As Germany fought the Soviet Union during World War II, a much smaller but equally vicious struggle was unfolding in southeastern Poland, fueled by longstanding ethnic and territorial conflicts between Poles and Ukrainians. Both sides organized large partisan armies and sought control over territory each deemed integral to their postwar national visions. The violence reached a fever pitch in the years immediately following the war. This comprehensive study surveys Polish-Ukrainian relations dating back to the tenth century. Rapawy follows centuries of ethnic strife, population shifts, and the formation of national states after the First World War on multi-ethnic territories, illuminating the long-term historical processes that informed later events.

As Germany and the Soviet Union engaged in colossal battles during World War II, a much smaller but vicious struggle broke out in the borderlands of south-eastern Poland, resurrecting longstanding ethnic and territorial conflicts between Poles and Ukrainians. During the war, both sides organised large partisan armies and sought to establish control over territory each deemed integral to their post-war national visions. The violence reached a fever pitch only in the years immediately following the war. This comprehensive study provides a unique overview to Polish-Ukrainian relations dating back to the tenth century. Examining the development of this long-standing feud as part of a longer historical process that has occurred between the Polish and Ukrainian ethnic groups in Europe, Rapawy takes into consideration centuries of ethnic strife, population shifts that resulted from ethnic conquests, and the formation of national states after the First World War on multi-ethnic territories as a pre-condition for the events that occurred on the years following World War II.