Identification Hierarchies of Inhabitants of Austrian Galicia in the Local Dimension

Abstract

In the first place, the main identifications of residents of Austrian Galicia in the period between 1772 and 1918 are discussed; emphasised is the fact that diverse individual hierarchies of identification could be formed. Then, it is shown in what ways these identification directions surfaced in the specified local dimension – namely, in the town of Drohobycz (today Ukrainian Drohobych), in the specific historical moment – that is, during the 1911 election for the Vienna Parliament. On this occasion, the local elite carried out the election of their own candidate, contrary to what the majority of local dwellers demanded – which resulted in protest actions and unusual alliances between the locals. Given the exemplary occurrence with its limited place and time framework, the article seeks to analyse the sympathies and antipathies among the Galicians, which tended at times to be astonishing and not necessarily followed the lines of ethnic/national and political divisions. The argument has it that what was happening tended to be contrary to the image of the conflict that split the province’s three main ethnic groups, on the one hand, and the vision of a concordant coexistence between Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews, on the other.