Stella said in a whisper. – In general, I don’t want to see horror anymore... Is this human? Well, tell me!!! Is this right?! We are people!!!
Stella began to go into real hysterics, which was so unexpected that at the first second I was completely at a loss, not finding what to say. Stella was very indignant and even a little angry, which, in this situation, was probably completely acceptable and understandable. For others. But it was so, again, so unlike her that I only now finally realized how painfully and deeply all this endless earthly Evil had wounded her kind, affectionate heart, and how tired she was probably of constantly bearing all this human dirt and cruelty on my fragile, still very childish, shoulders.... I really wanted to hug this sweet, persistent and so sad little man now! But I knew that this would upset her even more. And therefore, trying to stay calm, so as not to touch her already too “disheveled” feelings even deeper, I tried, as best I could, to calm her down.
- But there is also good, not only bad!.. Just look around - what about your grandmother?.. And the Sun?.. Look, Maria generally lived only for others! And how many of them are there!.. There are very, very many of them! You're just very tired and very sad because we lost good friends. So everything seems to be in “black colors”... And tomorrow will be a new day, and you will become yourself again, I promise you! And also, if you want, we won’t go to this “floor” anymore? Want?..
“Isn’t it because of the “floor”?” Stella asked bitterly. – This won’t change anything, whether we go here or not... It’s just earthly life. She's evil... I don't want to be here anymore...
I was very scared, was Stella thinking of leaving me and leaving me forever?! But it was so unlike her!.. In any case, this was not at all the Stella I knew so well... And I really wanted to believe that her exuberant love of life and bright, joyful character would be “ruined into powder.” “all today’s bitterness and embitterment, and very soon she will again become the same sunny Stella that she was so recently...
Therefore, having calmed myself down a little, I decided not to make any “far-reaching” conclusions now, and to wait until tomorrow before taking any more serious steps.
“And look,” to my great relief, Stella suddenly said very interestedly, “don’t you think that this is not an Earthly entity?” The one who attacked... She is too different from the usual “bad earthlings” that we saw on this “floor”. Maybe that’s why she used those two earthly monsters because she herself couldn’t get to the earthly “floor”?
As it seemed to me earlier, the “main” monster really was not like the others that we saw here during our daily “trips” to the lower “floor”. And why not imagine that it came from somewhere far away?.. After all, if the good ones came, like Veya, why couldn’t the bad ones come as well?
“You’re probably right,” I said thoughtfully. “It didn’t fight according to the earthly way.” He had some other, not earthly power.
- Girls, dear, when are we going somewhere? – suddenly a thin child’s voice was heard.
Confused by the fact that she interrupted us, Maya, nevertheless, very persistently looked straight at us with her big doll eyes, and I suddenly felt very ashamed that, carried away by our problems, we completely forgot that these mortally tired people were here with us. kids waiting for someone's help, scared to the limit...
- Oh, sorry, my dears, well, of course, let's go! – I exclaimed as joyfully as possible and, already turning to Stella, asked: “What are we going to do?” Let's try to go higher?
Having protected the babies, we waited with curiosity to see what our “newly made” friend would do. And he, carefully watching us, very easily made himself exactly the same defense and now calmly waited for what would happen next. Stella and I smiled contentedly at each other, realizing that we were absolutely right about him, and that his place was certainly not the lower Astral... And, who knew, maybe it was even higher than we thought.
As usual, everything around sparkled and sparkled, and after a few seconds we found ourselves “drawn” to the well-known, hospitable and calm upper “floor”. It was very nice to breathe freely again, without fear that some abomination would suddenly jump out from around the corner and, hitting us on the head, would try to “feast” on us. The world was again friendly and bright, but still sad, because we understood that it would not be so easy to drive out from our hearts the deep pain and sadness that our friends left when they left... They now lived only in our memory and in our hearts... Not being able to live anywhere else. And I naively promised myself that I would always remember them, not yet understanding that the memory, no matter how wonderful it was, would later be filled with the events of the passing years, and not every face would emerge as vividly as we remembered it now, and little by little, everyone, even a very important person to us, will begin to disappear in the dense fog of time, sometimes not coming back at all... But then it seemed to me that this was now forever, and that this wild pain would not leave me forever...
- I came up with something! – Stella whispered joyfully in the same old way. – We can make him happy!.. We just need to look for someone here!..
