It was no coincidence that Lviv became the venue for the Eastern Trade Fair, as the highly successful General National Exhibition took place here in 1894 and the Military Exhibition in 1916. After the restoration of independence and the end of the Polish-Bolshevik war, the idea of organising an international exhibition event was born thanks to the initiative of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, under the aegis of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its purpose was not only to revive trade in Lviv, but also to present Polish industrial and manufacturing achievements and to establish international trade cooperation.

Work on putting this idea into practice started very dynamically. As early as 3 April 1921, a meeting of the Provisional Committee of the Eastern Fair took place, and less than two weeks later, the Eastern Fair Company Ltd. was established. An important advantage was that the city had land left over from previous events, which was perfectly suited to organising such an event. On the site of the demolished buildings of the National Exhibition of 1894, on the so-called Post Exhibition Square located on the outskirts of Stryysky Park, 130 new pavilions were built, designed by outstanding architects of Lviv, including Eugeniusz Czerwiński (1887-1930), Marian Nikodemowicz (1890-1952) and Alfred Zachariewicz (1871-1937). The new pavilions erected for the fair were praised for their elegant architectural style and robust materials. Visitors were delighted by the monumental Eastern Trade Fair pavilion, the "empire" style pavilion of the Polish Commercial Bank or the exceptionally beautiful pavilion of the Pacykow faience factory near Stanislawow.

The 220,000 m2 exhibition grounds were well connected - they had their own railway siding from the Persenkovka station and a network of roads leading to the centre of Lviv and a tram line. They were supplied with electricity, gas, water and a telephone line. Extensive coverage of the inauguration of the fair was published by the newspapers of the time. In the "Kurier Lwowski" of 23 September 1921, we read that the pavilions were finished almost at the last minute, and that the whole thing represented "[...] an impressive amount of work: so many pavilions and hangars, full of exhibits, giving colourful, multifaceted and real testimony to the hard production, the strenuous work, which is growing on a place where not long ago there was nothing".

The Morning Gazette of 29 September 1921 described Lviv during the fair in the following way: "From morning until night there is increased traffic of horse-drawn carriages, carts, automobiles. Special trams, marked with the letter 'T', rush past in the direction of the Eastern Market Square. In the crowds of passers-by roaming the city streets, we see many foreign faces, we meet crowds of tourists from all over Poland, and it is not uncommon to hear foreign languages spoken, which means that there is no shortage of foreign visitors." Long queues and crowds at ticket counters, as well as crowds of visitors numbering in the thousands, were described.

According to reports, visitors to the fair had already arrived on the weekend before the opening, and before noon state dignitaries led by Marshal Piłsudski arrived in the city. They were greeted with 'the roar of cannons ringing the salute from the citadel', followed by a service in Lwów Cathedral celebrated by Archbishop Józef Bilczewski, with Piłsudski in attendance. This was followed by a trip to the market square, where the guests were greeted by "the representative of the government, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Dr. Strassburger, members of the Sejm, MPs and members of foreign missions". The Mayor of Lviv, Jozef Neumann, then gave a speech in which he spoke about the city's recovery from the ravages of war and its rise to international prominence thanks to the fair. The president of the Fair's executive committee, Director Turski, spoke of the importance of the event as a "turning point for the expansion of Polish production" and emphasised Lviv's significance in the arena of world trade. With silver scissors handed to him by the President of Lviv, Pilsudski cut the ribbon in front of the entrance to the main pavilion, inaugurating the start of the fair. He then visited all the pavilions and viewed the goods on display. And there was plenty to see! Let us give the floor to the journalists of the "Gazeta Wieczorna", in the 25 September issue you could read the following account:

