Taras Hryhorowycz Shevchenko (Ukrainian: Тарас Григорович Шевченко, 1814-1861)[...] Over 200 years ago, on February 25 or March 9, 1814, in Morynka, Kyiv Governorate, Taras was born into the family of a serf named Shevchenko. The village of Morynka belonged to the Russified German Vasily Engelhardt. When Taras was 9, his mother died, and when he turned 11, his father also died.

This is an excerpt from the biography of Taras Shevchenko, author of the poem "Haidamakay" published in 1841. The writer's official biography contains a sentence that is far from the truth.
[...] When, at the age of 13, he returned to Kirylovka, he became a shepherd and heard songs from wandering kobzars and bandurists about Ukraine's past, about battles with Tatars and Poles, about Khmelnytsky, Gont, and Zheleznyak.

While Khmelnytsky, Gonta, and Zheleznyak are historical figures, the claim that Taras Shevchenko heard songs about Ukraine's past is a lie. In Taras's time, no Ukraine existed, and it emerged as a state only in 1991. The name "Ukrainian" began to be used in the late 1890s, and during Taras Shevchenko's time, the ancestors of modern Ukrainians, such as the Zaporozhian Cossacks, Ruthenians, and haidamaks, lived.

The book Haidamakas, edited by Lucyna KulińskaUkrainians promote Taras Shevchenko as a Ukrainian national poet, ethnographer, folklorist, painter, political activist, and even a national hero of Ukraine. His most famous and, for Poles, controversial work is the poem "Haidamaky," published in 1841. In "Haidamaky," Shevchenko describes the murders committed by the Haidamaks against Poles and Jews. The writer depicts unimaginable cruelty and hatred towards these nations, praising the Uman Massacre and the Koliyivshchyna massacre.
Well, apparently, the definition of the word "hero" has a completely different meaning in modern times, especially from the perspective of Ukrainians.

Haidamacs - Museum of King Jan III's Palace at WilanówThere is no doubt that the haidamaks were the ancestors of Ukrainians and represented a typical culture derived from the Turanian civilization. The word "haidamak" comes from the Turkish language and means to rob, plunder, or pursue. Therefore, the term "haidamak" itself clearly indicates the profession of the people referred to by this term.

We read about the haidamaks:
[...] The haidamaks originated from runaway Ukrainian peasants, impoverished townspeople, and Zaporozhian Cossacks, and they shared a common profession – robbery and assault. They participated in armed robbery raids on the territory of Right-Bank Ukraine, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century.

Historian Karol Mazur identified the characteristics that distinguished the haidamaks from ordinary bandits.
1. The haidamaks embodied the social protest of Ukrainian peasants against the exploitation of their landlords.

2. The haidamaks described their actions as a feudal and national struggle.

Please note that the characteristics attributed to the haidamaks are very reminiscent of Ukrainian nationalists from the OUN and bandits from the UPA during the interwar period. Like their haidamak ancestors, Ukrainians blamed the Polish authorities for exploitation and mistreatment, justifying their criminal actions with a pseudo-patriotic fight against alleged oppressors.

[...] An oppressor is someone who oppresses, that is, oppresses, oppresses, or enslaves others.

Did the Polish authorities of the Second Polish Republic oppress Ukrainians within the Polish state? On the contrary, Ukrainians enjoyed many privileges and even had their own political party, the UNDO. Moreover, during the rule of Józef Piłsudski and his closest associates, known as the group of "colonels," Ukrainians were trained and armed in the Polish army, numbering between 75,000 and 100,000 within the Second Polish Republic. Moreover, in the interwar period, Ukraine did not exist as a state and was established only in 1991. Ukrainians living in the Eastern Borderlands were simply a fairly large national minority living in the territory of the Second Polish Republic.

Haidamaka "kosh" (camp) of Sloboda Ukraine commanded by Ataman Symon Petliura, January 1918, KyivDuring the Galician era, Ukrainian gangs were called "oprichok," which has a Polish equivalent: "oprichszek, oprichkowie." The haidamaks were unorganized groups led by an ataman.

These groups:
[...] attacked towns, manors, monasteries, and the estates of tenants and wealthy peasants for plundering purposes, in many cases murdering Polish nobility, Roman Catholic and Uniate priests, Jewish innkeepers, and moneylenders.

The Ukrainian peasantry's attitude toward the haidamaks was the same as that of the Ukrainian peasants of the interwar period toward the nationalists of the OUN or the bandits of the UPA.
[...] The haidamaks had generally good relations with the peasants, and the fact that they did not attack them increased their popularity. This meant that the peasants often cooperated with them, providing them with shelter and information.

