RISORGIMENTO'S ECHOES IN THE SOUTHWESTERN KRAI DURING THE 1860s IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN EUROPE

Abstract

The article emphasises that during the nineteenth century, the processes of the rise of national movements in Europe, which led to large-scale transformations in international relations, were reflected in the territory of Dnipro Ukraine, and of particular interest is their impact on the public life of Kyiv, Podillia and Volyn provinces, where the Polish socio-cultural presence was traditionally significant. After the November Uprising of 1830-1831, Polish political emigration influenced the formation of Polonophile sentiments in Europe and the actualisation of the Polish question in the activities of European diplomacy, parliaments, and press. The echoes of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's noble democracy were embodied in the Polish national liberation struggle, the uprisings against Russian autocracy in 1830-1831 and 1863-1864, the role of Polish emigrants in the socio-political processes of Western European and Balkan countries, and, above all, in the events of “the Springtime of Nations” of 1848-1849. The study of the documents of the Office of Kyiv, Podillya and Volyn Governor-General at the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv, which were first introduced to scientific circulation, sheds light on the rise of patriotic sentiments and resistance to Russian autocracy among the local Polish population against the background of intensification of national liberation movements in Europe during the nineteenth century, the emergence of new states on the political map – Greece (1830), Belgium (1830), Romania (1861), completion of the unification of Italy (1871) and creation of the German Empire (1871), and the state and legal transformation of the Austrian (since 1867 – Austro-Hungarian) monarchy. First of all, it is about the influence of information about the events of the Risorgimento and the related intensification of Polish emigration in Europe on the public life of the Southwestern region of the Russian Empire in the 1860s. The unification of Italy was a significant process in the context of the dismantling of the Vienna system of international relations that was initiated by the results of the Eastern War of 1853-1856. In general, it was about a set of international political processes and phenomena that influenced the balance of power on the continent. Italy's geopolitical position determined its key role in the struggle of the great European powers for control over the Mediterranean, powerful military, trade and economic leverage at the intersection of strategically important sea routes between the West and the East.