Turning the pages back... February 5, 1809 (02/01/98)

Turning the pages back...

February 5, 1809

Hryhorii Hynylevych was born on February 5, 1809, in Yavoriv, Galicia. A clergyman in the consistory of the Greek-Catholic Church, he was in charge of schools in the Peremyshl Eparchy and was rector of the Peremyshl Greek-Catholic Theological Seminary.

In 1848 he was among the many priests led by Bishop Hryhorii Yakhymovych who signed the petition to the Austrian emperor requesting the introduction of the Ukrainian language in the schools and administration of Eastern Galicia, access to government positions for Ukrainians, and genuine equality of the Greek and Roman Catholic clergy.

Hynylevych participated in the Supreme Ruthenian Council, the first modern Ukrainian political organization, established in May 1848, and in early June led the Ukrainian delegation to the Slavic Congress in Prague.

While it had been organized by the Czechs to promote Slavic solidarity, ironically it proved to be the forum for Polish-Ukrainian antagonisms to come out into the open. Since the spring revolts that had weakened Austrian authority that year, the Poles had been pressing for social liberalization and greater autonomy for themselves, all the while ignoring the issue of Ukrainian nationality.

At the Slavic Congress, Hynylevych's Ukrainian delegation put the issue of Ukrainian distinctiveness from Poles and Russians front and center, and almost succeeded in wresting concessions from the former.

While the Prague congress was still in session (just before the Austrians decided to disrupt it by bombarding the Czech city), elections to the Galician Diet, a lower house in the newly founded imperial Parliament, were conducted.

Hynylevych was one of 25 Ukrainians who won seats in that campaign, one marred by Polish rumor-mongering and threats designed to keep the Ukrainian peasantry away from the polls.

Once elected, he championed the cause of dividing Galicia into two parts - Polish and Ukrainian - and secured the first government subsidy for a Ukrainian cultural institution, the Ruska Besida Theater.

In 1852, the graduates of the Peremyshl seminary dedicated their first almanac to Hynylevych. He died in Peremyshl on November 30, 1871.

Sources: "Hynylevych, Hryhorii," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 2 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988); Orest Subtelny, "Ukraine: A History" (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988).

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