Two Empires, One Awakening

The year 1848 marked a pivotal moment in European history as revolutionary fervor swept across the continent. In the borderlands of the Habsburg and Russian empires, this turbulence catalyzed the first organized political expression of Ukrainian national identity. While Russian authorities had crushed the secretive Saints Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood in Kyiv just one year earlier, their Austrian counterparts actively encouraged the establishment of the Supreme Ruthenian Council in Lviv.

This striking contrast revealed the divergent paths of Ukrainian nationalism under two competing imperial systems. The Russian Empire viewed Ukrainian cultural activism as a threat to its “All-Russian” identity, systematically suppressing publications and organizations. Meanwhile, Habsburg officials saw Galicia’s Ruthenians (as Ukrainians were then called) as useful counterweights against Polish nationalism. Vienna provided Greek Catholic seminaries, permitted Ukrainian-language publications, and even supported political representation for this predominantly peasant population.

The Crucible of Revolution

When revolution reached Lviv in March 1848, the city’s Ukrainian leaders—all Greek Catholic clergy—responded with cautious pragmatism. Unlike their Polish neighbors who demanded autonomy, they petitioned Emperor Ferdinand I for protection from Polish dominance and recognition of their linguistic rights. With Governor Franz Stadion’s approval, the Supreme Ruthenian Council emerged as a conservative alternative to the radical Polish National Committee.

The council’s achievements were remarkable:
– Secured Ukrainian representation in the Austrian Reichstag (16 of 25 Galician delegates were peasants)
– Launched the first Ukrainian newspaper, Galician Star
– Collected 200,000 signatures for partitioning Galicia along ethnic lines

Though the council dissolved in 1851, it established lasting patterns: clerical leadership, loyalty to Vienna, and a growing awareness of cross-border Ukrainian identity.

The Alphabet Wars and Identity Battles

Language became the battleground for competing visions of Ukrainianness. In the 1830s, the “Ruthenian Triad” of writers had championed vernacular Ukrainian through works like The Nymph of the Dniester. By the 1850s, their paths diverged dramatically:
– Markiian Shashkevych (d. 1843) became a Ukrainian national icon
– Ivan Vahylevych joined pro-Polish factions
– Yakiv Holovatsky led the pro-Russian movement

The 1859 attempt to impose Latin script on Ukrainian publications backfired spectacularly, uniting factions against cultural Polonization. Meanwhile, Russia’s 1863 Valuev Circular and 1876 Ems Ukase banned Ukrainian-language publications entirely, driving writers like Ivan Nechui-Levytsky to publish in Austrian Galicia.

Transborder Solidarity and Its Limits

Remarkably, repression fostered collaboration across imperial borders:
– Kyiv intellectuals funded Lviv’s Prosvita enlightenment societies
– Galician activists adopted Taras Shevchenko as a unifying symbol
– Émigrés like Mykhailo Drahomanov in Geneva developed federalist visions for Ukraine

Yet divisions persisted. The 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise empowered Polish elites in Galicia, prompting some Ruthenians like Ivan Naumovych to embrace pan-Russianism. His 1882 treason trial exposed Vienna’s fears of Muscovite influence, inadvertently strengthening the “Ukrainophile” faction.

The Forging of Modern Ukraine

By 1900, two transformative developments had emerged from these struggles:
1. Secularization: The “Populist” movement shifted leadership from clergy to teachers and journalists
2. Nationalization: Activists increasingly framed Galician Ruthenians and Dnieper Ukrainians as one people

The 1848 revolution’s legacy proved paradoxical. It birthed competing versions of Ukrainian identity—pro-Russian, pro-Polish, and autonomist—while simultaneously creating institutional foundations (press, political representation, cultural societies) that would outlast the empires themselves.

As Europe marched toward World War I, these fault lines between Vienna’s pluralism and St. Petersburg’s repression would ultimately help shape the 20th century’s most consequential borderlands. The Ukrainian national movement, born in the age of empires, would come of age in their ruins.