Galicia as a geopolitical concept and its borders

In ancient Russia

From the 9th century until the beginning of the 12th century, eastern Galicia was part of the State of ancient Russia, subject to the Vladimir-Volyn principality. In the second half of the 11th century, the independent principalities of Volodar and Vasilko arose here with centers in the cities of Przemysl, Zvenigorod, Terebovl, and Galich. In 1144 the political center was transferred to Galich. Due to the peculiarities of its geographical location, the Galician principality grew richer and stronger. After the suppression of the Rostislavich dynasty in 1199, the principality joined neighboring Vladimir-Volynsky under the rule of Roman Volynsky. His son was Daniil Romanovich Galitsky, who in 1253 accepted the title of King of Russia from Pope Innocent IV. In ancient Russia, the Galician and Galician-Volyn principalities were the westernmost political centers, closely associated with Poland and Hungary and characterized by a similar feudal style (the high role of boyars in political decision-making), representing a more distinct geopolitical and social type than Rus Vladimir-Suzdal, from which the modern Russian state was derived.

In the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation

In the 12th-13th centuries, Galicia was invaded by Polish, Hungarian, Mongol-Tatar and Lithuanian troops. From 1349 to 1387, the Poles conquered most of eastern Galicia, dividing it into the lands of Galicia, Lvov, Przemysl, Sanock, Kholm and Belz, led by royal governors.

In the mid-15th century, from the lands of the principality of Galicia-Volyn, the Polish king Vladislav III Varnenchik formed the Russian province, whose administrative center was the city of Lvov.

In the early 16th century, Galicia's social elite changed their faith, switched from Orthodoxy to Catholicism and became Polonized. In the centuries since the Union of Brest in 1596, the Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church took root in Galicia and became a traditional religion for many of its inhabitants.

In the 17th century, the people of eastern Galicia participated in the Cossack revolt of the Zaporizhzhya Army, led by B. M. Khmelnitsky, supported by peasants and Philistines against the government of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation. Lviv was besieged twice by Khmelnytsky's army, but was never completely captured because of the satisfaction of the demands of the eastern Galician rebels.

After receiving the Western Ukrainian and partly Polish lands according to the 1st section of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation in 1772, Austria formed on their basis the “Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomiria,” which since 1849 has had the status of Austrian “crown land,” the capital of which was the city of Lemberg or Lvov.

It was then that the term “Galicia” came into wide use as a designation of a particular historical and geographical reality linked by dynastic ties with the Habsburgs.

During the period of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation, the name “Galicia” was not used. Russian “Galicia” and Ukrainian “Galicia” are late terms and etymologically derived from German Galizien. The last part of the phrase “Königreich Galizien und Lodomerien” is a translation of part of the title of the kings of Hungary, Rex Galiciae et Lodomerie. This title, in turn, goes back to 12th-century Hungarian Latin chronicles, which distortedly conveyed the title of princes and Galich and Vladimir-Volynsky.

Under the Habsburgs

The official name “Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomiria” was formed from the titles of the Hungarian kings Rex Galiciae et Lodomerie, i.e., “King of Galicia and Vladimir,” which was supposed to justify the moral right of the Habsburg power to annex these lands.

In 1741 Empress Maria Theresa, after crowning herself with the Hungarian crown of St. Stephen, also assumed the title of Queen of Galicia and Lodomeria, including the Duchies of Galicia and Vladimir. The banners of this kingdom were also carried during the coronation. In 1769, the Empress included the coats of arms of the principalities of Galicia and Vladimir in her seal. This happened in connection with the short stay of the Hungarian king Koloman on the throne of the principality of Galicia-Volyn in the 13th century. This fact also served as justification for the capture of part of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation by Austria in 1772 during the first partition of Poland (“An argument preceding the rights of the Hungarian crown to Red Russia and Podolia, as well as the Czech crown to the duchies of Auschwitz and Zatorsky”).

Since the Habsburg claims to the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation were based on the dynastic principle, the name “Galicia” was extended to territories, for the most part, that were not part of the principalities of Galicia and Vladimir. By marking them as “Galician”, the Habsburgs' possession of these lands as kings of Hungary was legitimized.