Eastern Lesser Poland and VolhyniaA similar situation occurred in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland, where the OUN and UPA had the full support of the majority of Ukrainian peasants, who not only committed genocidal murders with the bandits but also reaped material benefits by seizing the property, farms, and land of their victims.
[...] Ukrainian peasants often provided shelter and information to UPA bandits while they were pursued by the Polish military. For this reason, on April 20, 1947, the "Vistula" Operational Group was established, tasked with eliminating UPA units operating in southeastern Poland and deporting the Ukrainian and Lemko populations living in these areas.

Regarding the haidamaks' attack methods, we read:
[...] The attack tactics were based on methods of steppe banditry developed over centuries. In a safe location, the Cossacks would establish a so-called "kosh" (camp), from which they would release groups for plunder; After completing the looting, they usually retreated in dispersal, taking advantage of their excellent knowledge of the terrain, which allowed them to avoid potential open-field fighting.

There were many organized haidamak uprisings, but the largest and bloodiest rebellion was the Koliyivshchyna rebellion in 1768, led by Zheleznyak and Gonta. During the Koliyivshchyna uprising, between 100,000 and 200,000 Poles, Jews, and priests were killed.

Josyf Sembratowycz (1821-1900), Greek Catholic bishop, Metropolitan of GaliciaSylvester Sembratovych (Ukrainian: Сильвестр Сембратович, 1836-1898), Greek Catholic priest, Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv

It turns out that the haidamaks gained popularity among Ukrainians not only thanks to Taras Shevchenko's poem.

[...] From 1902 to 1907, the national-democratic weekly "Haidamaky" was published in Lviv, edited by Mykhailo Petrytskyi and Sembratovych. A weekly of the far left, edited by Ukrainian immigrants in the USA, published under the same title in New York from 1909 to 1916, under the leadership of I. Borodajkiewicz.

Ustim Karmeluk (1787-1835)The last haidamak is considered to be Ustima Karmeluk, a peasant leader who lived from 1787 to 1835. After escaping the tsarist army, he organized armed groups in Podolia based on the haidamak model.

The haidamaks and their Ukrainian descendants perfectly identify with the characteristics of the peoples of the Turanian civilization described by Feliks Koneczny:
[...] The peoples of this civilization are regiments of warriors whose raison d'être is war and conquest.
[...] The basis of the social order of such a civilization is an aggressive struggle for existence. This results in a military organization of society, with the guiding principle of unconditional obedience to a single ruler and his delegates – this encompasses all aspects of life.

Almost a hundred years after the death of the last haidamak, the Polish-Ukrainian War, officially known as the armed conflict over the national identity of Eastern Galicia in 1918–1919, broke out. Military operations took place in the area from Przemyśl, through Lviv and Stanisławów, to the Zbruch River. The most famous episode of this war was the defense of Lviv.

Andrzej Szeptycki (Ukrainian: Андрей Шептицький, 1865-1944), Greek Catholic priestBefore World War I, the Habsburgs supported Ukrainian national aspirations in eastern Galicia, and the Austro-Hungarian authorities supported the emerging Ukrainian nationalism and chauvinism.
[...] At the end of World War I, as Austria-Hungary was collapsing, the Austrian military authorities in Lviv supported the efforts of Ukrainian groups to seize power in the city. News of this reached Polish circles. However, only a few recognized the danger.

Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky was directly involved in inciting Ukrainians against Poles. The Ukrainians began their war against the Poles with an attack on Lviv, shortly after the proclamation of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic on November 1, 1918, by the Ukrainian population of Eastern Galicia.

[...] Ukrainians attacked the Polish society of Lviv and the local Lviv Committee for the Protection of Public Good and Order, and from November 22 (1918) the reborn Polish state.

Members of the Volunteer Legion of Women (OLK), a Polish volunteer military organization established in Lviv in 1918[...] Lviv, part of Poland since the 14th century, was a city inhabited mostly by Poles. According to data from 1910, Lviv had a population of 206,000, of which over 105,000 were Poles, 57,000 Jews, and 39,000 Ukrainians.

Supreme Command of the Polish Army, November 22, 1918Lviv lacked regular Polish Army units, so its young residents became involved in the city's defense. Due to their young age, they were nicknamed the Lviv Eaglets.

[...] The Lviv Eaglets fought voluntarily not only in November 1918 against Ukrainian troops, but also on the outskirts of the city against the Red Army during the Polish-Soviet War in the summer of 1920.

