The Status of a Rural Woman in Halychyna during the World War I (Based on the Analysis of the Marriage and Family Sphere)

Abstract

The purpose is to investigate, based on archival sources, the status, actions, life strategies, and value orientations of rural women of Halychyna during the World War I — to find out the changes they experienced in their everyday and family life under the influence of war events.

The research methodology is based on the principle of historicism, as well as on general scientific and special scientific methods, primarily comparative-historical one. For the most part, the archival files of the foundation of the Lviv Greek-Catholic Metropolitan Consistory, as well as modern scientific literature and periodicals, were analyzed.

The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time in Ukrainian historical science, the author analyzes the status and daily life strategies and ways of survival of Ukrainian rural women of Halychyna during the World War I through the prism of marriage and family relations analysis. The obtained scientific results can be used for research in the field of marital and family relations.

Conclusions. Rapid changes in social life, social uncertainty, economic instability, Russian occupation during the war, and assimilation of Polish power in the postwar years had led to changes in traditional values. However, these changes were not quick and radical for a rural woman. For the majority of peasant women, the main priorities, such as economic stability, physical security, housekeeping, care for children and sick elderly parents, etc., remained the same. The issue of the post-war adaptation of women is problematic. Their life strategies in the marriage and family sphere were individual, as they came down to the following options: to restore family relationships after the husband returned from the frontline or captivity; to initiate a divorce from her husband whom they did not love (because they got married under the pressure of their parents); to remarry or, in the case of inability to overcome canonical obstacles, to cohabit with a new husband; escape to work in the city; voluntarily or forcibly become the lover of a Russian soldier and leave with him to Russia. The choice of one or another strategy probably depended more on external factors, including endless gossip, influence and condemnation of the community, the authority of the priest, and (lack of) support from one’s family. Few people thought about a woman’s emotions against the background of the shock of the war, the loss of the husband, and the violence of the occupiers. More than one decade would pass until a woman could speak out loud about her personal feelings, experiences, self-fulfillment, and quality of life.