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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 as Galicia was the poorest province in the Austrian empire. The yearly consumption of meat did not exceed per capita, as compared to in Hungary and 33 in Germany. This was mostly due to much lower average income. In 2014, "The Economist" reported: "Poverty in Galicia in the 19th century was so extreme that it had become proverbial—the region was called Golicja and Glodomeria, a play on the official name (Galicja i Lodomeria) and "goly" (naked) and "glodny" (hungry)."
In 1888 Galicia extended over and had a population of about 6.4 million people, including 4.8 million peasants (75% of the whole population). The population density, at 81 people per square kilometre, was higher than that of France (71 inhabitants/km2) or Germany. The population rose to 7.3 million in 1900 and to 8 million in 1910.
Galicia was economically the least developed part of Austria and received considerable transfer payments from the Vienna government. Its level of development was comparable to or higher than that of Russia and the Balkans, but well behind Western Europe.
The first detailed description of the economic situation of the region was prepared by Stanislaw Szczepanowski (1846–1900), a Polish lawyer, economist and chemist who in 1873 published the first version of his report titled "Nędza galicyjska w cyfrach" ("The Galician Poverty in Numbers"). Based on his own experience as a worker in the India Office, as well as his work on development of the oil industry in the region of Borysław and the official census data published by the Austro-Hungarian government, he described Galicia as one of the poorest regions in Europe.
All in all, the region was used by the Austro-Hungarian government mostly as a reservoir of cheap workforce and recruits for the army, as well as a buffer zone against Russia. It was not until early in the 20th century that heavy industry started to be developed, which would be comparable to much of Russia and the Balkans. 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.
In 1880, industry in Galicia was at a low level. In 1857 Galicia had 102,189 persons or 2.2% of the population worked in industry. By 1870 that number had risen to 179,626, or 3.3% of the population.
Galicia was the Central Powers' only major domestic source of oil during the Great War.
Until 1849, Galicia and Lodomeria was a single province with Bukovina and used the blue-red flag (consisting of two horizontal stripes: the upper one was blue, the lower one was red).
In 1849, Bukovina was given an independent status from that of Galicia-Lodomeria and kept the blue-red flag. Galicia was given a new flag consisting of three horizontal stripes being blue, red and yellow.
That flag remained in use until 1890, when Galicia-Lodomeria received a new flag consisting of two horizontal stripes being red and white. It remained in use until the dissolution of the Kingdom of Galicia-Lodomeria in 1918 and is displayed in Ströhl's "Oesterreichisch-ungarische Wappenrolle" (1898).
The Kingdom was divided into three major military districts centered in Kraków, Lviv, and Przemyśl. Local military used a specialized language for communication known as Army Slav. One of the major army units was the 1st Army consisting of 1st (Kraków), 5th (Pressburg), and 10th (Przemyśl) Corps.
Eight out of 11 Lancer regiments were located in Galicia (see Uhlan)
The Lendians () were a Lechitic tribe who lived in the area of East Lesser Poland and Cherven Towns between the 7th and 11th centuries. Since they were documented primarily by foreign authors whose knowledge of Central and East Europe geography was often vague, they were recorded by different names, which include "Lendzanenoi", "Lendzaninoi", "Lz’njn", "Lachy", "Landzaneh", "Lendizi", "Licicaviki" and "Litziki".
In Latin historiography the Bavarian Geographer (generally dated to the mid-9th century) attests that "Lendizi habent civitates XCVIII", that is, that the "Lendizi" had 98 gords, or settlements. The Lendians are mentioned, among others, by "De administrando imperio" (c. 959, as Λενζανηνοί), by Josippon (c. 953, as "Lz’njn"), by the "Primary Chronicle" (c. 981, as ляхи), by Ali al-Masudi (c. 940, as "Landzaneh").
