«...SOONER OR LATER, GALICIA WILL HAVE TO BE SOVIETIZED...»: STRATEGIC PLANS AND INSTRUMENTS OF SOVIET EXPANSIONISM AGAINST THE POLISH STATE IN THE TERRITORY OF EASTERN GALICIA (1919–1923)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyze the strategic plans and tactics for implementing Sovietexpansionism against the Polish state through intelligence, subversive, and propaganda activities in the terri-tory of Eastern Galicia in 1919–1923. In accordance with this objective, the study summarizes the conceptualfoundations of the foreign policy of Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine regarding Eastern Galicia – consid-ered one of the footholds for the future “march on Europe” and “world revolution” – as reflected in modernUkrainian historiography. The article incorporates previously unpublished documents from the quasi-state entity, the Galician Socialist Soviet Republic, preserved in the collections of the State Archives of the Ternopil Region. Particular attention is paid to Soviet propaganda narratives directed against both the Polish state andthe Ukrainian People’s Republic during the period of national liberation struggles in the early 1920s.The study reveals the main directions of subversive activities carried out by both the Communist Party of Eastern Galicia and special sabotage groups and intelligence structures of the USSR operating along the “Zbruch border” and in adjacent territories. The article also presents the response measures taken by the Polish state’s security forces against attempts to destabilize the socio-political situation in EasternGalicia on the eve of and following the formal international legal recognition of its inclusion into Polandon the basis of autonomy in 1923.The methodological foundation of the article includes historical, systemic, and functional principlesof scholarly inquiry, applied through a comprehensive combination of general scientific, interdisciplinary, and specialized historical research methods to address a complex scholarly problem.Scientific novelty: For the first time, based on a synthesis of contemporary Ukrainian historiographyand the use of previously unpublished archival materials, the article reveals the preconditions and evolution of the implementation of the Soviet expansionist foreign policy course against the newly established Polish Republic in the region of Eastern Galicia through the comprehensive use of intelligence, subversive, and pro- paganda means.Main results. While recognizing the significant contributions of modern Ukrainian scholars studying thewestern Ukrainian lands during the national liberation struggles and the establishment of control over Eastern Galicia and Western Volhynia by the reconstituted Polish state, the article emphasizes the lack of a comprehen- sive assessment of the destructive influence of Soviet Russia’s special services and party structures – as well as those of its de facto satellite, the Ukrainian SSR – specifically on the Eastern Galician territories. These wereviewed as an important platform for implementing the expansionist foreign policy of the Bolshevik leadershipafter the end of the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918–1919 and during the “liberation campaign against Poland” in 1920.Undoubtedly, local communist organizations, which later united into the Communist Party of Eastern Galicia (renamed in 1925 as the Communist Party of Western Ukraine), played an important role in thispolicy. However, the main instruments of both aggressive communist propaganda and active intelligence and provocative sabotage were the relevant Soviet special services and their agents. Despite significant financialinvestment and the involvement of a segment of the local population under the direction of Soviet supervi-sors, these efforts failed to achieve the strategic goals set by the Kremlin leadership. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that these actions led to a noticeable disorganization of the region’s socio-political life, in whichthe Second Polish Republic sought to assert its authority through repressive and punitive measures. This in no way allows for the assertion that Soviet intelligence, subversive, and propaganda activities in Eastern Galiciain 1919–1923 were in the interests of the majority Ukrainian population of the newly created Lviv, Stanislaviv,and Ternopil voivodeships of the Polish state.