Organizing Charity

Carts, used to transport the food. From the collection of Stepan Hayduchok

The battles on the streets of Lviv in November 1918 forced the locals to quickly organize themselves and establish the provision of all necessary things both to the military and to the civilians. At that time, the Ukrainian Citizens Committee was formed (though it worked actively only after the Polish-Ukrainian War), headed by Stepan Fedak, a well-known Ukrainian entrepreneur. The main task of the UCC was "to care for Ukrainian people and their defense." The Committee was supported by the high clergy and cooperated with the Red Cross. Its work was immediately joined by women who formed the Samaritan section and were responsible for helping the military.

Created by the Ukrainian National Council, the Food Administration provided food primarily to military units. Ukrainian activists prepared food and transported it by carts to the fire line. In the first days of November, medical care was organized by Kost Taniachkevych: there were medical centers in the premises of the National House, City Hall, Post Administration, Galician Diet, the Citadel, at the intersection of Kopernika and Slovatskoho streets, the Ferdinand barracks and the police barracks. The heavily injured were delivered by strings of sanitary carts to the garrison hospital on Lychakivska street.

In the Polish segment, women also assumed responsibility for charity work. In the first days of November, the Civilian Polish Women Committee (launched through the integration of the League of Women and the Women's Civic Work Committee) began its activities. The committee issued a petition calling on women to provide all possible assistance to the Polish military. The main initiators and organizers of the Polish aid movement were Aleksandra Zagórska and Maria Dułębianka. The specific feature of the Polish movement was that the Poles had worked in most state and communal structures of the city before the war. Therefore, the emergence of Polish charitable organizations could only contribute to a better organization of care for the military and for the vulnerable segments of civilian population. In the Ukrainian case, the formation of such structures was an entirely new phenomenon.

Organizing Charity

Carts, used to transport the food. From the collection of Stepan Hayduchok
Aleksandra Zagórska. Source: Semper Fidelis, 1930
Stepan Fedak (1861-1937)Wounded
Wounded Polish soldiers by the hospital that functioned in the Polytechnic School building
Ukrainian Galician Army medical service