Ukrainian public and political magazines of Galicia 1848-1914: analysis of sources

The social-political periodicals of Galicia of the second half of the nineteenth - early twentieth century can be divided into four groups: 1) of people's representatives; 2) Russophile; 3) radical; 4) conservative. The periodicals not only informed about the most important events of the political life of the region, but they also paid a lot of attention to the issues of language, education, literature, art, poetry and prose, the published works of the Ukrainian writers on its pages. The press of that period is a valuable source for the study of the national cultural movement of the Ukrainian Galicia, as they allow finding out the views of the influential political forces on the various aspects of their development and existence. Therefore, the purpose of our research is to analyze the social and political periodicals as a basis for study of the national and cultural processes in the region in 1848-1914.

The first newspaper of people's representatives in Galicia «Zorya Galytska» was published for the first time on May 15, 1848. «Zorya Galytska» as the spokesman of the views of the progressive wing of the Supreme Russian Council (the representative of the political body of the Ukrainian Austrian monarchy, the establishment of which was the result of the revolutionary events in Europe, known in historical literature as the «spring of nations»), which in 1848 proclaimed slogans of national unity and independence of the Ukrainians [1]. It soon found a grateful reader to the mid of 1850 and enjoyed extraordinary popularity among local population. Loss of many of the subscribers was connected with the political position of the chief editors who were the supporters of the Russophile ideology. The thematic turn towards Russophiles as a new trend has appeared since the mid of 1851 and the fact of the change of the main subject and policy drew much attention to the Galician Viceroyalty and in its turn it ordered not to use Russian words under the threat of the closure of the magazine.

In general «Zorya Galytska» which appeared and was published from 1848 till 1857 contained a lot of information on the history of the national Ukrainian cultural movement. The topics published in the newspaper showed the Galician competition between supporters of the national language and culture, on the one hand, and the Russophile ideology on the other; so called veiled intervention of the state in the Ukrainian publishing [2]. According to the contents of «Zorya Galytska» analyzed we can state that the representatives of the Ukrainian national elite, who undoubtedly were the editors and the staff of the newspaper, were able to defend their own language [3], culture and at the same time served as good examples to follow for other intelligent people and they also made a significant contribution to the development of the Ukrainian literature, journalism and scientific knowledge.

The young Galician people fascinated and inspired by the idea of the national-cultural revival continued the publishing of press in the 60's of the XIX century. During the 1862-1866 the people's representatives were involved in the publication of the literary, scientific and political journals such as «Vechornytsi» (18621863) [4], «Meta» (1863-1865) [5], «Nyva» (1865) [6], «Rusalka» (1866) [7]. Modern scholars referring to these magazines may not only trace the development of the national and cultural processes in Galicia in the early 60's of the XIX century, but also study the duration and quality of the publication of the periodicals of the young of people's representatives.

The publication of the press of people's representatives didn't stop, but rather gained a new momentum. The newspapers and magazines which further appeared into the world attracted the due attention of the reader, were issued on the solid material basis and were being published for decades. Such traditions were obtained by the magazine «Pravda», the first publication of which was on April 1, 1867. With some pauses the magazine came out into the world till 1898. During the 1888-1898 the journal supported the policy of «new era» (compromise) in the Polish-Ukrainian relations in Galicia, because many papers published the sharp criticism of the Russian policy of the Ukrainian government concerning the Ukrainian problems in the Eastern Ukrainian region, at the same time ignoring attention of the national and cultural rights of Ukrainian eastern Galician by the polish officials [8].

