The peculiarities of political subjectivity of municipal self-government in volyn voivodeship in the interwar period.

Abstract

The content of the policy of the Polish authorities concerning the organization of municipal selfgovernment in the Volyn Voivodeship during the interwar period, the peculiarities of the «Volyn Experiment» by G. Yuzevskyi have been analyzed. The institution of self-government in Volyn during its western territories being as part of the Polish Republic in 1919–1939 at the initial stage of its formation followed the tradition of the Magdeburg Law. In the early 1930’s, it was reorganized according to the republican system of the state. Municipal and county self-government in the Volyn Voivodeship was not only a means of local administrative administration but also an important factor in the social and political life of the country. For geopolitical and strategic reasons, the Polish government sought to turn the border with the USSR Voivodeship into the area free of acute social and interethnic conflicts. Despite the existence of democratic principles and procedures for the formation and operation of self-government bodies in cities, quite a wide range of their powers, the level of political subjectivity of local self-government in Volyn is deliberately minimized, and the authorities provided close monitoring to prevent their excessive politicization and the transformation of Volyn into an arena of political struggle for national liberation.

The organization of self-government in Volyn is considered in connection with the activities of G. Yuzevskyi, who was the voivode of Volyn in 1928–1938, and the realization by him of the «Volyn experiment».Its organic component was the concept of separating Volyn from the political influences of Eastern Galicia. The materials of the article are based on the widespread use of materials of the then press − the newspapers «Narodnyi Visnyk», «Ukrainska Nyva», «Volyn Word».