ARMENIANS

Background

Armenians first settled in Galicia in the thirteenth century. They did not come directly from Armenia, but rather from the Crimea, where thousands had fled after the Turks took control of their homeland in the late eleventh century.

This new religious association hastened an assimilatory process that had al­ready been set in motion decades before, and paradoxically this process became most effective during the seventeenth century, when Armenian culture in Galicia entered its most vibrant period. The first Armenian printshop on the territory of the Ukraine was established in 1616 in L’viv; that same city contained rich Armenian libraries and a distinct Armenian architecture. This was the high point of the community’s development, however; many had already assimilated to Polish culture and by the eighteenth century the special legal and socioeconomic privileges granted to Armenians in the Middle Ages were abolished. By the outset of the nineteenth century, there were only 1500 Armenians recorded in eastern Galicia.

Historiography, archives, general surveys

The leading Soviet specialist on Armenians in the Ukraine, laroslav Dashkevych, has pointed out in several historiographical studies that a rich body of source material and secondary literature on Armenians, especially in L’viv, developed between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.^[648] Until the second half of the nineteenth century, the leading repositories of documentary material on Arme­nians in Galicia were the archives of the Armenian Catholic archbishopric and the cathedral chapter in L’viv. After 1866, part of these materials were transferred to the Ossolineum in L’viv and to the Mechitarist Library in Vienna. After World War II, the Ossolineum Armenian collection was further divided between the Central State Historical Archive in L’viv and the Ossolineum in Wroclaw, Poland. The Armenian holdings in all these repositories have been described in several studies.^[649]

Austrian, Polish, and Soviet writers have written brief introductory histories of Armenians in Galicia.^[650] The first major histories came from a native of the group, Sadok Bar&cz (1814-1892). He produced a history and biographical dictionary of Armenians in Poland in which developments in, and natives of, Galicia are treated at great length.^[651] A contemporary of Barjcz, the Austrian scholar Ferdinand Bischoff, published several documents pertaining to the legal status of Armenians under Polish rule, while later the Polish author Ludwik Piotrkowski discussed the phenomenon of Armenian noble families.^[652]

Cultural history, the church, other specific problems

Of all the aspects of Armenian history in Galicia, cultural developments in the late sixteenth and especially seventeenth centuries have received the greatest atten­tion. laroslav Dashkevych has contributed the most, having compiled a collection of documents on Ukrainian-Armenian relations during this period as well as several articles on Armenian book culture and printing, especially in L’viv.⁸⁰ Art, architecture, and other Armenian cultural phenomena during these centuries are also discussed in several works.⁸¹

The Armenian church has received special attention in a general historical survey by Czeslaw Lechnicki and a detailed account of the complicated struggle for union with Rome (1626-1686) by Gregory Petrowicz.

80 la.R. Dashkevich, Ukrainsko-armianskie sviazi v XVII veke: sbornik dokumentov (Kiev: Naukova dumka 1969); idem, “Armianskaia kniga na Ukraine XVII stoletii,” Kniga, vol. VI (Moscow 1962), pp. 148-168; Ya. Dachkcvytch, “L’imprimerie armenienne a Lvov (Ukraine) au XVII-e siecle,” Revue des etudes armeniennes, N.S., VI (Paris 1969), pp. 355-371; la.R. Dashkevych, “Virmens’ke drukarstvo na Ukraini (do 350-richchia vykhodu v svit pershoi virmens’koi drukovanoi knyhy na Ukraini),” Ukrdins’kyi istorychnyi zhurnal, X, 12 (Kiev 1966), pp. 132-134.

See also N.K. Krivonos, ‘‘K istorii knizhnoi kul’tury armianskoi kolonii vo L’vove v XVI­XVII vekakh,” Kniga, vol. XXII (Moscow 1971), pp. 206-209; N. Krivonos, “Nekotorye dannye o bibliotekakh armian vo L’vove v XVII veke,” Patma-banasirakan handes I Istoriko- filologicheskii zhurnal [VI], 1 (Erevan 1963), pp. 271-276; and K.A. Korkotian and N.A. Voskanian, “Armianskaia kniga v XV-XVI vv. i armianskoe knigopechatanie vo L’vove v XVII v.,” Istoricheskie sviazi i druzhba ukrainskogo i armianskogo narodov, vol. Ill (Erevan: AN Armianskoi SSR 1971), pp. 308-320.

81 M.M. Kazarian, “Iz istorii deiatel’nosti 1’vovskikh khudozhnikov-armian XV1-XVIII vv.,” ibid., pp. 294-300; N.K. Krivonos, “Armiane v kul’turnoi zhizni L’vova,” in Istoricheskie sviazi i druzhba ukrainskogo i armianskogo narodov (Erevan: AN Armianskoi SSR 1961), pp. 132-139; E.A. latskevich, “Pamiatniki armianskoi kul’tury vo L’vove,” in ibid., pp. 121 — 131; D. Kajetanowicz, Katedra ormianska i jej otoczenie (L’viv 1930).