They are also identified to the "Licicaviki" from the 10th-century chronicle "Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres" by Widukind of Corvey, who recorded that Mieszko I of Poland (960–992) ruled over the "Sclavi" tribe. The same name is additionally considered to be related to the oral tradition of Michael of Zahumlje from "DAI" that his family originates from the unbaptized inhabitants of the river Vistula called as "Litziki", and the recount by Thomas the Archdeacon in his "Historia Salonitana" (13th century), where seven or eight tribes of nobles, who he called "Lingones", arrived from Poland and settled in Croatia under Totila's leadership.
The name "Lędzianie" (*lęd-jan-inъ) derives from the Proto-Slavic and Old Polish word "lęda", meaning "field". In modern Polish, the word "ląd" means "land". The Lędzianie tribe's name comes from their use of slash-and-burn agriculture, which involved cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. Accordingly, in this meaning Lendians were a woodland-burning farmers, or "inhabitants of fields". Several European nations source their ethnonym for Poles, and hence Poland, from the name of Lendians: Lithuanians ("lenkai", "Lenkija") and Hungarians ("Lengyelország").
Lendians are often considered to be a tribe that the Ruthenian chronicles referred to as Liakhy (Лѧховѣ). The Hypatian Codex however states the following:
Which translates as: "The Slavs who came and settled along Wisla and were called "Liakhove" from whom descended Lechitic Polans, Lutici, Masovians, and Pomeranians."
After the Polish Piast dynasty united many West Slavic tribes, the ethnonym Liakhy was used to refer to all those tribes and subsequently to the newly established Polish people. It was mainly an exonym — rarely used by Poles themselves in historic times, with the exception of the Lachy Sadeckie — though one of the Old Czech Chronicles states that a legendary person named Lech was the founder of Poland (see Lech, Čech, and Rus).
In pre-Slavic times the region was populated by the Lugii and Anarti, associated with the Przeworsk and Puchov cultures. They were followed by East Germanic tribes, the Goths, and Vandals. After these vacated the territory, the West Slavs (Lendians and Vistulans) moved in. Around 833 the land of the Lendians was incorporated into the Great Moravian state. Upon the invasion of the Hungarian tribes into the heart of Central Europe around 899, the Lendians submitted to their authority (Masudi). In the first half of the 10th century, they paid tribute to Igor I of Kiev (Constantine VII).
The Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Cracow with its Territory (), more commonly known as either the Free City of Cracow or the Republic of Cracow (, ), was a city republic created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which included the city of Kraków and its surrounding areas.
It was jointly controlled by its three neighbours (Russia, Prussia, and Austria), and was a centre of agitation for an independent Poland. In 1846, in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Kraków Uprising, the Free City of Cracow was annexed by the Austrian Empire. It was a remnant of the Duchy of Warsaw, which was partitioned between the three states in 1815.
The Free City of Cracow was an overwhelmingly Polish-speaking city-state; of its population 85% were Catholics, 14% were Jews while other religions comprised less than 1%. The city of Kraków itself had a Jewish population reaching nearly 40%, while the rest were almost exclusively Polish-speaking Catholics.
The Free City was approved and guaranteed by of the of 3 May 1815. The statelet received an at the same time, revised and expanded in 1818, establishing significant autonomy for the city. The Jagiellonian University could accept students from the partitioned territory of Poland. The Free City thus became a centre of Polish political activity on the territories of partitioned Poland.
During the November Uprising of 1830–31, Kraków was a base for the smuggling of arms into the Russian-controlled Kingdom of Poland. After the end of the uprising the autonomy of the Free City was severely restricted. The police were controlled by Austria and the election of the president had to be approved by all three powers. Kraków was subsequently occupied by the Austrian army from 1836 to 1841. After the unsuccessful Kraków uprising of 1846, the Free City was annexed by Austria on 16 November 1846 as the Grand Duchy of Cracow.