-You mean his wife, or what? I must admit, I also had this thought. Do you think it’s not too early?.. Maybe we’ll at least let him get comfortable here first?
– Wouldn’t you like to see them alive if you were him?! – Stella was immediately indignant.
“You’re right, as always,” I smiled at my friend.
We slowly “floated” along the silvery path, trying not to disturb anyone else’s sadness and let everyone enjoy the peace after everything we had experienced on this terrible day. The children slowly came to life, enthusiastically observing the marvelous landscapes floating past them. And only Arno was clearly very far from all of us, wandering in his perhaps very happy memory, which evoked a surprisingly warm and gentle smile on his refined and so beautiful face...
“You see, he probably loved them very much!” And you say it’s too early!.. Well, let’s look! – Stella did not want to calm down.
“Okay, let it be your way,” I easily agreed, since now it seemed right to me too.
– Tell me, Arno, what did your wife look like? – I began carefully. – If it doesn’t hurt you too much to talk about it, of course.
He looked into my eyes with great surprise, as if asking how I even knew that he had a wife?..
– It just so happened that we saw, but only the very end... It was so scary! – Stella immediately added.
I was afraid that the transition from his wondrous dreams to terrible reality turned out to be too cruel, but “the word is not a bird, it flew out and you won’t catch it,” it was too late to change anything, and we could only wait to see if he wanted to answer. To my great surprise, his face lit up even more with happiness, and he very affectionately replied:
– Oh, she was a real angel!.. She had such wonderful blond hair!.. And her eyes... Blue and pure, like dew... Oh, what a pity that you didn’t see her, my dear Michelle! .
– Did you have another daughter? – Stella asked carefully.
- Daughter? – Arno asked in surprise and, realizing what we saw, he immediately added. - Oh no! It was her sister. She was only sixteen years old...
Such a frightening, such terrible pain suddenly flashed in his eyes that only now I suddenly realized how much this unfortunate man had suffered!.. Perhaps unable to bear such brutal pain, he deliberately fenced himself off with a wall of their former happiness, trying to remember only bright past and “erase” from his memory all the horror of that last terrible day, as far as his wounded and weakened soul allowed him to do this...
We tried to find Michelle, but for some reason it didn’t work... Stella stared at me in surprise and quietly asked:
– Why can’t I find her, did she die here too?..
It seemed to me that something was simply preventing us from finding her on this “floor” and I suggested that Stella look “higher”. We slipped mentally onto Mental... and immediately saw her... She really was amazingly beautiful - light and pure, like a stream. And long golden hair scattered over her shoulders like a golden cloak... I have never seen such long and such beautiful hair! The girl was deeply thoughtful and sad, like many on the “floors”, who had lost their love, their relatives, or simply because they were alone...
- Hello, Michelle! – without wasting time, Stella immediately said. - And we have prepared a gift for you!
The woman smiled in surprise and asked tenderly:
-Who are you, girls?
But without answering her, Stella mentally called Arno...
I won’t be able to tell them what this meeting brought them... And there’s no need for that. Such happiness cannot be put into words - they will fade... It just wasn’t there, probably, at that moment happier people all over the world, and on all “floors”!.. And we sincerely rejoiced with them, not forgetting those to whom they owed their happiness... I think both little Maria and our kind Luminary would be very happy , seeing them now, and knowing that it was not in vain that they gave their lives for them...
Stella suddenly became alarmed and disappeared somewhere. I followed her too, since we had nothing else to do here...
-Where did you all disappear to? – Maya greeted us with a question, surprised, but very calmly. “We already thought you had left us for good.” And where is our new friend?.. Has he really disappeared too?.. We thought he would take us with him...
A problem arose... Where to put these unfortunate kids now - I didn’t have the slightest idea. Stella looked at me, thinking the same thing, and desperately trying to find some way out.
- I came up with it! – already just like the “old” Stella, she happily clapped her hands. “We will make them a joyful world in which they will exist.” And then, lo and behold, they will meet someone... Or someone good will take them.
“Don’t you think we should introduce them to someone here?” – I asked, trying to “more reliably” accommodate lonely kids.
“No, I don’t think so,” the friend answered very seriously. – Think for yourself, not all dead babies receive this... And not all of them here probably have time to take care of them. So it's fair to the others if we just make them a really nice home here while they find someone. After all, it’s easier for the three of them. And others are alone... I was alone too, I remember...
