Information and Criminal Cases of Polish Law Enforcement Agencies against the Ukrainians during the Period of Carpathian Ukraine as a Statistical Source

Abstract

Abstract. The Purpose of the Study. On the basis of materials of the State Archives of Ivano-Frankivsk region and memoirs the author of the article systematized the data on place of birth, age, educational level, profession, marital status, religion, membership in public and party organizations, repression of the Polish criminal justice system against the Ukrainians who made efforts to help Carpathian Ukraine in 1938 – 1939. In addition, the author focuses on the analysis of the time of the Polish-Czechoslovak border illegal crossing by the Ukrainians, the ways of participation of volunteers in the life of Carpathian Ukraine and the number of deaths in the confrontation. The methodology of the study is based on the principles of historicism, systematicity, verification, objectivity, as well as the use of general science (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special historical (historical and genetic, historical and typological, historical and systemic) methods. The scientific novelty consists in the following issue: based on the Polish police reports, the personal data of 634 Ukrainians who tried to help Carpathian Ukraine have been analyzed. This analysis resulted in formation of an average socio-political portrait of a Ukrainian who responded to the call to help the newly created Ukrainian State in Transcarpathia. The Conclusions. As a result of the national educational mission of the Greek Catholic Church, the formation of national consciousness by the public organizations (“Prosvita” Society, Plast, “Ridna Shkola” Society, etc.), and owing to a significant organizational support of the Organization of the Ukrainian Nationalists (every 10th volunteer was a member of the organization), the Ukrainian youth participated in helping Carpathian Ukraine actively. The analyzed data of the Polish police show that all the regions of Poland inhabited by the Ukrainians responded equally to the call to help Carpathian Ukraine, more than 80% of the volunteers were young unmarried people. People with different education diplomas crossed the Polish-Czechoslovak border to participate in the development of the Ukrainian State, but 40% of them had gymnasium diplomas and about 20% studied at universities. In professional aspect, the volunteers reflected the socio-economic life of Galicia and therefore more than 30% of them were agricultural workers. The Ukrainians were the most active in crossing the border illegally and were detained by the Polish border guards and police in November of 1938, and they mostly replenished the ranks of the newly formed Carpathian Sich. The Polish law enforcement system arrested, imprisoned the Ukrainians, and used various forms of extrajudicial punishment