Thus, Western or New Galicia in the Austrian Empire was called the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Confederation, with some exceptions, unrelated to the former Galician principality, namely the lands of the former Lublin and Sandomierz, as well as parts of Kraków, Mazovia, Russian Voivodeship, Brest-Litovsk and Podlasha, constituting a separate administrative unit as of 1803. If the same territory of the Principality of Galicia (Russian Voivodeship) became part of the Habsburg Empire after the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation in 1772, then Western Galicia was called the lands annexed by the Habsburgs in the third section - 1775.

Subsequently, Eastern and Western Galicia were united into a single crown land of Galicia.

The boundaries of the kingdom changed several times:

• in 1786-1849 it included Bukovina; in 1795-1809 - the territory between the West Bug and Pilica rivers;
• in 1809-15 the Ternopil district was part of the Russian Empire;
• in 1809-46 Kraków was separated from the kingdom with a district, where in 1815 the Republic of Kraków was created.

After numerous boundary changes due to the Napoleonic wars and internal restructuring of the Habsburg Empire in the 1840s, the name “Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomiria, together with the Grand Duchy of Kraków and the Principalities of Auschwitz and Zator” (German: Königreich Galizien und Lodomerien mit dem Großherzogtum Krakau und den Herzogtumern Auschwitz und Zator).

During Austrian rule, however, the terms “East Galicia” and “West Galicia” continued to be used, although their respective administrative divisions disappeared.

After 1850, the term “Eastern Galicia” was used to refer to the eastern regions of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomiria with Lvov, Stanislavov, Tarnopol, Przemysl, and Sanok; its western boundary was the boundary of the Lviv Court of Appeals district-the western boundaries of the districts of Yaroslav, Bzhozuv, and Sanok. From then on, Western Galicia was understood as the territory of the Kraków Court of Appeals district.

From 1867, as part of Austria-Hungary, Galicia received limited autonomy as part of the lands controlled directly by the empire (Cisleithania) and not by the Hungarian royal crown. Therefore, Austria violated the basic principle underlying its claims to these territories: their dynastic (albeit fictitious) connection to the Kingdom of Hungary.

In the kingdom of Galicia and Lodomiria, the Galician regional Seim and elected bodies of local government were created. In 1869 Polish became the official language of the Galician administration.

From the end of the 19th century, mass emigration of Rusyns (Ukrainians) to the United States, Canada and South America took place from the territory of Galicia. At the same time, the rise of the Polish democratic movement, led by the Ludov populists, began in Galicia; in 1913 they founded the Piast party. Before World War I, the “Polish Socialist Party” enjoyed wide support in Galicia. Galicia was also the stronghold of supporters of J. Pilsudski, who created paramilitary organizations here, which became the base of the Polish Legions. During World War I, Galicia was the field of bitter battles between the Russian and Austro-Hungarian armies.

Galicia, because of the mixed composition of the population, was the base of Polish and Ukrainian national movements and the scene of numerous Polish-Russian (Ukrainian) conflicts. The Austro-Hungarian authorities in the latter case preferred to support and subsidize Ukrainian nationalists as an opposing force to the Poles and possible Russian claims on Galicia. The Ukrainians were opposed by the Muscovites, who supported an alliance with Russia and the preservation of the old name “Rusyns”, not the foreign name for this territory “Ukrainians”.

During World War I, Galicia became the scene of battles between the Russian and Austro-Hungarian armies. The Russophile intelligentsia was deported by the Austrian government to the concentration camps of Talerhof and Terezin. The region was regarded by the Russian government as territory that was to be annexed to the Russian Empire.

In turn, the Austrian leadership, relying on formations recruited from among the Galician Ukrainians, intended to include the Ukrainian lands, which at that time belonged to Russia, in the “Grand Duchy of Ukraine” created on the basis of Galicia. Archduke of Austria-Hungary Wilhelm Franz of Habsburg-Lorraine claimed the throne of this “Ukraine”.

