The Development of Capitalism

The Development of Capitalism

Nevertheless, in the mid-nineteenth century the backward artisan economy of Lviv began to change, and the economic elite tried to adopt new rules. Though slowly and partially, the city space acquired modern capitalist characteristics. Various changes in the political situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were the main catalyst for these processes. The general socio-political climate was changed significantly by the 1848 revolution, causing a substantial revival in all areas of life. For example, the introduction of new conditions for farming in the surrounding estates owned by the nobility stimulated the development of agricultural machinery production in Lviv.

Large mechanized enterprises using steam engines were built on the northern outskirts of Lviv. Two large steam mills stood on ul. Mlynarska (now vul. Lemkivska), and it was from them that the street got its name in 1871. One of these mills belonged to Robert Doms, a famous Lviv capitalist of German origin. Steam energy was also used in everyday life: the city steam bathhouse was opened in the former brewery of Jan Karpf on what is now vul. Bohdana Khmelnytskoho near the St. Onuphrius monastery in 1840 (Schnür-Pepłowski, 1896, 175).

The general appearance of Pidzamche was changing. Typical long single-storied industrial buildings were constructed along the streets. A building of this kind has been preserved on vul. Donetska, 5.

However, the transition to new modern principles was very slow and lasted till the 1870s-1880s. The Lviv Craftsmen and Industrialists Society "Gwiazda" (Eng. Star), founded in 1868, did not contain the word "industrialists" in its name at the beginning, the latter being added only later. The decisive blow at the old economic system was striken by a large-scale infrastructure project of the railway construction. The same post-revolutionary uncertainty in international politics forced the Austrian government to finally address the problem of rapid transport between all corners of the empire.

The administration and the industrial elite of Lviv also pinned high hopes on the railway. After the construction of a westward railway was completed in 1861, connecting Lviv and Vienna, it was a turn for the eastward direction, to Brody. The fact that the Lviv city council members decided to intervene in the process of deciding on a particular route of the "Lviv-Brody" railway section going through the city clearly shows what an extremely important role the railway was to play, according to officials. They saw in it a long-awaited chance to finally fully experience the breath of modernity, an opportunity for a rapid transformation of Lviv into a full-fledged Western-type modern city. According to the initial plans of the Austrian government, the "Lviv-Brody" railway was to skirt the city on the north going from the main station on vul. Horodotska through the villages of Klepariv and Zboiska. The Lviv authorities, however, were convinced that only the proximity of the future railway to the city center would help to transform Lviv into a modern metropolis and its northern suburbs into a developed district with new buildings. So they made every effort to persuade Vienna to build the railway not on the outskirts, as it was planned, but through the city, not far from the center. In particular, among important counter arguments there was one saying that "the embankment, which would be necessarily built in the process of the track construction, would cross the Zhovkivske suburbs and greatly complicate the transport communication between the divided parts of the city" (Wierzbicki, 1907, 19). In response the city council members claimed one thing: the implementation of their will "would ensure the growth and development of the city now and forever, whereas the rejection would cause a clear decline of the city" (Wierzbicki, 1907, 20). This "passionate" request was satisfied: in 1869, a new railway line crossed northern Lviv which was laid in close proximity to the city center.

The reality, however, turned out to be less grand than the city council's plans. The railway really revived the industrial activity in the Zhovkivske suburb quite noticeably, but no rapid positive changes could be seen. On the contrary, there was an additional negative factor: the railway embankment cut some quarters from the center, complicating the access. However, an important feature of the railway became evident, albeit indirectly. The fast and convenient transport contributed to the influx of large numbers of cheap and quality goods to Lviv and Galicia. On the one hand, it was the last decisive blow at traditional crafts and brought in Lviv context the concept of real competition, which one could not shut oneself from by a wall of anti-Semitic reasons and habitual patterns of thinking and behavior (Lviv industrialists themselves acknowledged a "lack of the appropriate spirit of industrial entrepreneurship") (Saryusz-Zaleski, 1930, 91). On the other hand, there was a "growth of consumerist attitudes, as not only among landowners and officials, but also in the families of priests, peasants, and even orthodox Jews furniture, fashionable clothes, and new foodstuffs (rice, tea, and coffee) began to appear which had not been seen previously" (Грицак, 2006).

Regarding the railway line, laid almost through the city center, this circumstance also affected the space of the Zhovkivske suburb in another way (though not quite as the city council members expected). The railway embankment formed a physical boundary between "closer" and "further" Pidzamche, thus forming a separate district with a new modern identity. A suburban nook, hidden behind the northern slopes of the Zamkova (Castle) Hill, had a long, "princely" history. In the medieval times, in addition to the Ruthenians, there were Armenian and Tatar communities there, thus distinguishing this territory from the neighborhoods located to the west of the Vysokyi Zamok and traditionally inhabited by the Jews. In the first half of the nineteenth century "further" Pidzamche was already a vague "grey zone" between the city and the suburban villages, whose main feature was smuggling alcohol. The construction of an important railway station greatly changed the look of the place. The railway stimulated the transformation of the local handicraft workshops into full-fledged factories and the emergence of new enterprises. The workers were recruited mainly from local residents, so the traditional smugglers', petty traders' and unskilled laborers' neighborhood acquired some features of a modern working district.

The new railway station was named after the name of the old 'princely' quarters. However, it was the station's vicinities that became a place where Lviv's new modern industry was concentrated; therefore, it had the most progressive regime of production at that time. A modern industrial space appeared in the city, connecting Lviv with the space of other West European cities. In general, however, nineteenth-century Lviv was still an administration center and not an industrial one; local officials seemed more interested in agriculture than in industry (Saryusz-Zaleski, 1930, 73). Pidzamche did not become a center of new city life, as it could be expected. On the contrary, the district's modernity and progressiveness went unnoticed by other Lviv inhabitants. From the perspective of the center (considering a strong anti-Semitic feeling among Lviv's Polish bourgeoisie), the Zhovkivske suburb still remained a neglected area, destroyed by the "Jewish slovenliness" and populated by the "scum of society." The emergence of a modern district in Lviv did not become an event for the city: a separate modern space of Pidzamche was there for those who lived there, and did not exist for all the others.