Національна політика російської та австро-угорської імперій на Волині і в Галичині (початок ХХ ст.): порівняльний аналіз

Abstract

In the article, by means of a comparative confrontation, the national policies of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires in Volhynia and Galicia at the beginning of the ХХ century are analyzed, in particular, what concerns the three greatest ethnic groups of these lands, namely, the Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews. The territorial borders of the research under view cover the Volhynian gubernia of the Russian empire and the eastern part of Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomerіa (the eastern Galicia) of Austro-Hungarian empire.

A comparative analysis of the national policy of the two aforementioned empires in concern of the three most numerous ethnic groups of Volhynia and East Galicia testifies to the presence of considerable differences in the methods of actions of the Russian and Austrian governments. The Romanovs’ monarchy craved to unify the national structure of the population of the Volhynia gubernia by the assimilation of the Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews, as well as by the restriction of their economic and cultural-educational interests. The majority of the Ukrainian population of the Volhynia gubernia were treated by the Russian officials as the “little Russians”, that is, as the part of the uniform Russian people. The struggle was conducted against the Ukrainian intelligentsia which supported a national-cultural separateness of the Ukrainian people. The Poles and the Jews were unequivocally treated as «foreigners» towards whom the government carried out an overtly discriminational national policy. At the same time, the Habsburg monarchy, having transferred in 1860th into the parliamentarism line, recognized the national-cultural rights of the Ukrainians, Poles and Jews of Galicia. However, in a politically-administrative plane, the Austrian power relied on the Polish minority in Galicia, especially on its political, social and economic elite. In these conditions, the Ukrainians and the Jew, showing loyalty to the Austrian authorities, were actively engaged in the development of their own political, party, public, economic, and cultural institutions. In spite of all obstacles, the national policy of the two empires has something in common, namely, the problem of self-preservation as the monarchic states and an ideology of the fidelity to the monarchical house.