Pokuttia had been a part of the
Kievan Rus' and one of its successor states,
Halych-Volhynia during the early medieval period.
Casimir III the Great moved to incorporate the region into the
Kingdom of Poland after the death of
Yuri II Boleslav, the last
King of Ruthenia, in 1340, claiming dynastic rights.
Władysław II Jagiełło, needing financial support for his battles against the
Teutonic Knights, used the region as a guarantee for a loan which he obtained from
Petru II of Moldavia, who was able to obtain economic rights over the region in 1388. Petru was eager to gain influence in the internal politics of the Kingdom of Poland, supporting the cause of his long-time allies, the
Jagiellons of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Moldavia was thus able to exert a degree of influence on the region, however it remained within the territorial limits of the
Kingdom of Poland. Eventually, the region became a matter for judicial and military dispute between the two states, because the debt was never repaid in full by Poland. In 1485, Moldavian
prince Stephen the Great, having lost his country's access to the
Black Sea the previous year to the
Ottomans, was in serious need of alliances. He swore allegiance to
Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland in exchange for being allowed to occupy Pokuttia, in what is known as the
Colomeea oath. Despite the region being under
de facto Moldavian control, Poland still claimed sovereignty over it. From 1490-1492, due to increased oppression on local Ruthenian peasants under Polish rule, a series of rebellions was led by the Moldavian
Petru Muha. The rebellion was joined by other Ruthenians, such as
Cossacks and
Hutsuls. Known as the
Muha Rebellion, this series of revolts was indirectly supported by prince Stephen, and it is one of the earliest known examples of Ruthenian revolts against Polish rule. These rebellions saw the capture of various cities in Pokuttia, reaching as far west as Lviv, as well as deteriorating relations between Moldavia and Poland, due to Stephen's indirect support. Moreover, Casimir's successor,
John I Albert of Poland, who had tried several times to displace Stephen due to his unwillingness to form an alliance with him, invaded
Moldavia through Pokuttia itself in 1497. After four months of siege, he failed to take the fortress of
Suceava, Moldavia's capital. After abandoning the siege, his army ran into a trap that caused many of his nobles to die at the
Battle of the Cosmin Forest. Following the battle, Pokuttia would remain heavily contested until Poland managed to recapture the region from Moldavia in the
Battle of Obertyn in 1531, when Poland's
hetman Jan Tarnowski defeated Stephen's son
Petru Rareș. Minor Polish–Moldavian clashes for Pokuttia continued for the next 15 years, until Petru Rareș's death. Throughout the early modern period,
Obertyn was Pokuttia's main castle, while Kolomyia was the region's main market town and fair. Following the
Partitions of Poland of 1772, Pokuttia fell under the
Habsburg Monarchy. In the wake of the
World War I and the fall of
Austria-Hungary, it became disputed between Poland and the short-lived
West Ukrainian People's Republic, which had its seat of government in
Stanyslaviv after it failed to hold
Lviv. In May 1919, Polish and Romanian forces
occupied Pokuttia in order to create a corridor between Poland and Romania. In August 1919, the Romanian Army handed eastern Pokuttia over to Poland. After the
Polish–Soviet War, it remained in Poland. In mid-September 1939, during the
invasion of Poland at the start of
World War II, the Polish
gold reserve was evacuated from
Warsaw and stored by the Polish government in
Śniatyn, before it was eventually further evacuated via
Romania to the territory of
Polish-allied France. As a result of the
1939 invasion and partition of Poland by
Nazi Germany and the
Soviet Union, the area was initially attached to the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, falling to Nazi control after the start of
Operation Barbarossa until 1944. It was then incorporated into the Soviet controlled Western Ukrainian
oblast of
Ivano-Frankivsk, roughly corresponding to the southern half of the oblast. Pokuttia's population still has some Romanian/Moldovan communities to this day. At the 2001 census there were 600 Romanians and Moldovans recorded. == Language ==