Galician Poles, or Poles in Galicia? Reflections on the transformation of Polish  identity in the Austrian Partition of Poland

The identity of Poles in Austrian Galicia has often been the subject of discussion and probably will yet be addressed repeatedly. It is the theme not only important for understanding the Polish history, but also fascinating because of its context, which is the richness of identities that existed in Galicia. Most studies of this issue are focused not so much on Polishness in Galicia as on the Galician identity of the local Poles. Such an approach does not seem to be accurate, because it suggests an organic compound of the identity formation processes in Galicia and national transformations in Austria, of which Galicia was a political part. Meanwhile, although such relationship existed – economy, political system and culture were the pan-Austrian framework for these processes – but it was a minor circumstance. Poles, Ruthenians, Jews and Armenians, the four linguistic and religious communities, which Austria found in her partition of Poland in 1772, which she had an ambition to direct and whose identities she wished to transform, shaped themselves first of all in relation to each other, that is, within Galicia; then in relation to the heritage of four centuries of common exis­tence in pre-partitioned Poland; and finally, in the third place, in relation to some external factors. The ethnic policy of Austria was just one of these factors. If that policy had been consistent, and if Austria had had the power to effectively lead the work of building a common nation across historical boundaries, we could talk not only about the existence of Galician but even Austrian Poles. But Austria, alternately manipulating and arriving at compromises with respect to the national processes within her territory, failed to master the ethnic history of the lands which she owned in the political sense. For various reasons, she failed to take advantage of the modern framework in which these processes took place, and that could have led to her eventual nation-building ambitions. As a result, the Polish culture in Galicia became the leading model and a reference point for the majority of local ethnicities. There were no significant cultural and political differences between the Polish residents of Galicia and the Poles from other partitions. There were only regional differences in terms of mentality and customs, fading fast after 1918. There was no separate history of Poles in Galicia, only the Galician circumstances and Galician reception of national history: the same events, the same cultural, ideological and political phenomena, the same actors. There was not even the temptation to formulate a program of building the Polish independence in Galicia as a separate state in relation to Russian and Prussian Poland, as there was in the case of Galician Ukrainians. A Galician Pole is a concept illegible today, and once had the character of a cultural stereotype, which, however, has not transformed into a permanent cultural fact.

Primum non nocere…? Identity of the followers of the Austro-Polish solution during World War I

The aim of the article is to analyze the national identity of the Polish politicians active in a self-governing Galicia who were supporters of the so-called Austro-Polish solution. This political idea was based on a plan to reconstruct Polish sovereignty in cooperation with the Habsburg monarchy. The majority of followers of the Austro-Polish solution were members of one political party: the Cracow conservatives. After the outbreak of World War I the idea was promoted by the Supreme National Committee, an organization that was created as a political and logistic background of the Polish Legions, the semi-independent Polish troops that fought as a part of the Austro-Hungarian military.
The research is primarily focused on the question whether it is possible to describe the identity of these politicians as Polish or Austrian, or was it a kind of combination of the two? The paper analyzes the attitude of Władysław Leopold Jaworski, Leon Biliński and Michał Bobrzyński, three politicians who, between 1914 and 1918, played a crucial role in all attempts to realize and promote the Austro-Polish idea. Their dilemmas were precisely examined on the basis of memoires, spe­eches and historical studies as well as the archives. The author claims that the attitude of the three politicians towards the Austro-Hungarian Empire undoubtedly contained an emotional component. It means that describing these politicians as Austro-Polish patriots seems to be absolutely justified.
 

