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« 2025. # 1 (181)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2025. № 1 (181), 55—60

UDK 347.626″192″(477.83/.86)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

FORCED TO MARRIAGE IN GALICIAN RURAL SOCIETY DURING THE INTERWAR PERIOD (1920s—1930s)

VOITOVYCH Nadiia

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6313-9585
  • PhD (History), Associate Professor,
  • Stepan Gzhytskyi National University 
  • of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnologies Lviv,
  • Department of History of Ukraine and Economic Theory,
  • 50, Pekarska Str., 79010, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: wojtovych@ukr.net

Abstract. During the interwar period, Ukrainian rural society in Galicia remained firmly guided by customary law and the canonical dogmas of the church in everyday life, despite the assimilation policy adopted by the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, close coexistence with Poles and Jews, and the influence of civil legislative acts. It was the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church that played a dominant role in shaping marriage and family life. In this respect, the archival materials of the Lviv Greek Catholic Metropolitan Consistory are of great significance, since they provide valuable insights into various aspects of the existence of the Ukrainian family in Galicia in the 1920s and 1930s. The purpose of this article is to examine the motives behind early and repeated marriages, as well as the coercion exerted by parents to compel their children into marriage; to demonstrate that the absence of feelings of love was one of the causes of domestic violence in the family. The object of the given scientific study is the Ukrainian rural population of Galicia. The subject of the study is marital and family relations, in particular the motives for choosing a partner to marry and being forced into marriage under the influence of difficult post-war economic realities. The chronological boundaries of the work cover the 20s—30s of the twentieth century, when Galicia was part of the Polish state. The territorial boundaries cover the regions of Ukraine that were part of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the interwar period. According to the modern administrative-territorial division, these are the Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Ternopil regions. The research methodology is based on the application of the methodological principle of historicism, as well as on general scientific and special scientific methods, primarily comparative-historical. Priority is given to the scrupulous study of archival sources and verification of the information available in them through comparison with ethnographic materials. In the course of the research, it was found that the parents of the bride and groom had a decisive voice in choosing a suitable partner for their children. It was established that they were guided by the pragmatic property interests — the desire to increase their own wealth, unite neighboring lands, prevent the division of property, and survive economically after the war: these were the most widespread reasons for the forced marriage. It was proven that the rural community valued social status and economic stability more than love or friendly relations in the family. Therefore, early marriages, economic sanctions and parental coercion to marry, physical violence by a man against a young woman, etc. were common.

Keywords: Galicia, Ukrainians, rural population, marriage, family, forced marriage, violence.

Received 31.01.2025

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