82 Czeslaw Lechnicki, Kosciol ormiatiski w Polsce: zarys historyczny (L’viv: Gubrynowicz i Syn 1928); Gregorio Petrowicz, L'unione degli armeni di Polonia con la Santa Sede (1626-1686), Orientalia Christiana Analecta, vol. CXXXV (Rome: Pontificum Institutum Orientalium Studiorum 1950).

See also the introductory history by M.Dfzieduszucki], “Lwowska Archidjecezya obrzjdu ormiariskiego,” in Encyklopedya koscielna, vol. XII (Warsaw: X. Michal Nowodworski 1879), pp. 509-518; and a Polish translation of a Latin and Italian history of the union: Adolf Pawinski, Dzieje zjednoczenia Ormian polskich z kosciolem rzymskim w XVII wieku, Zrodla Dziejowe, vol. II (Warsaw: Gebethner i Wolff 1876). in Galicia.⁸³ Of great value on the administration and structure of the church are the several schematisma of the Armenian Catholic diocese of L’viv issued be­tween 1843 and 1939.⁸⁴

The Soviet interest in Ukrainian-Armenian historical relations that began in the 1960s has resulted in several conferences and symposia whose results have been published. Among the subjects other than those mentioned above that have been treated are the earliest settlement of Armenians in L’viv,⁸⁵ the socioeconomic developments of the group from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries,⁸⁶ its decline in the nineteenth century,⁸⁷ and the history of individual communities- L’viv, Stanyslaviv, Sniatyn, Brody, and Kuty.⁸⁸

83 For an Apostolic Armenian view on the “forcible union,’’ see the collection of documents: Brni miufiwn hayoc' Lehastani end ekelec’woyn Hromay (St. Petersburg 1884). For the Soviet view, see S T. Biletskii, “Bor’ba 1’vovskikh armian protiv unii ³ Vatikana,” in Istoricheskie sviazi ³ druzhba ukrainskogo ³ armianskogo narodov [vol. II] (Kiev: Naukova dumka 1965), pp. 89-92.

84 Schematismus archidioecesis Leopoliensis ritus Armeno-catholici [1843-1939} (L’viv 1843­1939).

85 Ivan P. Kripiakevich, “K voprosu o nachale armianskoi kolonii v L’vove,” Patma- banasirakan handes / Istoriko-filologicheskii zhurnal [VI], 1 (Erevan 1963), pp. 163-171; idem, “K voprosu o nachale armianskoi kolonii vo L’vove,” in Istoricheskie sviazi ³ druzhba ukrainskogo ³ armianskogo narodov: sbornik materialov, vol. II (Kiev: Naukova dumka 1965), pp.

86 N.F. Kotliar, “Armiane v ekonomike srednevekovogo L’vova (XIV-XV vv.),” in Istoricheskie sviazi ³ druzhba ukrainskogo ³ armianskogo narodov, vol. Ill (Erevan: AN Armianskoi SSR 1971), pp. 201-207; la. P. Kis’, “Uchastie Armian v razvitii remesla g. L’vova v XV-XVII VV.,” in Istoricheskie sviazi ³ druzhba ukrainskogo ³ armianskogo narodov [vol. II] (Kiev: Naukova dumka 1965), pp. 137-139; N.K. Krivonos, “RoP 1'vovskoi armianskoi kolonii v razvitii torgovli na zapadnoukrainskikh zemliakh v pervoi polovine XVII v.,” in ibid., pp. 101-104; idem, “K istorii armianskoi kolonii vo L’vove vo vtoroi polovine XVII v.,” in Istoricheskie sviazi ³ druzhba ukrainskogo ³ armianskogo narodov, vol. Ill (Erevan: AN Armianskoi SSR 1971), pp. 241-249.

See also the older but still useful LA. Linnichenko, “Obshchestvennaia rol’ armian v proshlom lugo-zapadnoi Rusi,” Chteniia v istoricheskom obshchestvie Nestora-lietopistsa, IX (Kiev 1895), pp. 140-147; and Bohdan Janusz, 'Mons Pius’ Ormian Iwowskich, Bibljoteka Lwowska, vol. XXVI (L’viv 1928).

87 E.A. latskevich, “Armiane v Galitsii v XIX v.,” Patma-banasirakan handes! Istoriko- filologicheskii zhurnal [III], 3 (Erevan 1960), pp. 59-64; G.S. Sizonenko, “Armianskie deiateli nauki ³ kul’tury vo L’vove XIX-XX vv.,” in Istoricheskie sviazi ³ druzhba ukrainskogo ³ armianskogo narodov, vol. Ill (Erevan: AN Armianskoi SSR 1971), pp. 170-176.

88 N. Krivonos and V. Grabovetskii, “Armianskaia koloniia vo L’vove v XIV-XVIII vekakh,” Izvestiia Akademii Nauk Armianskoi SSR, no. 12 (Erevan 1958); V. Grabovetskii, “Armianskaia koloniia v Stanislave v XVII-XVIII vv.,” ibid., no. 6 (Erevan 1958), pp. 43-51. V.V. Grabovetskii, “Armianskaia koloniia v Sniatyne,” in Istoricheskie sviazi ³