The question of identity among the Ruthenian political elites in Galicia

The article refers to the necessity of a scientific understanding of the concept of “political elites” in relation to the Ukrainian movement in Galicia in the 19th century. The author considers the concepts of identity which existed among the Ruthenian-Ukrainian elites in Austrian Galicia. These were: Austrophilism, Polonophilism, Russophilism and Ukrainophilism. The author argues that the only coherent criterion for determining the Galician-Ruthenian elites was the ability of certain groups and individuals to conceptualize the dimension of nationality, and also to deploy activities on behalf of the national community. The creation of the Galician-Ruthenian elites was a part of the wider modernization processes experienced by the Galician Ruthenians. These elites were forced to solve not only questions of national identity, but also ideological dilemmas that had arisen on the verge of tradition and innovation, conservatism and democracy. Therefore, the formation of Ruthenian political elites was related not only to the support of the existing environments’ influence on the government and society, but also to designing completely new units of public activity. The representatives of the new intelligentsia became the main figures in these cells, which consisted mainly of the clergy, peasants and unrich tradesmen.
 

Galician Rusyns in the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries between Ukrainian and Panruskyy projects of national identity

The formation of modern Ukrainian national identity in Galicia in the 19th – the early 20th century was a long and difficult process, not devoid of alternatives. The starting point was the delimitation of the cultural and spiritual space of the Commonwealth, declaring that the Galician Ukrainians are entitled to independent national development separate from the Poles. Although among the Galician Ukrainians there were supporters of a two-stage national identity ‒ “gente Rutheni, natione Poloni” ‒ the Ukrainian-Polish relations in Galicia developed by the logic of a struggle between nations. After separating from the Poles, the ideologues of the national movement of Galician Rusyns faced the task of defining “their” territory and history, of forming literary language. They expected serious difficulties on this way. The conservative attachment to “old Rus,” backed by a large role of the Greek Catholic clergy, has created a database for searches of national identity within a wide pan-Russian space. However, the Russophile orientation was only a step to the establishment of modern Ukrainian identity, and an attempt of some of its ideologues to equate pan-Russian space with Russian space led to its split and fall in popularity. Much more attractive to Galician Ukrainians was the “Ukrainian project” built by means of the new “Shevchenkivska” culture from Dnieper Ukraine. With the turn of the 19th and 20th century the idea of an independent Ukrainian democratic state, which had to overcome all contradictions, began to function as a kind of perfect recipe for happiness. It captured more and broader sectors of the population, although it seemed achievable at a remote time in the future.

The case of gente Rutheni, natione Poloni in Galicia

In this article, the author seeks to answer the question, since when the term gente Rutheni, natione Poloni was used in public space in Galicia. This is the starting point to search for the answer to the question of when the Ruthenians of Polish nationality in Galicia produced the idea defining their identity and worldview. The author tries to reveal when the Ruthenians of Polish nationality made an unsuccessful attempt to carry out their political demands, and how they were perceived in the Polish-Ruthenian society of Galicia. Eventually gente Rutheni, natione Poloni disappeared in the historical process because they had not created an explicit ideology and had not developed a compact elite representing the group of Ruthenians of Polish nationality in the public space. Outstanding individuals from this group functioned within Galician society, but they were more of a tool (the subject) of the Polish policy, rather than an entity.

Galician Jews in search of a new identity

The main cause for identity transformations among Galician Jews were the 19th-century modernization processes. They represented a particular challenge to the previous formulas of collective as well as individual life. As they worked in three ways, they produced different effects. In some cases, the challenges of modernity were met not only with a voluntary and positive response, but also with enthusiasm and fascination with the long-awaited “new.” In other cases, they were accepted passively, under external and sometimes also internal pressure.
The result of such acceptance was a forced adjustment of one’s actions, behavior and forms of existence to the new ways. Finally, the third attitude consisted of a tough and effective resistance, a rejection of the change which could, however, have left certain traces in the mentality of those “relentless.” Such position was consistently adopted by the orthodox and the Galician Hasidim. Collective identity, as a sum (not a sequence) of individual identities, is never one-dimensional. Thus, its new elements were an addition to the already existing ones or brought about their further modification. Still, in both cases the effect was a certain new quality. Nevertheless, despite the ongoing transformations, there remained within it a constant component of a cultural character. It determined the overall shape of the identity of Galician Jews, who were different from their fellow believers from Russia, Prussia or even other provinces of the Habsburg Monarchy. Strengthened for almost 150 years, this constant proved more lasting than the country in which it came into being and developed. Galician Jews outlived the Habsburg Monarchy and Galicia itself, cultivating the memory of the old world and their life in it. Both those who stayed in place and those who settled in Palestine or found their new fatherland in the United States, retained, for another generation at least, the elements of Galician identity in various forms.
 

