BOOK REVIEW: The national movement in Galicia (12/28/86)

BOOK REVIEW

The national movement in Galicia

by Eugene M. Iwanciw

Rarely does one run across a scholarly work, especially about Ukrainian history, that is also enjoyable reading for the layman. Such a work is "The Ukrainian National Movement in Galicia: 1815-1849" by Jan Kozik, recently published in English by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta.

The book is, in reality, the translation and merger of Dr. Kozik's two doctoral theses which were published in Poland in 1973 and 1975. In 1977, he agreed to the translation of his two books into English and their publication as a single volume. He also proposed to extend the work chronologically until 1866. His untimely death in 1979 at the young age of 45 prevented this extension and robbed Ukrainian studies of a truly outstanding scholar.

With the expansion of empires and the partition of Poland in the late 1700s, three regions of Ukraine found themselves under the rule of the Austrian Empire at the beginning of the 19th century. The regions were Galicia, Bukovina, and Transcarpathian Rus'. It is within this context that Dr. Kozik begins his story of the development of modern Ukrainian national consciousness in Galicia.

What follows is a story that flows so smoothly the reader often forgets that it is, after all, a history book. As with a mystery, the reader is often tempted to read faster to learn the outcome of a particular episode. The characters, though numerous, add life to the story.

Scholars need not fear that academic standards were compromised in the process of making the book interesting to all readers. The text is rich with details about events and players. The 368 pages of text contain over 1,200 footnotes, many from primary sources. The lay reader, however, can easily gloss over the footnotes and details which the scholar will wish to study.

The true beauty of the book, however, is in the story which it tells. In the span of one generation, Ukrainian national consciousness, long dormant under Polish, Hungarian and Austrian rule, comes alive. In many ways, the story is one of the rise of modern Ukrainian language for it was through language and literature that consciousness was awakened. The battleground was also often the language.

So as not to confuse the reader about the use of terminology, Dr. Kozik makes clear, at the outset, whom he is writing about. On page 17 he notes: "The Ukrainians, who were called and referred to themselves at that time as Ruthenians (Ukrainian: Rusyny; Polish: Rusini; German: Ruthenen) comprised the largest national group in the 12 eastern Galician districts."

The major groups in the drama include the Polish landowners (desiring the economic status quo but an independent Poland), the Polish reformers (urging economic reform), the emerging Ukrainian intelligentsia, the Ukrainian peasant, and the Austrian rulers. Throughout the book, the tension among these groups provides for a lively story. Since the Poles were united in their view of Ukrainians as really Poles, the Ukrainians usually sided with the Austrian monarchy which was only too happy to play one group against the other.

The absence of a Ukrainian literary language inhibited the development of national consciousness among all sectors of the population. It is the story and the conflicts in the development of the literary language and its orthography that is the basis of the work.

While the peasants were strongly Ukrainian, Galicia lacked a Ukrainian intelligentsia. Over time, most of the educated Ukrainians became Polonized. The leadership of the Ukrainian movement, therefore, fell to the only educated segment of the population with some semblance of national consciousness - the priests. The young priests, however, often found themselves in conflict with the Greek Catholic Church hierarchy who preferred the status quo.

The development of the literary language was fought on many fronts with the Church hierarchy pushing for Church-Slavonic and the priests urging the use of the peasant vernacular as the basis for the literary language. The alphabet to be used (Latin or Cyrillic) and the orthography were also hotly contested. It was the compilation of peasant folk songs and the influence of the writers from Russian-dominated eastern Ukraine, such as Kotliarevsky, Hulak-Artemovsky, Kvitka-Osnovianenko, and Shevchenko which finally carried the day.

The collection of native folk poetry in both Russian and Austrian Ukraine made the development of the modern Ukrainian language and the literature of the 19th century possible. Dr. Kozik points out that, "Without this knowledge of folk creativity, the poetry of Taras Shevchenko and the splendid melodious quality of his literary style would be unthinkable. The appearance of Taras Shevchenko was the single most important event in directing Ukrainian literature onto a national and revolutionary course."

A good part of the book focuses on the turbulent years of 1848-1949 and the interaction of the Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Slovaks and Austrians. Each group postured for advantages in the chaos of the period. Many other Slavic groups lent support to the Ukrainian efforts for national identity. In the end, however, it was lack of Ukrainian unity and political sophistication that prevented the type of success that may have been possible.

The period has no lack of villains. Obviously, the Poles were the principle enemy for the Ukrainians. The Austrians, however, also undercut many of the efforts of the Ukrainian movement. Of course, Ukrainians often proved to be their own worst enemy. For example while Lviv University was Germanized, philosophy and theology courses were presented in Ruthenian. Dr. Kozik writes: "Ultimately even this limited use generated dissatisfaction among the Ukrainians, who felt they were being wronged by not being lectured to in German like the Poles." Ruthenian, thus, was eliminated from the university.

The book is more than an outstanding work of history; it is almost literature and should be widely read within the community. Efforts to publish and translate other works of this nature must be encouraged if we are to understand our own history. There is no lack of scholarship in Ukrainian history. Outstanding research is taking place in the United States, Canada and Poland. It seems that there is more a lack of interest among our Ukrainian population, much as was the case until almost the mid-19th century.

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