Social and Political Life of the Ukrainian Population in the Lublin Voivodeship in the Interwar Period: Between Assimilation and Emancipation

In the interwar period, the Lublin Voivodeship was located in the centre of Poland, while its eastern part functioned as a Polish-Ukrainian borderland. The mere sense of belonging to an ethnic, religious, cultural, or linguistic community was not sufficient to stabilise the division between the two national groups. The social and political life of the Ukrainian population gained momentum during this period, but at the same time, it faced steady opposition from the state authorities. In their demands, Ukrainians focused primarily on economic issues and on the defence of the Orthodox Church, and only subsequently on maintaining ethnic and cultural distinctiveness. Such a hierarchy of priorities stemmed from the weakness of Ukrainian political life.