ФОРМУВАННЯ ПОЛІТИКО-ПРАВОВОГО СВІТОГЛЯДУ ВОЛОДИМИРА СТАРОСОЛЬСЬКОГО ПІД ЧАС НАВЧАННЯ НА ЮРИДИЧНОМУ ФАКУЛЬТЕТІ ЛЬВІВСЬКОГО УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ
Authors: Mandrusiak Marko 
Published: January 2025

The article analyzes the peculiarities of the formation of the political and legal worldview of
Volodymyr Starosolskyi during his studies at the Law Faculty of Lviv University. It is noted that
during 1896–1900, V. Starosolskyi was getting a university education. On October 7, 1896, he
enrolled (there were no entrance exams then) at the Law Faculty of the Jagiellonian (Krakow)
University, where he was in a Polish environment. However, thanks to the wise upbringing of
his mother, Volodymyr kept his father's religion – Greek Catholic. During visits to services in the
Greek Catholic Church, Volodymyr met and befriended a group of Ukrainian students who also studied at the Jagiellonian University: Vasyl Stefanyk, Ivan Trush, Stanislav Lyudkevych,
Bohdan Lepkyi, and others. He was friends with some of them for his entire life. They told him
about the Ukrainian national movement, in which he became seriously interested. His comrades
advised him to move to Lviv, where this movement was much more intense and massive. It was
Vasyl Stefanyk who noted with surprise the rapid national "crystallization" of the newly arrived
young man. While studying in the first year at the Law Faculty of the Jagiellonian University in
1896–1897, V. Starosolskyi took 11 courses.
It is emphasized that for the second year, V. Starosolskyi was transferred to the Lviv
University, where he studied from 1897 to 1898, and from 1899 to 1900 – in the fourth year.
Studying at the Law Faculty of Lviv University had an important influence on the formation of
political and legal views of V. Starosolskyi. It was in Lviv where Volodymyr got to know the
Ukrainian environment more deeply and concretely, and learned the Ukrainian language well.
This event actually became a turning point in his life: he began to form a national selfidentification, and later patriotic feelings as well as a political and legal outlook on politics, the
state, its form, law, on the Ukrainian people, their struggle for their own state, etc. He chose
Ukrainian nationality for himself. Volodymyr enrolled in the student society "Academic
Community" and "Law Club", where he got to know Yosyp Kontsilovskyi, Longyn Tsehelskyi,
Mykola Shukhevych, Mykhailo Novakivskyi, Stepan Pelenskyi, and others. Volodymyr was a
very active member of these organizations, as evidenced by the fact that he was soon elected
deputy head of the Academic Community.
After completing the second course at the Law Faculty of Lviv University, V. Starosolskyi
continued his studies at the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna. In Vienna, Volodymyr
actively participated in the life of the Ukrainian student community there, in particular, he joined
the student society "Sich", where he was elected deputy chairman and librarian in February
1899, and in March – chairman of the society. On behalf of this Viennese society, in July 1899,
Volodymyr took part in a student party organized by the Lviv Academic Community. The main
issue of the day was the establishment of a Ukrainian university in Lviv. Volodymyr also
supported this demand in his speech. Later in the evening, a meeting of representatives of
Ukrainian student organizations was convened in Vienna on the initiative of the Viennese "Sich".
It proposed to create an organization that would unite Ukrainian students from all higher
educational institutions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was proposed to call it "Young
Ukraine", and V. Starosolskyi was elected to the organizational committee. He became the head
of this committee. At the same time, it was proposed to establish a student magazine (journal)
of the same name.
For the fourth year of studies, V. Starosolskyi returned to Lviv to the Law Faculty of Lviv
University. At that time, he became the leader of Ukrainian students, a member of the student
group "Committee of Ten", the founder of the "Young Ukraine" society, as well as the editor of
the magazine of the same name, which had a special influence on student youth. At the historic
congress of student youth in Lviv in 1900, "Young Ukraine" through its speakers Volodymyr
Starosolskyi and Longyn Tsehelskyi first declared the demand for Ukrainian statehood.
Volodymyr Starosolskyi was one of the leading organizers of the "secession" of university youth
in 1899, when one thousand students left Lviv University in protest against the chauvinism of
Polish professors and students, and transferred to study at other Austrian universities.
Keywords: political and legal outlook, law, state, political and legal views, Galicia, Austrian
Empire.