THE WESTERN UKRAINIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS: CREATIONS, STATUTORY TASKS, THE FIRST STEPS IN THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

Abstract

Geopolitical changes in international relations after the First World War, new accents in the foreign policy of the leading European countries, increasing the relevance of the "Ukrainian issue" were the main factors that stimulated the interest of Galicia's public figures in international policy. The Western Ukrainian Society of the League of Nations (ZUTLN), pursuing the idea of reviving Ukrainian statehood, tried to influence the solution of the "Ukrainian issue" in the format of the Union of Societies of the League of Nations (STLN). The author considers the program principles of activity, the status of ZUTLN in STLN, the impact of international factors on the evolution of its activities, shows the relationship of ZUTLN with the ZUNR (Western Ukrainian People's Republic) government-in-exile, Ukrainian parties, organizations, institutions. The attitude of ZUTLN to the policy of the Polish authorities on the "Ukrainian issue" is also illustrated. The formation of the society is associated with the Ukrainian political emigration, and its ideological platform was based on the idea of non-acceptance of the Versailles system of treaties (on the dividing of Ukrainian lands between the USSR, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia), the Treaty of Riga 1921 between Poland, the Russian SFSR, and the USSR, as well as the decision of the Council of Ambassadors of the Entente States of March 15, 1923. To implement the statutory tasks, ZUTLN kept close contacts and cooperated with the ZUNR government-in-exile, political parties of Western Ukraine, as well as with the UPR (Ukrainian Parliamentary Representation) and other public and political organizations. Keywords: ZUTLN, STLN, Poland, the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, statut, Galicia, League of Nations.