Crimes against Poles during the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918-1919. Prelude of the Volyn massacre

The main idea of the article is the fact that Ukrainian national movement committed in the 20th century not one but two crimes of the genocide against Polish people living in the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic. Numerous bystanders' reports as well as the definition of the term “genocide” in the international law fairly justify the thesis that in 1918-1919 during the raise of the armed Ukrainian irredentism in Eastern Lesser Poland, there happened the first Ukrainian ethnic cleansing in the 20th century against the Poles. The victims were killed due to their Polish nationality what was confirmed by the fact that among murdered civilians there were women, children as well as catholic clergy – therefore, the people who were not engaged into fights with the so-called West Ukrainian People's Republic. The article is also aimed at refuting the thesis that the Volyn Massacre was the effect of Second Polish Republic's policy towards the Ukrainian national minority. Both crimes of genocide have the same source – the ideology of the Ukrainian nationalism whose leaders planned to remove or to kill Polish people living on the territories claimed by Ukrainian national movement.