The Battle of Lemberg (Lviv, Lwów) (in Polish historiography called , the Defense of Lwów) took place from November 1918 to May 1919 and was a six-month long conflict in the region of Galicia following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The battle was fought between forces of the local West Ukrainian People's Republic and urban Polish resistance, assisted later by the invading Polish military for the control over the city of Lviv. The battle sparked the Polish-Ukrainian War, ultimately won by Poland as both nations fought the Ukrainian-Soviet War and Polish-Soviet Wars concurrently. Background The modern city of Lviv was called Lviv by the Ukrainians, Lwów by the Poles, and Lemberg by the Austrians and is the largest city in the historical region of eastern Galicia. According to the Austrian census of 1910, which listed religion and language, 51% of the city's population were Roman Catholics, 28% Jews, and 19% belonged to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Linguistically, 86% of the city's population used the Polish language and 11% preferred the Ukrainian language. In eastern Galicia, Ukrainians made up approximately 61% of the population, while Poles made up 27% of the population and were numerically superior in the cities. As a part of the Austrian partition of Poland, Lemberg became center of Polish culture and scholarship, as well as Polish and Ukrainian political activity. Due to the intervention of Archduke Wilhelm of Austria, a Habsburg who adopted a Ukrainian identity and who considered himself a Ukrainian patriot, in October 1918 two regiments consisting of mostly Ukrainian troops were brought into the city, so that most of the Austrian troops stationed in Lviv were ethnic Ukrainians. At the same time, most of Polish units in Austro-Hungarian service were sent to other fronts in order to avoid conflict between the two groups. In addition, the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen were stationed in Bukovina and were supposed to join the Ukrainian troops in the city. The Ukrainian National Rada (a council consisting of all Ukrainian representatives from both houses of the Austrian parliament and from the provincial diets in Galicia and Bukovina) had planned to declare the West Ukrainian People's Republic on November 3, 1918 but moved the date forward to November 1 due to reports that the Polish liquidation committee was to transfer from Kraków to Lviv. Ukrainian takeover Between 3:30 and 4:00 A.M. on November 1, 1918 Ukrainian soldiers occupied Lviv's