The rise of the Ukrainian National Movements in Austrian Galicia

Abstract

'The Ukrainian national movement in Austrian Galicia - a peop!e who then called themselves Ruthenians - arose out of the disintegration of Po!and at the close of the eighteenth century. The northeast corner of the Austrian partition of Po!and - Galicia - was inhabited mostly by Poles and the Ukrainian-speaking Ruthenians. From the very beginning of Austrian rule in 1772, the Habsburg authorities challenged the Polish definition of Ruthenians as nationally Polish and ethnically Ruthenian. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the Austrians attempted to form a favorable status for the Ruthenians, with the aim of weakening the Polish separatist snuggle. By granting the Ruthenians the status of a separate nationality, the Austrian authorities successfully cultivated Ukrainian loyalty.