And suddenly, apparently remembering that terrible time, she became confused and sad... and somehow unprotected. Wanting to immediately bring her back, I mentally brought down a waterfall of incredible fantastic flowers on her...
- Oh! – Stella laughed like a bell. - Well, what are you talking about!.. Stop it!
- Stop being sad! – I didn’t give up. - We see how much more we need to do, and you’re so limp. Well, let's go get the kids settled!..
And then, completely unexpectedly, Arno appeared again. We stared at him in surprise... afraid to ask. I even had time to think: had something terrible happened again?.. But he looked “overwhelmingly” happy, so I immediately discarded the stupid thought.
“What are you doing here?!..” Stella was sincerely surprised.
- Have you forgotten - I have to pick up the kids, I promised them.
-Where is Michelle? Why aren't you together?
- Well, why not together? Together, of course! I just promised... And she always loved children. So we decided to all stay together until a new life takes them.
- So this is wonderful! – Stella was happy. And then she jumped to something else. – You are very happy, aren’t you? Well, tell me, are you happy? She's so beautiful!!!..
Arno looked into our eyes for a long time and carefully, as if wanting to, but not daring to say anything. Then, finally, I decided...
- I can’t accept this happiness from you... It’s not mine... It’s wrong... I don’t deserve it yet.
“How can you not do this?!..” Stella literally soared. - How can you not - how can you!.. Just try to refuse!!! Just look how beautiful she is! And you say you can’t...
Arno smiled sadly, looking at the raging Stella. Then he hugged her affectionately and quietly, quietly said:
“You brought me unspeakable happiness, and I brought you such terrible pain... Forgive me, dear ones, if you ever can.” Sorry...
Stella smiled at him brightly and affectionately, as if wanting to show that she understood everything perfectly, and that she forgave him everything, and that it was not his fault at all. Arno just nodded sadly and, pointing to the quietly waiting children, asked:
– Can I take them “up there” with me, do you think?
“Unfortunately, no,” Stella answered sadly. “They can’t go there, they stay here.”
“Then we’ll stay too...” a gentle voice sounded. - We will stay with them.
We turned around in surprise - it was Michelle. “That’s all decided,” I thought contentedly. And again, someone voluntarily sacrificed something, and again simple human kindness won... I looked at Stella - the little girl was smiling. Everything was fine again.
- Well, will you walk with me a little more? – Stella asked hopefully.
I should have gone home a long time ago, but I knew that I would never leave her now and nodded my head affirmatively...
To be honest, I wasn’t in too much of a mood to go for a walk, since after everything that had happened, my condition was, let’s say, very, very “satisfactory... But I couldn’t leave Stella alone either, so it would be good for both of them, though If only we were “in the middle”, we decided not to go far, but just to relax our almost boiling brains a little, and give our pain-wracked hearts a rest, enjoying the peace and quiet of the mental floor...
We slowly floated in a gentle silvery haze, completely relaxing our twitchy nervous system, and plunging into the stunning, incomparable peace here... When suddenly Stella shouted enthusiastically:
- Wow! Just look, what kind of beauty is there!..
I looked around and immediately understood what she was talking about...
It really was extraordinarily beautiful!.. As if someone, while playing, had created a real sky-blue “crystal” kingdom!.. We looked in surprise at the incredibly huge, openwork ice flowers, dusted with light blue snowflakes; and the intertwining of sparkling ice trees, flashing with blue highlights at the slightest movement of the “crystal” foliage and reaching the height of our three-story house... And among all this incredible beauty, surrounded by flashes of real “northern lights”, a breathtakingly majestic ice palace proudly rose, the whole shining with the shimmer of unprecedented silvery blue shades...
What was it?! Who liked this cool color so much?..
So far, for some reason, no one showed up anywhere, and no one expressed any great desire to meet us... It was a little strange, since usually the owners of all these wonderful worlds were very hospitable and friendly, with the exception of only those who had just appeared on “ floor” (that is, they had just died) and were not yet ready to communicate with others, or simply preferred to experience something purely personal and difficult alone.
- Who do you think lives in this? strange world.. – for some reason Stella asked in a whisper.
- Do you want to see? – unexpectedly for myself, I suggested.