The Free City of Cracow was created from the southwest part of the Duchy of Warsaw (part of the former Kraków Department on the left bank of the Vistula river). The territory of the city was at its least 1164–1234 km² (sources vary). It bordered the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire. It comprised the city of Kraków and its environs; the other settlements in the area administered by the Free City included 224 villages and three towns (Chrzanów, Trzebinia and Nowa Góra).
In 1815, its population was 95,000; as of 1843, it had a population of 146,000. 85% of them were Catholics, 14% Jews, while other religions comprised 1%. The most notable szlachta family was the Potocki family of magnates, who had a mansion in Krzeszowice.
The Free City was a duty-free area, allowed to trade with Russia, Prussia and Austria. In addition to no duties, it had very low taxes, and various economic privileges were granted by the neighbouring powers. As such, it became one of the European centres of economic liberalism and supporters of laissez-faire, attracting new enterprises and immigrants, which resulted in impressive growth of the city. Weavers from Prussian Silesia had often used the Free City as a contraband outlet to avoid tariff barriers along the borders of Austria and the Kingdom of Poland, but with Austria's annexation of the Free City came a significant drop in Prussian textile exports.
The statelet received an initial constitution in 1815 which had mainly been devised by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. The constitution was revised and expanded in 1818, establishing significant autonomy for the city. Legislative power was vested in the Assembly of Representatives ("Izba Reprezentantów"), and the executive power was given to a Governing Senate.
In 1833, in the aftermath of the November Uprising and the foiled plan by some Polish activists to start an uprising in Kraków, the partitioning powers issued a new, much more restrictive constitution: the number of senators and deputies was lowered and their competences limited, while the commissars of the partitioning powers had their competences expanded. Freedom of the press was also curtailed. In 1835 a secret treaty between the three partitioning powers presented a plan in which in case of additional Polish unrest, Austria was given the right to occupy and annex the city. That would take place after the Kraków Uprising of 1846.
The law was based on the Napoleonic civil code and French commercial and criminal law. The official language was Polish. In 1836 the local police force was disbanded and replaced by Austrian police; in 1837 the partitioning powers curtailed the competences of the local courts which refused to bow down to their demands.
The Free City of Kraków was the first purely republican government in the history of Poland.
The Museum of Nowa Huta is a branch of the Historical Museum of Kraków. This department was opened on 26 April 2005 by the Mayor of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski. It contains temporary exhibitions related to the history and monuments of Nowa Huta, the youngest district of Krakow. This branch arranges lessons, lectures and organizes academic conferences related to this district. The museum is located on the ground floor in a 4-floor apartment building. The scouts' supply depot has been adapted to the needs of this branch and a modern audio-visual and exhibition room has been created.
Almanach cracoviense ad annum 1474 (Cracovian Almanac for the Year 1474) is a broadside astronomical wall calendar for the year 1474, and Poland's oldest known print. This single-sheet incunable, known also as the Calendarium cracoviense (Cracovian Calendar), was published at Kraków in 1473 by Kasper Straube, an itinerant Bavarian printer who worked in Kraków between 1473 and 1476.
Like other almanacs and calendars of its day, the "Almanach" lists Church holidays and astronomical data, including planetary oppositions and conjunctions. It also provides medical advice, listing the best days for bloodletting, depending on the age and illness of the patient. The "Almanach"'s text is in Latin.
At the time of its publication, the technology of printing with movable type was just 20 years old and remained almost entirely confined to Germans, who in the 1470s spread it widely through Europe. Printing appeared early in that decade in France and the Netherlands, and after 1473 in England and Spain.
The only surviving copy of "Almanach cracoviense" measures 37 cm by 26.2 cm, and is in the collections of the Jagiellonian University.
The Kasina Wielka witch trial occurred in 1634 in the small rural village of Prąmnik in Kraków, Poland. Zofia Konstancja and Agnieszka Michałowska were convicted of witchcraft. Konstancia was burned at the stake on 11 August 1634, and Michałowska was burned on 5 September 1634.
