Background
After World War I and the dissolution of Austria–Hungary, the territory of Eastern Galicia (Halychyna), populated by a Ukrainian majority but with a large Polish minority, was incorporated into Poland following a Polish–Ukrainian War. During this conflict the Polish advantage in trained soldiers, particularly officers, played a significant role. Between the wars, the political allegiances of Ukrainians in eastern Galicia were divided between moderate national democrats and the more extreme Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The latter group itself splintered into two factions, the less extreme OUN-M led by Andriy Melnyk with close ties to German intelligence (Abwehr) and the more extreme OUN-B led by Stepan Bandera. When Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, the territory of eastern Galicia was annexed to Soviet Ukraine. In 1941 it was conquered by Germany.
Ukrainian leaders of various political persuasions recognised the need for a trained armed force. The German had earlier considered the formation of an armed force made up of Slavic people, but they decided this to be unacceptable as they regarded Slavs as subhumans. At the beginning of 1943, growing losses inclined Nazi leaders to alter their initial opinions.
Read more about this topic: 14th Waffen Grenadier Division Of The SS (1st Ukrainian)
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)