I didn’t understand where all my fatigue had gone, and why I suddenly completely forgot the promise I made to myself a moment ago not to interfere in any, even the most incredible, incidents until tomorrow, or at least until I had at least a little rest. But, of course, this again triggered my insatiable curiosity, which I had not yet learned to pacify, even when there was a real need for it...
Therefore, trying, as far as my exhausted heart allowed, to “switch off” and not think about our failed, sad and difficult day, I immediately eagerly plunged into the “new and unknown”, anticipating some unusual and exciting adventure...
We smoothly “slowed down” right at the very entrance to the stunning “ice” world, when suddenly a man appeared from behind a sparkling blue tree... She was a very unusual girl - tall and slender, and very beautiful, she would have seemed quite young , almost if it weren’t for the eyes... They shone with calm, bright sadness, and were deep, like a well with the purest spring water... And in these wondrous eyes lurked such wisdom that Stella and I had not yet been able to comprehend for a long time ... Not at all surprised by our appearance, the stranger smiled warmly and quietly asked:
- What do you want, kids?
“We were just passing by and wanted to look at your beauty.” Sorry if I disturbed you...” I muttered, slightly embarrassed.
- Well, what are you talking about! Come inside, it will probably be more interesting there... - waving her hand into the depths, the stranger smiled again.
We instantly slipped past her inside the “palace”, unable to contain the curiosity rushing out, and already anticipating something very, very “interesting” in advance.
It was so stunning inside that Stella and I literally froze in a stupor, our mouths open like hungry one-day-old chicks, unable to utter a word...
There was no so-called “floor” in the palace... Everything there floated in the sparkling silver air, creating the impression of sparkling infinity. Some fantastic “seats”, similar to groups of sparkling dense clouds accumulated in groups, swaying smoothly, hung in the air, sometimes becoming denser, sometimes almost disappearing, as if attracting attention and inviting you to sit on them... Silvery “ice” flowers, shining and shimmering, they decorated everything around, striking with the variety of shapes and patterns of the finest, almost jewelry petals. And somewhere very high in the “ceiling”, blinding with sky-blue light, huge ice “icicles” of incredible beauty hung, turning this fabulous “cave” into a fantastic “ice world”, which seemed to have no end...
“Come on, my guests, grandfather will be incredibly glad to see you!” – the girl said warmly, gliding past us.
And then I finally understood why she seemed unusual to us - as the stranger moved, a sparkling “tail” of some special blue material was constantly trailing behind her, which shone and curled like tornadoes around her fragile figure, crumbling behind her. with silver pollen...
Before we had time to be surprised by this, we immediately saw a very tall, gray-haired old man, proudly sitting on a strange, very beautiful chair, as if thereby emphasizing his importance to those who did not understand. He watched our approach completely calmly, not at all surprised and not yet expressing any emotions other than a warm, friendly smile.
The white, silver-shimmering, flowing clothes of the old man merged with the same, completely white, long hair, making him look like good spirit. And only the eyes, as mysterious as those of our beautiful stranger, shocked us with boundless patience, wisdom and depth, making us shudder from the infinity visible in them...
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The Galician army was created on the basis of units of the Austro-Hungarian army, consisting entirely or mostly of Ukrainians. These on November 1, 1918 were the 15th Infantry Regiment (Ternopil), the 19th Infantry Regiment (Lvov), the 9th and 45th Infantry Regiments (Przemysl), the 77th Infantry Regiment (Yaroslav), the 20th 1st and 95th Infantry Regiments (Stanislav, now Ivano-Frankivsk), 24th and 36th Infantry Regiments (Kolomyia), 35th Infantry Regiment (Zolochev). The basis of the army was the legion of Sich Riflemen, located on November 1, 1918 in the Chernivtsi region (270 km from Lviv).
The conscription of men 18-35 years old into the Galician Army was carried out on the basis of the Law on Universal Military Service of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. Thus, the territory of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic was divided into 3 military regions (Lviv, Ternopil, Stanislav), each of which was divided into 4 military districts. Commanders - Anton Kravs, Miron Tarnavsky, Osip Mikitka.
