Polish Liquidation Commission

Polish Liquidation Commission (Polska Komisja Likwidacyjna, or PKL). A Polish provisional government established in Cracow on 28 October 1918 on the initiative of Polish deputies to the Austrian national parliament in Vienna. The commission created a civil administration, security forces, and an army; it claimed to be the supreme authority over all historical Polish lands in the Austrian realm, but in reality it governed only western Galicia. The socialists in the commission tried to achieve a compromise with the Ukrainians regarding power-sharing, and on 1 November 1918 a local Polish-Ukrainian agreement was signed in Peremyshl. As a result of the outbreak of armed combat (see Ukrainian-Polish War in Galicia, 1918–19), it was never realized.

The majority of the commission members treated Eastern Galicia as part of the Polish state and demanded that the government in Warsaw provide intensive armed aid for Poles there. After the departure of the Ukrainian forces from Lviv the city was ruled by the Temporary Governing Committee (Tymczasowy Komitet Rządzący, or TKR), from 23 November 1918. The committee annulled all the Ukrainian acts and embarked upon repressions of the members of the Ukrainian National Rada who stayed behind in Lviv. On 10 January the PKL and TKR merged into the Governing Commission for Galicia, Cieszyn Silesia, Orava, and Spiš (48 members). The Warsaw government treated it as an autonomous organ which had partial legislative competence. As eastern Galicia was taken over by Polish forces, the commission organized the administration but had no power regarding foreign policy and military matters. On 26 March 1919 the commission was dissolved, and its functions were taken over by the general delegate of the government in Galicia (K. Gałecki).

Andrzej Chojnowski

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]