Lemberg/Ľviv/Lwów
Lemberg/Ľviv/Lwów
Names in other languages
Polish: Lwów; Yiddish: Lemberg; Russian: Львов, transliterated as L'vov; Latin: Leopolis
Etymology
Lviv is named after Lev (Lion) (c. 1228–c. 1301), the son of Danylo Romanovyč (Halyc'kyj) (1201–1264), Prince of Galicia-Volhynia.
2. Geography
Topography
Lviv lies about 70 km east of the Polish border and 160 km north of the Eastern Carpathians, at an altitude of 296 m above sea level. The small river Poltva flows through the city.
Political and administrative affiliation
Western Ukraine; Lviv is the capital of the L’viv Oblast, the seat of the regional administration, of archdioceses of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church, as well as of dioceses of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate), the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Common symbolism
The town’s coat of arms was adopted from the Galician-Volhynian princes. It depicts a golden lion within a golden stone gate with three towers, set against a light blue background.
Archaeological significance
The earliest archaeological finds date from the 5th century. Traces from the 9th century are attributed to the West Slavic tribe of the Lendices, who established a fortified settlement on the Schlossberg in the 10th century.
Middle Ages
On a hill in Lemberg, Prince Danylo (1223–1264, King from 1253) had a castle built. His son Lev (c. 1270–c. 1301) expanded the town and made it his residence. Lviv was first mentioned in 1256. Between 1340 and 1349, the city belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1349, Lemberg passed to the Polish Crown, under which it remained – with the exception of a brief Hungarian interlude (1370–1387) under King Louis of Poland and Hungary – until the First Partition of Poland. Lviv was granted Magdeburg city rights in 1356 and staple rights in 1444. Together with earlier trading privileges and its favourable location for trade, these laid the foundations for the city’s economic boom.
Modern times
In the early modern period, Lemberg was an intellectual centre of Eastern Orthodoxy; there were also two Jewish communities. In the 17th century, the city was besieged several times, unsuccessfully, by the Ottomans and the Cossacks. In 1704, Swedish troops under Charles XII captured the city after a brief siege. The devastation of war and the reorientation of trade routes led to Lemberg’s impoverishment. In 1772, following the First Partition of Poland, the city fell to the Habsburg Empire and became the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.
Initially, German was the language of administration and education; from the mid-19th century, the focus shifted to Polish, which, following the imperial reforms of 1867, supplanted German as the language of administration. In 1870, Lviv was granted self-government with a magistrate elected by the city’s – predominantly Polish – elites. Lemberg was the seat of the Galician Provincial Assembly and the Governor’s Office, as well as the centre of Polish, Jewish and Ruthenian/Ukrainian cooperative and political life.
Contemporary History
During the First World War, Lemberg was occupied by Russian troops for several months. Following the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Lemberg became the capital of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic, whose troops took control of the city on 1 November 1918. This was followed by three weeks of street fighting and house-to-house combat against Polish militias, which ended in a Polish victory following the arrival of relief troops. Following the withdrawal of the Ukrainian troops, a three-day pogrom took place, perpetrated mainly by Polish soldiers, during which 74 Jews were murdered. The pretext was the alleged collaboration of the Jewish population with the Ukrainians. Poland’s victory in the Polish–Ukrainian War also marked the end of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic, and Lviv became the capital of a Polish voivodeship. Public spaces were Polonised and the Ukrainian population was discriminated against. The region had belonged to Poland since the Allied Ambassadors’ Decision of 1924.
As a result of the Hitler–Stalin Pact, the town fell to the Soviet Union after a brief siege, and the region was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR following a rigged referendum. This period was characterised by terror and repression against all sections of the population. The German minority was resettled to the German Reich. On 30 June 1941, the city was captured by German troops. Members of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (Bandera faction) proclaimed a Ukrainian government, which was not recognised by the Germans. On the same day, a pogrom against the Jewish population began, claiming the lives of around 7,000 people. The perpetrators were predominantly members of Ukrainian militias who were collaborating with the Germans. Over the following two years, the entire Jewish population perished either in the ghetto, in the Lviv forced-labour camp or in the Bełżec extermination camp. During the war, the German occupiers also murdered countless Ukrainians and Poles. At the same time, the Ukrainian-Polish conflict intensified. Following the return of the Red Army in July 1944, almost the entire Polish population was forced to leave the city. Ukrainian nationalist partisans continued to fight armed resistance against the Sovietisation of the region for years to come. Ukrainians from Poland, the surrounding countryside and from eastern and central Ukraine, as well as numerous workers and officials from the Soviet Union, including many Russians, arrived in the city.