The birth of the army
The first field units of the Galician Army were created spontaneously at the time of the creation of the independent Western Ukrainian state - ZUNR. This was a response to the creation of Polish military organizations. Already on November 1, 1918, the Poles raised an uprising in Lviv, and on the 11th they occupied the strategically important city of Przemysl. Until the end of December 1918, the Galician Army consisted of heterogeneous combat groups that could not be called a regular army. There were 15 of them in total. The strongest groups were those operating near Lvov: “Navariya”, “Staroe Selo” and “Vostok”. In the north of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, the "North" group was created by Colonel Osip Mykytka. South-west of Lvov, the regional command in Stryi (Colonel Grits Kossak) had at its disposal the groups “Comancha”, “Lyutoviska”, “Stary Sambir”, “Glyboka”, “Krukenichi”, “Rudki”, “Yug-1” and “ South-2". All of them practically acted in isolation from each other and quite often had no connection with the High Command. As a result of the replenishment, the size of the army increased. On December 10, 1918, when General Omelyanovich-Pavlenko led the army, its strength was about 30,000 people with 40 guns, not counting the Dnieper units. At that time, the front ran from Tisna in the southwest to Khirov and, bypassing Przemysl, to Lvov, the line went around the city, then went to Yavorov and past Lyubachev to Rava-Russkaya - Belz, adjoining the UPR forces in the Kholm region. In January-February 1919, the Galician Army was reorganized into three corps and became a truly regular army.
Participation in hostilities
From November 1918 to July 1919, the Galician Army took part in the Polish-Ukrainian War during the siege of Lviv, the Vovchukhov and Chertkov operations. From July to September 1919, together with the Active Army of the UPR, it took part in battles with the Red Army during its capture of Right Bank Ukraine. Having met in August 1919 with units of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia advancing from Donbass and Odessa, she did not enter into military clashes with them, clarifying their attitude towards the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
After the opening of hostilities with the AFSR in September 1919, she took part in battles against them together with the Active Army of the UPR. In November 1919, according to the agreement of the Supreme Command of the Galician Army and the commander of the Troops of the Novorossiysk Region of the All-Soviet Socialist Republic, the Galician Army (renamed Ukrainian Galician Army) after the agreement in Zyatkovtsy on November 6, 1919 and the denunciation by the government of the Western Ukrainian Republic in early December 1919 of the “Act of Zluka”, it entered into a military alliance with the Armed Forces of the South of Russia.
Being almost completely ineffective as a result of the typhus epidemic, the Ukrainian Galician Army at the beginning of 1920 went over to the side of the advancing Red Army, after which it was renamed and reorganized into CHUGA (Chervona Ukrainian Galician Army), or the Red Ukrainian Galician Army. From December 1919 to April 1920, the army was stationed mainly in the Baltic and Olgopol districts of the Podolsk province. The army headquarters was located in Balta.
Dissatisfaction of personnel with the conditions of service (ban on national symbols, persecution of clergy in the army, instilling enmity between officers and soldiers) led to the fact that in April 1920, most of the personnel of the Red Ukrainian Galician Army went over to the side of the Poles during the spring offensive Polish army. The commanders and military personnel of the UGA (CHUGA) who were in Odessa at the time of the uprising, about 600 people in total, were arrested, several dozen of them were executed in the “Petliura” case military organization" It was decided to remove the rest from Odessa. While loading into carriages at the Odessa railway station, they, along with their families, were shot from machine guns by a detachment of security officers. Soviet newspapers stated that they "fell prey to the wrath of the working class, outraged by their betrayal."
Plan
Introduction
1 Branch of the military
2 Organization
Bibliography
Ukrainian Galician Army
Introduction
Galician Army (Ukrainian: Galician Army) - regular army of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (WUNR).
The basis of the army was the legion of Sich Riflemen. The conscription of men 18-35 years old into the army was carried out on the basis of the Law on Universal Military Service of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. Thus, the territory of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic was divided into 3 military regions (Lviv, Ternopil, Stanislav), each of which was divided into 4 military districts. Commanders - Anton Kravs, Miron Tarnavsky, Osip Mikitka.
Later, part of the GA personnel transferred to service in Armed forces The south of Russia under the command of Denikin, and two months later - to the Reds, which was the reason for the renaming of the Galician Army into CHUGA (Chervona Ukrainian Galician Army), or the Red Ukrainian Galician Army, and part of it into the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
1. Branch of troops
70% of the personnel consisted of infantry .
Artillery It was also a priority branch of the military and was armed with more than 60 batteries; the high combat effectiveness of the UGA artillery was noted.
Cavalry was not given much importance, since it was supposed to conduct a positional war, it was formed mounted brigade .
