XIX-wieczna arystokracja polska w Galicji Wschodniej wobec ruskich (ukraińskich) aspiracji narodowych

Abstract

Polish aristocracy in the nineteenth century Eastern Galicia in relation to Ukrainian national aspirations

The fear of losing political and material advantage in the Eastern Galicia determined the attitudes of local Polish landowners toward the Ukrainian national movement from the midnineteenth century. The formula gente Rutheni, natione Poloni was the most popular among Galician aristocracy of that time as a way of solving the Ukrainian question. Therefore aristocrats often called themselves “Rusyns” (in the territorial sense) and insisted on their right to represent the interests of “Rus”. Initiated from time to time the attempts of Polish-Ukrainian agreement were the external expression of such moods. Often these attempts were opposed to the planned consequences – instead of combining (with subordination of Ukrainians to Polish national political objectives and keeping Ukrainian society within Polish cultural and intellectual space) they showed a rapid process of national emancipation of Ukrainians, and in some sense only deepened the ethnic conflict. On the other hand, these agreements put in order emotions only for a short time, created the illusion of unity so necessary to maintain the relative balance in the society. Eastern Galician aristocrats lost the sense of the real time in their attempt to accommodate national aspirations of Ukrainians in the patriarchal borders. In the early twentieth century they were not able to compete with a group of national democrats (endecy), who built his political and national strategies on the basis of the modern nationalism. In this sense, the aristocrats lost “Ukrainian question”. They lost not only to Ukrainians, but also to Polish national democrats who openly declared inability to return the ancient times and stood for uncompromising national struggle.