HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

THE UKRAINIAN UNIVERSITY IN GALICIA 501The students' demand was supported by Galician Ukrainian organizations,including the press, many of which petitioned the government. 10Meanwhile, an influx of Polish students expelled from Russianuniversities, veterans of student protest movements, came to Lviv.Polish faculty at the university sought assurance from the governmentthat "the Polishness of the university would be guaranteed." 11SomePolish professors refused to validate transcripts that had been filed inUkrainian, while others spoke openly against using Ukrainian at theuniversity.The Ukrainian students convened a second rally on 8 October 1901.Significantly, that gathering made less insistent demands. Called fornow was a reorganization of chairs with Ukrainian as the language ofinstruction into a self-contained administrative unit, with doctoralexaminations in Ukrainian. Even this reorganization, the studentsknew, would take some time to accomplish. For the time being, theywould be satisfied with Ukrainian-speaking examiners and Ukrainianlanguageadministrative forms. But these moderate demands, too,were ignored.As the atmosphere at the university became more tense, the Ukrainianstudents edged toward confrontation. They called another rally for19 November 1901. The secret agenda was to include the election of adelegation to be sent to the Ministry of Education and the Reichstag,as well as a call to boycott objectionable Polish professors at theuniversity. The police, however, had planted an informer among theUkrainian organizers of the rally and permission for the rally, usually aroutine matter, was denied. Angered, the Ukrainian students held therally nevertheless. When the rector and some faculty tried to talk theminto disbanding, the crowd pushed them out of the room. The studentsMykhailo Lozyns'kyi, "Z Avstryis'koi Ukrainy — Z borot'by za ukrains'kyi universytetu L'vovi," Literaturno-naukovyi vistnyk 37 (January-March 1907):527-36. The first all-student strike, in which students from all higher educationalestablishments (including gymnasia) participated, took place in 1899 in tsaristRussia. We do not know what impact the student movement there had onUkrainians in Galicia. We do know, however, the influence that Polish studentsfrom Russia had upon the Austrian Poles. According to Finkel and Starzyński, in1893 there were 1,279 students at the university: by nationality — 863 Poles, 414Ukrainians, 2 others; by religion — 601 Latin-rite Catholics, 422 Greek-riteCatholics, and 244 Jews. The 43 students from outside Galicia were Poles expelledfrom imperial Russian universities.10See, especially, "O rus'kii universytet u L'vovi," Dilo, 25 June (7 July) 1899.11Bobrzyński, Z moich pamiętników, p. 314.