page_title: Ukraine during World War I
section_title: Ukraine after the Russian Revolution of 1917
hierarchical_section_title: Ukraine during World War I / Ukraine after the Russian Revolution of 1917
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Lemko, West-Ukrainien &amp; Hutsul claims in november and december 1918 according with the sources: The maps Austria hungary 1911.jpg and H.E.Stier (dir.), Grosser Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, Westermann 1985, p. 151, ISBN 3-14-100919-8 for the languages; Bernard Michel, La Chute de l'empire austro-hongrois: 1916-1918, R. Laffont and 1991, 322 p., ISBN 2221069323 Paul Robert Magocsi, A History of Ukraine, University of Toronto Press 1996, ISBN 0-8020-0830-5; Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, University of Toronto Press 1988, ISBN 0-8020-5808-6.
context_page_description: Upon the outbreak of World War I, the name Ukraine was used only geographically, as the term did not exist nationally. The territory that made up the modern country of Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire with a notable southwestern region administered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the border between them dating to the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
context_section_description: During World War I the western Ukrainian people were situated between Austria-Hungary and Russia. Ukrainian villages were regularly destroyed in the crossfire. Ukrainians could be found participating on both sides of the conflict. In Galicia, over twenty thousand Ukrainians who were suspected of being sympathetic to Russian interests were arrested and placed in Austrian concentration camps, both in Talerhof, Styria and in Terezín fortress (now in the Czech Republic).
  The brutality did not end with the end of the First World War for Ukrainians. Fighting actually escalated with the beginning of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The revolution began a civil war within the Russian Empire and much of the fighting took place in the Ukrainian provinces. Many atrocities occurred during the civil war as the Red, White, Polish, Ukrainian, and allied armies marched throughout the country.
  There were couple of attempts during this period when the Ukrainians successfully established their own state. One was with the capital in Kiev and the other in Lviv, but neither one of them gained enough support in the international community and they both failed.
  The 1919 Treaty of Versailles secured the Ukrainian land after other European countries. In the west, Galicia and western Volhynia were left to Poland. The Kingdom of Romania stayed the Bukovina province. Czechoslovakia secured former lands of the Austria-Hungary, Uzhhorod and Mukachevo. The remaining central and eastern Ukrainian provinces were left to the brotherly Soviet Union. As a result of World War I and the Russian Civil War, Ukrainians saw as their attempt to attain a statehood crumbled in favor of other countries when 1.5 million had lost their lives while fighting for it.
  With the end of World War I the Ukrainian national movement went underground.
caption: Map of the Lemko, West-Ukrainien & Hutsul claims (1918)
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