This article is about the western part of Ukraine. Today's western
Ukraine belonged to the Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania until 1772. Then, as
part of the so-called partitions of Poland, it was annexed partly by the
Russian Tsarist Empire (northwest) and partly by the Habsburg Monarchy
(southwest). The Galicia region in particular was strongly multi-ethnic
and multi-cultural. Here “Ruthenians” (i.e. Ukrainians) lived alongside
Poles and German speakers; Catholics alongside Uniate Greek Catholics
(Orthodox who recognize the Pope as supreme) and Jews. Western Ukraine
was predominantly agricultural and structurally weak; However, cities
like Lemberg (Lviv) and Chernivtsi were centers of science and high
culture. In addition, the largest known oil deposits in Europe were
located here until the end of the First World War.
Because of the
centuries-long influence of the Central European cultural area, the
Standing Committee for Geographical Names does not count Western Ukraine
- unlike the rest of the country - in Eastern but in Central Europe.
During World War I, Western Ukraine was the main battle zone between
the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary. After the collapse of the
Habsburg monarchy, the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic
emerged in Lviv, but it was conquered by the now independent Poland in
early 1919.
As a result of the renewed division of Poland agreed
in the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Soviet Union also conquered western
Ukraine in 1939. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, however, it was
conquered by the Wehrmacht. The historian Timothy D. Snyder counts the
region among the so-called "Bloodlands", in which both Stalin's Soviet
Union and Hitler's Germany and their respective allies committed
incomprehensible mass murders of the civilian population during this
time. After the end of the war, western Ukraine was united with the
Ukrainian Soviet Republic and gained independence with it in 1991.
Even if economic output has caught up as a result of trade with and
investments from western countries, average wages were still noticeably
lower in the 2000s than in the industrial areas of eastern Ukraine or
the greater Kiev area. For historical reasons, the feeling of an
independent Ukrainian identity and anti-Russian resentment is
particularly strong in western Ukraine. Symbolic remnants of Soviet rule
were removed more quickly here than in other parts of the country. The
supporters of the “Orange” Revolution had the highest approval ratings
here. But extreme Ukrainian nationalist parties such as “Svoboda” also
have their strongholds in western Ukraine.
The following historical regions are located on the territory of
Western Ukraine:
Volyn oblast
Vinnitsa
oblast
Khmelnytsky
oblast
Ternopil oblast
Ivano-Frankivsk oblast
Lviv
oblast
Transcarpathian
oblast
Chernivtsi oblast
Most significant cities
Lviv
is the administrative center of the Lviv region, traditionally
considered the economic, cultural and political center of Western
Ukraine, one of the main cities of Ukraine, the most important
scientific, educational, industrial, tourist, and business city of the
Western region.
Chernivtsi is the
administrative center of the Chernivtsi region, the main industrial,
commercial, scientific, educational and cultural city of Bukovyna, the
most important scientific, educational, tourist and cultural center of
Western Ukraine.
Ternopil is the administrative center of the
Ternopil region, scientific, educational, industrial, tourist, religious
and cultural center of Galicia, South Volhynia and Podolia.
Khmelnitsky is the administrative center of the Khmelnitsky region, the
industrial, commercial and cultural center of Podolia and South Volyn.
Ivano-Frankivsk is the administrative center of the Ivano-Frankivsk
region, a significant industrial and cultural center of the Carpathians.
Uzhgorod is the administrative center of the Transcarpathian region, the
main industrial, cultural and tourist center of Transcarpathia.
Rivne
is the administrative center of the Rivne region, the industrial and
cultural center of Western Polissya and Volhynia.
Lutsk is the
administrative center of the Volyn region, the historical, cultural,
scientific, educational and main tourist center of the North-Western
Territory of Ukraine.
Kamianets-Podilskyi
is a city in the Khmelnitsky region, the former administrative center of
the region, the industrial, historical, cultural and tourist center of
Podolia.
Kolomyia is a city in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, a tourist
and cultural center of Pokuttya and the Carpathians.
Drohobych is the
administrative center of the former Drohobych region, the second largest
industrial city in the Lviv region after Lviv.
Netishyn is a city in
the Khmelnytsky region, a satellite city of the Khmelnytsky NPP.
Dubno is a city in the Rivne region, the second largest industrial and
cultural center of the region.
Mukachevo is a city in Transcarpathia,
a district center, one of the main cities of the Transcarpathian region.
Beregovo is a city in Transcarpathia, the center of Hungarian culture in
Ukraine.
Stryi is one of the industrial centers of the Lviv region,
an important railway junction.