The legend of the Lviv Eaglets was also fueled by the efforts of Girl and Boy Scouts, both from Lviv and from across the country, who participated en masse in the defense of Lviv and Eastern Galicia.

Lviv Eaglets – defense of the cemetery, Wojciech Kossak 1926Who were the Lviv Eaglets?
[...] The volunteer units included students, workers, officials, pupils, boys, and girls. In the fighting in Lviv up to and including November 22, 1918, 6,022 people participated in armed combat or in auxiliary services, including 1,374 primary and secondary school students and university students. 2,640 were under 25 years of age, and the youngest, Jaś Kukawski, was 9 years old.

The Lviv Eaglets' opponents were the Ukrainian Galician Army, well-equipped by the Germans (from Austria-Hungary).

Antoni Petrykiewicz (1904-1919)Janek Łączkowski (1902-1919), Gallery of the Lviv Eaglets at the Primary School No. 7 named after the Lviv Eaglets in Łódź

During the battle for Lviv in 1918:
[...] 439 soldiers and members of the military medical service were killed or wounded, including 12 women.

120 of the fallen were schoolchildren, and 76 were university students. One of them, 13-year-old Antoni Petrykiewicz, became the youngest ever recipient of the Virtuti Militari Order. Twenty-nine of the fallen were members of the city's relief forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski. According to incomplete data, over 70 members of various scout troops, from towns as far away from Lviv as Wieluń (where 16-year-old Janek Łączkowski was from), perished during the siege of Lviv.

Andrzej Maria Hieronim Battaglia de Sopramonte e Ponte Alto, nicknamed "Battle" (1895-1918)The first Pole to die in the defense of Lviv was 23-year-old Andrzej Battaglia. On November 22, 1918, the city was largely captured by its Polish inhabitants. The defense of Lviv, besieged by Ukrainian forces and deprived of water and electricity supplies, lasted until mid-1919. Then, regular Polish troops arrived to relieve the city and broke the siege.

During the fighting for Lviv:
[...] regular units of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen were effectively stopped by ad hoc units of Polish youth, known as the Lviv Eaglets.

Cemetery of the Lviv Eaglets in LvivThis is what the defense of Lviv against the Red Army looked like in August 1920.
[...] The defense of Lviv during the Polish-Soviet War took place when the 1st Cavalry Army under the command of Semyon Budyonny advanced on Lviv. At that time, the people of Lviv also stood up to defend their city. The Battle of Zadwórze on the outskirts of Lviv, in which 318 of the 330 volunteer Lviv Eaglets were killed on August 17, 1920, halted the Bolshevik advance on Lviv. On August 20, Budyonny, abandoning the siege of Lviv, was encircled and defeated in the Battle of Komarów. The 11-hour bloody battle between a handful of defenders and the strong units of Budyonny's 6th Cavalry Division was called the Polish Thermopylae and contributed to the victory of the Polish Army in the Battle of Warsaw.

Monument to the Lviv Eaglets in CzęstochowaThe Lviv Eaglets have not been forgotten. Many Polish schools adopted their name, and numerous monuments and commemorative plaques were erected. For example:
[...] On November 22, 1925, the Lviv Eaglets Monument, designed by Wincenty Rawski, was unveiled in front of the Main Building of the Lviv Polytechnic.

In recognition of the heroic stance and contributions of Lviv's residents to Poland:
[...] the city was – as the only one in Poland – decorated by Chief of State Józef Piłsudski with the Virtuti Militari Cross. The award ceremony took place on November 11, 1920, in front of Mickiewicz's Column.

My dear friends, the historical facts presented, such as the Khmelnytsky Uprising, the Uman massacre, Koliyivshchyna, and the defense of Lviv, clearly demonstrate the centuries-long Nazism, chauvinism, and hatred of Ukrainians towards Poles. They also point to the enormity of the lies presented in supposedly public media and the statements of corrupt politicians or agents employed by the Ukrainian secret services. It should be emphasized, however, that there was and still is a segment of Ukrainian society that distances itself from the "sick" Ukrainian anti-Polish ideology, particularly in Eastern Ukraine, where the population identifies more with the Russian Federation than with Ukraine.

This concludes episode 23, in which I spoke about the haidamaks, the ancestors of modern Ukrainians, and presented the extraordinary heroism and courage of the young generation defending their city of Lviv from Ukrainian invaders. I cordially invite you to the next episode, episode 24, titled "The Unexpected Ally."

Photo source: Wikipedia