"It is hard to believe that all that the Fairground has become overgrown with is the result of only a few months' work. Far beyond the former site of the last national exhibition are the pavilions and hangars, many of which seem to have risen from the ground. The row of pavilions starts right at the entrance and extends all the way to the Black Sports Ground. There are brick and wooden buildings, large and small, collective and belonging to individual companies. Agriculture, industry and commerce are represented, and goods ranging from the most essential to the superfluous are on display. There are tools, raw and finished products; there are potatoes and chocolate, seeds and compotes, cigar papers, tobacco leaves and finished cigarettes, both from Warsaw and Poznań. A huge square is occupied by all kinds of agricultural machinery, locomotives, cars and steam locomotives. There is a separate French pavilion, a separate Czech pavilion, and remarkable specimens covering almost all of our native industry are housed in the Industrial Syndicate pavilion. Petroleum is represented in a separate pavilion of its own, and we can also see there a completely furnished petroleum drilling shaft, which is to be in full operation from today. There is also an invalid's bar and a restaurant on the square, serving to nourish visitors'.

In contrast, a more ironic opinion of the fair was placed by Kornel Makuszyński in Letters from Lviv :

"I came to Lviv for the Eastern Fair. So much has been written about them that my three cents in this business is completely unnecessary, my letter will not be displayed there. They exhibit solid products there, not foam columns. However, I did manage to make a few so-called squinting observations, because I was looking at it from an angle. There is no doubt that the Eastern Trade Fair is a malicious invention of Lviv aimed at Warsaw in order to annoy the capital. Naturally. Warsaw has already held an exhibition of rabbits, apples and plums and chrysanthemums, all in good taste, except for the debauched rabbits, which were elegant, and the rabbits, which were fragrant. And such a coarse-skinned Lvov exhibits at once machines, lubricants, coal, paraffin, salt, soap, all - in a word - pigs, not nice, heavy, dirty. The fact that it has put out is nothing, but it rejoices in it, it gushes, it boasts. It's a crazy town in general, and that's from the roots down to the epiphany."

We should add that Makuszyński spent his young years in Lviv - he studied at the gymnasium and then at the Jan Kazimierz University. Until the outbreak of the First World War, he was the literary manager of the Municipal Theatre.

The exhibition, which was held a total of 18 times, was very popular from the very beginning. The best year in terms of the number of exhibitors was 1922 (1852 exhibitors), while the worst year was 1933 (due to the financial crisis, only 645 exhibitors came). The event usually lasted between 10 and 12 days and was held in September, except in 1932 and 1933 when it was organised in June. Exhibitors from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Romania, Russia or the Balkan states participated in the fair, and metal products, machinery, means of transport, textiles, food and chemical products were traded. The French, for example, exhibited chemical and cosmetic products (perfumes, oils, extracts), as well as dolls and toys, all of which were said to be extremely expensive. The Czechs brought machinery and agricultural goods to the fair, as well as chemical and cosmetic products, enamelware choices and handicrafts. Hungary and Austria exhibited silverware, but also textiles or tractors. The Polish-American industrial and commercial association Union Liberty Co. in Poland exhibited Grant Six cars.

The Polish economy was represented by the extremely strong and globally competitive textile industry, whose products were exhibited in the magnificent Eastern Fair pavilion, and represented by the Union of the Textile Industry and the National Textile Association in Łódź. The petroleum industry, which exhibited in the 'Petroleum' pavilion, had an extremely interesting range of products, including charts, maps and maps of the industry, various specimens of paraffin or wax, different grades of oil and lubricants were on display. An interesting chart illustrating the products that could be obtained from 10 kg of oil attracted attention. The Polish metal and machinery industry, which was second only to the textile industry on Polish soil before the war, was also on display with panache. Exhibits included locomotives, tractors, ploughs, machine tools, reapers, threshing machines, boilers, woodworking machinery, iron castings, as well as wagons (including refrigerated) and steam locomotives, and trucks and cars. Polish companies also exhibited chemical and cosmetic products and medicines, wooden products (including furniture or parquets, as well as a "portable house which is assembled within 36 hours"). Interest was also shown in toy products (including Christmas tree decorations and furniture for children and dolls). Beautiful marble products exhibited by the still-existing Marmury Kieleckie (now Świętokrzyskie Kopalnie Surowców Mineralnych sp. z o.o.), porcelain (the famous Ćmielów factory) or faience and terracotta wares presented in the aforementioned 'Pacyków' pavilion belonging to the world-famous factory of that name were also on view. The agricultural and food industry was represented by numerous companies operating in the alcoholic beverages sector, as well as confectionery or canned goods manufacturers. Fertilisers or seeds were also on display. Representatives of the tobacco, tanning, paper and printing industries also appeared. It is worth mentioning that the Warsaw Publishing Agency "Waw" published a 600-page information catalogue for visitors to the fair. In addition to exhibitors' stands, the event also featured exhibitions and demonstrations. In 1926, for example, the first nationwide Building Exhibition was held, and the committee included the mayor of Lviv, Jozef Neumann, the vice-mayor, Leonard Stahl, and the vice-president of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Jan Rucker. In 1930, President Ignacy Moscicki awarded the organisers the Golden Cross of Merit "for their services to the organisation and development of the Eastern Trade Fair in Lviv".

