Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance

UNDO like other western Ukrainian political parties considered Polish rule over current western Ukraine to be illegitimate, advocating the independence of western Ukraine. UNDO sought to promote Ukrainians' well-being within the Polish state until independence could be achieved. As such, it opposed the terrorism and violence of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, as such actions resulted in negative repercussions on the Ukrainian population. UNDO was essentially democratic in nature, guided by varying amounts of Catholic, liberal, and socialist ideology. UNDO supported constitutional democracy and the "organic development" of Ukrainian society that would prepare it for independence once the opportunity arose. The approach of "organic development" focused on building up Ukrainian institutions, promoting Ukrainian education, and fostering Ukrainian self-reliance organizations that could operate independently from the Polish authorities. In so doing, UNDO hoped to achieve through peaceful means that which was not attained through war. UNDO supported agrarian reform and the development and expansion of the Ukrainian cooperative movement, particularly agricultural and financial cooperatives. UNDO also maintained close relations with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Ukrainian women's organizations actively participated in UNDO, which sent a woman representative to the Ukrainian parliament where she attained the position of party spokesperson. UNDO pursued a dual policy with respect to Poland's next largest minority, the Jews. UNDO protested acts of antisemitism and cooperated with Jewish representatives in the Polish parliament. It supported Jewish civil rights and fought against Polish attempts to limit Jewish cultural practices. For example, UNDO's representatives in the Polish parliament joined their Jewish colleagues in voting against an attempt to limit kosher slaughtering. UNDO's support for the Jews was largely driven by the belief that actions against Jews would set a precedent for future discrimination against Ukrainians. Following a Polish pogrom against Jews in 1936, an UNDO leader published an article called "After the Jews Will Come Our Turn." After Ukrainization ended, and news of Soviet crimes devastating Ukrainian society in the 1930s (such as the Holodomor and Executed Renaissance) filtered into western Ukraine, UNDO radically altered its position towards the Soviet Union, coming to consider it the principal enemy of Ukraine. With this in mind, UNDO's programme evolved into seeking a new understanding with Poland. This alienated some of its supporters and brought it into conflict with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. ==History==

UNDO was founded at a party congress in 1925 through the merger of three western Ukrainian political parties, During the parliamentary elections of that year, the Polish government tried to deter the Ukrainian people from voting for Ukrainian parties. UNDO formed a temporary coalition with the other Ukrainian parties that won 21 seats in the House of deputies (17 of which were held by UNDO) and four seats in the Senate (3 of which were held by UNDO). Despite UNDO's presence in the parliament, anti-Ukrainian actions by the Polish state accelerated. Laws were passed that stipulated that only people who could speak and write Polish could serve as county or city officials, and four-fifths of Ukrainian judges were removed from their positions or transferred to Central and Western Poland. Russophile representation was also eliminated, and the status quo in Ukrainian schooling was maintained. , party leader from 1925 to 1935 UNDO's efforts to reach an agreement with the Polish government led to fractures within the party. In 1933 a group of UNDO members led by Dmytro Paliiv left UNDO to form another party that was uncompromisingly opposed to both Poland as well as the Soviet Union. Although this new party was more nationalistic and authoritarian, it was legal and continued UNDO's opposition to the terrorism of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. After the Soviets annexed Eastern Poland, UNDO's former leader, Dr. Dmytro Levitsky, who had once been chief of the Ukrainian delegation in the pre-war Polish parliament, as well as many of his colleagues, were arrested, deported to Moscow, and never heard from again. UNDO along with all other legal Ukrainian political parties was forced by the Soviet authorities to disband. As a result, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which already had an underground structure dating to its time of conflict with the Polish authorities, was left as the sole functioning, independent, political organization in western Ukraine. ==See also==