Identity of Armenians in Galcia

The Armenians living in Galicia formed an ethnic identity which consisted of a few thousand members, distinguished by the liturgical rite, historical tradition and close family and social relationships. The earliest waves of migration arrived at Lwów and Kamieniec Podolski from the Tatar lands, speaking the Kipchak dialect of the Turkic language group. That ethnolect fell into disuse in the 1660s. The more recent migration groups which came to Poland on the turn of the 16th and 17th century, especially those which arrived in the beginning of the 17th century, spoke various dialects of the modern Armenian language. The usage of this language, however, began to fade on the turn of the 18th and 19th century. The Armenian community was dwindling away without further waves of migration. In this situation, the Armenians were undergoing a linguistic Polonisation and, on a lesser scale, Ruthenisation. They quickly assimilated with the Polish community, belonging to the highest social strata such as the intelligentsia and land owners. During the Spring of Nations, the relationship between Polish and Armenian identity was widely discussed. The most frequent opinion held the Armenian people to be a “tribe” of the Polish nation. The 1860s saw a journalistic dispute on the group’s identity. The anonymous author of Głos do ziomków obrządku ormiańskokatolickiego (Call to fellow followers of the Armenian Catholic rite) made a call to abandon the separate rite and unite with the Poles as one nation. Answering this, Izaak Isakowicz (the future Armenian archbishop of Lwów) fervently defended the Armenian rite and traditions. He did not hold the notion that they were a cause of division among the Polish nation, because the Armenians living in Galicia identified with the Polish reason of state and the Armenian culture enriched the Polish culture. In the 1880s, the Armenian land owner Robert Rosco-Bogdanowicz called his fellow Armenians to defy Polonisation, restore the Armenian language, migrate to the Russian Armenia and propagate Western culture, including Catholicism, in that country. Although the Galician Armenians leaned towards assimilation into Polish culture, the disputes on identity led to the rebirth of the Armenian rite and many initiatives to revive the withering ethnicity. A major role in this process was played by Józef Teodorowicz, the last Armenian-Catholic archbishop of Lwów, who equally identified with Polish and Armenian culture. A popular motto among the Galician Armenians was that “an Armenian is a double Pole.”
 

National identity of Austro-Hungarian soldiers

In the Austrian army (Austro-Hungarian army) in the second half of the 19th century the question of the national identity of officers and soldiers belonged to the most important problems of the Habsburg monarchy. Officially proclaimed army transnational password (“imperial”), in which the officers and soldiers of different nationalities and different faiths were fully-fledged and united by the idea of a common state, which was the personification of the emperor. The privileged role of the German language in the army had technical, not ideological reasons. In fact, by the second half of the 19th and early 20th century a dispute was waged among the generals and politicians on whether the army was to be transnational, multinational, or German.
In the context of transnational password Galician, the “imperial” army was popular especially among the peasant population. The “imperial” identification of the rural population was strengthened by the social conflict on the axis: noblemen (Polish) – peasants (“imperial”). Military service was associated with an increase in the standard of living by most of the recruits and with prestige in rural communities. These aspects further reinforced the “imperial” identity of the recruits. With the development of the modern sense of national consciousness in the late 19th century this identity was modified in the case of the Polish. During World War I the “imperial” identity of the Galician recruits was eventually weakened by failures at the front, the economic crisis and the collapse of state authority. In 1918 it was only a historical memory.
 