The popular event that was the Eastern Trade Fair became a target for Ukrainian nationalists. Already on the occasion of the first fair, an attempt was made to assassinate Józef Piłsudski, who was taking part in the ceremony of unveiling the Polish white eagle on the Town Hall tower. When the ceremony was over, at around 9 p.m., Piłsudski, together with the Lviv Voivode Kazimierz Grabowski, left the Town Hall and got into a stationary car. At that moment, a 20-year-old student, Stepan Fedak, son of a well-known Lviv lawyer and Ukrainian activist, pushed his way through the gathered crowd and fired three shots through the rear window of the car, two of which hit Grabowski and wounded him harmlessly. Fedak fired from a so-called Belgian, or Browning FN 1910 - the weapon of the revolutionaries and assassins. Luckily, the gun jammed, so Fedak could not fire again. Senior constable Jacob Skweres threw himself at him and tried to overpower him, and falling, Fedak fired a fourth time and wounded himself in the breast. The agitated crowd would have carried out the self-righteous act had they not been dispersed with rifle butts by the policemen and soldiers on guard at the city hall. As Gazeta Lwowska of 25 September put it: "The public and the constables rushed at lightning speed to apprehend the perpetrator of the criminal act and would have bludgeoned him to death had it not been for the police who, wanting to arrest him, snatched him from the hands of the crowd."

Despite the assassination attempt, the Warden did not change his plans - he went to the theatre and attended a performance, and later in the evening attended a banquet. After midnight, he went to the hospital to visit the wounded Grabowski. The investigation already established the genesis of the assassination at the end of October 1921, which was the result of a planned action on the part of Ukrainian nationalists. As noted in the investigation materials, the basis for the assassination was a desire "to eliminate Polish authority in eastern Lesser Poland at all costs and to detach this part of the country from the Republic in order to create the so-called Western Ukrainian Republic". In 1929, during a visit to the Fair by Minister of Industry and Trade Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, terrorists from the nationalist Ukrainian Military Organisation blew up the management building of the Lviv Eastern Fair, injuring three people. A year later, the stands of a sports club adjacent to the fair were set on fire, and an investigation revealed that the nationalists were also planning to set fire to the Eastern Fair buildings.

The Eastern Fair was an event of great economic importance and played a significant role in international trade traffic. They were also intended to promote Polish economic development and international relations. They fulfilled this role for almost two decades, until the outbreak of the Second World War. Due to the outbreak of war, the plans and hopes placed in them did not materialise, such as the one expressed by Henryk Zbierzchowski in a poem included in the edition of the satirical-political weekly magazine Szczutek of 22 September 1921, dedicated to the first fair:

When at the Eastern Fair squares,

From foreign and distant communes.

Merchants will flock together

From Romania to China.

Such wonderful dreams weave,

The Muse tells me:

The Eastern Fair is the beginning

Of our better, brighter days....