Specific periods and problems
There are numerous studies devoted to specific periods or problems in the history of the medieval Galician-Volhynian principality and kingdom. The very first mention of Galician territory in the Primary Chronicle’s entry for 981 has itself been the subject of a large and controversial literature.
The traditional view that Volodymyr attacked the Cherven cities and Liakhs in order to unite or reunite them with his realm has been challenged by Polish historians like Stefan Maria Kuczyhski and Henryk Paszkiewicz, who argue that the attack was really directed against the so-called Lendians, a West Slav or Polish tribe, and that therefore the whole Galician-Volhynian borderland as far east as the Styr River was originally Polish, not East Slavic.[202] This view is forcefully challenged by the Soviet specialist Vladimir Koroliuk, who supports the traditional view that the Cherven cities in question were White Croatian, and therefore East Slavic, and that the Liakhs mentioned in the chronicle simply referred to temporary political control of the region by Poles.[203] The Cherven cities, mentioned in the 981 chronicle entry and located between the San-Vistula and Buh valleys along the western border of both Galicia and Volhynia, have also been the subject of much writing. The discussion centers on how many there actually were (Brest, Belz, Cherven/Czerwieri, and Przemysl being the best known), and whether they were originally “Polish,” “Czech,” “East Slavic,” or, in the opinion of A.V. Longinov (one of the first writers to analyze the problem in depth), part of a principality that was independent of both Poland and Kievan Rus’.[204]Closely related to the problem of Volodymyr’s 981 and 993 expeditions against the Liakhs, the Croats, and the Cherven cities is the question of the ethnographic boundary between the Polish and Rus’ populations.
The subsequent rise of national consciousness in nineteenth-century Galicia provoked friction between Poles and Ukrainians, both of whom tried to buttress their views by pointing to supposed ethnographic boundaries in the early medieval period. The controversy began after studies by the Galician and Subcarpathian Russophile authors Denys Zubryts’kyi and Adol’f Dobrians’kyi argued that in the medieval period the Rus’ population was settled as far west as the Dunajec River, thus making the Cherven cities and regions farther west all East Slavic.[205] Subsequent studies by the Russian and Ukrainian authors Evgenii Kryzhanovskii, Ivan Filevych, Myron Korduba (the best on the subject), and most recently laroslav Isaievych confirmed the idea of a more westward extension of the Rus’ population,[206] while the Poles Adam Szeljgowski, Jozef Widajewicz, Franciszek Persowski, and Jozef Skrzypek strongly oppose such views and consider the region, at least as far east as the Buh River, to have originally been Polish.[207] The whole question of Polish-Rus’ relations during the medieval period, which were marked by frequent conflict over the Cherven cities and Polish interference in Galician political life, has been surveyed by the West German specialist Gotthold Rhode, who is skeptical of any Polish presence as far east as the Cherven cities before the eleventh century, as well as by Bronislaw WIodarski, who presents the Polish view, and Vladimir D. Koroliuk, who represents the cunent Soviet view.[208]The reigns of a few Galician rulers have also been the subject of special studies. As might be expected, the thirteenth-century apogee of Galician history under Prince and later King Danylo has received the most attention in solid monographs by Mykola Dashkevych and Vladimir Pashuto, and in a more recent semipopular biography by Mykola Kotliar.[209] The other reign to be singled out for special attention is that of lurii II (reigned 1323-1340), the last ruler of an independent Galicia-Volhynia.[210]
Galicia’s importance during the medieval period was due in large measure to its strategic location at the crossroads of major trading routes connecting Kiev and Constantinople in the east and southeast, and with Poland and Hungary in the west and southwest.
Izydor Sharanevych has provided an extremely detailed description of the geography of these routes.[211] As for the region’s internal socioeconomic structure, Mykhailo Hrushevs’kyi and Myron Korduba have provided descriptions of the various social strata that comprised the region-the prince, burghers, peasants, and powerful boyars.[212] Several Soviet writers have also provided descriptions of the Galician social structure, although they seem especially anxious to stress instances of rebellious discontent among the lower classes.[213] The impact of the Mongol invasion after 1240 upon Galicia has been a focus of specific attention. A controversy has arisen over the degree to which the Galician-Volhy- nian Kingdom was obliged to submit to the Golden Horde-some scholars (George Vernadsky and Vladimir Pashuto) seeing total subordination, others (Mykhailo Zhdan) considering the region to have been basically independent, even if its rulers had to pay personal obeisance as well as tribute to the Mongol khans.[214]