Hniliczki affair information

The Hniliczki affair, Hniliczki conversion or Hniliczki case^[1] was a political-religious scandal that took place in Galicia in the first months of 1882.

In late December 1881, 129 peasants, residents of the village of Hniliczki Małe, legally converted from Greek Catholicism to Orthodoxy. Their motive for making this decision was a dispute with their parson and the desire to establish a separate Greek Catholic parish. The leading Russophile activist, Father Ivan Naumovich, inspired them to change their religion, without fully realizing the consequences. However, the political nature of the conversion was quickly detected, and the decision to change religion was reversed.

The Hniliczki conversion prompted the Austrian authorities to take decisive action against the Russophile movement in general. According to researchers, Austrian politicians were concerned about the development of Russian pan-Slavism, and when relations between Austria and Russia deteriorated due to conflicting interests in the Balkans, they decided to use the entire affair as a pretext to suppress the movement advocating for Galicia's unification with Russia. Father Naumovich and a group of nine other Russophiles were accused of treason, espionage, and disturbing public order. These charges were clearly exaggerated and, according to historians, exceeded the defendants' real capabilities. Ultimately, probably due to pressure from the Russian diplomacy, the trial ended with low sentences imposed only for disturbing public order.

The Hniliczki Affair is considered a watershed event in the history of the debate over the cultural and national consciousness of Galician Ukrainians.^[1] The Hniliczki trial prompted leading Russophiles to emigrate to Russia, and the Vatican to replace the Greek Catholic Metropolitan of Lviv, Joseph Sembratovych, with a pro-Polish and pro-Latin Sylwester Sembratowicz.