By Mariusz Paździora - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3817601
There
are at least two Galicias of significance in Europe; one in Spain and one in
Eastern Europe – the latter being the subject of this blog. Both are situated
in plains to the north of mountain ranges, and so it’s tempting to think they
share the name’s etymology. It is possible. The Spanish Galicia – notable in
British history for the heroics of Sir John Moore at Corunna during the
Peninsular War against Napoleon’s occupation – derives from a celtic tribe of
‘hill people’ the Callacei who resided north of the River Douro. Eastern
European Galicia’s etymology is less certain, but probably derives from Old
East Slavic language as a derivation of the town name Galiç (today Halych in
Ukraine).
Anyhow,
regardless of etymology, Galicia has a complex history riddled with violence
and tragedy. Its story subsumes a number of other smaller vanished kingdoms.
Its final incarnation from 1772, as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, was
as part of the Habsburg Empire, and its demise accompanied that of
Austria-Hungary at the end of WW1. Overall it has a 1000 year history - usually
closely tied to the fortunes of Poland, but also under the sphere of influence
of Hungary, Austria, Russia and Prussia.
I’ll
aim to chunk this into three periods before the denouement of the world wars:
the early iterations from 1000-1200 approximately; from thirteenth to
eighteenth centuries, and from 1772 until 1914.
1. Geography.
Allowing for frequent shifting of boundaries the Kingdom of
Galicia was broadly as shown in the above map of
Galicia and Lodomeria - attractive mountainous Carpathian southern borders descending
northwards with diminishing hills and valleys to arable plains. Numerous rivers
and lakes cross the country winding down from the watershed of the Carpathians,
the greatest to the western end being the rivers Oder and Vistula. The river
San, a large tributary of the Vistula effectively divided Galicia into east and
western regions. At its northern border were the plains of Poland. As Galicia
and Lodomeria it reached a population of 8 million in1914 and covered an area
of over 30,00 square miles1. It was Austria-Hungary’s most
ethnically diverse region, although the great majority of the population were
peasants.
2. 950-1400AD. In early times the ‘kingdom’ was ruled by the Ruthenian Kings. The
origin and fate of Ruthenia is a topic in its own right2, but until
the twelfth century they held sway in the city and principality of Halych,
which gave Galicia its name. This somehow became Galicia Volhynia, which fell apart in the mid 14th
century in the wars of the same name, after which the old kingdom of Ruthenia
was annexed by Poland. Then there was period from 1188 to around 1400 when 'ownership’ and title passed to the Kings of Hungary.
3. 1400-1772. The growing power of Poland and Lithuania dominated the region for
the next four hundred years. Poland annexed all of the previous Galicia and
Volhynia as part of this. Poland and Lithuania’s alliance was consolidated into
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, with Poland as the dominant partner.
Despite this, the commonwealth ultimately folded, and Poland’s subjugation
began in 1772 with its first partition by the surrounding powers of Russia,
Prussia and Austria. By the First Partition of Poland3, Habsburg
Austria swallowed Galicia and Volhynia, creating a new title for its Emperor
(at that time still also the head of the Holy Roman Empire). Volhynia was
renamed Lodomeria, and the territory titled the “Kingdom of Galicia and
Lodomeria’. From the outset, Lodomeria was not a real entity and the kingdom
was more generally known as Galicia (or Austrian Galicia, presumably to
distinguish it from Spanish Galicia…. or Polish Galicia?). This brings us to
the Galicia that came to my notice as a critical site for the Eastern Front
of WW1 in 1914.
4. Austrian Galicia. In its 142 years existence, Galicia’s fortune was bound up with
that of the Habsburg Empire. Its status was mostly poor and backward, the
large plains being primitive serfdoms with predominantly Polish nobility owners.
Those of Polish ethnicity spoke Polish, and the peasantry - predominantly
Ruthenian - spoke Rus’ (Ruthenian). A large Jewish minority inhabited the towns
and southern areas, and spoke Yiddish. Gradually, Austrians moved in, making
the city of L’viv their regional capital and renaming it as Lemberg. In 1846
the formerly ‘Free City’ of Cracow, came into the sphere of Galician control
along with two neighbouring duchies of Oświeçim and Bielske. Almost immediately
an uprising against poverty and hunger broke out across Galicia. It was a harbinger
of the wider revolutions that burst upon Europe in 1848, and became known as
the Galician Slaughter. Marauding peasants hunted down and massacred all
landowners and their families. The world was shocked, but the Austrian leaders
did little to help the predominantly Polish victims until Lemberg itself was threatened.
