Lviv: History

Pre-20th-Century History

Mongols overrunning the rest of Kyivan Rus in 1240 never made it as far west as the powerful province of Galicia-Volynia. They did occasionally knock on its door, but the region was largely left to enjoy self-rule under Prince Roman Mstyslavych, his son Danylo Halytsky and their descendants.

Lviv has had as many names as rulers. It took its first from Lev, the son of Prince Danylo Halytsky who founded a hilltop fort here on Castle Hill in the 13th century. When the Poles took over 100 years later, the place became known as Lwow, as it still is in Poland. Austrians called it Lemberg between the 18th and 20th centuries, and can't stop doing so today. The Russians, who later christened it Lvov, continue to use their historical name. All are variations on a theme. Since each is rooted in the meaning 'lion', the city has always taken the big cat as its symbol.

This idyllic state was shattered in the 1340s when Polish troops invaded, but western Ukraine never lost its taste for independence. Several centuries of Polish domination saw the rise of a unique 'Ruthenian' identity, which is the basis for much contemporary Ukrainian nationalism. Many Galician nobles or 'boyars' - often sent over from Poland, Germany or Hungary - adopted the Polish language and Roman Catholicism. However, the peasants or 'Ruthenians' remained Orthodox. They were only persuaded to join the new Ukrainian Catholic or Uniate Church in 1596 (thereby acknowledging the pope's spiritual supremacy) because it agreed to retain Orthodox forms of worship. Other Ruthenians fled southeast to set up Cossack communities.

In 1772 Galicia became part of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire, and to this day Ukrainians touchingly remember the Austrians as liberal, tolerant rulers.

Modern History

Serbian separatists so chaffed under the Austrian yoke that they even started WWI in 1914 to rid themselves of it, but the Habsburgs allowed Ukrainian nationalism to reemerge and that made them good guys here. Western Ukraine even enjoyed a few days' independence as the Habsburg Empire collapsed at the end of WWI, but it soon found itself under the dreaded Polish thumb again.

Then, at the outbreak of WWII in September 1939, things went from bad to worse in local eyes. The Red Army marched in and asserted Moscow's control over the region for the first time in history. Lviv had another set of unwelcome occupiers, also calling the place Lemberg - the Nazis, who invaded in 1941 and weren't driven back by the Soviets until 1944. During these three years, 136,000 people are reported to have died in Lviv's Jewish ghetto and nearly 350,000 in nearby concentration camps. Finally dispatching the Nazis after bloody battles during WWII, the Soviets hung around until 1991, when the USSR imploded.

Recent History

The Galician capital was a major mover within the movement that led to Ukrainian independence in 1991. Ukrainian nationalism and the Ukrainian Catholic Church reemerged here in the late 1980s, and in the early 1990s its people unanimously elected nationalist politicians and staged mass demonstrations. Lviv's splendid array of buildings meant it was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1998. Today, it still has its eyes focused more on Europe than Russia and has been a stronghold for Western-orientated politicians like Viktor Yushchenko.

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