The Lemberg City Council in the Period of Galician Autonomy, 1870-1914: Research on Elites in Power

The Lemberg City Council in the Period of Galician Autonomy, 1870-1914: Research on Elites in Power

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October 2, 2012

Center for Urban History, Lviv

The book analyses the problem of the forming of a Lemberg power elite connected with the City Council. In the period of autonomy this institution was the center of socio-political and economic life of Lemberg. An important component of the research concerns analysis of the relations in the City Council between Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians. The analysis also includes social and professional status of the council workers. The book also discusses the influence of the City Council on the life and development of the city and its inhabitants.

The research is based on a great number of sources in various languages (Polish, Ukrainian, English, Czech, German), and above all materials from archives in Ukraine, Poland, and Austria.

In his presentation Dr. Lukasz Tomasz Sroka paid particular attention to:

  • The book's place in the context of Ukrainian, Polish, and Austrian historiography;
  • Austrian policies towards Lemberg and Galicia;
  • Relations that developed between Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians in the Council;
  • The mechanism of forming a power elite;
  • The Council's influence on life and development of the city and its inhabitants.

Dr. Lukasz Tomasz Sroka

is a student of Professor Kazimierz Karolczak; adjunct at the 19th century History Department at Krakow Pedagogic University; member of the Commission of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków on the History and Culture of the Jews, the Polish Historical Society, Polish Society of Jewish Studies, and also the Krakow Heritage Society. Scholarly interests of Dr. Sroka include Jewish history and culture of the 19th-20th century, the history of Israel, the history of Krakow and Lviv, problems of nationality and confession in the 19th-20th century (Poles, Germans, Russians, Ukrainians, Jews), history of Freemasons, history of ideas (especially social insurance), social structures of the 19th-early 20th century (especially elites), the development of cities, the history of social communication and methodology of history.