The impoverished peasants mistook the government introduction of public works aimed at stemming the Great Crisis as an attempt to reintroduce serfdom.
For a few weeks, thousands of people became involved across the Bieszczady region (primarily around the town of Lesko), as Polish police and soldiers put down the unrest.
In the area of Rymanow, the idea was widely accepted, as local Lemkos respected Potocki, and joined the project, whose purpose was to improve infrastructure such as roads, bridges and schools.
In response, Mykola Werebenec, the son of a local Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church parish priest, claimed that Potocki's idea was in fact an attempt to reintroduce serfdom.
The meeting turned into a heated argument and then into a riot in which peasants, armed with sticks and pickaxes, surrounded the officials.
Some other sources claim that the peasants were egged on by members of Communist Party of Western Ukraine, who spread a rumor that serfdom would return.