The Austro-Hungarian empire stretched in 1914 as far as Ukraine, occupying the Ukrainian provinces of Bukovyna, Carpatho-Ukraine and Halychyna.It was traditional in the Austro-Hungarian Army for individual regiments to recruit troops from the region, where they were based. This too applied in occupied Ukraine. So Ukrainians found themselves called up and serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army, often in regiments with a Ukrainian majority of personnel. Some Ukrainians rose to senior ranks.
The Austrian occupation of Ukraine was a liberal one. Ukrainians only had one aim, a free and independent Ukraine. By 1912 they had managed to establish semi-mili tary youth groups of Sich and Sokil, in virtually every occupied town and village in Halychyna. Rumblings of war in 1912 convinced Ukrainians that they too needed their own Army. Sich and Sokil became more militarized, and in 1913 the Ukrainian Legion began to form. Outbreak of war in 1914 finally gave Ukrainians the opportunity they needed. They presented the Austrian Authorities with a ready made army of thousands of volunteers. They asked for only two things, that it was to be a Ukrainian formation and that they be allowed to fight against the Russians, who brutally occupied the rest of Ukraine. Grudgingly the Austrians agreed, as it was now war-time, and the Ukrainian Legion was born. A unique Legion of volunteers in the Austro-Hungarian Army, where girls fought alongside men as front line troops against the Russians.
From the very start the Ukrainian Legion wanted to show its separateness from the rest of the Austro-Hungarian Army. In 1916 it even managed to change part of the uniform , the cap, to a distinct Ukrainian version with a deep V shaped front. It was called a 'Mazepynka', in memory of the great Ukrainian leader Ivan Mazepa.
So too with fieldpost cards. Austrian fieldpost cards only had the Ukrainian word for Sender on them, sometimes missing, sometimes mis-spelt. In 1916 the Ukrainian Legion managed to issue their own distinctive cards, with the dominant language of Ukrainian. Not only did these cards boost Ukrainian moral, but also funds, as these cards were sold for the benefit of Ukrainian Legion Funds. Though these cards were primaly issued for the use of the Ukrainian Legion, they proved very popular and were often used by Ukrainians, and occasionally non-Ukrainians, in other Austrian units.