Between Prometheism and Realpolitik: Poland and Soviet Ukraine, 1921-1926

431 Pages·2018·2.03 MB·English

by  Jan Jacek Bruski

BETWEEN PROMETHEISM
AND REALPOLITIK
Jan Jacek Bruski
BETWEEN PROMETHEISM
AND REALPOLITIK
POLAND AND SOVIET UKRAINE, 1921–1926
Translated by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa
Vol. 9
Jagiellonian University Press
Jan Jacek Bruski
BETWEEN PROMETHEISM
AND REALPOLITIK
POLAND AND SOVIET UKRAINE, 1921–1926
Translated by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa
Vol. 9
Jagiellonian University Press
SERIES COVER DESIGN
Jan Jacek Bruski
COVER DESIGN
Agnieszka Winciorek
Front cover: An encounter by men of the Border Defence Corps with a Soviet patrol
at the Polish-Soviet border. Undated (the 1920s); Courtesy of the National Digital Archives
(Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe), Warsaw.
ASSIStANt EDItOR
teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa
Academic project funded by the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic
of Poland within the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities (2014–2016)
© Copyright by Jan Jacek Bruski & Jagiellonian University Press
First Edition, Kraków 2016
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any eletro-
nic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
doi:10.4467/K9584.35/e/16.16.5659
ISBN 978-83-233-9584-3 (e-book)
ISSN 2299-758X