There was also aviation regiment with an air base in the village. Krasne, created, among other things, with the help of former officers of the Russian imperial army and was armed with about 40 aircraft, the regiment included a flight school, hundreds of technical and airfield services.
Parts of technical support included 5 sapper hundreds, communications regiment with telephone hundreds. The UGA convoy consisted of 36 cars, 42 motorcycles and was reorganized into self-propelled smokehouse . Armored vehicles in the UGA it was represented by 2-3 armored cars and 2 armored trains.
Sanitary service was organized on the model of the Austrian-Hungarian sanitary service and had at its disposal 2-5 field hospitals and a sanitary train. In addition there was field gendarmerie, veterinary departments at headquarters, field mail posts, etc.
2. Organization
The Ukrainian Galician Army (UGA) did not have divisions, but only corps and brigades. The brigade consisted of a headquarters, a headquarters (mace) hundred, 4 infantry kurens, one cavalry hundred, one artillery regiment with an artillery workshop and an ammunition depot, one engineer hundred, one communications department, a supply depot and a brigade hospital. Some brigades had more infantry kurens (5-6), and in some these kurens were also united into regiments of three kurens. The cavalry brigade consisted of 2 cavalry regiments, to which 1-2 cavalry artillery batteries, a cavalry technical hundred and a cavalry communications hundred could be attached. The beginnings of them already existed in the cavalry brigade.
Individual UGA brigades had the following names:
· 1st Ukrainian Sich Riflemen
· 2nd Kolomyia
· 3rd Berezhanskaya
· 4th Zolochivskaya
· 5th Ravskaya
· 6th Sokalskaya
· 7th Lvovskaya
· 8th Samborskaya
· 9th Belzkaya
· 10th Yavorovskaya
· 11th Stryyskaya
· 14th Stanislavovskaya
· 15th Stanislavovskaya
· 16th Chortkovskaya
· 17th Buchachskaya
· 18th Ternopil
· 21st Ternopil
The I Galician Corps included the following brigades:
Bibliography:
1. Great Galician Zrada of Ukraine
Years about general duty military service citizens of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, on the basis of which the orders of the State Secretariat of Military Affairs (DSMA) were proclaimed in November on the military-territorial division of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, the organizational chart of the GA and the mobilization of Ukrainian men aged 18 to 35 years in the GA. The territory of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (without Carpathian Ukraine) is divided into three military regions: Lviv, Ternopil and Stanislav, and from them each into 4 military districts (5 - 8 floors each). Each of them was headed by a district military commandant, who was responsible for recruiting recruits, training them, and replenishing the army with combat-ready units.
1. Command
All military affairs of the ZUNR were known to the DSWS, which operated until June 9, 1919 and was divided into the military chancellery of the DSWS and 16 departments. The affairs of replenishing the army, combat and food allowances were directly subordinate to him. The State Secretaries of Military Affairs were: Colonel Dmitry Vitovsky (until February 13, 1919) and Colonel V. Kurmanovich (until June 9, 1919). After the proclamation of the dictatorship of the ZO UPR, the functions of the DSAF passed partly to the Initial Command of the UGA, and partly to the newly military office of the dictator (Chief Lieutenant Colonel K. Dolezhal). Formed in May 1919, the rear team, which temporarily took on the functions of the DSAF, entered the stage commands of the Civil Aviation in June.
The initial leader of the GA invited the chairman of Unradi (since June 1919 dictator), the training commandant of the UGA, who was assisted with the functions of the general staff by the Initial Command of the Galician Army (NKGA). It was headed by the commandant of the UGA. Since June 1919, the initial leader with an assistant - the chief of staff.
The initial commandants for the organizational period were: Colonel Dmitry Vitovsky (until November 5, 1918), Colonel Grigory Kossak (until November 9, 1918), Colonel Ignat Stefanov (until December 10, 1918); subsequently General M. Omelyanovich-Pavlenko (until June 9, 1919), General Alexander Grekov (until July 5, 1919), Colonel Alfred Shamanek (until February 21, 1920) and Colonel A. Vitoshinsky (until March 1, 1920). The deputy training commandants and at the same time chiefs of staff were: Colonel M. Marinovich (until November 5, 1918), Ataman Sen Goruk (until December 10, 1918), Colonel E. Meshkovskikh (until February 7, 1919), Colonel Viktor Kurmanovich (until June 9, 1919) , Colonel A. Shamanek (until November 7, 1919), General Gustav Ziritz (until February 10, 1920) and again Colonel A. Shamanek (until March 1, 1920).