In 1880 people's representatives (narodovtsi) started the periodical «Dilo», the publication of which was an extraordinary event in the history of the Ukrainian press. In the prewar period the reader got acquainted regularly with the most important events that had taken place in AustriaHungary and the world (from January 1, 1880 till August 29, 1914) in the magazine, until the publication of «Dilo» was not interrupted by the First World War [9]. Particular attention was paid to the Ukrainian national movement in Galicia and abroad in the newspaper. In 1888 «Dilo» became the first Ukrainian daily newspaper. The newspaper not only promptly informed the readers about the events that had taken place it was also interesting and informative, moreover it always defended the Ukrainian national interests. Undoubtedly, all the important aspects of the national cultural movement in the Ukrainian Galicia during the 80's of the XIX - early XX century were reflected on the pages of «Dilo». As a rule, the material was enlightened thoroughly, comprehensively and in detail. The traditional manner of the team of journalists was to publish not one but a series of articles on various aspects of the problems discussed. In addition, the specificity of the daily newspaper publication allowed to study the process of making decision as to different publishing issues as well as to follow the continuity of the national cultural progress of the Ukrainian land for a specified time period [10].

In general, in Galicia in the period under the study nine Ukrainian newspapers and magazines of the social-political tendency of people's representatives were published, such as «Zorya Galytska» (1848-1857), «Vechornytsi» (18621863), «Meta» (1863-1865), «Nyva» (1865), «Rusalka» (1866), «Pravda» (1867-1880; 18881898), «Batkivshchyna» (1879-1869), «Dilo» (1880-1914 ), «Svoboda» (1897-1914) [11].

The most notable role among the other social-political journals belongs to the newspapers of Russophile orientation which were classified in our research as the second group of periodicals and it is of a paramount importance to analyze them under the chosen topic for our research. The first and tremendously influential press organ was the newspaper «Slovo», which came into the world during the 1861-1887 with its regularity three times a week. For a long time its publication was very popular among the readers (had 1500 subscribers, allowing offset the costs of editing and publication), but it also had financial support by social activist and legal advisor M. Kachkovsky from Sambir, Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church H. Yahymovych and in 70's of the XIX century Russian government, the Ministry of Education and the Kyiv Slavonic Committee financially supported the periodicals [12].

In the early 60's of the XIX century the version of «Slovo» mainly focused on the Polish and Ukrainian opposition and advocated the preservation of the etymological spelling (mixture of the Ukrainian, the Russian and the Church Slavonic languages), which had to emphasize the common cultural tradition of Russians and Ukrainians, then later it started to write openly about the unity of the Ukrainian population of Galicia with the Russians. This was a direct reaction to the Polish-Austrian policy in the region and even imaginary attempt to rely on the power of the government machinery of the Russian empire in defending the national Ukrainian rights which were under the polish pressure [13].

Some other Russophile journals were similar in theme and contents: «Galychanyn» (18621863), (1867-1870), «Prolom» (1880-1882), «Novy Prolom» (1883-1887), «Chervona Rus» (1888-1891), «Galytska Rus» (1891-1892), «Galychanyn» (1893-1913), «Ruske Slovo» (1890-1914). Altogether eight Ukrainian public and political journals were issued in Galicia under the studied period. The pages of the Russophile orientation have completely ignored the Ukrainian national identity and emphasized the cultural and political integration of all Russian peoples.

In 1890 in Galicia the periodicals of the Ukrainian Radical Party began being published, they belong to the third group of the public and political papers under our study. The first newspaper of the radical wing «Narod» was published on January 1, 1890 under the editorship of the famous Ukrainian scientists, writers, public and political figures like Ivan Franko, Mykhailo Pavlyk, Mykhailo Drahomanov and others. There were three Ukrainian-wing radical newspapers such as «Narod» (1890-1895), «Khliborob» (1891-1895) «Gromadsky Golos» (1895-1902; 1904-1914) published. On their pages much attention was paid to the promotion of their party's ideas propaganda, polemics with people's representatives and Russophiles; there was a sharp criticism of the national cultural policy of their opponents [14].

In general, the Ukrainian-wing of the radical newspapers which appeared in Galicia with small breaks during the 1890-1914 raised on their pages many important issues of the national and cultural nature. The editorial committee of the above mentioned publications included the leading Ukrainian journalists and writers who published many of their works there. On the one hand, a thorough examination of the contents of such magazines as «Narod», «Khliborob», «Gromadsky Golos» allows us to determine the concept of the Ukrainian radicals, the way of solving unresolved issues of the national and cultural development by them, to analyze arguments that prove their strength in defense of the Ukrainian language and education, on the other hand, they say that the radical newspapers made a significant contribution to the popularization of the achievements of the Ukrainian literature and science [15].