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Contents
List of abbreviations ........................................................................... 9
Introduction ........................................................................................ 13
Acknowledgements ............................................................................. 27
Chapter One. Antecedents ................................................................. 29
In the fire and fury of revolution: Ukraine between
Piłsudski’s Poland and Bolshevik Russia ........................................... 29
The Riga interlude ..................................................................................... 36
Chapter Two. The context ................................................................... 47
In the Second Polish Republic: Ukrainians as a minority .................... 47
Soviet Ukraine: its status and structures of dependency on Moscow ... 59
A lasting peace, or just a ceasefire? The main phases
in Polish-Soviet relations .................................................................... 65
Chapter Three. Warsaw’s eyes and ears: The Polish diplomatic
and intelligence services in Soviet Ukraine ................................ 79
Diplomatic and consular outposts .......................................................... 79
Polish intelligence operations in Ukraine .............................................. 97
Chapter Four. Prometheism or …? In search of a key to Ukraine .... 119
The last Polish attempts to play the UNR card ...................................... 119
In the period of the Genoa Conference: Dreams of Polish
economic expansion ............................................................................ 129
Poland and the emancipation of “Rakovskii’s Ukraine” ....................... 142
7
On behalf of “Polish assets” in Ukraine .................................................. 152
Poland and the Ukrainian korenizatsiia ................................................. 165
Promethean “secret front” ........................................................................ 183
Chapter Five. Prometheism in reverse: Ukrainian irredentism
and Polish-Soviet relations .......................................................... 189
Before March 1923: The first trial of strength ........................................ 189
turning “a Ukrainian Piedmont into a Ukrainian irredenta:”
Developments following the Conference of Ambassadors’
decision of 15th March 1923 ............................................................... 205
Petrushevych and others: The Bolsheviks and the Galician
émigrés ................................................................................................... 209
Operation tiutiun ..................................................................................... 219
In defence of the minorities: The Soviet Union’s 1924 diplomatic
offensive ................................................................................................ 227
The rise and fall of “active intelligence” .................................................. 237
Building bridgeheads: Soviet Ukraine and the Western Ukrainian
political scene ....................................................................................... 253
Chapter Six. A reshuffle. The coup of May 1926, and a new
momentum to Poland’s “Ukrainian policy” ............................... 267
The long shadow of Piłsudski: Soviet reactions to the coup d’état
of May 1926 .......................................................................................... 267
In search of an effective defence strategy: New assumptions
for Poland’s Eastern policy ................................................................. 275
The Piłsudskiites and a return to the Ukrainian question ................... 279
The UNR centre and the revitalisation of its activities prior
to Piłsudski’s coup ................................................................................ 283
Echoes of the gunshots on Rue Racine: The death of Petliura
and its consequences ........................................................................... 286
Conclusion .......................................................................................... 295
Notes .................................................................................................... 301
Bibliography ........................................................................................ 393
Name Index ........................................................................................ 419
List of abbreviations
Archival abbreviations
AAN Archiwum Akt Nowych w Warszawie (Central Archives of Modern Re-
cords, Warsaw)
AIut Arkhiv Iurka tiutiunnyka (kopiia fondu z Derzhavnoho haluzevoho arkhi-
vu Sluzby zovnishn’oї rozvidky Ukraїny) (The tiutiunnyk Archive [copies,
originally at the State Branch Archive of the Foreign Intelligence Service of
Ukraine])
AJA Archiwum Jewhena Archypenki (Papers of Ievhen Arkhypenko)
AL Ambasada RP w Londynie (Polish Embassy in London)
AM Ambasada RP w Moskwie (Polish Embassy in Moscow)
AM-AQ Ambasada RP w Moskwie, Akta Quayle’a (Polish Embassy in Moscow, the
Quayle Records)
AMW Attaché Wojskowy przy Ambasadzie RP w Moskwie (Military Attaché at
the Polish Embassy in Moscow)
AP Ambasada RP w Paryżu (Polish Embassy in Paris)
APAN Archiwum Polskiej Akademii Nauk w Warszawie (Archive of the Polish
Academy of Sciences, Warsaw)
ARK Akta Romana Knolla (Papers of Roman Knoll)
ark. arkush (page)
AUKU Arkhiv Ukraїns’koho katolyts’koho universytetu u  Rymi (Ukrainian
Catho lic University Archives, Rome)
AUZUNR Arkhiv Uriadu ZUNR (Papers of the ZUNR Government)
AWM Attaché Wojskowy przy Ambasadzie RP w Moskwie (Military Attaché at
the Polish Embassy in Moscow)
BN Biblioteka Narodowa w Warszawie, Oddział Mikroform (Microforms De-
partment at the National Library, Warsaw)
BN PAU i PAN Biblioteka Naukowa Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności i Polskiej Akademii
Nauk w Krakowie (Library of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and
the Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków)
9
BUW Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Dział Rękopisów (Manuscript
Department at the University of Warsaw Library)
d. delo (folder)
DBFP Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939
DHASBU Derzhavnyi haluzevyi arkhiv Sluzhby bezpeky Ukraïny, m. Kyїv (State
Branch Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine, Kyiv)
DiM Polska Akademia Nauk and Akademia Nauk ZSRR. Dokumenty i materiały
do historii stosunków polsko-radzieckich. Vol. 3–5. Warsaw: Książka
i Wiedza, 1964–1966.
DK Diariusz Michała Stanisława Kossakowskiego (Diary of Michał Stanisław
Kossakowski)
DVP Soviet Union. Ministerstvo inostrannykh del SSSR. Dokumenty vneshnei
politiki SSSR. 3–8. Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo politicheskoi lit-
eratury, 1959–1963.
f. fond (collection)
IuT Verstiuk,Vladyslav F., Vitalii V. Skal’s’kyi, and Iaroslav M. Faizulin, eds.
Iurii Tiutiunnyk: vid “Dviiky” do GPU: Dokumenty i materialy. Kyiv: Dukh
i Litera, 2011.
k. karta (page)
KGCh Konsulat Generalny RP w  Charkowie (Polish Consulate General in
Kharkiv)
KWKA Kolekcja Wojskowej Komisji Archiwalnej (Military Archival Commission’s
Collection)
l. list (page)
MAO Mikrofilmy z akt obcych (Microfilms from foreign archives)
mf. mikrofilm (microfilm)
MSZ Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
NA Národní archiv v Praze (National Archive, Prague)
O II SG Oddział II Sztabu Generalnego/Głównego (Second Department of the
General/Main Staff)
ONG-KOP Jabłonowski, Marek, Włodzimierz Janowski, Bogusław Polak, and Jerzy
Prochwicz, eds. O niepodległą i granice. 4: Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza
1924–1939: Wybór dokumentów. Warsaw and Pułtusk: Wyższa Szkoła Hu-
manistyczna im. A. Gieysztora, 2001.
ONG-KPRM Jabłonowski, Marek, and Włodzimierz Janowski, eds. O niepodległą i grani-
ce. 5: Protokoły Komitetu Politycznego Rady Ministrów, 1921–1926. Warsaw
and Pułtusk: Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczna im. A. Gieysztora, 2004.
op. Ukr. opys, Rus. opis’ (inventory)
PCh Poselstwo RP w Charkowie (Polish Legation in Kharkiv)
PRM Prezydium Rady Ministrów (Presidium of the Council of Ministers)
PSS Papiery Stanisława Stempowskiego (Papers of Stanisław Stempowski)
RGVA Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv, g. Moskva (Russian State Mili-
tary Archive, Moscow)
10