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 www.wuj.pl Jagiellonian University Press Editorial Offices: Michałowskiego 9/2, 31-126 Krakow Phone: +48 12 663 23 80, +48 12 663 23 82, Fax: +48 12 663 23 83 Distribution: Phone: +48 12 631 01 97, Fax: +48 12 631 01 98 Cell Phone: + 48 506 006 674, e-mail: [email protected] Bank: PEKAO SA, IBAN PL 80 1240 4722 1111 0000 4856 3325 For five splendid women: my mother, my wife, and my daughters 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