A sense of identity of the inhabitants of the Galician town (in the second half of the 19th century)

Small Galician towns had a very varied social structure. Their inhabitants formed a strictly hierarchical community. People socialized exclusively with the members of their own particular social group. One thing that united all, both those from “high society” and those standing at lower levels of the social ladder, was an unfavorable attitude towards the people living in the country, arising from townspeople’s conviction of their own “superiority.” Besides, those from the country did not consider themselves equal to townsfolk, whom they regarded as “gentlepeople.” A significant proportion of the small town community were Jews (in Western Galicia from slightly above 37% in 1880 to 33% in 1910; in the towns of Eastern Galicia from 44.6% to 43.6% respectively). The second largest religious-ethnic group among Eastern Galician small town residents were Ruthenians-Ukrainians (about 30%). The smallest community were the Roman Catholics, identified with Poles (from 23% in 1880 to more than 26% in 1910). In all small towns the Christians and the Jews formed separate communities, whose interactions were mostly business-related. In the small towns of Eastern Galicia, where one third of the population comprised of Ruthenians, both they and the Poles, but also the Jews, had a strong sense of localness, which effectively reduced ethnic tensions. The spread of national ideas in the last years of the 19th century changed this situation; it substantially weakened the previous bonds between people within neighboring local communities. Already at the turn of the 19th and 20th century the inhabitants of small Eastern Galician towns ceased to be the locals; they became either Poles or Ukrainians.

Minor gentry in Galicia – the problem of social identity

Research into the social relations in villages where there were noble villages proved that in the 19th century minor gentry was an in-between stratum, which no longer belonged to landed gentry (since they did not own enough property), but at the same time could not be classified as peasants (since they possessed coats of arms). This situation caused numerous new conflicts. For example, in many Galician noble villages there were clashes between the minor gentry and the landed gentry. Landed gentry regarded minor gentry as a quarrelsome and insubordinate element. Many land owners would have gladly treated their poorer fellows as serfs; they would have also been willing to impose on them the obligations of serfdom. Minor gentry, mindful of the danger they faced, wished to distinguish themselves from peasants in every way available. This was a site of very serious conflicts. Given the smallness of their “fortunes,” minor gentry did not differ from peasantry in terms of material wealth. However, they tried to distinguish themselves through their customs, their dress, managing style and, above all, the emphasis on the tradition of possessing coats of arms.
 

Galician peasants’ awareness in the first half of the 19th century. An outline

The article discusses the issue of peasants’ social and national awareness in Galicia in the first half of the 19th century. An important factor in peasants’ awareness was the feeling of loyalty towards the monarch and state duties. Peasants did not consider themselves a part of a larger community, either a state or national one. They were “imperials” or “locals.” “Imperiality” was expressed by loyalty towards the monarch and belief in his care and protection. “Locality” meant belonging to a local community – a family, a gathering, a parish, etc. Peasants were aware of the economic system they functioned in. They knew the regulations of inventories, the common law and new legal acts. They noticed the significance of a document, especially one that verified financial transactions.
 

“Two souls” – the evolution of cultural, social and national identity of the peasants in Galicia in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries

The aim of this paper is to characterize the evolution of social and national identity of Galician peasants in the late 19th and early 20th century. The author shows a few examples from the sources and studies on the subject, from which we can find out how these areas of peasant consciousness evolved. It was possible for changes to take place after several social and economic reforms were adopted. These changes contributed to the development of active civic attitudes and a greater participation in political life. At the same time, the emergence of peasant parties and the activities carried out by politicians contributed to the evolution of national identity. The awakening of national awareness was greatly influenced by the press and publications. A major role was also played by schools, the Church and the participation in social life of rural communities. The social and national identity of peasants showed in the celebration of national holidays, political programs and the growth of press subscription among rural inhabitants of Galicia.