Praca wychowawcza wśród Ukraińców w Wojsku Polskim w latach 1921–1939

Abstract

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