The area of Eastern Galicia lies in Western Ukraine and also has a strong Polish history and heritage.  A search for the subject heading “Galicia, Eastern” on iDiscover comes up with over 80 results, 7 of which were published in the 2020s, including the recently received bilingual Polish-Ukrainian set Miasta i miasteczka wschodniej części Galicji pod koniec XVIII wieku = Міста та містечка Східної Галичини наприкінці ХVІІІ століття.

The set runs to 7 volumes, each fairly slim (and sadly therefore not borrowable), which cover various aspects of the area’s history with a focus on the 18th century, per the table of contents below.

• tom 1. Władza i społeczeństwo = Влада і суспільство
• tom 2. Gospodarka i przestrzeń miejska = Господарство і міський простір
• tom 3. Przestrzeń fizyczna miast Galicji : przelom XVIII i XIX wieku = Фізичний простір міст Галичини : кінець ХVІІІ – початок ХІХ ст. / Grzegorz Zamoyski
• tom 4. Typologia funkcjonalna miast Galicji : przelom XVIII i XIX wieku = Функціональна типологія міст Галичини : кінець ХVІІІ – початок ХІХ ст. / Krzysztof Ślusarek
• tom 5. Rzymskokatolickie instytucje religijne w miastach Galicji : przelom XVIII i XIX wieku = Римо-католицькі релігійні інституції в містах Галичини : кінець ХVІІІ – початок ХІХ ст. / Tomasz Kargol
• tom 6. Wplyw armii austriackiej na miasta Galicji 1772-1815 = Вплив австрійської армії на міста Галичини 1772-1815 / Michał Baczkowski
• tom 7. Miasta na pograniczach – konteksty i odniesienia = Міста на пограниччі – контексти і приклади

Western Galicia lies in Poland, but it is in Eastern Galicia that the town whose name the whole region comes from lies: Halych (the Ukrainian for Galicia is Halychyna, while the Polish version is Galicja).  The history of Eastern Europe’s Galicia is summarised nicely for librarians (and others!) in the Slavic Cataloging Manual, complete with a guide to the various Library of Congress subject headings available to cataloguers and readers to use when describing and seeking material about the area.  Forgive the slight blurriness of the maps on the SCM page – we are currently overhauling the site after a forced conversion to a new version of Google sites – but do have a look at the SCM’s impressive contents as listed in its subject index.

Going back to Eastern Galicia specifically, most of the books held in Cambridge about the region are in Ukrainian or Polish, with English and German the next most common languages, although the very latest addition is a French bok.  Do have a look at the list of titles with “Galicia, Eastern” in their subject headings (which at the time of writing will include one book that I noticed was there in error – a book about Galicia in Spain, whose catalogue record was imported in bulk since the title is part of a huge ebook package; I’ve corrected the record but that will only be reflected later tomorrow).  Readers can of course also browse the catalogue for the specific subject headings starting with the stem “Galicia, Eastern (Ukraine)”.

Mel Bach