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« 2025. # 1 (181)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2025. № 1 (181), 71—83

UDK 94:[323.1:316.4.063.3](477.83/.86=161.2=411.16)”192″

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

UKRAINIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS IN GALICIA IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE 20TH CENTURY: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS FOR COEXISTENCE

VASKIV Nazar

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8140-0166 
  • Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor,
  • Ivan Franko National University of Lviv,
  • Department of World Modern History,
  • 1, Universytetska Str., Lviv, Ukraine, 79000, 
  • Contacts: e-mail: nazarvask@gmail.com

Abstract. Introduction. The activation of state-building tendencies among Ukrainian and Jewish public and political circles in the early 20th century accelerated the discourse on the feasibility of intensifying interethnic cooperation. At this stage, the need arose to outline clear boundaries for future Ukrainian-Jewish coexistence.

Problem Statement. In the first quarter of the 20th century, the Ukrainian and Jewish populations of Galicia faced growing socio-political challenges. The legislative reforms, political activism, World War I, Polish-Ukrainian confrontation, and interwar uncertainty prompted Ukrainians and Jews to consolidate their efforts in order to achieve their respective ideological-political goals. The absence of antagonistic foundations between the two nations steadily strengthened Ukrainian-Jewish relations and outlined the prospects for equal relations in the future.

The purpose of the article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of Ukrainian-Jewish relations through the lens of socio-political and existential challenges in the first quarter of the 20th century.

The methodological basis of the research is the principles of historicism and objectivity, the methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, systematization, quantitative-statistical methods, and generalization.

Results. In the first quarter of the 20th century, the Ukrainian and Jewish populations of Galicia demonstrated a willingness to deepen bilateral relations. A stable interethnic partnership was guaranteed by the history of tolerance and peaceful coexistence, political cooperation, and military and diplomatic interaction. This allowed outlining the boundaries of a shared vision for future coexistence. Mutual advocacy for the right to statehood on the international stage demonstrated the strengthening of Ukrainian-Jewish political ties. 

Conclusion. In the absence of their own state and political influence tools, the Ukrainian and Jewish populations of Galicia demonstrated ideological maturity and clarity in their national trajectories. Despite the challenges to interethnic interaction, both during political cooperation before the Great War and in the process of establishing Ukrainian statehood during the struggle for independence and the Polish-Ukrainian confrontation, Ukrainian-Jewish cooperation developed and laid a strong foundation for tolerance and peaceful equitable coexistence of the two nations in the future.

Keywords: Ukrainian-Jewish relations, Galicia, interethnic cooperation, Jewish neutrality, legislative initiatives, political interaction.

Received 8.02.2025

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