Gołuchowski, Agenor

Gołuchowski, Agenor, b 8 February 1812 in Skala-Podilska, Borshchiv circle, Galicia, d 3 August 1875 in Skala-Podilska. Polish count and Austrian statesman. He was the vicegerent of Galicia in 1849–59, 1866–7, and 1871–5, the Austrian minister of internal affairs in 1859, and minister of state in 1860. He resisted the efforts of Galicia's Ukrainians to gain equal national and social rights with the Poles. He pressed for the abolition of the Chair of Ukrainian Language at Lviv University, the introduction of a Latin script for the Ukrainians (see Alphabet war), and the adoption of the Gregorian calendar by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church. He founded and financed the newspaper Rus’ that was intended to combat Russophilism in Galicia and attract Ukrainian support for the Habsburg dynasty. During his term in office he promoted home rule for Galicia's Poles, and the Galician civil service and Lviv University were Polonized, ending the era of Germanization.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]