The “Ukrainian Question” on the Eve of the First World War

Anton Yarosh

The “Ukrainian Question” on the Eve of the First World War

Anton Yarosh

Abstract

After analysing the current socio-political conditions in Ukraine caused by the war unleashed on February 20, 2014 by the Russian Federation, the author noted that they have common features with those that were before the outbreak of the First World War. This fact made this study relevant, since it requires an analysis of the “Ukrainian Question” from the standpoint of different countries at the beginning of the 20th century. Thus, the purpose of the study was to determine the essence of the Ukrainian national question on the eve of the First World War. For this purpose, the study used the methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison, deduction, generalisation, and historical method. As a result, the content of the “Ukrainian Question” was determined for the countries that participated in the First World War. In particular, it was established that Russia's goal was to capture Eastern Galicia, northern Bukovina and Transcarpathia, while under the auspices of the pan-Slavist policy and the Association of “Half-Blood Russian brothers”. Initially, Austria-Hungary also pursued the desire for territorial expansion, in particular, through the annexation of Volhynia and Podillia. As a result, the unification of Western and Eastern Europe was expected. Germany's goal was to divide the Russian empire into different territorial units and to seize the countries of Eastern Europe, in particular Ukraine, and settle its citizens on them. The positions of foreign countries on the “Ukrainian Question” considered in the study allowed for the conclusion that none of them considered the interests and aspirations of the Ukrainian people. The practical significance of the study was revealed in the fact that it can be used by modern researchers, in particular historians, when determining the prerequisites and nature of the current war of Russia against Ukraine

Keywords

territory, national state creation, national revolution, Pan-Slavism, national movement

References

[1] Kostyuchok, P. (2021). Military actions of 1914-1915 and their influence and ethnopolitical situation of Ukrainians: Ruthenians in the Sarpathian region. Current Issues of Social Sciences and History of Medicine, 30(2), 28-33.

[2] Seredyuk, V.Yu. (2020). The evolution of the “Ukrainian Question” in the second half of the nineteenth century. Legal Science, 3(105), 103-109.

[3] Melentyeva, M. (2020). Liberals and the Ukrainian Question in Imperial Russia, 1905-1917. Revolutionary Russia, 33(2), 151-171.

[4] Rohde, M. (2020). Ukrainian popular science in Habsburg Galicia, 1900-14. East/West. Journal of Ukrainian Studies, 7(2), 139-171.

[5] Ostafin, K., Jasionek, M., Kaim, D., & Miklar, A. (2022). Historical dataset of mills for Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire/southern Poland from 1880 to the 1930s. Data in Brief, 40, 107-109.

[6] Yekelchyk, S. (2019). Searching for the Ukrainian Revolution. Slavic Review, 78(4), 942-948.

[7] Hedo, A., & Liaskovska, S. (2021). Russian propaganda during the First World War: Technologies and forms. Istoriya-History, 6, 589-608.

[8] Tokalenko, P.O. (2020). Revolutionary and counterrevolutionary events in the army of the russian empire in the southern of Ukraine in the years of the first russian revolution. Military-Scientific Bulletin, (33), 29-47.

[9] Chronicle of bans on the Ukrainian language and persecution of the Ukrainian book in Ukraine. (2022). Retrived from https://volart.com.ua/art/rukopis/zapret.html.

[10] Tomashivsky, S. (1915). Galicia. Political and historical essay concerning World War. Retrived from https://diasporiana.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/books/19710/file.pdf.

[11] Kożuchowski, A. (2021). A tentative dissolution of Austria-Hungary: The 1914-15 Russian occupation of Lviv in Polish memory. Austrian History Yearbook, 52, 166-181.

[12] Parfiriev, D.S. (2021). Transcarpathia in the plans of Ukrainian politicians of Austria-Hungary in 1914-1918. Bulletin of Tomsk State University. History, 74, 138-143.

[13] Hornykiewicz, V.T. (1966). Events in Ukraine 1914-1922 that value and historical backgrounds. Philadelphia, 1(4), 56-71.

[14] Krámli, M. (2020). The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in the Black Sea Region in 1918. Illusions and Delusions, 2, 52-59.

[15] Mick, C. (2019). Legality, ethnicity and violence in Austrian Galicia, 1890-1920. European Review of History: Revue Européenne D'histoire, 26(5), 757-782.

[16] Hrytsak, Y. (2022). What do we write about when we write about Ukraine? Ab Imperio, (1), 51-64.

[17] Treaty of Saint-Germain. (1919, September). Retrived from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/998_082#Text.

[18] Treaty of Trianon. (1920, June). Retrived from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/998_084#Text.

[19] Treaty of Neuilly. (1919, November). Retrived from https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/998_083#Text.

[20] Bazhenova, H. (2021). Representations of the First World War in the Politics of Memory in Russia and Ukraine. Problems of Post-Communism, 68(5), 368-383.

[21] Goltsov, A. (2021). Germany's imperial geopolitics towards Ukraine during the First World War. Scientific and Theoretical Almanac Grani, 24(9), 77-81.

[22] Chernev, B. (2020). The Habsburg mobilisation of ethnicity and the Ukrainian Question during the Great War. Österreich-Ungarns Imperiale Herausforderungen: Nationalismen Und Rivalitäten Im Habsburgerreich Um 1900, 1, 139-156.

[23] Blavatskyy, S. (2021). Mapping the Ukrainian foreign-language press in Europe during the Ukrainian Revolution (1917-1921) in Western and Ukrainian archives and libraries. Slavic & East European Information Resources, 22(2), 147-169.

[24] Dziewanowski-Stefańczyk, B. (2022). To “acquire the right place among the nations”: Cultural diplomacy and the new order in East Central Europe. A New Europe, 1, 91-113.

[25] Bondarenko, D. (2019). The dissolution of the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian empires and the revolutionary process (1917-1920): A comparative analysis. Revista Română De Studii Eurasiatice, 15(1-2), 61-76.

Suggested citation

Yarosh, A. (2022). The “Ukrainian Question” on the Eve of the First World War. Foreign Affairs, 32(3), 22-28. https://doi.org/10.46493/2663-2675.32(3).2022.22-28