UKRAINIAN THEATRES OF INTERWAR LVIV (PROBLEMS OF EXISTENCE AND ACTIVITY)

Abstract

The article, based on scholarly works of various periods by cultural figures and art researchers as well as publications of Ukrainian historiography, highlights the difficult conditions of existence and activity of Ukrainian theatres in Lviv during the interwar period. At that time, Lviv was the largest administrative and cultural-artistic centre of Eastern Galicia, where Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish, Armenian, Austrian, and other creative structures coexisted in various organisational forms and associations. Attention is drawn to the anti-Ukrainian measures implemented by the governing authorities against the local Ukrainian population. Against the background of policies aimed at consolidating Polish power on the Ukrainian lands of Eastern Galicia, interethnic tensions between Ukrainians and Poles noticeably intensified. This had a direct impact on the sociopolitical, ethnocultural, social, religious, academic, educational, artistic, and other aspects of the status of Ukrainians. Ukrainian theatrical institutions acquired particular importance in the cultural life of the Ukrainian population. It is demonstrated that Ukrainian theatrical art, despite its realistically humiliating position, became the main herald of open propagation of national culture, national traditions, customs, and rituals among the population. The article also notes the loyal stance of figures of the Ukrainian Church and a number of public organisations towards the policy of population Polonisation and the anti-Ukrainian measures of the authorities. Emphasis is placed on the significant diversity of small Ukrainian theatrical institutions, establishments, amateur workers’, trade-union, and civic collectives, which contributed to the preservation of national culture, identity, and national spirit – an issue of great importance under the conditions of the policy pursued by the Polish occupation authorities. The influence of Polish state policy on the dynamics of relations between Ukrainians and Poles in Galicia is examined. Within the activities of Ukrainian theatres, local examples of interethnic Polish–Ukrainian creative cooperation are identified, as well as the participation of individual Ukrainian artists in Polish theatrical collectives.