The NKGA led the CAA operations at the front, and also headed all the CAA units located at the front. All other parts of the CAA were subject to the rear district commands - DSWS. The NKGA was divided, like the Austrian model, into operational and organizational and material departments. Under General Alexander Grekov, in June 1919 the NKGA was reorganized - it was divided into the Operational Headquarters, the Main Department of the Front and the Stage Command. With the abolition of the DSWS, the NKGA also subjected all spare and training parts and convoy rolls.
2. Formation
The first field formations of the UGA were created spontaneously against the uprising of Polish combat groups in Lviv (November 1, 1918) and the attack of Polish troops from Poland on Galicia (already on November 11, 1918 they occupied Przemysl). Until the end of December 1918, the GA was a mixture of various military groups of a regular, semi-partisan, but even partisan nature, which created the security of Lviv or operated on the offensive routes of the Polish troops. These groups had different names and had a very heterogeneous composition, depending on local conditions. In December 1918, there were 15 combat groups of various sizes and composition in the Civil Aviation. The strongest groups were: “Navariya”, “Staroe Selo”, “Vostok”. On the northern borders of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, a group "North" (regiment Osip Nikitka) was created to repel Polish aggression; in the southwestern Regions. The team in Stryi (Colonel G. Kossak) was led by various groups, which were created independently on the western front, stretching from Comanche (until 19.1) to Gorodok: Comancha, Lyutoviska, Stary Sambir, Glubokaya, Krukenichi, Rudki, Yug I and II. All these groups were a continuous line, rarely had connections with the NC GA and even less often with each other. The numerical status of these groups in the conclusions of replenishment grew. At the beginning of December 1918, when Gen. M. Omelyanovich-Pavlenko took over the initial GA team, it numbered approx. 30,000 senior officers and soldiers, including 15,000 in combat condition with 40 guns (excluding Naddniepryanshchina units).
Then the Polish-Ukrainian front moved from closely to the Pivd.-West. to Khirov and despite Przemysl to Lvov, from Lvov to Yavorov and despite Lyubachev to Rava Russkaya to Belza, and further north to Krylov in the Kholm region. In December 1918, all field formations were subordinated to the unanimous command of the NKGA, and during January-February the GA was reorganized according to the plan of Colonel Meshkovsky. The combat groups were consolidated into 3 corps of 4 brigades, consisting of the usual. with 3-6 infantry kurens (in some brigades combined into 2 regiments), one cavalry hundred, one field cannon regiment of 4-6 batteries, one engineer hundred, communications units and auxiliary departments and services.
According to Kharch documents. government of the DS Armed Forces, since March 1919, 126,000 foremen and soldiers have been mobilized, that is, 5% of the Ukrainian population, and in fact much more, because numerous foremen and soldiers subject to mobilization have not yet returned home from the fronts of the World War or from captivity (only in Italy, before leaving for Ukraine, registered up to 40,000 Ukrainian foremen and soldiers, former prisoners of the Austrian army).
3. Military actions
Although the number of GA at the front in April totaled 1,412 senior officers and 52,200 soldiers (533 machine guns, 188 field and 13 heavy guns), the Polish army already in February-March 1919 had a small numerical advantage: in April 62,000, and even more after being sent to the anti-Ukrainian front 30,000 foremen and soldiers from the 100 thousand army of General J. Haller, which arrived from France (contrary to the obligations of the Polish government that the army would be used only against the Bolsheviks).
Despite numerical and technical superiority Polish troops, during the 248 days of the war, the UGA also had victories. But the final victory of the Galician army in the first offensive near Vovchukhiv in February 1919 (the so-called “Vovchukhiv Operation”) was prevented by the Entente Mission, headed by General Bertelmi, which, in a very unpleasant situation for the Poles, ordered a truce.
4.7. Logistics services
Internal order was maintained by the field gendarmerie (field guard) under the NK Civil Aviation Corps and corps (divided into corps huts and brigade hundreds). For more details, see p. 2231).
Other auxiliary departments of the UGA were mace hundreds at the headquarters of corps and brigades, food hundreds at the supply of corps and brigades, veterinary departments at the corps commands and in the Cavalry Brigade; field mail posts at corps and brigade commands, etc.
