Galicia - Austria-Hungary

[August1991]

As a Canadian, I've been curious about the cause of the First World War.

(I've been curious about 1759 and the Plains of Abrahams - but that's another story.) 

Our federal prime minister had a response. He argued that Canada is a federal regime with two official languages but no official culture.

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In Chernivitsa - a wonderful city, I asked (in bad Russian) a woman (she answered in bad English) why the Austrian-Hungarian empire collapsed. Her answer? "Hungarians are always trouble." 

Edited June 27, 2023 by August1991

[August1991]

1 hour ago, Contrarian said:

I wonder when you will write stuff as if you actually show respect for the reader. 

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Good point.

I usually try to write clearly. This is a forum from an (English) Canadian perspective that anyone around the world can read.

And then, IMHO, I go off script. You know, drunk like Mulroney.

[August1991]

Lemberg was once a city where different unilingual people lived together.

In the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, there were many such cities.

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In the western world, Montreal is the only remnant of this civilised past.

[Moonbox]

31 minutes ago, August1991 said:

I usually try to write clearly. This is a forum from an (English) Canadian perspective that anyone around the world can read.

You write fine, but it's often incoherent.  This is an incoherent thread.  The thread title is about Galicia, but you barely talk about it.  It's like you're voicing your random thoughts here. 

At any rate, what I could understand was wrong anyways.  Lemberg/Lviv wasn't the happy and harmonious place you make it out to be.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by Moonbox

[Moonbox]

10 minutes ago, Contrarian said:

Listen, in my opinion, you need to compromise, then don't end up like @Moonbox on this forum, high IQ, sure, with lots of ideas, however, can't make a difference because you are arrogant in your IQ. Is that easy, you need to compromise to bring something. 

Why would you tag me here, just to snipe passive-aggressively?  ?

[August1991]

On 6/27/2023 at 2:01 AM, Moonbox said:

You write fine, but it's often incoherent.  This is an incoherent thread.  The thread title is about Galicia, but you barely talk about it.  It's like you're voicing your random thoughts here. 

At any rate, what I could understand was wrong anyways.  Lemberg/Lviv wasn't the happy and harmonious place you make it out to be.

 

 

I strongly disagree.

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Prior to 1914, Lemberg was largely a civilsed society. Like Montreal, different unilingual people lived side by side.

Nowadays, everyone in Lvov  - or is it Lviv? - speaks "Ukrainian".

 

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by August1991

[Moonbox]

1 hour ago, August1991 said:

I strongly disagree.

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Prior to 1914, Lemberg was largely a civilsed society. Like Montreal, different unilingual people lived side by side.

Nowadays, everyone in Lvov  - or is it Lviv? - speaks "Ukrainian".

 

It wasn’t a happy place.  It was an Imperially governed fiefdom where German aristocracy institutionally suppressed and tried to supplant Ukrainian/Polish culture.  The Ukrainians and the Poles also fought each other on numerous occasions.

This was a border region that changed hands many times over the centuries, and the multiculturalism was a result of that rather than it being some enlightened cosmopol.  I’m not sure what random thing you read about this to stick this idea in your head, but it’s an interesting fantasy.  

 

 

[August1991]

On 6/29/2023 at 11:42 PM, Moonbox said:

It wasn’t a happy place.  It was an Imperially governed fiefdom where German aristocracy institutionally suppressed and tried to supplant Ukrainian/Polish culture.  The Ukrainians and the Poles also fought each other on numerous occasions.

This was a border region that changed hands many times over the centuries, and the multiculturalism was a result of that rather than it being some enlightened cosmopol.  I’m not sure what random thing you read about this to stick this idea in your head, but it’s an interesting fantasy.  

 

 

I strongly disagree.

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Curious about the origins of what we now call the First World War - to me, this catastrophe of 1914 - Lemberg by all accounts was a wonderful city.

It reminds me of Montreal today.

[August1991]

Moonbox,

There are many discussions about the causes of the war in 1914.

I have two comments:

1. I suspect that everyone at the time - I mean everyone- believed it would be a short war. (That's all they knew...)

2. The elite at the time were wrong - you know, Einstein.

[Moonbox]

59 minutes ago, August1991 said:

I strongly disagree.

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Curious about the origins of what we now call the First World War - to me, this catastrophe of 1914 - Lemberg by all accounts was a wonderful city.

No, it wasn't by "all accounts", and you "strongly disagreeing" doesn't really change that.  The first 80 years of "Lemberg" was marked by an official policy of Germanization (encouraging German settlers to move into the province, closing down of Ukrainian/Polish/Ruthenian institutions/schools etc). Even when the Empire did start to liberalize (in the last decades it was around) it was still one of the poorest regions of Europe.  

You've wandered into a myth.  

 

[August1991]

On 7/2/2023 at 11:46 PM, Moonbox said:

No, it wasn't by "all accounts", and you "strongly disagreeing" doesn't really change that.  The first 80 years of "Lemberg" was marked by an official policy of Germanization (encouraging German settlers to move into the province, closing down of Ukrainian/Polish/Ruthenian institutions/schools etc). Even when the Empire did start to liberalize (in the last decades it was around) it was still one of the poorest regions of Europe.

You make good points. You may be correct.

Curious, I have walked around such cities as Lvov, Chernovitz. Konigsberg.

And I know Montreal: a civilised Western remnant of such cities.

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Elsewhere in the world, there are still many cities where people speak a different language yet live together. 

 

[August1991]

Of course, in Toronto, Los Angeles and New York, many people speak Spanish.

No, I mean a society -city- where sophisticated yet unilingual people live side-by-side.

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Lemberg was once such a city.

Montreal is still such a city.

 

[August1991]

Corrected.

Brussels is also such a city.

[August1991]

Corrected again.

The Brussels of 2020s is no Montreal, let alone what Lemberg (Lvov) once was.