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Galicia (Ukrainian: Галичина, Polish: Galicja, Russian: Галиция, German: Galizien, Hungarian: Gácsország, Czech: Halič, Turkish: Haliç, Romanian: Galiţia) is a historical region in East Central Europe, currently divided between Poland and Ukraine. The nucleus of historic Galicia are Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions of western Ukraine.

Tribal Area

Approximate borders of Great Moravia at its greatest extent on an older map (in 890 - 894) Click Here For 775px Image

In pre-Roman times the region was populated by various tribes, including the Lugiis, Goths and Vandals (the Przeworsk and Puchov cultures). After the fall of the Roman Empire, which most of southern-eastern Poland and western Ukraine was part of (all territories below the San, Bug, Dniester and Ztir), the area was invaded by West Slavs and Hungarians.

Around 833 the West Slavs became part of the Great Moravian state. Upon the invasion of the Hungarian tribes into the heart of the Great Moravian Empire around 899, the Lendians of the area found themselves under influence of Hungarian Empire.

In 955 their area seems to constitute part of Bohemian State.

Around 970 it was included in forming the Polish state. This area was mentioned in 981 (by Nestor) , when Volodymyr the Great of Kievan Rus took the area over on his way into Poland.

(1019--1340) The area returned to Poland in 1018, back to Rus in 1031, and Casimir III of Poland recovered it in 1340.

The territory was settled by the East Slavs from the early middle ages and in the 12th century a Rurikid Principality of Halych (Galich) was formed there, merged in the end of the century with the neighboring Volhynia into the Principality of Halych Volhynia that existed for a century and a half.

From 1352, when the principality was partitioned between the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, most of Galicia belonged to the Polish Crown where it also remained also after the 1569 union between Poland and Lithuania.

Upon the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772 the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, or simply Galicia, became the largest, most populous, and northernmost province of Austria where it remained until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I.

Origins

Variations of Name

Árpád and the six other chieftains of the Magyars. From the Chronicon Pictum. It showing the shield with the Royal House of Arpad emblem, a black sitting jackdaw.

The name Galicia et Lodomeria was used in the 13th century by King Andrew II of Hungary. It was a Latinized version of the Slavic names Halych and Volodymyr, the major cities of the Ukrainian or Ruthenian principality of Halych-Volhynia, which was under Hungarian rule in 1214-1221. No doubt, that Latin designation Galicia et Lodomeria was used for this land before the period when it had been occupied by Andrew II of Hungary for 7 years. Prior to that, Halych-Volhynia was a mighty principality under the reign of Roman the Great in 1170-1205. After Hungarians had been expelled in 1221, Ruthenians took back the rule. Roman's son Daniel was coronated a king of Galicia-Volhynia, founding also Lviv (Lemberg, Leopolis), in honor of his son Leo. King Leo, moved the capital from Halych to Lviv.

The origin of the Ukrainian name Halych (Галич) (Halicz in Polish, Galich in Russian, Galic in Latin) is uncertain. Some historians speculate it has to do with people of Celtic origin that settled nearby, and is related to many similar place names found across Europe, such as Galatia, Gaul, and perhaps Spanish Galicia. Others assert that the name is of Slavic origin – from halytsa (galitsa) meaning "a naked (unwooded) hill", or from halka (galka) which means "a jackdaw". The jackdaw was used as a charge in the city's coat-of-arms and later also in the coat-of-arms of Galicia. The name, however, predates the coat-of-arms which may represent folk etymology.

King Andrew II Rex Galiciae at Lodomerie with queen Gertrude von Andechs-Meranien. 13th Century

Although Hungarians were driven out from Halych-Volhynia by 1221, Hungarian kings continued to add Galicia et Lodomeria to their official titles.

In the 16th century, those titles were inherited, together with the Hungarian crown, by the Habsburgs in 1527.