The two women were accused of using witchcraft against the Pramnik Mill belonging to the Dominican monastery in Kraków, which resulted in damage to the Prąmnicki fields, and of causing harm to one of the monks, i.e. the Protas factor.
This is the only rural witchcraft trial that resulted in a death sentence in Poland, and one of a few in Europe. The story of this accusation resembles the folk tale Mowing-Devil.
The Pramnik Mill still stands in Prądnik Czerwony in Kraków on Dominikana Street, a historic example of a medieval watermill.
The Prussian Homage or Prussian Tribute (; ) was the formal investment of Albert of Prussia as duke of the Polish fief of Ducal Prussia.
As a symbol of vassalage, Albert received a standard with the Prussian coat of arms from the Polish king. The black Prussian eagle on the flag was augmented with a letter "S" (for Sigismundus) and had a crown placed around its neck as a symbol of submission to Poland.
Homages of Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights.
The tradition of "Prussian Homages" dates back to the year 1469, when, after the Thirteen Years' War, and the Second Peace of Thorn, all Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights were obliged to pay homage to Polish rulers within six months of their election. Some Grand Masters refused to do so, claiming that the Teutonic Knights were under Papal sovereignty. Among those who refused were Martin Truchseß von Wetzhausen, Frederick of Saxony (who referred the matter to the 1495 Imperial Diet), as well as Duke Albert.
The Duchy of Prussia was created in 1525, and the homage of Duke Albert of Prussia took place on 10 April 1525 at Kraków. The last homage took place on 6 October 1641 in front of the Warsaw's Royal Castle. Following the Treaty of Bromberg (1657), Prussian rulers were no longer regarded as vassals of Polish kings.
Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana ("Literary Sodality of the Vistula") was an international academic society modelled after the Roman Academy, founded around 1488 in Cracow by Conrad Celtes, a German humanist scholar who in other areas founded several similar societies.
The society was active in the fields of mathematics, astronomy and the natural sciences. Notable members, besides Conrad Celtes, were Albert Brudzewski, Filip Callimachus, Laurentius Corvinus.
The General Government of Galicia and Bukovina () was a temporary Imperial Russian military administration of eastern parts of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria captured from Austria-Hungary during World War I.
The administration was established after the Russian victory in the Battle of Galicia, led by the commander-in-chief Nikolai Ivanov in the late summer of 1914. It did not last long and by mid-1915 Russians retreated, following the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive led by the Central Powers overall commander August von Mackensen. During the later stages of the war, the Russian forces tried to reclaim the territory during the military operations of Brusilov and Kerensky.
There were four governments ("guberniya") that were divided into counties ("uyezdy", locally - "powiats").
The Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych (SSJK) is a society of traditionalist priests and seminarians originating from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which is led by the excommunicated priest Basil Kovpak. It is based in Riasne, Lviv, Western Ukraine. In Lviv, the society maintains a seminary, at which currently thirty students reside, and takes care of a small convent of Basilian sisters. The SSJK is affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X and Holy Orders are conferred by the latter society's bishops in the Roman Rite. The SSJK clergymen, however, exclusively follow a version of Slavonic Byzantine Rite in the Ruthenian recension.
The seminary of the SSJK is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady and currently is attended by thirty seminarians. The seminary, the society says, is intended to be a modest support in the conversion to Catholicism not only of Ukraine, but of Russia as well. Devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and fidelity to traditional Catholic theology (with an emphasis on pre-conciliar theological emphases) are considered important.
Relations with the "sui iuris" Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Holy See.
The SSJK rejects the de-Latinization reforms currently being strongly enforced within the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is in full communion with Rome. These reforms began with the 1930s corrections of the liturgical books by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. According to his biographer Cyril Korolevsky, however, Metropolitan Andrey opposed the use of force against liturgical Latinizers. He expressed fear that any attempt to do so would lead to a Greek Catholic equivalent of the 1666 Schism in the Russian Orthodox Church.
