Galicia

Galicia, Polish Galicja, German Galizien, Russian Galytsiya, historic region of eastern Europe that was a part of Poland before Austria annexed it in 1772; in the 20th century it was restored to Poland but was later divided between Poland and the Soviet Union.

During the Middle Ages, eastern Galicia, situated between Hungary, Poland, and the western principalities of Kiev and Volhynia, was coveted by its neighbours for its fertile soil and its important commercial connections. Incorporated into Kievan Rus by Vladimir I (Grand Prince Vladimir) in 981, eastern Galicia (also called Red Ruthenia, or Red Rus), being the country around Halicz (Galich, or Galych) on the upper Dniester, east of the Zbruch confluent and west of the headwaters of the San River, became an independent principality in 1087; during the next century it developed into a rich and powerful principality. In 1199 Prince Roman of Volhynia, invited by the Galician boyars (noblemen), ascended the throne in Halicz and united under his power both Volhynia (or Lodomeria) and Galicia in 1200. Under his rule and that of his son Daniel (reigned 1238–64), the united principality defeated both Polish and Hungarian attempts at conquest and asserted itself as a major state in eastern Europe. The principality was weakened, however, by internal struggles between the princes and boyars, who often held the real power in the principality, and, though Daniel was crowned king of Galicia by a papal legate in 1253, he was also compelled to recognize the suzerainty of the Mongol khan, who had conquered the former Kievan territory in 1237–41.

Galicia, however, did not become an integral part of the Mongol empire as did other lands of Rus, and in 1323, when Roman’s dynasty died out, a Polish prince, Bolesław Jerzy of Mazovia, was elected by the boyars to rule Galicia. After his death (1340), the Polish king Casimir III the Great annexed Galicia to his lands (1349). Under Polish rule Galicia was settled by Polish gentry, who became the dominant social class, and Galician boyars soon were compelled to accept the Polish language as well as Polish legal and social institutions and Roman Catholicism.

When Poland was first partitioned in 1772, eastern Galicia, together with the territory to the west, between the San and the Vistula, was attached to Austria; and in 1795 further lands, both west and east of the Vistula, passed also to Austria. From 1786 to 1849 Austria administered the territory of Bukovina as part of Galicia. After the adjustments of 1815 (Congress of Vienna), Austria’s Polish possessions were called the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria; and the 1815 Republic of Cracow was added to them in 1846. In 1848–49 Austria abolished serfdom in Galicia and after 1867 allowed the region a large degree of administrative autonomy. During the late 19th century, however, the Ukrainian population, which constituted the majority of the inhabitants of eastern Galicia, objected to the increasing domination of the Polish population and developed a strong Ukrainian nationalist movement.

All Galicia became a part of Poland after World War I and postwar controversy. When World War II began, the Soviet Union united eastern Galicia to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Following the war, eastern Galicia remained a part of the U.S.S.R. (after 1991, part of Ukraine), while western, Polish-settled Galicia was attached to Poland.