«Опанував мене якийсь великий дух свободи…»: етносоціальні та політичні передумови формування в Галичині середовища «русинів польської нації»

It was discovered in the article that the foundation of a community with a two-level identity – «Ruthenians of the Polish Nationality» (gente Rutheni, natione Poloni) in Galicia in the first half of the 19th century was one of the responses of local people to national modernization, which was launched under Polish slogans at first. By the 1830s, all groups of Galician society were involved in laying the foundations for a new social stratum – the intelligentsia. It should be noted that the first generations of the intelligentsia were looking for ways to combine the new understanding of the nation with the historical tradition. These were the generations that created a favorable environment for the foundation of multiple identities. The most important fact connected with the «Ruthenians of the Polish Nationality» was that they indicated the superiority of nationality over origin. On the one hand, the foundation of such an environment testified to the underdevelopment of the modern Ruthenian-Ukrainian national proposal at the time, and on the other hand, it stimulated the nationalization of the Ruthenian social space. It is demonstrated in the article that the community of the «Ruthenians of the Polish Nationality» would not have been able to develop if it were not for the Ukrainian movement with its priestly guidance and denial of the Polish historical tradition. Similarly, the modern Ukrainian national movement in Galicia was initially formed in opposition not only to the Polish movement but also to the two-level identity of gente Rutheni, natione Poloni. The special importance of the Polish uprising of 1830–1831 for the nationalization of the public space of Galicia, as well as the surge of conspiratorial activity of the Poles in the Habsburg monarchy due to its defeat, is proved. It is demonstrated that the legend of the November Uprising, shrouded in the aura of sacrifice for the ideals of freedom, captured some of the active Ukrainian youth that did not see an opportunity to realize themselves within the Galician-Ruthenian society. At the same time, such circumstances arose that crossed out the prospects of the «Ruthenians of the Polish Nationality» in the bud. One factor was the interaction of social and national emancipation that appeared on the agenda in Galicia during the uprising of 1846.