The heroic struggle of the working people of Western Ukraine for social and national liberation, for reunification with Soviet Ukraine, has long attracted the attention of many historians. 1 However, this topic has not yet been studied in all its aspects, and the documentary materials necessary for its research have not yet been fully introduced into scientific circulation. The purpose of this article is to show the process of struggle of the Galician masses for Soviet power in 1918 - 1923, which is still insufficiently covered in the literature. For many centuries, the working people of the Western Ukrainian lands have waged a courageous struggle for their social and national liberation, for reunification with the entire Ukrainian people. After the first partition of Poland, Galicia became part of the Habsburg Empire, becoming its internal agricultural and raw materials colony. At the beginning of the 20th century, the majority of the population of Galicia (88%) was concentrated in rural areas. For every 100 inhabitants, there were only 9 people employed in industry, compared to 43 in central Austria. Galician workers accounted for only 6.5% of the total number of workers in Austria-Hungary. The Galician proletariat was subjected not only to heavy exploitation, but also to national discrimination: the working day in factories lasted 12-14 hours, wages were 2-3 times less than those of workers in the industrial centers of Austria-Hungary. 2 The working peasantry suffered from high taxes and landlessness. The best land was owned by the landlords and kulaks. A significant part of the peasants of Eastern Galicia (650,000 people) had no land at all3 . This enabled the landlords and kulaks to use semi-feudal methods of exploitation and force the peasants to work for the lowest wages. The Ukrainian population had no right to use their native language in official institutions. Social and national oppression caused a sharp aggravation of class contradictions and served as t ... Читать далее