Under Soviet rule, the city grew rapidly and was industrialised, whilst at the same time being developed into a cultural and scientific centre. In the 1980s, it became the centre of the Ukrainian independence movement.
Population
As the town flourished as a trading centre, it attracted an ethnically diverse influx of settlers. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Poles, Ruthenians, Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Italians and Tatars lived in the town. In 1544, the town had a population of around 3,000, whilst 2,700 people lived in the suburbs.[1] In 1772, Lviv had a population of around 30,000, and in 1910, 206,100: In 1910, 88.9 per cent stated Polish, 8.7 per cent Ruthenian (Ukrainian) and 2.3 per cent German as their everyday language. Following a territorial reform, Lviv had 312,231 inhabitants in 1931. In the 2001 census, of just over 700,000 inhabitants, 88.1 per cent were Ukrainians, 8.9 per cent Russians, 0.9 per cent Poles, 0.4 per cent Belarusians, 0.3 per cent Jews and 0.1 per cent others. There are tensions between the Ukrainian majority and the Russian minority, which is now the largest.
Left: Shop front on Maksim Krivonos Street with Polish and Hebrew lettering, alongside modern Ukrainian signage [Photo (2015): Tobias Weger CC BY-SA 3.0].
Economy
Lviv has a significant banking sector and is an industrial centre in Ukraine; the food, engineering and chemical industries are particularly important. International tourism is becoming increasingly important. The city has an international airport.
Society
Between 1939 and 1945, the population was almost entirely replaced as a result of the Holocaust and the expulsion or resettlement of Poles. Only around 20 per cent of the population in 1948 had lived in the town before 1939.
History of Religion and the Church
1910: 51 per cent Roman Catholics (mostly Poles), 28 per cent Jews, 19 per cent Greek Catholics (of whom about two-thirds were Ukrainians); just under two per cent belonged to other religious communities. This also included the Protestant Church, whose members were mostly German. 1931: 50.4 per cent were Roman Catholic, 15.93 per cent were Greek Catholic and 31.9 per cent were Jewish. 1.69 per cent belonged to other religious communities. In 2001, 45 per cent of the population belonged to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, 31 per cent belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate, five per cent to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, three per cent to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate, and three per cent to other religious communities.
Left: Iconostasis of the Greek Catholic St George’s Cathedral [Photo (2015): Tobias Weger CC BY-SA 3.0].
Special cultural institutions
The Lviv Opera House is a major attraction; there are numerous theatres and a philharmonic orchestra. The city is home to the Central State Historical Archive in Lviv (CDIAL) and the State Archive of the Lviv Region (DALO). In addition to the Stefanyk Library (formerly the Ossolineum), other important libraries include the University Library and the Library of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Notable museums include the Historical Museum, the Ukrainian National Museum, the Art Gallery and the Ethnographic Museum.
Education and Science
Lemberg’s most prominent universities are the Ivan Franko National University, the National Polytechnic University, the Ukrainian Catholic University and the Danylo Halytskyi National Medical University.
Everyday culture
Lviv is a popular tourist destination. Since Ukraine gained independence, there has been a revival of its multicultural traditions.
The first Polish football club (Czarni Lwów) was founded in Lviv in 1903.
Art History
Notable sights include the Gothic Latin Cathedral (14th/15th century), the Armenian Cathedral (14th century) and the Greek Catholic St George’s Cathedral (18th century). Lviv has a market square well worth seeing, the buildings of which were partly rebuilt in the Renaissance style following the fire of 1527. Other notable architectural monuments include the Renaissance-style Korniakt Tower, as well as the 19th-century buildings of the former Galician Provincial Assembly (now a university) and the Opera House.
History of Books and Printing
The Russian printer Ivan Fyodorov (c. 1518–1583) worked in Lviv for several years; the first Church Slavonic Bible was printed there in 1580. After 1867, the city became the centre of the Galician newspaper industry.
Bibliography
Among the most important authors who were active in Lviv or wrote about the city are Sholem Aleichem (1859–1916), Ivan Franko (1856–1916), Aleksander Fredro (1793–1876), Zbigniew Herbert (1924–1998), Maria Konopnicka (1842–1910), Stanisław Lem (1921–2006), Joseph Roth (1894–1939), Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (1836–1895), Markijan Šaškevyč (1811–1843), Vasyl Stefanyk (1871–1936), Leopold Staff (1878–1957), Adam Zagajewski.
