S. Kieniewicz, Rok 1848 w Polsce. . Wybor zrodel Wroclaw,
1948.
JGC revised this file
(http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ip/nationco.htm) on September 9, 2004
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© 1997, 2004 James Chastain.
National Council [Rada Narodowa] in Lwow, founded on April
13,1848 during the revolution in Galicia as a reaction of Polish democrats
against an attempt of the Governor of Galicia, Franz Stadion, to reactivate
the Galician Sejm, and draw the Galician landowners away from the
revolutionary movement. As a result, the Sejm called by Stadion
for April 25, broke up and its members were subordinated to the
N.C. The N.C.established branches throughout Galicia, as well as national
guards (altogether two thousand volunteers from all over the province)
and began issuing a "National Daily" (Dziennik Narodowy). Initially the Lviv N.C.
consisted of twenty six people; in the course of time it was enlarged to
one hundred twenty: half of them conservative landowners, another
half radical intelligentsia. The N. C. attempted to gain the
support of the peasantry for the revolution in Galicia and
appealed to the Polish landowners to abolish the corvee on Easter
Day, April 23, 1848; in order to prevent a division of Galicia
into a Polish and a Ruthenian part (advocated by the Supreme
Ruthenian Council (Holovna Rus'ka Rada), the N.C. supported the
Ruthenian Assembly (Rus'kyy Sobor), composed of Poles of
Ruthenian origin ready to cooperate with the Poles. The collapse
of the Viennese revolution made the suppression of the Polish
movement only a question of time; after a clash between Austrian
soldiers and members of the Lviv National Guard, on
the November 2 Lvov was bombed and capitulated, the N.C.
dissolved, and a state of siege announced for Galicia.
Jolanta T. Pekacz
Bibliography