People's Council

People's Council (Народна рада; Narodna rada). A Galician populist political organization founded on 24 October 1885 in Lviv under the leadership of Yuliian Romanchuk with the goal of continuing the traditions of the Supreme Ruthenian Council of 1848. The Council was formed as a counterpoise to the Ruthenian Council, which had been taken over by Russophiles. The People's Council issued a proclamation to ‘Ruthenians of the Galician lands’ and had its first general meeting on 2 February 1888. The unofficial organs of the People's Council included Bat’kivshchyna and Dilo. A creation of the populist intelligentsia, the Council took a position for the unity of Galician Ukrainians with Ukrainians under Russian rule and separation from the Polish and Russian nations. Its goals included defending the constitutional rights of Galician Ukrainians and establishing their equality with the other peoples in Austria-Hungary as well as the division of Galicia into Ukrainian and Polish territories. The People's Council was not a party, and it had no (formal) branches. In 1899 it joined with the right wing of the Ukrainian Radical party to form the National Democratic party.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]