Left: The tomb of the polyglot Ukrainian national poet Ivan Franko at the Lychakiv Cemetery, adorned with floral tributes in the Ukrainian and Polish national colours [Photo (2015): Tobias Weger CC BY-SA 3.0].
Culture of memory and remembrance
Most Polish monuments were destroyed after 1945 or taken back to Poland. Only a few remain, including the Mickiewicz monument from 1904. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, all Soviet monuments – with the exception of those dedicated to the Soviet Army and to Ukrainian poets and politicians – were toppled, and street names were changed accordingly. Numerous new monuments have been erected, emphasising the city’s Ukrainian character. The city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.
4. Discourses/Controversies
The history of Lemberg is a matter of controversy. One group of Ukrainian intellectuals emphasises the city’s Ukrainian character and interprets the Polish period as ‘foreign rule’, whilst a second group, by contrast, emphasises the traditions of multi-ethnicity and the coexistence of several religions. Following Ukrainian independence, there was a dispute over the reconstruction of the cemetery for Polish soldiers who fell in the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918–19 (‘Cemetery of the Defenders of Lemberg’). Although the cemetery was restored as a symbol of reconciliation between Poland and Ukraine, inscriptions that contradicted the dominant Ukrainian interpretation of history had to be removed following an objection by the city council. The controversial monument to the Ukrainian (SS) Galician Division, complete with graves of honour, also forms part of the Ukrainian memorial complex at the Lyčakivs’kyj Cemetery. The erection of a monument to Stepan Bandera (1909–1959), leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, sparked protests from central and eastern Ukraine, as well as from abroad.
Bibliography
- Tarik Youssef Cyril Amar: The Making of Soviet Lviv 1939–1963. Princeton 2006.
- Delphine Bechtel: Ukrainian Lemberg/L’viv since 1991. A city of selective memory. In: Matthias Weber, Burkhard Olschowsky, Ivan Petranský, Attila Pók, Andrzej Przewoźnik (eds.): Places of Memory in East-Central Europe. Experiences of the Past and Perspectives. Munich 2011, pp. 97–110. See also, in the same volume, the contributions by Christoph Mick: Lemberg/Lwów/L’viv – the multi-ethnic city, pp. 123–138, and Adam Redzik: Reflections on Lemberg/Lwów as a place of remembrance for Poles, pp. 97–110.
- John Czaplicka (ed.): Lviv. A City in the Crosscurrents of Culture. Cambridge 2005 (Harvard Ukrainian Studies, special issue 24).
- Peter Fässler, Thomas Held, Dirk Sawitzki (eds.): Lemberg – Lwów – Lviv. A City at the Crossroads of European Cultures. 2nd, unaltered ed. Cologne et al. 1995.
- Grzegorz Hryciuk: Poles in Lemberg 1939–1944. Everyday Life [Polen in Lemberg 1939–1944. Alltagsleben]. Warsaw 2000.
- L’viv – Istoryčni Narysy. L’viv 1996.
- Christoph Mick: War Experiences in a Multi-ethnic City. Lviv 1914–1947. Wiesbaden 2010 (Sources and Studies/German Historical Institute Warsaw 22).
- Heidemarie Petersen: The Jewish Community and the Municipal Community in Poland. Lviv 1356–1581. Wiesbaden 2003 (Research on Eastern European History 61).
- Leszek Podhorodecki: Dzieje Lwowa [History of Lviv]. Warsaw 1993.
- William Jay Risch: The Ukrainian West. Culture and the Fate of Empire in Soviet Lviv. Cambridge, Mass. 2011 (Harvard Ukrainian Studies).
Periodicals
- Lwów. City – Society – Culture; L'viv. City – Society – Culture [Lemberg. City – Society – Culture]. Kraków or L'viv 1996 onwards.
- Galicia and its Legacy [Galizien und sein Erbe]. Rzeszów 1994 onwards.
Web links
- www.city-adm.lviv.ua (City Council website)
- www.lvivcenter.org (website of the Centre for the History of Eastern Central European Cities in Lviv)
- www.herder-institut.de/bildkatalog/wikidata/Q36036 (Images of Lviv from the image archive of the Herder Institute, Marburg)
Citation
Christoph Mick: Lemberg/Ľviv. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2013. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/p32406.html (as at 30 July 2021).
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