Ukrainian Invalids’ Aid Society

Ukrainian Invalids’ Aid Society (Українське товариство допомоги інвалідам у Львові; Ukrainske tovarystvo dopomohy invalidam u Lvovi). A charitable organization established in Lviv in 1922 to provide assistance to disabled veterans of the Ukrainian Galician Army (UHA). In contrast to other groups of disabled combatants, including demobilized soldiers of the imperial and Polish armies, UHA veterans were not eligible for state benefits in the Second Polish Republic, and they relied on support from the Ukrainian community. The idea of a separate organization emerged among a circle of Ukrainian doctors, who worked in the Ukrainian Citizens’ Committee. As physicians, they had direct contact with soldiers, understanding their needs and the necessity for proper assistance. Following the Ukrainian-Polish War in Galicia, 1918–19, the Samaritan Section and Disabled Veterans Assistance Section of the Citizens’ Committee, headed by Dr. Ivan Kurovets, a former minister of public health of the Western Ukrainian National Republic (ZUNR), provided care to impaired Ukrainian veterans. Since the Polish authorities disbanded the Citizens’ Committee and arrested its leaders in September 1921, activists established the Temporary Committee for Aid to Disabled Veterans, which, with the Polish authorities’ permission, was reorganized into the Ukrainian Invalids’ Aid Society by the end of 1922. Among the organization’s presidents were judge Zenon Lukavetsky (1922–24), charity activist Mariia Biletska (1924–26), editor and politician Dmytro Paliiv (1926–30), as well as a director of the Karpatiia life-insurance company, Ivan Hyzha (1930–39).

The society managed the residence for disabled veterans (including ex-combatants of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic), offered re-educational courses and established workshops that employed disabled UHA combatants. In 1923, the association housed about 35 veterans in the Disabled Veterans’ Home and paid allowances to another 100. In 1927, fundraising efforts paid for special medical examinations for all disabled UHA veterans and established an exact number of disabled soldiers. Consequently, 348 veterans received a modest monthly allowance that constituted only a fraction of state benefits paid to other groups of disabled veterans in Poland. The association also founded a small residence near Lviv for disabled veterans with tuberculosis, which accommodated 12 UHA veterans between 1927 and 1930. Besides allowances and one-time financial aid, the organization covered the costs of prostheses, hospital treatments, surgeries, and medicine for all disabled UHA veterans. At the same time, the ideological conflicts created tension inside the Ukrainian community. In 1929, the society expelled several disabled veterans from the Disabled Veterans’ Home because of their Sovietophile ideological position. Following heated discussions in the Ukrainian press, the organization sued the left-wing newspaper Sel-Rob, one of the organs of the Sel-Rob Unity organization, for defamation.

The Ukrainian Invalids’ Aid Society worked under strict supervision of the Polish government, and authorities’ interference curtailed its fundraising initiatives in Eastern Galicia. Although the Invalid Act of 1932 granted limited benefits to UHA disabled veterans, the Polish government was reluctant to implement the legislation. By the end of 1938, only about 50 disabled veterans of the Ukrainian Galician Army (out of about 1000 applicants) had been granted state benefits, meaning most disabled UHA combatants continued to depend on assistance from the Ukrainian Invalids’ Aid Society. The Great Depression negatively impacted the work of the organization as the number of donations decreased sharply. In 1933 the society reduced the allowance paid to UHA disabled veterans three times.

The financial support of the Ukrainian diaspora in North America (Ukrainian War Veterans’ Association of Canada and Ukrainian War Veterans’ Association of the USA) was essential to establishing social assistance programs and institutions for disabled UHA veterans. Most donations that allowed the society to continue its work came from the Ukrainian émigré community. In June 1927, Kalenyk Lesiuk, a Ukrainian-American businessman, activist and philanthropist, appealed to fellow businessmen and encouraged them to contribute to the construction of the new Ukrainian Disabled Veterans’ Home in Lviv. Lesiuk sent the first hundred-dollar check, and by 1930, 100 individuals, community groups, and different Ukrainian organizations had each donated 100 dollars to contribute to the construction of the Disabled Veterans’ Home. In 1932, the association reported that the North American diaspora had gathered $32,500 for this project.

The leaders of the Ukrainian Invalids’ Aid Society decided that the cost of maintaining a residence in Lviv was too high and the number of beneficiaries too low. Instead, in 1932, with funds provided by North American donors, the organization purchased a three-story building in Lviv and founded not a residence for Ukrainian veterans, but a representational Disabled Veterans’ Home. The new institution transformed into a commemorative space that symbolized the sacrifice of disabled UHA soldiers and served as a reminder of their fate. Additionally, the society received income from rent of luxury apartments at the new representational Home, which went towards veterans’ allowances. By paying monthly allowances, the organization aimed to provide disabled UHA veterans with the opportunity to stay with their families and rejected institutionalization as a solution to the war disability issue. At the same property, the society also opened its office and a millinery that employed impaired veterans. The organization closed the millinery at the beginning of 1939, and founded a new shop, ‘Berkut,’ instead. According to the agreement between American donors and the association, the representational Ukrainian Disabled Veterans’ Home would eventually be converted into a military history museum and exhibit the material culture and testimonies of those who fought for Ukrainian independence. Preparations started in 1936, when the society reserved three rooms of the Home for display, and the first museum artefacts were transferred from the Shevchenko Scientific Society. The museum opened officially in November 1937.

The economic crisis and ageing of UHA veterans contributed to an increasing number of disabled men in need of financial support in the late 1930s. In 1935, to promote its work and attract new members and donors, the society launched the annual calendar (kalendar) Ukraїns'kyi invalid (1936–39), and in 1937, it started publishing the quarterly Ukraїns'kyi Invalid (1937–39). The last report published in 1939 indicated that 2007 disabled veterans of the Ukrainian Galician Army were registered, but only 714 received financial assistance from the organization. Before the Second World War, the society also initiated monthly payments for widows and scholarships for talented children of disabled UHA veterans. Overall, 30 branches of the organization operated in Eastern Galicia, and 5,524 people paid dues as members of the society in 1938.

The Soviet authorities dissolved the Ukrainian Invalids’ Aid Society after the occupation of western Ukrainian territories following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. After the Second World War, disabled UHA veterans who had left Ukraine were members of the Union of Ukrainian War Invalids, established in Augsburg in 1947.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Z dniv radosti i smutku: Odnodnivka presviachena ukraïns'kym invalidam (Lviv 1929)
Ukraïns'ka emihratsiia ukraïns'kym invalidam (Lviv 1931)
Kurdydyk, Anatol'. Dvi hodyny v Domi ukraïns'koho invalida (Lviv 1934)
Vynnyk, Oksana. '‘We Will Carry the Legless and Feed the Armless': Lviv’s Ukrainian Community and Disabled Veterans of the Ukrainian Galician Army in Interwar Poland,’ Slavonic and East European Review no 1 (2022)
Vynnyk, Oksana. ‘War Disability and Welfare State in the Eastern Polish Borderlands (1918–1939)’ European History Quarterly 4 (2026)

Oksana Vynnyk

[This article was updated in 2026.]