The de-Latinisation of the UGCC gained further momentum with the 1964 decree "Orientalium Ecclesiarum" of the Second Vatican Council) and several subsequent documents. This resulted in the Latinisations being discarded within the Ukrainian diaspora. The Soviet occupation of Western Ukraine had meanwhile forced Byzantine Catholics into a clandestine existence and the Latinizations continued to be used in the underground. After the prescription against the UGCC was lifted in 1989, numerous UGCC priests and hierarchs arrive from the diaspora and attempted to enforce liturgical conformity.
In his memoir "Persecuted Tradition", Basil Kovpak has accused the UGCC hierarchy of using intense psychological pressure against priests who are reluctant or unwilling to de-Latinize. He alleges that numerous laity, who have been attached to the Latinizations since the days of the underground, would prefer to stay home on Sunday rather than attend a de-Latinized liturgy.
The SSJK for instance opposes the removal of the stations of the cross, the rosary, and the monstrance from the liturgy and parishes of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In rejecting these reforms, they also reject the right of the Church authorities to make these reforms; thus who controls the formate of liturgy becomes an important point of debate.
Critics of the SSJK point out that their liturgical practice favours severely abbreviated services and imported Roman Rite devotions over the traditional and authentic practices and ancient devotions of Eastern Tradition and particularly the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Proponents counter that these "Latin" symbols and rituals, borrowed from their Latin Catholic Polish neighbours, have long been practised by Ukrainian Greek Catholics, in some cases for centuries, and that to suppress them is to deprive the Ukrainian Catholic faithful of a part of their own sacred heritage. The central point in the dispute is over what constitutes 'organic development'.
The Holy See, however, has argued since before the Second Vatican Council that Latinization was not an organic development. Frequently cited examples of this are Pope Leo XIII's 1894 encyclical "Orientalium dignitas" and Saint Pius X's instructions that the priests of the Russian Catholic Church should offer the Liturgy, "No More, No Less, and No Different," than the Orthodox and Old Ritualist clergy.
The SSJK also opposes the abandonment of Church Slavonic, the traditional liturgical language of the Slavic Churches (both Orthodox and Greek-Catholic) in favour of the modern Ukrainian in the Liturgy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The society holds that Church Slavonic is essential to stress necessary Catholic unity among all Slavic peoples, and to avoid nationalism which has for a long time divided Slavic Christians.
However, critics claim that the essence of Eastern liturgical practice is to pray in a language which is understood by the people, and that Church Slavonic has ceased to be such a language, becoming a pale imitation of the Western practice of using Latin to promote unity. The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has a large presence in many non-Slavic countries, with numerous eparchies and parishes in the diaspora, exacerbating the problem of parishioners not understanding what is being celebrated as well as raising issues of assimilation.
The Society of Saint Josaphat condemns ecumenism with the Orthodox currently practised by both the Holy See and the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Instead the society promotes Catholic missionary activities among the Orthodox, who are not in communion with the Holy See. In "Persecuted Tradition", Basil Kovpak cites numerous examples of the UGCC turning away Orthodox clergy and laity who wish to convert. In many cases, he alleges, this is because the converts are not ethnically Ukrainian.
In 2003, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar excommunicated SSJK superior Kovpak from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Kovpak appealed this punishment at the Roman Rota in Vatican City and the excommunication was declared null and void by reason of a lack of canonical form.
On 22 November 2006, Bishop Richard Williamson who was then a member of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), illicitly ordained two priests and seven deacons in Warsaw, Poland, for the SSJK, in violation of canon 1015 §2, and of canons 1021 and 1331 §2 of the Code of Canon Law, and the corresponding canons of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. An SSPX priest who was present remarked, "We were all very edified by their piety, and I myself was astonished by the resemblance of the atmosphere amongst the seminarians with that which I knew in the seminary – this in spite of the difference of language, nationality and even rite."
