History of Galicia (Eastern Europe)
In 955 those areas north of the Carpathian Mountains constituted an autonomous part of the Duchy of Bohemia and remained so until around 972, when the first Polish (western Polans) territorial claims began to emerge.
Daniel's dynasty also attempted to gain papal and broader support in Europe for an alliance against the Mongols, but proved incapable of competing with the rising powers of Great Duchy of Lithuania and Poland.
At the start of the 13th century, the king of Galicia–Volhynia, Roman Mstislavich, became the main military ally of the Byzantine Empire led by Alexios III, who referred to him as "igemon of Galicia".
Lviv (Lemberg, Lwów) served as capital of Austrian Galicia, which was dominated by the Polish aristocracy, despite the fact that the population of the eastern half of the province was mostly Ukrainian (or Ruthenian, as they were known at the time).
Although unpopular with the aristocracy, among the common folk, Polish and Ukrainian/Ruthenian alike, these reforms created a reservoir of good will toward the emperor which lasted almost to the end of Austrian rule.
This insurrection only occurred in the western, Polish-populated, part of Galicia, and the conflict was between patriotic, noble, rebels, and unsympathetic Polish peasants.
A circle of activists, primarily Greek Catholic seminarians, affected by the romantic movement in Europe and the example of fellow Slavs elsewhere, especially in eastern Ukraine under the Russians, began to turn their attention to the common folk and their language.
[6] A decade of renewed absolutism followed, but to placate the Poles, Count Agenor Goluchowski, a conservative representative of the eastern Galician aristocracy, the so-called Podolians, was appointed Viceroy.
He was unsuccessful, however, in forcing the Greek Catholic Church to shift to the use of the western or Gregorian calendar, or among Ruthenians generally, to replace Cyrillic script with the Latin alphabet.
By 1863, open revolt broke out in Russian Poland and, from 1864 to 1865, the Austrian government declared a State of Siege in Galicia, temporarily suspending civil liberties.
1865 brought a return to federal ideas along the lines suggested by Agenor Goluchowski and negotiations on autonomy between the Polish aristocracy and Vienna began once again.
In 1866, following the Battle of Sadova (Königgrätz) and the defeat of Austria in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the Austrian empire began to experience increased internal problems.
Some members of the Imperial government, such as Austrian prime minister Count Belcredi, advised the Emperor to make a more comprehensive constitutional deal with all of the nationalities - a proposal that would have set up a federal structure.
Although the Polish and Czech plans for their national areas to be included in the federal structure failed, a slow yet steady process of liberalisation of Austrian rule in Galicia started.
In 1873, Galicia became de facto an autonomous province of Austria-Hungary with Polish and (to a much lesser degree) Ukrainian or Ruthenian as official languages.
Together with the eastern Galician conservative Polish landowners and aristocracy called the "Podolians", they gained a political ascendency in Galicia which lasted to 1914.
The shift in power from Vienna to the Polish landowning class was not welcomed by the Ruthenians, who became more sharply divided into Russophiles (who looked to Russia for salvation) and Ukrainians (Ukrainophiles, who stressed their connections to the common people).
A total of several hundred thousand people were involved in this Great Economic Emigration which grew steadily more intense until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
Writer Osyp Oleskiv was instrumental in redirecting Ukrainian migration away from Brazil towards Canada, although the first arrival, Ivan Pylypiv, had been a few years earlier.
The initial attack on East Prussia quickly turned into a defeat following the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914 but the second incursion was completely successful.
Under the command of generals Nikolai Ivanov and Aleksei Brusilov, the Russians won the Battle of Galicia in September and began the Siege of Przemyśl, the next fortress on the road towards Kraków.
Eventually, the whole of the province was recaptured by Poland and divided into four voivodeships, with capitals in Kraków, Lviv (Lwów), Ternopil (Tarnopol) and Stanyslaviv (Stanisławów).
In the western part of Galicia, Rusyn Lemkos formed the Lemko-Rusyn Republic in 1918, initially attempting to unite with Russia, instead of Ukraine.
[7] In early summer of 1939, Germans (Wilhelm Canaris, Erwin von Lahousen), with the support of activists from OUN (Richard Yary), created a Ukrainian Legion under command of Roman Sushko, that had training camps in Germany, Austria (St. Egyden am Steinfeld [de], Kirchhoff) and Slovakia.
This territory was divided into four administrative districts (oblasts): Lviv, Stanislav, Drohobych and Ternopil (the latter including parts of Volhynia) of the Soviet Republic of Ukraine.
[8] In 1940–1941, the Soviet authorities conducted four mass deportations from the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic, inhabited by Ukrainians, Belarusians, Jews, Lithuanians, Russians, Germans, Czechs, and Armenians, along with Poles.
[9] The total number of deportees from Western Ukraine was 198,536 people – it should be treated as the minimum of documented casualties: After June 22, 1941, the period of Sovietisation came to an end when Germany took East Galicia during Operation Barbarossa.
Finally, Stepan Bandera, Yaroslav Stetsko, Roman Ilnytsky and Volodymyr Stakhiv were sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and Galicia was subsequently incorporated into the General Government as Distrikt Galizien.
As Germany viewed Galicia as already partially aryanized and civilized, more non-Jewish Galicians escaped the full extent of German intentions than many other Ukrainians who lived more eastward.
The new Poland/USSR border, with majority Polish-speaking areas to the west, and Ukrainians (Ruthenes) to the east was recognized by the western Allies as part of the Yalta Conference with the Soviet Union.
