ABSTRACT
On 18 August 2000, a group of Lviv citizens gathered to celebrate the 170th anniversary of the birth of Franz Joseph I. The event included an academic seminar and an artistic performance. The seminar participants signed a petition urging the oblast and city administrations to support their initiative to erect a monument to the emperor. The petition stated: “This monument should become a very special symbol, a testimony to our choosing Europe and to our will to coexist in the circle of free and independent nations of Central Europe.” 1 Both the celebration and the petition indicate nostalgia (called “separatism” by some observers) for the Galician Arcadia of the early twentieth century, when all the nations inhabiting this area lived in harmony under the enlightened rule of Franz Joseph I. Such nostalgia for the “Golden Age” in Galicia appeared shortly after Ukraine became an independent state. A few years of Kyïv’s ambiguous cultural and economic policy were enough to turn the Galicians' enthusiasm of the first years of independence into a mood of total disappointment.