Once the revolt had been suppressed, Galicia returned to its rural, poor and
primitive status. The growing cities of Lemberg and Cracow were exceptions, and
in the 1850s oil was discovered, triggering a Galician oil rush (By 1908
Galicia was reckoned to have the world’s third largest oil fields after Texas
and Persia). This also became the era of mass migration, as people took the
opportunity of modern transport to escape from poverty. The main point of departure
became the station at Oświeçim. North America was a magnet – ethnic Poles emigrated to
the USA mid-west; the Ruthenians to the plains of USA and Canada, and the Jews
to the cities.
Following its defeat in the 1866
Austro-Prussian war, the Habsburgs’ empire entered its final configuration in
the ausgleich – the creation of the
dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Galicia remained under Austrian rule,
although geographically it was closer to Hungary. Galicia’s delegates sat alongside
Slavs, Bohemians, Czechs, Hungarians and many others in the new Austrian parliament
the ‘Reichsrat’, which was established in 1908 to placate the disenchanted
states within Austria-Hungary.
5. World War One. In June 1914 that disenchantment surfaced in Sarajevo with the
assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the subsequent outbreak of WW1. Galicia’s
topography made it inevitable that early military engagement with Russia would
happen there. Austria had to split its armies between the invasion of Serbia
to the south, and protection of its borders in the north (see WW1 Blog posts as below).
Overwhelming numbers of Russian forces were able to advance (relatively)
rapidly across the Galician plains, and they captured Lemberg in one of the early
great battles in August 1914. They occupied most of Galicia and laid siege to
the great fortress of Przemysl (see WW1 Posts 14/1/2015 and 31/1/2015). The Austrians recovered in early
1915, pushing back eastwards from the outskirts of Cracow, and then in May came
the great German breakthrough of Gorlice-Tarnow (see Post 7/6/2015), and the
Russians were driven completely out of Galicia. They returned in 1916 during Brusilov’s
offensive (See Post 15/5/2016) pushing through eastern Galician and heading for the
Hungarian plains and Roumania. Then came the 1917 Russian collapses after revolution in St. Petersburg followed by the crushing fate of the Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk (See Post 22/1/2018).
 |
| The great Russian retreat from Galicia 1917 |
In a miserable combination of death,
disease and starvation WW1 came to an end in German occupied Galicia, with competing
aspirations of Ukrainian and Polish nationalism struggling to emerge from the
wreckage. The Polish question was too complex for the Versailles Treaty of 1919
(See Post 22/6/2019), but after the wars between Poland and the Red Russians, Galicia in
its entirety was incorporated into the reunited Poland. However worse was to
follow.
6. World War Two and its aftermath. Along with much of Poland, Galicia was subjected to atrocities by
Russian and German occupiers. In the 1939 carve up Germany took over west
Galicia and Russia the eastern half. Then came the brutal eastwards German
invasions of 1941-2, and the equally brutal retreats from the Red Army in
1944-45. The advancing Red Army reached western Galicia to discover the famous
19th century rail junction Oświeçim had become the world’s most
infamous railway terminus – Auschwitz. Whatever
remained of the 1914 Galicia was utterly broken and destroyed by 1945. In the
post war jockeying, east Galicia was absorbed into the Soviet Socialist
Republic of Ukraine and west Galicia became southern Poland. Both were behind
the iron curtain and under Stalin’s control. Callous ethnic cleansing sent all of
polish origins back to Poland from Ukraine, and most of Ruthenian origin in
west Galicia moved into Ukraine. Galicia was finished.
Yet still those ethnic tensions and east v
west barriers continue. The area containing ancient Halych is the Lviv Oblast of
Ukraine, bordering Poland based on its main city (ex Lvov, Lemberg, L’viv). The
wider political issues for Ukraine pitch those of Russian ethnicity against
those of Ruthenian origins (today known as ethnic Ukrainians). Plus ça change.
1 About
the size of today’s Slovakia and Estonia
2 Ruthenia is an exonym for the language and influence of the Rus’ peoples (aka Old East Slavic, or Kievan Rus'). An exonym is a name for language, culture or ethnicity used by those external to it. For example English language 'German' and French language 'Allemagne' are exonyms for that country's endonym 'Deutsch'. (Thanks to Wikipedia for that one)
3 There
were two further Partitions in 1793 and 1795, resulting in the loss of Polish
independence, and the creation of the Polish Salient of the Russian Empire
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