THE VATICAN AND UKRAINE AT THE TIME SHAPING THE VERSAILLES SYSTEM IN 1918-1921

• Authors: Mróz M.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The conception of rebuilding Poland within pre-partition borders - which the Vatican took into consideration at the time of creation of the Versailles system - could initially testify to a disregard for the problem of Ukrainian statehood. As a result of the incessantly changing political -military situation in Ukraine in 1917-1919, the Vatican maintained a certain distance towards Ukrainian endeavours to create a state, and at the time of the Polish-Ukrainian war waged at the turn of 1918 limited itself to protecting the interests of the Uniate Church and the war victims in Eastern Galicia. In the contacts between the Vatican and Ukraine the latter proved to be more active, since it was concerned with winning the backing of the authority of the Apostolic See for her pro-independence strivings. Tyskevych, the Directorate's diplomatic representative at the See, nominated in 1919, was indubitably capable of stirring considerable interest in Ukrainian issues and won the Curia's endorsement for Ukrainian pro-independence postulates. On the other hand, de iure recognition by the Apostolic See remained, from the viewpoint of international law, unresolved. The successor of Tyshkevych - the Redemptorist Bonne - concentrated his efforts on the Galician problem. Despite multiple controversies, the appointment of an Apostolic inspector, for quite some time raised by the Ukrainian side, ended successfully. In the conducive climate of the Polish-Ukrainian alliance of 1920 the Vatican counted on the mission conducted by Genocchi, to which the Directorate also attached great importance. However these expectations were crushed by the resolutions of the treaty of Riga and the fact that Poland had abandoned her Ukrainian ally.The prime obstacle for the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the Apostolic See and the Ukrainian People's Republic proved to be political reality, which simply did not foresee a place for an independent Ukraine.

Keywords

EN

DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS; UKRAINE; VATICAN

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Dzieje Najnowsze
• Year: 2004
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 3-19
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Mróz M.

• M. Mróz, Akademia Polonijna, ul. Pulaskiego 4/6, 42-299 Czestochowa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

04PLAAAA0025554