Eastern Galicia

Eastern Galicia is a geographical region comprising the eastern portion of the historical, Austro-Hungarian-defined region of Galicia in Eastern Europe, corresponding roughly with the historical region of Red Ruthenia. It includes parts of Western Ukraine and Southeastern Poland. It has an essential historic importance in Poland which it was an integral part of until 1939.
Eastern Galicia, having a mixed pre-war population consisting of a Polish plurality, Ukrainian autochthones in rural areas, and Carpatho-Rusyn, Ashkenazi Jewish, Forest German and other minorities, was one of the two major regions of wartime Poland affected by the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, which is characterized by Polish sources as genocidum atrox; 'genocide of particular atrocity'. Its Polish portion was also the site of the post-war Operation Vistula, a Stalinist-led effort to purge UPA activity from the region through forced resettlement. Though aimed at eliminating Ukrainian nationalist elements and guerillas who had been using the mountainous geography of the region for raids on Polish border troops, the resettlement instead disproportionately affected Poland's autochthonous Lemko minority, a majority of whom identified as Rusyns rather than Ukrainians.
Galicia was formed within the Austrian Empire during the years 1772–1918 when it was the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Eastern Galicia now includes all of the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts of Ukraine as well as most of the Ternopil Oblast, barring its northern stretches of the former Kremenets, Shumsk and Lanivtsi Raions and the northern part of Zbarazh Raion. On the other hand, the western part of Eastern Galicia is located in Poland. A smaller portion of Eastern Galicia, the town of Lubycza Królewska and its surrounding area, is also located in the Lublin Voivodeship. However, Tomaszów Lubelski, 15 km away, is no longer part of Galicia, nor did it belong to the Austrian state during the partitions of Poland: it was made a part of Congress Poland, and therefore of the Russian Empire, following the abolition of the Duchy of Warsaw. The area of Eastern Galicia is about 46,800 km².

History

In 1918, Western Galicia became a part of the restored Republic of Poland, which absorbed part of the Lemko region. The local Ukrainian population declared the independence of Eastern Galicia as the West Ukrainian People's Republic. The predominantly Polish population of Lviv resisted, which led to the Polish-Ukrainian War during which the Poles took control of all of Galicia. In a pact with Poland, Symon Petliura, leader of the Ukrainian People's Republic ceded Eastern Galicia in exchange for help against the Soviets. During the Polish–Soviet War, the Soviets established in July 1920 in Eastern Galicia the short-lived Galician Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Peace of Riga of 18 March 1921 assigned the contested Eastern Galicia to the Second Polish Republic. The Entente powers recognized the Polish possession of the territory on 14 March 1923.
The Ukrainians of the former Eastern Galicia and the neighbouring province of Volhynia made up about 12% of the population of the Second Polish Republic and were its largest minority. As the Polish government's policies were unfriendly towards minorities, tensions between the Polish government and the Ukrainian population grew, which eventually gave the rise to the militant underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.

Eastern Lesser Poland

In the interbellum period, the former Austrian province of Galicia, then a part of Poland, was called Lesser Poland. Western Galicia, to the San river, was called Western Lesser Poland, while Eastern Galicia, east of the San, with the city of Lwów, was called Eastern Lesser Poland and included voivodeships of Tarnopol, Stanisławów, and Lwów). According to a Polish historian Jan Pisuliński, using the term Eastern Lesser Poland to denominate Eastern Galicia is incorrect, as it has no historical justification, being only a designation of nationalist and propaganda significance, which served in the 1920s and 1930s to make a stronger connection of the area between rivers of San and Zbruch with the Polish state and to emphasize the allegedly indigenously Polish nature of that region.
In territorial terms, Eastern Lesser Poland was not fully identical to Eastern Galicia during the Austrian Partition. As a result of the administrative division of the former Austrian Partition territories included in the Second Polish Republic as defined on 23 December 1920, the border of Eastern Lesser Poland in relation to Eastern Galicia was moved significantly to the west. The following counties were incorporated into the Lviv Voivodeship: Tarnobrzeg, Rzeszów, Łańcut, Nisko, Kolbuszowa, Przeworsk, Strzyżów, and Krosno were previously parts of the Lviv appellate court district, the western border of which was the conventional border of Eastern Galicia within Austria-Hungary. The north-western border of Eastern Lesser Poland was marked by the Vistula near Sandomierz.

Etymology

The name Galicia, or Halychyna in Ukrainian, is derived from the city of Halych which was the first capital of the Galician principality. The name Halych in turn derives from the Ukrainian word halka which means "female crow", which is reflected by the crow at the center of the city's early modern coat of arms.
Many also believe that the name Halych/Galicz is derived from the Greek word ἅλς, meaning "salt". The Byzantines and the Greeks had a strong influence on these lands and it was from the Greeks that Galicia that was part of Kievan Rus' were converted to Christianity. In fact the Greek word for salt pit is αλυκή, which makes a strong argument that Halych could be an alteration of that. Halych was rich in salt, which was mined in the region. During the early medieval period, salt was Halych's main export. Today, however, there is no more salt mining in Halych.