Catalysts of National Identity of Carpathian Region Ukrainians during World War I

Abstract

The purpose of the research paper is to study the factors that influenced the formation of the national identity of the Carpathian region Ukrainian population during World War I.

The scientific novelty. The influence of World War I on the formation of the national identity of the Carpathian region Ukrainian population is analyzed.

Conclusions. The Great War activated national liberation processes in Europe. It exacerbated national issues in multi-ethnic states. One such issue was the unresolved Ukrainian question.

The war caused a change in traditional structures and worldviews. There was a re-examination of social and political, economic, and ethnocultural experiences. That was a turning point for Ukrainians. It was characterized by collective political mobilization. In the ethnic sphere, a defined group identification occurred.

Most of the Ukrainian population of the Carpathians consisted of Hutsuls, Boikos, and Lemkos. They were mostly politically inert and partly ethnically ambivalent. During the war, they self-reflected themselves as Rusyns. Only a part of them were aware of themselves as Ukrainians. The war qualitatively accelerated the processes of national self-realization. It encouraged a clear choice of ‘friend or foe’. The result was a deepening of national self-reflection.

The transformation was influenced by communication, information, and adaptation processes. That was influenced by the Austrian and Russian occupation authorities. Their policy towards the Ukrainians of the Carpathians was discriminatory. In practice, it had a number of negative manifestations.

Ukrainian ethnonyms became widespread. The national self-identification of the Ukrainian highlanders grew and deepened. To a greater extent, it occurred among Boikos and Hutsuls, to a lesser extent, among Lemkos.

The war became a catalyst for the processes of national identification; it helped to overcome stereotypes, indifference towards politics, and inertia of the Carpathian Ukrainians. That was manifested by checking loyalty and patriotism. The war became a means of rethinking, regaining, and constructing of own identity.

Military operations, mobilization, and occupation intensified the ethno-national self-awareness of the Carpathian Ukrainians. All that matters accelerated the processes of Ukrainian nation-building. They transformed regional identities into all-Ukrainian ones, and individual identities into collective ones. The spread of the national unity idea intensified during the Great War.