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THE REVOLUTION OF 1848-9 AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE UKRAINIAN POLITICAL MOVEMENT IN WESTERN UKRAINE
The Revolution of 1848-9 in the Habsburg monarchy played a decisive role in the process of the emergence of Ukrainian political organizations and the shaping of the modern Ukrainian identity in Western Ukraine. Prior to the revolution there had been a Ukrainian national revival in Galicia and Transcarpathia, but the movement had been entirely cultural. With the outbreak of the revolution, however, the Ukrainian question became a political question. The first representative Ukrainian political organization was founded in Lviv on 2 May 1848, the Supreme Ruthenian Council. The major political goal advocated by Ukrainians during the revolution was the creation of a predominantly Ukrainian crown land within the Habsburg monarchy. Although the relatively underdeveloped Ukrainian movements in Transcarpathia and Bukovyna were as yet unclear on the point, the Ukrainians of Galicia repeatedly emphasized in their publications that the Ukrainians of the Habsburg monarchy were part of the same distinct Ukrainian nation that could be found in Ukraine in the Russian Empire. In June 1848 the Ukrainians of Galicia and Bukovyna participated in the first parliamentary elections ever held on Ukrainian territory and 30 Ukrainians were elected to the constituent Austrian Reichstag. The first Ukrainian-language newspaper, Zoria halytska, began to appear in Lviv on 15 May 1848, and the Halytsko-Ruska Matytsia, a Ukrainian literary and educational society, was established later that year. When the revolution was defeated in the fall of 1849, many of the achievements of the revolutionary years were undone. The Ukrainian leadership assumed a conservative 'Old Ruthenian' or Russophile orientations, but the legacy of revolutionary achievements shaped the Ukrainiphile populist movement which became dominant in Galicia at the end of the 19th century... Learn more about the Revolution of 1848-9 in the Habsburg monarchy by visiting the following entries:
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REVOLUTION OF 1848-9 IN THE HABSBURG MONARCHY. The unsuccessful democratic revolution that encompassed much of Europe in 1848-9, which broke out also in the Habsburg monarchy, including the Ukrainian territories. Inspired by a republican revolution in Paris in February 1848, demonstrations broke out in Vienna in March. By mid-month, under pressure from the people, Emperor Ferdinand I had dismissed his reactionary adviser Klemens von Metternich, authorized the formation of a national guard, and promised to establish a parliament. The news of those revolutionary events reached the Ukrainian territories of Galicia, Bukovyna, and Transcarpathia on the weekend of 18-19 March. Immediately crowds gathered in the squares of Lviv, where Polish democrats circulated a petition calling for civil rights and the abolition of serfdom. In Chernivtsi mobs attacked the unpopular mayor and police commissioner. In the small, largely Magyarized towns of Transcarpathia the population gathered to discuss the 12 demands put forward by radical Hungarian activists in Pest... |
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SUPREME RUTHENIAN COUNCIL. The first legal Ukrainian political organization in modern times, founded in May 1848 in Lviv. The Supreme Ruthenian Council was established in direct response to the Revolution of 1848–9 in the Habsburg monarchy, in particular to the formation in Galicia of the Polish People's Council (Rada Narodowa), which declared itself the representative political body for the province. The emergence of the Supreme Ruthenian Council in turn prompted the creation of yet another council, the pro-Polish Ruthenian Congress. Encouraged by the Austrian governor of Galicia, Count Franz Stadion, over 300 Ukrainians representing various social groups (except the peasantry) met on 2 May at the chancery of Saint George's Cathedral. They organized a council of 30 members (eventually increased to 66). The purpose of the Supreme Ruthenian Council was to strengthen the Ukrainian people in Austria by encouraging publications in Ukrainian, introducing the Ukrainian language in schools and the local administration, and defending the constitutional rights of Ukrainians... |
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ZORIA HALYTSKA (Galician Star). The first Ukrainian-language newspaper, published in Lviv weekly from May 1848, semiweekly in 1849–52, and then weekly again to 1857 (a total of 717 issues). As the organ of the Supreme Ruthenian Council until 1850, the newspaper stressed the separateness of the Ukrainian nation and the ethnic unity of Ukrainians in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire. In 1850-4 Zoria halytska was funded by the Stauropegion Institute and controlled by Russophiles. Throughout most of this period it was called Zoria halytskaia and was published in the artificial Ukrainian-Russian yazychiie. It was a journal from 1853. In late 1854 it was taken over by Ukrainophiles, but financial difficulties forced it to fold. Zoria halytska published news and articles on political, economic, religious, and community affairs. From 1850 it devoted much attention to literature. It was actively supported by the Greek Catholic clergy, and in 1853-4 it published a religious supplement...
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HALYTSKO-RUSKA MATYTSIA. A literary and educational society established in June 1848 in Lviv by the Supreme Ruthenian Council. Modeled on Serbian (1826), Czech (1831), and other similar predecessors, the Halytsko-Ruska Matytsia fostered schooling and general cultural enlightenment by publishing popular-science literature, grammars, and textbooks. Rev Mykhailo Kuzemsky was its first head. In 1850 it had 193 dues-paying members, 69 of whom were priests. In 1861 its statute was ratified. In the 1860s it was taken over by the Russophiles (Yakiv Holovatsky, Antin Petrushevych, B. Didytsky, and others), who promoted the use of the artificial, bookish yazychie language and later even Russian. Consequently, the Galician populists founded the Prosvita society in 1868. The activity and influence of the Halytsko-Ruska Matytsia declined in the 1880s, but it continued to exist (with periods of inactivity, 1895–1900, 1909–22) until 1939. The Halytsko-Ruska Matytsia published about 60 books and some scholarly serials... |
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PEOPLE'S HOME IN LVIV. The oldest and wealthiest Ukrainian cultural-educational institution in Galicia. The People's Home was established in 1849 by the Supreme Ruthenian Council with the express purpose of developing Ukrainian national and cultural life throughout Galicia. The institution was based on a Czech model. The Austrian government granted it land near Lviv University, on which a building was erected in 1851-64. Over time it amassed a substantial number of assets, including several buildings and a church in Lviv, two villages in the Peremyshl region, a museum, a library, and a publishing house. The People's Home provided a spiritual haven and organizational center for various organizations and causes, most notably the Halytsko-Ruska Matytsia society (which undertook cultural-educational work and published school textbooks). Until the 1860s its work was conducted in the conservative and clerical-minded spirit of the Old Ruthenians. The leadership of the People's Home then fell into the hands of Russophiles, who took it over completely in 1872... |
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