In 1772, Empress Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, decided to use those historical claims to justify her participation in the first partition of Poland. In fact, the territories acquired by Austria did not correspond exactly to those of former Halych-Volhynia. Volhynia, including the city of Włodzimierz Wołyński (Volodymyr Volyns'kyi)—after which Lodomeria was named—was taken by Russia, not Austria. On the other hand, much of Lesser Poland—which was historically and ethnically Polish, not Ruthenian—did become part of Galicia. Moreover, despite the fact that the claim derived from the historical Hungarian crown, Galicia and Lodomeria was not officially assigned to Hungary, and after the Ausgleich of 1867, it found itself in Cisleithania, or the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary.

The full official name of the new Austrian province was Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria with the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator. After the incorporation of the Free City of Kraków in 1846, it was extended to Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and the Grand Duchy of Krakau with the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator.

History

Red Ruthenia and Halych-Volhynia

(981): The region of what later became known as Galicia appears to have been incorporated, in large part, into the Empire of Great Moravia. It is first attested in the Primary Chronicle under 981, when Volodymyr the Great of Kievan Rus took over the Red Ruthenian cities in his military campaign on the border with Poland.

(1018 to 1031): In the following century, the area shifted briefly to Poland and then back to Kievan Rus.

(1087 to 1200): As one of many successors to Kievan Rus', the Principality of Halych existed from 1087 to 1200, when Roman the Great finally managed to unite it with Volhynia in the state of Halych-Volynia.

(1340s): Despite anti-Mongol campaigns of Daniel of Halych, who was crowned the first king of Galicia, his state occasionally paid tribute to the Golden Horde. Daniel's son Lev moved his capital from Halych to Lviv. Daniel's dynasty also attempted to gain papal and broader support in Europe for an alliance against the Mongols, but proved unable of competing with the rising powers of centralised Great Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. In the 1340s, the Rurikid dynasty died out, and the area passed to King Casimir III of Poland. But the sister state of Volynia, together with Kiev fell under Lithuanian control.

Thereafter, the region comprised a Polish possession divided into a number of voivodeships. This began an era of heavy Polish settlement among the Ruthenian population. Armenian and Jewish immigration to the region also occurred in large numbers. Numerous castles were built during this time and some new cities were founded: Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk) and Krystynopol (now Chervonohrad).

Galicia was twice occupied by the Ottoman Turks in the 1490s and 1520s, ravaged by Ukrainian Cossack pogroms and Russian and Swedish invasions during The Deluge, and the Swedes returned during the Great Northern War of the early 18th century.

With the support of Prussia and Russia, Stanisław August Poniatowski was selected to be king in 1764; these countries intended, through him, to secure their own influence on Poland.

Partitions of Poland to the Congress of Vienna

In 1772, Galicia was the largest part of the area annexed by Austria in the First Partition of Poland. As such, the Austrian region of Poland and what was later to become Ukraine was known as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria to underline the Hungarian claims to the country. However, a large portion of ethnically Polish lands to the west was also added to the province, which changed the geographical reference of the term, Galicia. Lviv (Lemberg) served as capital of Austrian Galicia, which was dominated by the Polish aristocracy, despite the fact that the population of the eastern half of the province was mostly Ukrainian, or "Ruthenian", as they were known at the time. In addition to the Polish aristocracy and gentry who inhabited almost all parts of Galicia, and the Ruthenians in the east, there existed a large Jewish population, also more heavily concentrated in the eastern parts of the province.

During the first decades of Austrian rule, Galicia was firmly governed from Vienna, and many significant reforms were carried out by a bureaucracy staffed largely by Germans and Germanized Czechs. The aristocracy was guaranteed its rights, but these rights were curtailed: the former serfs were no longer mere chattel, but became subjects of law and were granted certain personal freedoms, such as the right to marry without the lord's permission. Their labor obligations were defined and limited, and they could bypass the lords and appeal to the imperial courts for justice. The Eastern Rite "Uniate" Church, which primarily served the Ruthenians, was renamed the Greek Catholic Church to bring it onto a par with the Roman Catholic Church, It was given seminaries, and eventually, a Metropolitan.

These reforms were not popular with the aristocracy, but among the common folk, Polish and Ukrainian/Ruthenian alike, these reforms created a reservoir of good will toward the emperor which lasted almost to the end of Austrian rule.

