Lemberg, Lwów, L'viv, 1914 - 1947

Christoph Mick

Description

Known as Lemberg in German and Lwów in Polish, the city of L'viv in modern Ukraine was in the crosshairs of imperial and national aspirations for much of the twentieth century. This book tells the compelling story of how its inhabitants (Roman Catholic Poles, Greek Catholic Ukrainians, and Jews) reacted to the sweeping political changes during and after World Wars I and II. The Eastern Front shifted back and forth, and the city changed hands seven times. At the end of each war, L'viv found itself in the hands of a different state.While serious tensions had existed among Poles, Ukrainians/Ruthenians, and Jews in the city, before 1914 eruptions of violence were still infrequent. The changes of political control over the city during World War I led to increased intergroup frictions, new power relations, and episodes of shocking violence, particularly against Jews. The city's incorporation into the independent Polish Republic in November 1918 after a brief period of Ukrainian rule sparked intensified conflict. Ukrainians faced discrimination and political repression under the new government, and Ukrainian nationalists attacked the Polish state. In the 1930s, anti-Semitism increased sharply. During World War II, the city experienced first Soviet rule, then Nazi occupation, and finally Soviet conquest. The Nazis deported and murdered nearly all of the city's large Jewish population, and at the end of the war the Soviet forces expelled the city's Polish inhabitants.Based on archival research conducted in L'viv, Kiev, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, and Moscow, as well as an array of contemporary printed sources and scholarly studies, this book examines how the inhabitants of the city reacted to the changes in political control, and how ethnic and national ideologies shaped their dealings with each other. An earlier German version of this volume was published as Kriegserfahrungen in einer multiethnischen Stadt: Lemberg 1914?1947 (2011).

Sujets

• History of Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612493923
• Langue: English

