Ukraine during World War I

One of the underlying themes of Ukrainian history of the early 20th century has been the quest for an independent nation.cite book|title=The Role of the Ukraine in Modern History|author=Rudnystsky, Ivan L.|publisher=Slavic Review|year=1963|id=|pages=199-216] Many attempts were made in the early 20th century, but both World War I and the Russian Civil War disrupted such attempts.

When the First World War began in 1914, Ukrainians were split into two separate and opposing armies. 3.5 million fought with the Imperial Russian Army, while 250,000 fought for the Austro-Hungarian Army.cite book|title=Ukraine: A History|author=Subtelny, Orest|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2000|id=ISBN 0-8020-8390-0|pages=340-344] Many Ukrainians thus ended up fighting each other. Also, many Ukrainian civilians suffered as armies shot and killed them after accusing them of collaborating with opposing armies (see Ukrainian Austrian internment).cite book|title=Borderland: A Journey Through The History of Ukraine|author=Reid, Anna|publisher=Westview Press|location=Colorado|year=1999|id=ISBN 0-8133-3792-5|pages=]

Ukraine after the Russian Revolution of 1917

During World War I the western Ukrainian people were situated between Austria-Hungary and Russia. Ukrainian villages were regularly destroyed in the crossfire. Ukrainians could be found participating on both sides of the conflict. In Galicia, over twenty thousand Ukrainians who were suspected of being sympathetic to Russian interests were arrested and placed in Austrian concentration camps, both in Talerhof, Styria and in Terezín fortress (now in the Czech Republic).

The brutality did not end with the end of the First World War for Ukrainians. Fighting actually escalated with the beginning of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The revolution began a civil war within the Russian Empire and much of the fighting took place in the Ukrainian provinces. Many atrocities occurred during the civil war as the Red, White, Polish, Ukrainian, and allied armies marched throughout the country. The Jewish suffered the most as Cossack gangs raped, looted, and massacred many Jewish communities. Other villages experienced raping, looting, and killing but not to the same scale as the Jewish communities. There were two attempts during this period where the Ukrainians tried to become their own state. One was at the city of Kiev and the other in Lviv but neither gained enough traction to work and they both failed.

The 1919 Treaty of Versailles gave away Ukrainian land to other European countries. In the west, Galicia and western Volhynia were given to Poland. The Kingdom of Romania received the Bukovina province. Czechoslovakia gained Uzhhorod and Mukachevo. The remaining central and eastern Ukrainian provinces were given to the Soviet Union. As a result of World War I and the Russian Civil War, Ukrainians saw all of their land given to other countries and 1.5 million had lost their lives.

With the collapse of the Russian and Austrian empires following World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917, Ukrainian national movement for self-determination emerged again. During 1917–20 several separate Ukrainian states briefly emerged: the Central Rada, the Hetmanate, the Directorate, the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic. However, with the defeat of the latter in the Polish-Ukrainian War and the failure of the Polish Kiev Offensive (1920) of the Polish-Soviet War, the Peace of Riga concluded in March 1921 between Poland and Bolsheviks left Ukraine divided again. The western part of Galicia had been incorporated into the newly organized Second Polish Republic, incorporating territory claimed or controlled by the ephemeral Komancza Republic and the Lemko-Rusyn Republic. The larger, central and eastern part, established as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in March 1919, later became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, when it was formed in December 1922.

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