The western region is the part of the country with the most World
Heritage sites in Ukraine:
Old town of Lviv with Renaissance,
Baroque, Classicism, Historicism, Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings
Old town of Chernivtsi, including the former residence of the Greek
Orthodox metropolitan (today the seat of the Yuriy Fedkovych University)
Wooden churches from the 16th to 19th centuries in the Northern
Carpathians: Potelych, Matkiv, Zhovkva, Drohobych, Rohatyn, Nyshny
Werbish, Yasinja, Uzhok
Primeval beech forests in the Carpathians:
Chornohora, Kusy, Munții Maramureșului, Uholka-Shyrokyj Luh, Svydivets,
Stushytsja-Uzhok
More Attractions:
Kamianets-Podilskyi gorge
and fortress
Medieval fortress of Khotyn
The most important airport in the region is Lviv International
Airport, to which there are also direct flights from German-speaking
countries, followed by the smaller airports of Ivano-Frankivsk and
Uschhorod.
The central railway junction is the Lviv railway
station, which can also be reached directly by trains from Central
Europe (Warsaw, Kraków, Prague). Other important junctions are Kovel
(connection from Warsaw), Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Chop
(Transcarpathia; connections from Prague, Košice, Budapest),
Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi.
Regional rail transport in most parts of western Ukraine is operated by Lvivska Zalisnytsia (Lviv Railway). Only the Khmelnytskyi Oblast belongs to the jurisdiction of the Pivdenno-Zakhidna Zaliznytsia (Southwest Railway).
After the annexation of part of the Ukrainian territories to the
Russian kingdom in the second half of the 17th century, Western Ukraine
was called those Ukrainian territories west of the Dnieper that remained
part of the Polish kingdom (Galicia, Volhynia, Podolia).
After
the divisions of the Commonwealth between Russia, Prussia and Austria in
the 18th century, Western Ukraine began to be mainly called the
Ukrainian lands that were part of the Austrian Empire, that is, Galicia,
Bukovina and Transcarpathia.
From 1918, Western Ukraine was
informally called the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, and later,
until 1939, the Ukrainian lands occupied by Poland[1].
After the
Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, concluded between the RSFSR, the Ukrainian
SSR and the Polish Republic, the western part of Ukraine went to Poland,
the name "Western Ukraine" was assigned to this territory. From 1921 to
1939, this name corresponded to the territories that in Poland were
officially called the Eastern Regions (Polish Kresy wschodnie), Galicia
(“Eastern Lesser Poland”), part of Western Podolia, Western Volhynia,
Kholmshchyna, Podlasie and Western Polissya. Ethnic Ukrainian lands were
divided between the voivodeships: Stanislav, Tarnopol, Volyn, Lvov,
Polessky, Lublin and Bialystok, and ethnic Polish territories were
included in the last four. As the historian Yaroslav Vermenich notes,
the Polish authorities created such a “striped strip” on purpose, for
political reasons: the Polish government categorically rejected the
desire of the Ukrainian population to have (at least in Galicia)
ethnically separate administrative units. At the same time, the Polish
authorities sought to maintain a certain alienation that had taken place
between the Ukrainian population of Galicia, most of which professed
Greek Catholicism, and the Orthodox population of Volhynia and Polissya.
In a broad sense, "Western Ukraine" in the period between the First
and Second World Wars called all ethnic Ukrainian lands outside the
USSR, as part of Poland, Romania (Northern Bukovina) and Czechoslovakia
(Subcarpathian Rus). After the inclusion of the Western Ukrainian lands
into the Ukrainian SSR, the name "Western Ukraine" was assigned to the
regions formed during 1939-1946 (with the exception of the Izmail
region).
With regard to modern Ukraine, as noted in the "Encyclopedia of the
History of Ukraine" (2005), the term "Western Ukraine" is used in two
senses. Basically, only three Galician regions are called this way -
Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk. But quite often, the concept of
"Western Ukraine" includes the territories of eight regions - in
addition to the three Galician, also Volyn, Rivne, Chernivtsi,
Khmelnytsky and Transcarpathian.
In the “Geographical
Encyclopedia of Ukraine” (1990) published in Soviet times, the concept
of “Western Ukraine” included the territory of the current five regions
- Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Volyn and Rivne.
It is
extremely rare for Western Ukraine to include Vinnitsa and Zhytomyr
regions, which are most often attributed to Central and Northern
Ukraine. In some cases, Khmelnytsky, Rivne and Volyn regions are also
included in Central and Northern Ukraine due to the fact that the
territories of these regions were not part of Austria-Hungary and the
Western Ukrainian People's Republic, and the territory of the
Khmelnytsky region in 1921-1939. was not part of the Polish Republic.
Western Ukraine is predominantly Ukrainian-speaking. Russian is the
least common of all parts of Ukraine. Although the two languages are
closely related and highly mutually intelligible, some western
Ukrainians refuse to respond when spoken to in Russian. English –
sometimes even German – is therefore easier to get along with here.
Hungarian and Romanian are spoken in parts of Zakarpattia and
Chernivtsi Oblasts.