Volhynia Experiment

Unlike Galicia, which had been part of Habsburg Austria from 1772 to 1918, was predominantly Greek Catholic, relatively urbanised and had an active Ukrainian nationalist movement, Volhynia had been part of the Russian Empire, almost 90% of the population worked the land (or owned it) and was majority Orthodox, while the remainder were mostly Jews living in towns, with Rivne, the largest at 42,000 inhabitants, having a Jewish majority.

[3] Although there were no tensions between Poles and Ukrainians in Volhynia comparable to those in Galicia, Volhynian peasants did have a long history of violently asserting claims to land in order to support themselves as farmers.

[4] It did not become an issue of clashing national identities until the early 1920s, when the new government of the Polish Republic, run by Polish agrarian politicians and National Democrats, began treating Volhynia as land to be colonised and assimilated by Poles from Central Poland, causing resistance by Ukrainian peasants.

Though many of its supporters, former officers of Symon Petliura, had committed anti-Jewish pogroms in Volhynia during the Revolution, under Józewski's influence antisemitism was not tolerated.

The Communists referred to the Volhynian Experiment as a "Petliurite Occupation", and set up a front party, the Peasant Worker Alliance.

According to Józewski's rivals in the Polish military, the pro-Polish Petliurite Ukrainians in Volhynia failed to match the OUN in terms of organization and numbers.

[13] The Polish army took over the state and, working together with the right-wing National Democrats, began undoing Józewski's reforms in favour of anti-Ukrainian and anti-Orthodox Polonisation.

"[15] The Polish army Generals believed that filling all state offices in Volhynia with ethnic Poles would ensure fast mobilization and prevent sabotage in case of a Soviet attack on Poland.