Parcelling of the lands of Eastern Galicia in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century

Importance. The economic development of Austro-Ugric Russia in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century was catching up with other regions of the Habsburg monarchy. In the last third of the 19th – early 20th century in Galicia, the parcelling (division into small parts) of landlords’ estates became widespread. On the Polish side, it was attended by large landowners, immigrants from Western Galicia, and various financial and political organizations. On the Russo-Ukrainian side, the struggle for land was carried out mainly by wealthy peasants, priests, peasant credit societies and unions. Land parcelling has become one of the most important factors in the deterioration of Polish-Ukrainian relations.
Materials and Methods. The main sources are collections of statistics, the press and journalism of the period under study. The methodological basis of the study includes the use of historicaltypological and historical-comparative methods, which made it possible to study the peculiarities of changes in large-scale land ownership in Galicia. The principle of historicism, which assumes an analysis of the subject of research taking into account the realities of a particular historical epoch is used
Results and Discussion. The study analyzes the process of parcelling (division into small parts of plots of landlords’ estates). The characteristic of the distribution of land between Polish, Russo- Ukrainian peasants and Jews is given, and Polish peasants, upon receiving land plots, moved to the eastern part of Galicia, inhabited mainly by the East Slavic (Russo-Ukrainian) population. It is shown that the resettlement of Polish peasants to the territory of Eastern Galicia was organized by Polish national parties and organizations. The land parcel acted as a kind of testing ground for competitions between Polish landowners and Russo-Ukrainian peasants in the struggle for land. At the same time, a significant part of the land magnates did not cooperate with the organization of the resettlement of Polish peasants, selling land to Russo-Ukrainian peasants during the parcel. This was due to the economic rather than political interests of large landowners, however, even with such land sales, the interests of the East Slavic population suffered, since peasants often got the worst plots. In addition, illegal ways of using landlord power over the surrounding peasant population are analyzed, when individual landlords imposed the worst plots of land on Russo- Ukrainian peasants, took away land, and used violence. It is shown how the legislative and executive authorities in the eastern part of Galicia did not try to somehow prevent abuses by large landowners.
Conclusion. As a result, Russo-Ukrainian peasants got less than 20 % of agricultural land during the period under study, which led to a further aggravation of Russo-Polish and Russo-Jewish relations and prevented the introduction of capitalist economy in peasant land ownership