| Ukrainian Military Organization | |
|---|---|
| Українська Військова Організація | |
| Leader | Yevhen Konovalets |
| Foundation | 3 August 1920 |
| Dissolved | 1929 |
| Headquarters | Prague |
| Ideology | Ukrainian nationalism Ukrainian irredentism Anti-communism[citation needed] Antisemitism[citation needed] Anti-Russian sentiment Anti-Polish sentiment |
The Ukrainian Military Organization (Ukrainian: Українська Військова Організація [УВО], romanized: Ukrayinska Viyskova Orhanisatsiya [UVO]), was a Ukrainian paramilitary[1] body, engaged in terrorism (especially in Poland) during the interwar period.[2][3][4][5]
It was formed after the occupation of Ukraine by Soviet Russia following the Ukrainian–Soviet War of 1917-1921 and the Peace of Riga of March 1921 that divided the Ukrainian lands between Poland and the Soviet Union. Initially headed by Yevhen Konovalets, the organization promoted the idea of armed struggle for the independence of Ukraine. The headquarters of the organization was located in Lwów (today Lviv) in the Second Polish Republic.
- ^ Shkandrij, Myroslav (2015). Ukrainian Nationalism Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929–1956. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-300-20628-9.
- ^ Shekhovtsov, Anton (2011). "The Creeping Resurgence of the Ukrainian Radical Right? The Case of the Freedom Party". Europe-Asia Studies. 63 (2): 207–208. doi:10.1080/09668136.2011.547696. S2CID 155079439.
Although originally the UVO was seen as both a military and a political organization, its military actions were mostly terrorist, while its political activities failed altogether.
- ^ Alexander J., Motyl (Spring 1985). "Ukrainian Nationalist Political Violence in Inter-War Poland, 1921-1939". East European Quarterly. 19 (1): 47, 52–53.
The UVO and the OUN did not consider violence and terrorism as ends in themselves. Rather they saw them as means of activating Ukrainian masses...of leading them to the revolution that would remove foreign rule and usher in a Ukrainian state.
- ^ Kuromiya, Hiroaki (2003). Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s-1990s. Cambridge University Press. p. 175. ISBN 9780521526081.
- ^ Lerski, George J. (1996). Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 624. ISBN 978-0313260070.