The general state of the UGA suffered such changes: in March-April there were 65,000 senior officers and soldiers at the front, during the Chortkov offensive - 70 - 75,000, approx. 50000; in January 1920 their number decreased to 22,000, in April to 18,000 foremen and soldiers.
The number of foremen was insufficient - the proportion of the number of foremen in a UGA soldier was only 2.4% of the total (when in the Polish army it was 5%, at the front - 7%). The marriage of staff and senior foremen in the UGA was made up by the recruitment of foremen - non-Ukrainians from the former Austro-Hungarian army and the appointment of foremen from the UPR Army - former foremen of the Russian army (this reserve was used too little). The naming of new foremen and senior elders and their promotion were the responsibility of the DSWS, and from June 1919 - the dictator.
5. Steps and uniform
The accepted levels in the UGA were: senior gunner, messenger, foreman, senior foreman (in the case of a "volunteer" - sub-sergeant), mace, bunchuzhny - for sub-sergeant; cornet (candidate for senior sergeant), chetar, lieutenant, centurion - for junior sergeants; ataman, lieutenant colonel, colonel - for staff sergeants; general-chetar, general-lieutenant, general-centurion - for general foremen.
Colors of the arms: infantry - blue, artillery - red, cavalry - yellow, gendarmerie - cherry, technical units - gray, communications - green, ambulance - black, convoy - light green.
By order of the State Secretariat on June 30, 1919, the uniform and insignia of degrees were established: a round hat with a hard band in the color of the weapon and a cord above the visor, for sub-sergeants - green, for senior officers - gold. The blues are of the Austrian rifle cut, on the collar there is a notch in the color of the weapon, in the sergeants - framed in gold, in the staff sergeants on a gold lining, in the generals - a silver notch on a gold background. The differences between the degrees are on the sleeves: in the sub-sergeants there are silver ribbons on the weapon-colored lining, in the foremen there are gold narrow and wider weaves. The sub-sergeants, starting from the messenger, wore yellow pendants on their belts with bayonets, the foremen wore gold pendants. During the union with the Bolsheviks in CHUGA, senior officer distinctions were abolished, Ukrainian national distinctions, the flag and anthem were prohibited, and military-political organizations (commissars) and revolutionary tribunals were introduced.
6. UGA Awards
UGA soldiers were awarded both the distinctions of the UPR and the distinctions of the ZUNR. Also, Veterans of the Ukrainian Galician Army established the UGA (Galician Cross) and the combat cross of the USS brigade in the ranks of the Galician Army (Mazepa Cross) to award all their soldiers with the memorable distinction.
7. General characteristics
The UGA was well organized, disciplined and combat-ready. Impeccable discipline was distinguished by a high national consciousness of foremen and soldiers. The weakness of the UGA was the lack of senior officers, in particular the highest rank. The prestige of the CAA foremen was high, since they basically had higher education and significant life experience. The combat effectiveness of the UGA is evidenced by its numerous victories, often over better-armed opponents. Despite big drawback material resources and difficulties, the UGA was the best army among those that emerged from the ruins of Austria-Hungary.
The existence of the UGA has historical meaning: she renewed the Ukrainian military tradition of the Western Ukrainian Lands and was able to spread it among the broad masses. The intensive preservation of these traditions was the main driving force behind the restoration of armed struggle in the ranks of the UPA, the Ukrainian National Army and other Ukrainian armed formations during the Second World War.
8. Military-patriotic education and training
Read more in the article Military-patriotic education and training of UGA soldiersThe basis of the military-patriotic education of the personnel of the Galician army was the formation of national consciousness and state-conciliar ideology as the highest spiritual, moral and ethical values of the Ukrainian warrior. It was based on the achievements of national revival in Galicia in political, economic, cultural and educational institutions and mass youth paramilitary Sokol, Sich and Plast organizations, where future defenders of the UPR-ZUNR were ideologically, morally and physically tempered. There, the moral and combat qualities of the riflemen and foremen of the Galician Army began to take shape: unwavering devotion to the national idea, revolutionary optimism, comradely solidarity, bold youthful enthusiasm, the spirit of self-sacrifice in the struggle for an independent united Ukraine. Raising the national consciousness of personnel was a constant and leading task of the command staff, educational, cultural and educational structures, and the army clergy.