page_title: Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
section_title: Constitutional experiments
hierarchical_section_title: Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria / History / Constitutional experiments
context_page_description: The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known simply as Galicia or Austrian Poland, was established in 1772 as a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy as a result of the First Partition of Poland. After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, it became a kingdom under Habsburg rule. In 1804 it became a crownland of the Austrian Empire. From 1867 it was a Polish-administered autonomous crownland under Cisleithanian Austria-Hungary, until its dissolution in 1918. The country was carved from the entire south-western part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among the many ceremonial titles of the princes of Hungary was "ruler of Galicia and Lodomeria". Following the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Austrian Empire ceded portions of Galicia to the Russian Empire, West Galicia and Tarnopol District.
  The name "Galicia" is the Latinized form of Halych, a principality of the medieval Ruthenia. "Lodomeria" is also a Latinized form of Volodymyr-Volynskyi, that was founded in the 10th century by Vladimir the Great and until the partitions of Poland was known simply as Volodymyr.
context_section_description: In 1859, following Austro-Hungarian military defeat in Italy, the Empire entered a period of constitutional experiments. In 1860, the Vienna Government, influenced by Agenor Goluchowski, issued its October Diploma, which envisioned a conservative federalization of the empire, but a negative reaction in the German-speaking lands led to changes in government and the issuing of the February Patent which watered down this de-centralization. Nevertheless, by 1861, Galicia was granted a Legislative Assembly or Galicia Diet. Although at first pro-Habsburg Ukrainian and Polish peasant representation was considerable in this body (about half the assembly), and the pressing social and Ukrainian questions were discussed, administrative pressures limited the effectiveness of both peasant and Ukrainian representatives and the Diet of Galicia (Polish Sejm) became dominated by the Polish aristocracy and gentry, who favoured further autonomy. This same year, disturbances broke out in Russian Poland and to some extent spilled over into Galicia. The Sejm ceased to sit.
  By 1863, open revolt broke out in Russian Poland and from 1864 to 1865 the Austro-Hungarian government declared a State of Siege in Galicia, temporarily suspending civil liberties.
  The year 1865 brought a return to federal ideas along the lines suggested by Agenor Goluchowski and negotiations on autonomy between the Polish aristocracy and Vienna began once again.
  Meanwhile, the Ruthenians felt more and more abandoned by Vienna and among the "Old Ruthenians" grouped around the Greek Catholic Cathedral of Saint George, there occurred a turn towards Russia. The more extreme supporters of this orientation came to be known as "Russophiles". At the same time, influenced by the Ukrainian language poetry of the eastern Ukrainian writer, Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainophile movement arose which published literature in the Ukrainian/Ruthenian vernacular and eventually established a network of reading halls. Supporters of this orientation came to be known as "Populists", and later, simply as "Ukrainians". Almost all Ruthenians, however, still hoped for national equality and for an administrative division of Galicia along ethnic lines.
caption: Galician slaughter (Polish "Rzeź galicyjska") by Jan Lewicki (1795–1871)
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