In January 1897, with the initiative and financial support of a politician and a public figure of O. Barvinsky, the daily newspaper «Ruslan» started being published and it supported the ideology of the Catholic-Russian People's Union. It laid the beginning of the conservative nature of the publication of the press, which is the fourth group of the public and political publications we have studied. The periodicals ceased to be published because of the events of the First World War [16].

Undoubtedly, rightful place was given to the high lightening of the Ukrainian Conservative Party in Galicia in the newspaper, but also a lot of attention was paid to the use of the Ukrainian language, the activity of the educational institutions, the civil societies' work and other. The authors of the magazine, calling to use the Ukrainian language in everyday life, in schools, at the church, in the government institutions, stated: «The language of the people is still the soul of the people. The people that do not care about their language or despise it, kills himself with his own hand» [17].

The literary study research papers published on the pages of «Ruslan» belonged to the wellknown Ukrainian journalist and writer Osyp Makovey. Totally over 120 journalistic works were published in the magazine [17]. The pages of the magazine contained variety of materials and mostly objective information on events of the national cultural movement of the Ukrainian Galicia of the late nineteenth - early twentieth century[18].

Summing up it is worth mentioning that the pages of the Ukrainian public and political publications of Galicia include comprehensive information about the national cultural movement in the Ukrainian land. It should be noted that the most editorials and journalistic investigations in different political orientation were devoted to the Ukrainian primary, secondary and higher education, to the use of the Ukrainian language in government, school and daily life activities. Social-political publications regularly informed about the activities of the national cultural societies, paying most attention mainly to those who were involved in the creation of their publications. The Ukrainian literary movement has also found its proper reflection in the Galician periodicals as in the above mentioned periodicals not only literary critique of the outstanding Ukrainian and foreign writers published their works, but also a lot of prose and poetry by T. Shevchenko, Lesya Ukrainka, Marko Vovchok, Y Fedkovych, I. Franko, V Stefanyk and less-known writers from Galicia. You cannot ignore that a number of people's representatives' periodicals and other Russophile tendency press informed in detail about the Ukrainian theatrical movement, in particular, the activities of the professional Ukrainian troupe and the amateur theater groups, defended its position on the need for construction of premises for Ukrainian theater in Lviv. Unfortunately, little space was devoted to the Ukrainian music and fine art in Galicia periodicals.

References

Шологон Лилия Украинские общественно-политические журналы Галичины 1848-1914гг.: попытка источниковедческого анализа

Статья посвящена украинским общественно-политическим журналам Галиции второй половины XIX - начала ХХ в. народовского, русофильского, радикального и консервативного направлений. Сделана попытка выяснить, как на их страницах освещены события национально-культурного движения украинцев Галиции в 18481914 гг., в частности образовательная и языковая проблемы, деятельность национально-культурных обществ, литературное движение в крае и другие. Установлено, что наиболее информативными, в контексте исследования выбранной темы, являются первый украинский журнал «Зоря Галицкая», народовского издание «Дело», русофильское - «Слово», газеты радикального направления «Народ» и консервативного - «Руслан».

Sholohon Liliya Ukrainian Public and Political Magazines of Galicia 1848-1914: Analysis of Sources

The article is devoted Ukrainian public and political journal of Galicia in second half of XIX - early XX century: populist, Russophile, radical and conservative tendencies. An attempt to find out how their pages to cover news of national-cultural movement Ukrainian Galicia in 1848-1914, including education and language issues, the activities of national and cultural societies, literary movement in the region etc. Most informative in the context of the study topic chosen is the first Ukrainian magazine «Zoria Galician», populist newspaper «Dilo», russophile - «Slovo», newspaper of the radical trend «Narod» and conservative - «Ruslan».

Keywords: Galicia, national-cultural movement, newspapers, periodicals