GALICIA IN THE CONCEPT OF POLISH MESSIANIC VISION.

Abstract

In this paper, the idea bases of an
interpretation of the Polish messianic vision
of Galicia’s «polishness» are proved. Under
conditions of modern creation of a nation,
the Polish formulated political conceptions
about the territory of the Commonwealth of
Poland, which should be revived with the
armed struggle and cooperation with the
metropolitan country (Austria-Hungary).
The author stresses that Galicia was
viewed in this statement as a national
bridgehead before the activation of the mentioned
ideas. Especially after fi nishing of
«Bach’s reaction» in the Habsburg Empire,
the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
became the «Polish Piedmont», that is the
centre of national revival. Under conditions
of emperor Franz Joseph I’s liberal policy,
the Polish statesmen actively inculcated the
idea of Galicia’s «polishness». However,
the author states, the given events caused
the appearance of deep-rooted contradictions
between the Polish and the Ukrainians
in Galicia, which were characterized with
their antagonism even before that. All these
circumstances created a unique situation.
Galicia, which was always the centre
of Ukrainian-Polish interethnic confl icts,
became the centre of Ukrainian as well as
Polish national revival, which caused interethnic
confl icts and fratricidal war at a
later date. The Polish politicians, annihilating
national interests of Galicia’s Ukrainians,
were creating ideological foundations
of a messianic conception of «Poland from
the sea to the sea», giving one of the leading
roles in it to Galicia. The author states
Galicia’s role in the Polish messianic vision
is one of the main, which, after that, became
the basis of conception of Eastern Borderlands
(Eastern Kresy) of the Commonwealth
of Poland on the boundary of the XIX–XXth
centuries by R. Dmowski and J. Pilsudski,
who considered this territory as a part of
Greater Poland. In fact, the ideologists of
Polish messianism mentioned above fully
formulated and theoretically proved Galicia’s
belonging to the future Polish state. We
fi nd it reasonable to reveal, in the sequel,
the peculiarities of practical realization of
the mentioned scholar statement during
1918–1921.