From 1815 to 1860

In 1815, as a result of decisions of the Congress of Vienna, the Lublin area and surrounding regions were given up by Austria to the Congress Kingdom of Poland which was ruled by the Tsar, and the Ternopil Region, including the historical region of Southern Podolia, was returned to Austria from Russia which had held it since 1809.

The 1820s and 1830s were a period of absolutist rule from Vienna, the local Galician bureaucracy still being filled by Germans and Germanized Czechs, although some of their children were already becoming Polonized. After the failure of the November insurrection in Russian Poland in 1830-31, in which a few thousand Galician volunteers participated, many Polish refugees arrived in Galicia. The latter 1830s brought about a Polish conspircy and an unsuccessful insurrection in 1846. One of the results was that the former Polish capital city of Cracow became a part of Galicia.

In the 1830s, in the eastern part of Galicia, the beginnings of a national awakening occurred among the Ruthenians. A circle of activists, primarily Greek Catholic seminarians published The Nymph of the Dniester, a collection of folksongs and other materials in the common Ruthenian tongue. Alarmed by such democratism, the Austrian authorities and the Greek Catholic Metropolitan banned the book.

In 1848, revolutions occurred in Vienna and other parts of the Austrian Empire. In Lemberg, a Polish National Council, and then later, a Ukrainian, or Ruthenian Supreme Council were formed. Even before Vienna had acted, the remnants of serfdom were abolished by the Governor, Franz Stadion, in an attempt to thwart the revolutionaries. Moreover, Polish demands for Galician automomy were countered by Ruthenian demands for national equality and for a partition of the province into an Eastern, Ruthenian part, and a Western, Polish part. Eventually, Lemberg was bombarded by imperial troops and the revolution put down completely.

By 1863, open revolt broke out in Russian Poland and from 1864 to 1865 the Austrian government declared a State of Siege in Galicia, temporarily suspending civil liberties.

1865 brought a return to federal ideas along the lines suggested by Agenor Goluchowski and negotiations on autonomy between the Polish aristocracy and Vienna began once again.

Austro-Hungary

In 1866 the Austrian empire began to experience increased internal problems. In an effort to shore up support for the monarchy, Emperor Franz Joseph began negotiations for a compromise with the Magyar nobility to ensure their support. Finally, after the so-called Ausgleich of February of 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into a dualist Austria-Hungary.

From 1873, Galicia was an autonomous province of Austria-Hungary with Polish and, to a much lesser degree, Ukrainian or Ruthenian, as official languages. The Germanization had been halted and the censorship lifted as well. Galicia was subject to the Austrian part of the Dual Monarchy, but the Galician Sejm and provincial administration had extensive privileges and prerogatives, especially in education, culture, and local affairs.

This shift in power from Vienna to the Polish landowning class was not welcomed by the Ruthenians, who became more sharply divided into Russophiles, who looked to Russia for salvation, and Ukrainians who stressed their connections to the common people.

By 1890, an agreement was worked out between the Poles and the "Populist" Ruthenians or Ukrainians which saw the partial Ukrainianization of the school system in eastern Galicia and other concessions to Ukrainian culture. Throughout this period, the Ukrainians never gave up the traditional Ruthenian demands for national equality and for partition of the province into a western, Polish half, and an eastern, Ukrainian half.

The Great Economic Emigration

Beginning in the 1880s, a mass emigration of the Galician peasantry occurred. It started as a seasonal one to Imperial Germany and then later became a Trans-Atlantic one with large-scale emigration to the United States, Brazil, and Canada.

Caused by the backward economic condition of Galicia where rural poverty was widespread, the emigration began in the western, Polish populated part of Galicia and quickly shifted east to the Ukrainian inhabited parts. Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, and Germans all participated in this mass movement of countryfolk and villagers. Poles migrated principally to New England and the midwestern states of the United States, but also to Brazil and elsewhere. Ukrainians migrated to Brazil, Canada, and the United States, with a very intense emigration from Southern Podolia to Western Canada. Jews emigrated both directly to the New World and also indirectly via other parts of Austria-Hungary.

