Stepan Rudyk in the social and political life of Galicia in the first half of the XX century

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to cover the life path of unjustly forgotten Stepan Rudyk, socio-political figure, journalist, editor, who reflects the fate of the whole generation of Galician Ukrainians in the Austro-Hungarian and Polish states. The author analyzes the biography of a publicist against the backdrop of dramatic events of the 1920s and 1930s in western Ukraine, which reflect the struggle of Ukrainians for national identity and state-building aspirations. Research methodology is based on a combination of different scientific methods: historical, biographical, prosopographic, analytical, synthetic. The scientific novelty of the work is to introduce the general public unknown materials and archival documents concerning Stepan Rudyk's personal data and shed light on his contribution to the construction of Ukrainian civil society in Galicia in the context of Polish colonial discourse. This is accentuated by the personal deeds of Stepan Rudyk, who testified to daily patriotism and devotion to the Ukrainian idea. Conclusions. Generations of Galician Ukrainians, who were born in the late XIX and early XX centuries, have gone through the difficult way of fighting to have an opportunity to receive education in their mother tongue and to have their own state. They defended their nation-building ideals with weapons in the ranks of the Ukrainian Galician Army, in student associations, editorial of cultural journals, which led to persecution and arrests by the Polish authorities. A highly educated graduate of the University of Vienna, khorunzhyi of Ukrainian Galician Army, editor of “Striletska Dumka” and Lviv magazine “Kultura” – Stepan Rudyk –  was killed in a Soviet prison.