Archbishop Ihor Vozniak of Lviv (the archdiocese in which Kovpak is incardinated) denounced Williamson's action as a "criminal act" and condemned Kovpak's participation in the ceremony. He stressed that the two priests that Williamson had ordained would not receive faculties within the archeparchy. Officials of the Lviv archdiocese said that Kovpak could face [[excommunication]], and that "'he deceives the church by declaring that he is a Greek (Byzantine) Catholic priest,' while supporting a group [SSPX] that uses the old Latin liturgy exclusively, eschewing the Byzantine tradition, and does not maintain allegiance to the Holy See." Accordingly, Kovpak's excommunication process was restarted by the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and confirmed by the [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] on 23 November 2007.
John Jenkins, a member of the Society of St. Pius X, said in 2006 that the new archbishop of Lviv declared that his main task for the following year was to eradicate the "Lefebvrists" from his territory.
Although the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with the backing of the Holy See, had thus declared Kovpak excommunicated and the Society of St. Josaphat lacking faculties for a ministry within the Catholic Church, they themselves maintain that, though they are in dispute with Lubomyr and, presumably, with his successor, [[Sviatoslav Shevchuk]], and through their association with the Society of St Pius X, indirectly in dispute with the church hierarchy, they are loyal to the [[Pope]] and the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]], and are merely resisting what they consider to be [[Modernism (Roman Catholicism)\|modernism]], [[indifferentism]], and [[liberalism]].
Unlike in the case of their ethnic Polish counterparts, the Ukrainian nobility in Galicia (Galician Rusyns) as a class played a marginal role in western Ukrainian society, which came to be dominated by Ukrainian priestly families, who formed a tight-knit hereditary caste that constituted the wealthiest and most highly educated group within the Ukrainian population. There was considerable overlap between priests and nobles however, with many priestly families also belonging to the nobility. During the late nineteenth century until the 1930s more than half of the Ukrainian priestly families in western Ukraine had noble origins. Such families tended to identify themselves primarily as priests rather than as nobles. The focus of this article is on those ethnic Ukrainians in western Ukraine whose primary social orientation was as nobles.
The territory of western Ukraine was part of the medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the collapse of Kieven Rus, the westernmost part of that state formed the independent Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia. By the end off the fourteenth century, this territory had become part of Poland. Over the following centuries, most of the wealthy native landowning nobility eventually adopted the dominant Polish nationality and Roman Catholic religion, and completely assimilated into Polish society.
The nobility in western Ukraine that retained its non-Polish identity was generally poorer and developed as a social class in the fourteenth century.
In the 1930s the Polish government attempted to assimilate western Ukrainian nobles into Polish culture. At that time, Polish researchers claimed that the Ukrainian nobles were descended from poor Polish nobles who became assimilated into Ukrainian culture by adopting the Ukrainian language and Orthodox religion of the peasants among whom they lived. They noted that the period of Polish rule involved the settlement of newly acquired Ukrainian territories by Poles, and that the Ukrainian nobility's speech frequently used Polish words and expressions. The Polish historians also pointed out that in the early 19th century western Ukrainian nobles tended to ally themselves with Polish rather than East Slavic or Ukrainian causes politically. This was seen as a vestige of their originally Polish roots.
During the times when western Ukraine was part of Poland, the nobles had a duty to defend the Polish state. Accordingly, they were obligated to participate in regular military reviews where they presented themselves and their weapons. The relative poverty of the Ukrainian nobility was evident in the fact that few owned armor, very few could afford to come on horseback, and they were typically armed only with sabers, muskets or even small caliber bird-hunting rifles.
Under Austria-Hungary and into the twentieth century.
Abolition of serfdom and loss of status.
In one of the two regions with a large concentration of Ukrainian nobles, western Podilia, the loss of special noble legal privileges and elimination of peasant serfdom led to the assimilation of most of the western Ukrainian nobility into the Ukrainian peasantry and to the disappearance of the nobility as a social group. In contrast, nobles from southern Galicia would retain their distinct self-identity well into the twentieth century.