A total of several hundred thousand people were involved in this Great Economic Emigration which grew steadily more intense until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

World War I

Galicia saw heavy fighting between the forces of Russia and the Central Powers. The Russian forces overran most of the region in 1914 after defeating the Austro-Hungarian army in a chaotic frontier battle in the opening months of the war. They were in turn pushed out in the spring and summer of 1915 by a combined German and Austro-Hungarian offensive.

In 1918, Western Galicia became a part of the restored Republic of Poland, while the local Ukrainian population briefly declared the independence of Eastern Galicia as the "West Ukrainian People's Republic". During the Polish-Soviet War a short-lived Galician SSR in East Galicia existed. Eventually, the whole of the province was recaptured by Poles.

In the western part of Galicia, Rusyn Lemkos formed the Lemko-Rusyn Republic in 1918, initially attempting to unite with Russia, instead of the Ukraine. As this was impossible, they later attempted to unite with Rusyns from the area south of the Carpathians, in an attempt to join Czechoslovakia as a third ethnic entity. This effort was suppressed by the Polish goernment in 1920, and the area was incorporated into Poland. The leaders of the republic were tried by the Polish government, but were acquitted.

World War II

Just before WW2, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact divided up Poland: all territory east of the San, Bug and Neman rivers were annexed into the USSR, and this included the bulk of Galicia. The period 1939 to 1941 is as controversial as the basis of USSR's legitimacy for its annexation. Whilst part of Jewish population did rejoice, at least initially, that they were part of a nation that at least respected their national identity, Soviet repression made soon the absolute majority feel otherwise.

Evacuating Soviets decided instantly to kill all the mass of people waiting in the prisons for deportation to Gulag even if their fault was petty crimes or no fault at all. Arriving at the site of the muss murders committed mass killing of Jews and Polish intelligentsia. Conflicts in Galicia and Volhynia between Poles and Ukrainians also intensified during this time, with conflicts between the Polish Home Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) and Soviet partisans, and the massacres of Poles in Volhynia, and, to a lesser extent, in Galicia, and revenge attacks on Ukrainians. Despite this, and despite many Galicians joining the UIA and supporting its anti-Soviet, anti-German and anti-Polish policies, some also joined Germany in its fight against Stalin, forming the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien (1st Ukrainian).

A Mix of People

In 1773, Galicia had about 2.6 million inhabitants in 280 cities and markets and about 5,500 villages. There were nearly 19,000 noble families with 95,000 members.The "non-free" accounted for 1.86 million, more than 70% of the population. A small number were full farmers, but by far the overwhelming number (84%) had only smallholdings or no possessions.

No country of the Austrian monarchy had such a varied ethnic mix as Galicia: Poles, Ruthenians (Ukrainians), Germans, Armenians, Jews, Hungarians, Roma peoples, Lipowaner, etc. The Poles were mainly in the west, with the Ruthenians predominant in the eastern region.

The Jews of Galicia had immigrated in the Middle Ages from Germany. German-speaking people were more commonly referred to by the region of Germany where they originated (such as Saxony or Swabia). Inhabitants who had a clear difference in language, as with Poland and Ruthenians, identification was less problematic, but wide-spread multilingualness blurred the borders again.

It is, however, possible to make a clear distinction in religious denominations: Poles were Roman-Catholic, the Ruthenians (or Rusyn, now mostly calling themselves Ukrainians) belonged to Byzantine-Slavonic Greek Catholic Church. The Jews represented the third largest religious group, who kept mostly strictly their rabbinical faith.

The average life expectancy was 27 years for men and 28.5 years for women, as compared to 33 and 37 in Bohemia, 39 and 41 in France and 40 and 42 in England. Also the quality of life was much lower. The yearly consumption of meat did not exceed 10 kilograms per capita, as compared to 24 kg in Hungary and 33 in Germany. This was mostly due to much lower average income.

Economy

Despite being one of the most populous regions in Europe, Galicia was also one of the least developed economically. It was also one of the poorest regions in Europe.

In 1888 Galicia had 785,500 km² of area and was populated by ca. 6.4 million people, including 4.8 million peasants (75% of the whole population). The population density was 81 people per square kilometre and was higher than in France (71 inhabitants/km²) or Germany.

