THE VISION OF THE GALICIA POLITICAL FUTURE IN THE WORKS OF MYKHAILО LOZYNSKY DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR (1914–1918)

Abstract

The article is analyzed the genesis of the vision’s Galicia political future in the writings of M.M. Lozynsky during the First World War (1914–1918). The research methodology is based on the principles of scientificity, logic and the application sequence of historical – systemic, source – scientific methods. The scientific novelty of the work examines the period M. Lozynsky’s activity, which is poorly covered by Ukrainian and foreign historiography. As a result of the research it was established that at the beginning of the First World War, Mykhailo Mykhailovych studied the main goal of the Ukrainian national movement in Galicia to divide the region according to national grounds. He shares the arguments for the realization of this aim into two groups – internal and external. To the first ones, the author refers acute national and, caused by him, social antagonism in Galicia. To the external factors, which, to the author’s mind, belong to the formation in the perspective of the Ukrainian crown barrier region from the spread of Russian influence in Europe, because the Ukrainian national movement, unlike the Polish one, is unable to make compromises with St. Petersburg. Further, the scientist transformed his views on the future of Galicia. In his later works, M. Lozynsky claims that the Ukrainian national movement should have strengthened cooperation with the Fourth Union. As long as, according to the author, the states of the Fourth Union had no plans to annex Ukrainian territories, unlike Russia, which considered that Galicia is a part of its historical heritage. Vienna and Berlin saw one of the main goals in the First World War, the weakening of the Russian Empire. The implementation of these intentions was planned through the construction of the Ukrainian state. In such situation, the Ukrainian national movement had to rely on the forces of the Fourth Union. Thanks to his support, it was planned to form an autonomous Austrian area within the Ukrainian ethnographic regions of Bukovyna and Galicia. Lands of the newly created province were to be united with the territories captured by the Austro-Hungarian troops into one state body under the control of the Habsburgs.