Extrait

Lemberg, Lwów, L’viv, 1914–1947: Violence and Ethnicity in a Contested City
Central European Studies
Charles Ingrao, founding editor
Gary B. Cohen, editor
Howard Louthan, editor
Franz A. J. Szabo, editor
Daniel L. Unowsky, editor
Lemberg, Lwów, L’viv, 1914–1947: Violence and Ethnicity in a Contested City
Christoph Mick
Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright 2016 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Licensed edition with permission from Otto Harrassowitz publishing company, Wiesbaden © Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, Wiesbaden, 2011.
The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften International—Translation Funding for Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the collecting society VG WORT and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association).
Cataloging-in-Publication data on file at the Library of Congress.
Mick, Christoph, author.
[Kriegserfahrungen in einer multiethnischen Stadt. English]
Lemberg, Lwów, L’viv, 1914-1947: Violence and Ethnicity in a Contested City / by Christoph Mick.
    pages cm.—(Central European studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55753-671-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-61249-391-6 (epdf)
ISBN 978-1-61249-392-3 (epub)
1. L’viv (Ukraine)—History—20th century.
2. World War, 1914-1918—Ukraine—L’viv.
3. World War, 1939-1945—Ukraine—L’viv.
4. Jews—Ukraine—L’viv.
5. L’viv (Ukraine)—Ethnic relations.
I. Title.
DK508.95.L86M53513 2016
947.7’9—dc23
2015027352
Cover image: Austrian postcard from 1915, commemorating the reconquest of L’viv, June 22, 1915.
To Helen
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: World War I
Chapter 3: The Fight for the City
Chapter 4: Reconstruction and Remembrance, 1920–1939
Chapter 5: World War II
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Appendix: Maps
Acronyms
Bibliography
Index
Foreword
The territories of today’s Baltic states, western Belarus, and western Ukraine have had a particularly complex and, at times, troubled history over the last one hundred years. They belonged to the Tsarist and Habsburg empires before 1914 and saw much fighting and repeated changes in political control during and just after World War I. During the 1920s and 1930s they were governed by the independent Baltic and Polish republics, and then after autumn 1939 experienced new devastating warfare and shifted back and forth between Nazi and Soviet control. After 1945 they all fell under the rule of the Soviet Union, which imposed on them its political, economic, and social systems.
Christoph Mick’s book tells a compelling story of how the inhabitants—Catholic Poles, Catholic and Orthodox Ukrainians, Jews, and others—in the old capital of Austrian Galicia experienced the traumas of the two world wars and the successive sweeping political changes. This book originated as a Habilitation thesis for the University of Tübingen and was initially published by Otto Harrasowitz Verlag in 2010 as Kriegserfahrungen in einer Multiethnischen Stadt: Lemberg, 1914-1947 [War Experiences in a Multiethnic City: Lemberg/Lwów/L’viv, 1914-1947] . This English version represents a revised and shortened version of the German volume. It is a study of great originality based on a large body of archival research in L’viv, Kiev, Warsaw, and Moscow as well as a wealth of contemporary printed sources and scholarly studies. In Mick’s accounting, political control over the city changed hands some seven times between 1914 and 1947. Before World War I, there were serious political and social tensions among Poles, Ukrainians/ Ruthenians, and Jews in Lemberg/Lwów/L’viv, but only limited and infrequent violence. The changes of control over the city during the war led to new power relations, increased inter-group frictions, and episodes of shocking violence. After a brief period of Ukrainian rule, incorporation into an independent Polish Republic in late November 1918 led to intensified civil conflict and new large-scale attacks on Jews. Over the next two decades, the Polish government tried to suppress Ukrainian nationalism in the city and the surrounding region and persecuted Ukrainian nationalist leaders. Antisemitism increased sharply during the 1930s. After the outbreak of World War II, the city experienced first Soviet occupation, then Nazi occupation, and finally Soviet conquest. The Nazis deported and murdered nearly all of the large Jewish population, and at the end of the war the Soviet forces expelled the Poles who had not already been deported or murdered.
Mick offers a vivid analysis of how the city’s inhabitants experienced the changes in political control and government policies toward the various national and religious groups. He argues persuasively for focusing on just how individuals and groups experienced the events that transpired and how they perceived their meaning if we are to understand the impacts and legacies. Mick demonstrates persuasively how the longer term ethnic and national politics and ideology of the inhabitants themselves shaped their experiences and understandings of war and peace and how they were prepared to deal with each other. The wide scope of Mick’s study and his compelling account of the successive changes in relations among the different language and religious groups who once lived as neighbors in Lemberg/ Lwów/L’viv adds fascinating new dimensions to our knowledge of the travails of Central and East-Central Europe during the bloody twentieth century. The book is a most welcome addition indeed to the series, Central European Studies.
Gary B. Cohen Series editor
Preface
This is the revised and shortened English edition of my book Kriegserfahrungen in einer multiethnischen Stadt: Lemberg 1914-1947 published in 2010 in the series of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw by Harrassowitz. I cut those parts of the book which did not deal explicitly with war and war remembrance and added some material which had become available since the German edition was published. Some of the ideas I fleshed out in certain chapters of this book I had discussed previously in other publications, journals and edited volumes, but all were revised and updated for this publication.
The translation of the book was funded by the program Geisteswissenschaften International , jointly financed by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, VG Wort, Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels and the German Foreign Office. I am very grateful to these institutions.
The research for the book was supported by a three month grant of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awarded me a Feodor Lynen grant which gave me the opportunity to spend 1998 in Warsaw. Special Research Area ( Sonderforschungsbereich ) 437 of the German Research Foundation on “War experiences, war and society in modern times” at the University of Tübingen made this project possible. I am grateful to the chairmen of the Sonderforschungsbereich Anton Schindling and Dieter Langewiesche for their support. The Institute for Eastern European History and Area Studies at the University of Tübingen was my academic home for 20 years. The directors of the Institute, Dietrich Geyer and Dietrich Beyrau, always encouraged me. I would also like to thank the many colleagues who gave me the opportunity to present my research at conferences and workshops or who commented on papers and chapters: Omer Bartov, Ray Brandon, John-Paul Himka, Jaroslav Hrytsak, Andreas Kappeler, and Timothy Snyder. I am deeply grateful for the good company of friends and colleagues, whether in Tübingen, L’viv, Warsaw, Moscow, Kiev/Kyiv, Berlin, Vienna, Paris or Kenilworth, in particular Vasyl’ Rasevych, Andrej Doronin, Włodzimierz Borodziej, Robert Traba, Ralph Schattkowsky, Christian Harde, Ingrid Schierle, Klaus Gestwa, Benno Ennker, Bianka Pietrow-Ennker, Gerd Braitmaier, Katrin Steffen, Rainer Horn and Roberta Bivins. A special thank-you goes to the archivists. Myroslava Djadjuk and Tanja Semenova of the Central Historical State Archive of Ukraine in L’viv were particularly helpful.
The History Department of the University of Warwick—my new academic home—gave me the opportunity to finish the project.
I would like to thank my translator Helen Schoop for her work.
My special thanks go to Gary B. Cohen for recommending and accepting the book for this series and to Charles T. Watkinson and Katherine M. Purple, the former director and current managing editor of Purdue University Press. I know that I tested their patience but they always remained supportive. I am also grateful to Dianna Gilroy, who helped with preparing the book for publication.
Concerning the spelling and transliteration of names and places, over the last 100 years L’viv and East Galicia experienced many regime changes and belonged to several different states. Consequently every place has several different names. If there was a well-established English name (according to Merriam Webster dictionary), I used this name: therefore L’viv (the English transcription of the Ukrainian Л ь в і в ) and not Lviv or Lvov (deriving