Because the western Ukrainian nobles had not owned estates or serfs, unlike the Polish nobility they were not hated by the peasants. Conversely, because they themselves had never been enserfed, the Ukrainian nobility did not share the peasants' animosity towards the Polish nobility, and indeed felt a class solidarity with them.
During and After the First World War.
On the eve of World War I, many Ukrainian nobles joined the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, a patriotic Ukrainian unit within the Austro-Hungarian Army. Dmytro Vitovsky and Myron Tarnavsky, two of the supreme commanders of the Ukrainian Galician Army which fought against Poland for Ukrainian independence after World War I, were noblemen. Yevhen Petrushevych, president of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was from a family of noble priests who traced their origins to Galician boyars. In a survey given to members of the Ukrainian National Council, the legislative body of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, although 2.4% listed their primary social origin as nobility several of those who listed their origin as clergy also came from noble families.
During the period of Polish rule over Western Ukraine between the world wars, efforts by the Polish government in the 1930s to split the Ukrainian nobility from other Ukrainians (through the formation of "Kola Szlacheckie") were unsuccessful. Such efforts backfired, resulting in many nobles rejecting and even concealing their status as nobles in order to avoid possible association with the Polish nation and in order to emphasize their solidarity with the Ukrainian people, most of whom were the descendants of peasants.
In the early 21st century an attempt was made to revive the Association of Ruthenian Gentry. Based in the traditional heartland of western Ukrainian nobility, the town of Sambir, its first head was the priest Petro Sas-Pohoretsky.
The earliest recorded observations noted that western Ukrainian nobles spoke the East Slavic Ukrainian (or Ruthenian) language, rather than Polish. Although they spoke the same language as the Ukrainian peasants, they maintained their own particular traditions. Nobles tended to be more likely to be literate than were peasants. The nobility tended to use the literary Ukrainian language rather than local village dialects. Reflecting some exposure to education, noble speech was also differentiated from that of the peasants by the frequent use of Polish and Latin words and expressions.
The western Ukrainian nobility often used as surnames the names of the villages where they lived. For example, the nobles of Terlo adopted the name Terletsky, and those of Kulchytsi adopted the name Kulchytsky. Surnames ending in -ich (-ич) or -ik (-ик) were also used. They usually gave their children Ukrainian names but on occasion gave them Polish versions of Ukrainian names.
Villages populated primarily by nobles generally had no central planning, with the nobles building their homes wherever they liked on their properties. Western Ukrainian nobles typically lived in small one or two room houses with straw roofs whose interiors were in most ways indistinguishable from those of the peasants. Noble homes differed from those of peasants primarily by their outward appearance. Noble homes had front porches, with columns, and larger windows than did peasant homes.
Those nobles who were not also priests usually worked as farmers and, after the abolition of serfdom in 1848, had lifestyles very similar to those of the Ukrainian peasants. When possible, the nobility sought to use common fields and forests that were different from those used by peasants. A minor difference between peasants and nobles was the peasants tended to use oxen for plowing, while the nobility favored the use of horses for such work. This tradition was likely a vestige of earlier times when the nobles' ancestors were obligated to occasionally use horses for military activities and as scouts.
The nobles amused themselves by dancing and visiting each other in their homes; they tended to segregate themselves from peasants when doing so. Among their favorite dances were the same ones beloved by non-noble Ukrainians, such as the Kolomyjka and the Kozak. The Mazurka, popular among Poles, was shunned by Ukrainian nobles.
The peasants had mixed feelings about the nobility. On the one hand, peasant songs mentioned noble laziness and shoddy workmanship. Despite nobles' feelings of superiority, during the late nineteenth century the western Ukrainian nobility had a reputation among the peasants of being poorer than peasants because they did not work as hard. Due to the nobility's material poverty, the peasants sometimes viewed the nobles' proclamations of their status and expressions of superiority as ridiculous. On the other hand, it was considered a great honor in a peasant household if someone married a noble.