As part of Poland

With the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, Western Galicia became part of the newly formed Polish nation-state. In Eastern Galicia, where the self-proclaimed Western Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) existed in 1918-1919, hostilities broke out between Ukrainian, Soviet and Polish troops. Between July and September 1920, the Galician Soviet Socialist Republic developed on the territory of eastern Galicia, liberated by the Red Army during the Soviet-Polish War of 1920.

According to the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, Eastern Galicia passed to Poland. During Polish rule, the name “Eastern Galicia” was gradually abandoned in favor of the term “Little Eastern Poland”. The population on the territory was mixed - in the cities it was predominantly Jewish-Polish, in the villages - Ukrainian (Rusyn). From the late 1920s, a Ukrainian nationalist movement developed on its territory, in which the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists played a significant role.

During World War II

Following the German-Polish War of 1939, Western Galicia was occupied by Germany and included in the “general government”. Eastern Galicia became part of the USSR. On the territory of Eastern Galicia, the Drogobych, Lvov, Stanislav and Ternopil regions of the Ukrainian RSS were formed. In accordance with Soviet-German agreements, the German population of East Galicia in early 1940 was resettled in German-controlled territory, and Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarusians were transferred from West Galicia to the USSR.

In 1941, East Galicia was again occupied by German troops and annexed to the “General Government” as a district (District of Galicia). During the time it was under the rule of Nazi Germany, the Jewish population of Galicia was completely destroyed and the Auschwitz extermination camp functioned in western Galicia. In 1943, the 14th SS Volunteer Infantry Division “Galicia” (Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS “Galizien”) was created by Ukrainian nationalists in Lviv.

In early 1945, Galicia was liberated by the Red Army and returned to Poland and the USSR. After the Yalta Conference (February 4-11, 1945), the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity, which arose on August 16, 1945, signed an agreement with the USSR on the border. As a result of this agreement, Lviv and the eastern part of Lviv voivodeship, as well as all the voivodeships of Stanislav and Tarnopol, were included in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Only the territory of the Przemys slopes, the environs of the towns of Yaroslav, Lubachuv, Przemysl, Sanok, Lesko, and part of the western Beskydy mountain range remained within Poland's borders from eastern Galicia.

At the same time, Polish and Soviet authorities carried out a population exchange in the territories under their control. Poles and Jews were resettled from the USSR to Poland and Ukrainians from Poland to the USSR. A significant portion of the Ukrainians and Lemko who remained in Poland were evicted from the lands of former West Galicia in 1947 to former German lands annexed to Poland (in Pomerania and Silesia) during the operation to combat the Bandera (“Vistula”) underground.

In 1951, the border between Poland and the USSR was again changed. On February 15, 1951, Poland ceded to the USSR a 480 sq. km territory with the cities of Sokal, Belz and Kristinopol (Chervonograd), and in return received the Nizhne-Ustritsky district of the Drohobych region of the Ukrainian RSS, which was annexed to Lviv in the same year.

In 1991, the western border of the USSR on the territory of the Ukrainian RSS became the border between Ukraine and Poland.

Therefore, throughout history the concept of “Galicia” and “Galician” has had different political and geographical contents. Historically, the name goes back to the principality of Galicia and Galicia-Volyn, the political systems of ancient Russia. However, the present “Galicia” appeared as a product of the imperial claims of the Habsburg power to part of the lands of Poland, which were previously part of the Old Russian state. In the process, the concept of “Russian voivodeship” was supplanted by “Galicia”, which was artificially implemented at the expense of territories that did not belong to the Galicia-Volyn principality. The borders of “Galicia” changed, mainly reflecting the politics of the imperial center in Vienna, rather than any reality on earth.

Former West and East Galicia are a contact zone between the East and West Slavs (Ukrainians and Poles). Land and population exchanges that occurred less than a century ago demonstrate the absence of natural boundaries between the two peoples of the region. If fairly recently, by historical standards, it has been possible to change one city for another several times, then why is it not possible to do so in the future?

Traduzione di Costantino Ceoldo