Historical calendar – the anniversary of the beginning of the Polish-Ukrainian war, whose main axis was the mastery of Lviv.
Today, in our calendar we will look at the circumstances accompanying Poles' capture of arms in Lviv in 1918.
On 31 October 1918 Ukrainian politicians, Petrushevevich and Lewicki (both elected in 1911 to the Austrian Parliament), paid a visit to Hr. Huyn, Austrian politician of Galicia, in Lviv. They gave him (most likely a falsified) letter from Emperor Charles containing an order to hand over all civilian and military power in east Galicia to the alleged Ukrainian National Committee.
On the night of 31 October, on 1 November, the Austrian-German commandant of Lviv, General Pfeffer, handed the command over the Austrian regiments in the city and throughout east Galicia, including barracks, military magazines, the Lviv citadel and all military facilities to the Ukrainian committee. The Austrian regiments so far have been turned into Western Ukrainian army. In total, the army counted 50,000 soldiers in linear troops and 50,000 in detachments. Over 10,000 of these troops were in Lviv.
Thus, on the morning of 1 November, Polish Lviv woke up under the authority of a recently formed Ukrainian-German state and Ukrainian-German army.
Poles did not want to accept this state of affairs and immediately evaporated the Austrian-Ukrainian attack against Polish injury. On the same day, the Polish uprising broke out. The insurgent committee owned 64 rifles, but with this weapon he could, disarming Austrian-Ukrainian soldiers and gaining military magazines, rapidly increase his equipment. As early as noon on November 2, he had over 600 armed men.
The improvised Polish insurgent army was capable of releasing much of the city and, having fortified itself in it, could last the 20-day Austrian-Ukrainian siege immediately after that. On November 20, almost 3 weeks after the beginning of the Polish uprising, the besieged insurgent garrison in Lviv counted 2,396 people in linear troops and 5596 in auxiliary units (including wounded in hospitals). There were 288 women among them.
Poles had 4744 guns, 288 guns, 24 device guns, 5 field guns, 2 infantry guns and 4 grenade launchers. All of this was captured on the enemy.
Throughout the fight, they were very fierce, which is the best evidence of the fact that – not counting the first days erstwhile the losses in people were not recorded – the losses of Polish defenders of Lviv were until 20 November: 210 killed, 762 badly wounded. During these nearly 3 weeks, the besieged Lvov garrison consisted exclusively of volunteers, many of whom were boys, sometimes thirteen or fourteen years old, as most of the adult lions mobilized to the Austrian army were on the Italian front.
The Polish provincial government in Krakow, which took power 2 days before the uprising in Lviv, and which, being completely independent and at the same time in the first days very isolated and weak, nevertheless came to the aid of the besieged Lviv, sending a tiny reinforcement ward.
This branch, having penetrated the Austrian-Ukrainian lines, reached the besieged Lviv on the night of 20 to 21 November and provided constant communication between him and Krakow. This was the beginning of a regular war between the reborn Poland and the recently created Ukrainian state.
Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.
