Acta 113.Indd
Acta Poloniae Historica 113, 2016 PL ISSN 0001–6892 Piotr Szlanta Institute of History, University of Warsaw THE LEMKOS’ GREAT WAR: WARTIME EXPERIENCES OF THE LEMKO PEOPLE, 1914–18 Abstract The First World War imposed a severe stigma on the Lemko people, the Ruthenian mountaineers residing on the northern mountainside of the Carpathians. Military operations, political repressions, malnutrition, and epidemics of contagious diseases caused severe damages and losses in the population and materials. In the late 1914 and early 1915, the front-line was set through the Lemko Land. The area’s eastern part was occupied for several months by the Russians. The occupational authorities planned to annex the area after the war, as they recognised the Lemkos as part of the Russian nation. On the other hand, the Lemko people were generally treated by the Austro-Hungarian authorities with suspicion, as allegedly favouring Russia. They were accused of sabotage and collaboration with the occupiers. Many a Lemko was executed, often without any proof of guilt whatsoever. Some 2,000 were sent to an internment camp in Thalerhof, not far from Graz. The war facilitated the split among the Lemkos into those who considered themselves members of a Ukrain- ian nation and those who recognised themselves as a separate ethnic group. Keywords: First World War, Lemko people, Thalerhof camp, political repression, occupation, Greek Catholic Church, national identity, Spanish fl u This article seeks to discuss, based on selected examples, the dimen- sions of the 1914–18 wartime experience of the Lemko people. The First World War painfully affected also this particular ethnic group, which formed part of the multicultural and religiously diverse popula- tion of Austrian Galicia.
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