The western Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko, whose mother was a noblewoman, supported the peasants and in his writings frequently mocked the Ukrainian nobility's feelings of superiority.
A western Ukrainian nobleman serves as a protagonist in the story "Der Don Juan von Kolomea" (The Don Juan of Kolomiya) written by Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose mother was from the western Ukrainian nobility.
The Muczne massacre of 16 August 1944 was the massacre of Polish civilians committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) in village Muczne located in Bieszczady County in Poland.
Among the Poles were mainly refugees after the repression of the population in Volhynia and retreating in front of - 70 Poles were murdered. They were residents of nearby villages such as foresters, priests and children. Members of the UPA murdered Poles with axes, pitchforks and scythes.
In place of the murder in 2010 the memorial and a wooden cross was erected.
The Huta Pieniacka massacre was a massacre of the Polish inhabitants of the village Huta Pieniacka, located in modern-day Ukraine, which took place on February 28, 1944. Estimates of the number of victims range from 500, to 1,200.
Polish and Ukrainian historians disagree over the responsibility for the Huta Pienacka massacre. According to the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, the action was committed by the 14th subunit of the 14th SS Volunteer Division "Galizien" of the Waffen-SS. Polish witnesses testified that the orders were given by German officers. According to witness accounts and scholarly publications, SS Galizien were accompanied by a paramilitary unit of Ukrainian nationalists under Włodzimierz Czerniawski's command, including members of the UPA and inhabitants of local villages who intended to seize property found in the households of the murdered. According to Ukrainian historians, the massacre was committed by SS Police regiments.
The Warsaw division of the "Commission for the punishment of crimes against the Polish people" launched an investigation in July 2001.
Huta Pieniacka was a village of about 1,000 ethnically Polish inhabitants in 200 houses, located in the Tarnopol Voivodeship, Poland (today Ternopil Oblast in Ukraine). In 1939, following joint German and Soviet attack on Poland, the voivodeship was annexed by the Soviet Union, becoming part of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. After the 1941 German attack on the Soviet Union, it fell under German occupation.
The village was a major Polish resistance centre, fighting against German forces and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. As a result, the Ukrainians wanted to eliminate this Polish stronghold. Polish inhabitants of the village co-operated with Soviet partisans, active in the area. In January and February 1944, Soviet troops were frequent visitors, and this was noticed by both the Ukrainians and the Germans. An armed stronghold, Huta Pieniacka had fought off several attacks in 1943 and early 1944.
Early in the morning of February 28, 1944, a mixed force of Ukrainian SS and German soldiers surrounded Huta Pieniacka. There were some 600–800 soldiers and it has been established that Kazimierz Wojciechowski (who was burnt alive that day), commandant of Polish forces in the village, had been informed of the approaching enemy around two hours before the attack. The Poles however, had too little time to prepare a defense or to escape.
The village was shelled by artillery. Some time around noon a mixed force of Ukrainian SS and German soldiers and a strong contingent from the SS Freiwilligen Division "Galizien" surrounded Huta Pieniacka and herded the villagers into their barns. The attackers set fire to the village and it burned all day. According to Bogusława Marcinkowska, a historian from Kraków's office of the Institute of National Remembrance, the Ukrainians threw infants against walls and cut open the stomachs of pregnant women. The murderers left at night. Many of them were drunk and singing songs. Only four houses remained, and on the next day a mass funeral took place. Those who survived escaped to Zloczow and other towns, never to return.
Witnesses interrogated by the Polish prosecutors of "The Head Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation" described the details of crimes committed against women, children and newborn babies. After murdering the inhabitants of Huta Pieniacka, the local Ukrainian population looted the remaining property of the murdered, loading everything on horse-drawn carts that had been prepared beforehand. According to those Poles who survived, the Germans did not participate in the massacre itself.

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