Galícia betagolása a Habsburg Monarchiába. A kelet-galíciai rutének helyzete 1772–1918 között
The Integration of Galicia into the Habsburg Monarchy: The Situation of the Eastern Galician Ruthenians between 1772–1918

Summary/Abstract: The three partitions of Poland each time affected the territory of Galicia, which belonged to the Habsburg Monarchy until the end of the First World War. Due to the enlightened reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, Eastern Galicia experienced one of its most prosperous periods, thanks to which loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty took deep root in the Ruthenians. Although the Galician Ruthenians enjoyed the support of the Viennese court, they actually represented a counterweight in the hands of the Habsburgs against the Polish national aspirations. The Galician governors appointed by the Viennese court – applying the principle of “divide et impera” – successfully played the Ruthenians and the Poles against each other, thus ensuring Habsburg authority in the province. In Eastern Galicia, the formation of a unified Ruthenian national identity was significantly slowed down by the fact that the Ruthenian leadership was not unified in terms of their political aspirations. Starting from the 1840s, they initially came up with rather moderate demands compared to other nationalities of the Habsburg Empire. Their most important aim was to achieve a Galicia divided into Polish and Ruthenian parts, in the eastern part of which, i.e. in East Galicia, they would have had extensive autonomy. At the same time, it is important to emphasize that they still imagined their future within the framework of the Habsburg Monarchy and they started to call themselves Ukrainian only from the 1890s in a way expressing solidarity with the “little Russians” under Russian rule.

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