The average income per capita did not exceed 53 Rhine guilders, as compared to 91 RG in the Kingdom of Poland (ruled by Russia), 100 in Hungary and more than 450 RG in England at that time. Also the taxes were relatively high and equalled to 9 Rhine guilders a year (17% of yearly income), as compared to 5% in Prussia and 10% in England. Despite high taxation, the national debt of the Galician government exceeded 300 million RG at all times, that is approximately 60 RG per capita. At the same time nations of Galicia (in 1910: 45%Poles, 45% Ukrainians, 6% Jews) were treated much better there, than in other parts of former Commonwealth of Poland ruled by Prussia and Russia.

It was not until early in the 20th century that heavy industry started to be developed, and even then it was mostly connected to war production. The biggest state investments in the region were the railways and the fortresses in Przemyśl, Kraków and other cities. Industrial development was mostly connected to the private oil industry started by Ignacy Łukasiewicz and to the Wieliczka salt mines, operational since at least the Middle Ages.

References
Paul Robert Magocsi, Galicia: A Historical Survey and Bibliographic Guide (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983). Concentrates on the historical, or Eastern Galicia.
Andrei S. Markovits and Frank E. Sysyn, eds., Nationbuilding and the Politics of Nationalism: Essays on Austrian Galicia (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982). Contains an important article by Piotr Wandycz on the Poles, and an equally important article by Ivan L. Rudnytsky on the Ukrainians.
Christopher Hann and Paul Robert Magocsi, eds., Galicia: A Multicultured Land (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005). A collection of articles by John Paul Himka, Yaroslav Hrytsak, Stanislaw Stepien, and others.
Taylor, A.J.P., The Habsburg Monarchy 1809–1918, 1941, discusses Habsburg policy toward ethnic minorities.
(Polish) Grzegorz Hryciuk, Liczba i skład etniczny ludności tzw. Galicji Wschodniej w latach 1931-1959, Lublin 1996
Alison Fleig Frank, Oil Empire: Visions of Prosperity in Austrian Galicia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005). A new monograph on the history of the Galician oil industry in both the Austrian and European contexts.
Dohrn, Verena, journey to Galicia, publishing house S. Fischer, 1991, ISBN 3-10-015310-3
Drdacki, Moritz knight by Ostrow, the glad patents Galziens a contribution to customer of the Unterthanswesens, printed with J.P.Sollinger, Vienna, 1838, Reprint 1990, Scherer publishing house Berlin, ISBN 3-89433-024-4
Kratter, F., letters over itzigen condition of Galicia a contribution to the Staatistik and knowledge of human nature, publishing house G. Ph. of usurer, Leipzig 1786, Reprint 1990, Scherer publishing house Berlin, ISBN 3-89433-001-5
Mueller, Sepp, from the settlement to the resettlement, Wiss. contribution to history and regional studies of east Central Europe, hrsg. v. Joh. Gottfr. Herder Joh.-Gottfr.-Herder-Institut Marburg, NR. 54 Rohrer, Josef, remarks on a journey of the Turkish Graenze over the Bukowina by east and west Galicia, Schlesien and Maehren to Vienna, publishing house Anton Pichler, Vienna 1804, Reprint 1989, Scherer publishing house Berlin, ISBN 3-89433-010-4
statistic Central Commission (Hrsg.), local repertory of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomerien with the Herzogthume Krakau, publishing house Carl Gerolds son, Vienna 1874, Reprint 1989, Scherer publishing house Berlin, ISBN 3-89433-015-5
Stupnicki, Hipolit, the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomerien sammt the Grossherzogthume Krakau and the Herzogthume Bukowina in geographical-historical-statistic relationship, printed with Peter Piller, Lemberg 1853, Reprint 1989, Scherer publishing house Berlin, ISBN 3-89433-016-3
Traunpaur, Alfons Heinrich Chevalier d'Orphanie, Dreyssig of letters over Galicia or observations of a unpartheyischen man, Vienna 1787, Reprint 1990, Scherer publishing house Berlin, ISBN 3-89433-013-9

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