The “New Era” and the Formation of Ukrainian Political Parties

The year 1890 brought an attempt at a Polish-Ukrainian compromise, known as the “New Era.’’⁷⁸ The origins of that important episode were complex, and they stretched from Vienna to Kiev.

The period was marked by growing tension between Russia and Austria-Hungary, and there was a possibility of Galicia’s soon becoming a theater of military operations. The Austrian minister of foreign affairs, Count Gustav von Kalnoky, advised the viceroy of Galicia, Count Kazimierz Badeni, to placate the Ruthenians. Volodymyr Antonovych (1834-1908), a professor at Kiev University, an eminent historian, and a leader of the national movement in Dnieper Ukraine, also intervened in Galician affairs. The prospects of Ukrainian nationalism in the Russian Empire seemed bleak then, and Antonovych was concerned with the strengthening of the sanctuary in Galicia. In this his views coincided with those of his former friend and rival of many years, the exile Drahomanov. But the approaches of the two men diverged. Drahomanov connected Ukrainian national gains in Galicia with political democratization, defence of the social interests of the peasantry, and anticlericalism; this implied a struggle against the conservative Austro-Polish regime. Antonovych, on the other hand, believed that the consent of the Polish ruling circles was essential for the satisfaction of pressing Ukrainian cultural needs. Some spokesmen of the Polish minority in Dnieper Ukraine, who favoured the idea of a Polish-Ukrainian collaboration against Russia, served as intermediaries between the group headed by Antonovych, the so-called “Kievan Hro- mada,” and the authoritative Polish aristocratic circle in the Austrian Empire. Antonovych’s chief contact among his Galician compatriots was the leader of the moderate Populists, Oleksander Barvinsky. Preliminary negotiations, which were shrouded in secrecy, took place in Lviv and Kiev.

The New Era was inaugurated in November 1890 by an exchange of declarations of good will between Governor Badeni and the spokesmen of the narodovtsi in the Diet. No precise terms had, however, been agreed upon. Thus the attempt at compromise was, from the very first, vitiated by a basic misunderstanding. The Poles were willing to make certain minor concessions to the Ukrainians in the field of education and linguistic rights. For instance, Antonovych was to be appointed to a newly created Ukrainian-Ianguage chair of history at Lviv University. Antonovych declined, and designated his most brilliant disciple, the young Hrushevsky. But what the narodovtsi had expected was a change in the political system, and this was not forthcoming. Soon the Ukrainians felt that they had been deceived, while the Poles were incensed over the ingratitude and lack of moderation of their partners. By 1894 the New Era had petered out. The elections to the Diet, in 1895, and to the central parliament, in 1897, took place under conditions of shocking administrative abuse, unusual even in Galicia.⁷⁹ But the Ukrainian movement could no longer be intimidated. The indignation provoked by the “Badeni elections’’ was the signal for beginning of a general Ukrainian offensive against the existing regime in Galicia.

The New Era had stirred up Ukrainian public opinion and led to a regrouping of political forces. The first to organize were the Radicals, who, in 1890, created the Ruthenian-Ukrainian Radical Party.⁸⁰ After the death in 1895 of Drahomanov, whose authority had kept the movement together, both the nationalist wing (including Ivan Franko) and the Marxist wing broke away from the Radical party. The Hationalistically oriented former Radicals merged with the populists, most of whom by that time had abandoned the New Era policy. In 1899, the rejuvenated narodovtsi formed the Ukrainian National-Democratic Party.⁸¹ From that time on, a two-party system was in operation among the Ukrainians.

The National Democrats were in strong preponderance, the Radicals forming a permanent opposition. In the Reichsrat and the Diet, however, both parties mostly worked together. The National Democrats were a broad coalition party, perhaps comparable to the Congress Party of India, and included a spectrum of shades, from near-socialists to Greek Catholic priests. The common platform, in whose formulation Franko and Hrushevsky had a hand, was one of democratic nationalism and social reform. The leaders of the party were Iuliian Romanchuk, Kost Levytsky (1859-1941), Ievhen Olesnytsky (1860-1917), Teofil Okunevsky (1858-1937), and Ievhen Petrushevych (1863-1940). After the separation of the right- and left-wing dissidents, the Radicals continued as a party of agrarian socialism and militant anticlericalism. Its character may be defined as standing halfway between the Russian Socialist Revolutionaries and the peasant parties of east-central Europe. Its leaders, besides the old guardian of Drahomanovian orthodoxy, Mykhailo Pavlyk, were Lev Bachynsky (1872-1930), Kyrylo Trylovsky (1864-1941), and Ivan Makukh (1872-1946). Most leaders of both parties were lawyers by profession, but there was in that generation also a remarkable crop of “peasant politicians,’’ talented orators and organizers risen from the masses. The program of the National-Democratic Party stated: “The final goal of our striving is the achievement of cultural, economic, and political independence by the entire Ukrainian-Ruthenian nation, and its future unification in one body politic.’’⁸² A similar statement was in the program of the Radicals. This was, at that time, a distant ideal rather than a practical goal, but the proclamation of the principle of an independent national state by the major Ukrainian parties in Galicia was a turning point in the evolution of Ukrainian political thought.

The two minor parties, the Social Democrats, with a Marxist program, and the conservative Christian Social Party, exercised only limited influence, but they included some respected personalities and stimulated ideological discussions. Ukrainian Social Democrats played a certain role in the trade-union movement, which was making its first steps in Galicia; the trade unions were nationally mixed, but in them too there was a perceptible tension between the Polish and Ukrainian factions.⁸³

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Source: Rudnytsky I.. Essays in modern Ukrainian history. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies University of Alberta,1987. — 500 p.. 1987

The “New Era” and the Formation of Ukrainian Political Parties

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