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During the period of the elections veritable terror reigned, and Ukrainians were sometimes even killed. But the will of the people always overcame the obstacles that confronted it and always succeeded in electing a certain number of active representatives.
In 1907, as is known, universal suffrage was introduced in Austria. But the Poles, who were the chief opponents of this reform, also obtained great advantages in Galicia. In the Polish districts (Western Galicia) and in the towns of Eastern Galicia, where the Poles and the Jews were in a majority, the electoral districts were organised in such a way that each deputy represented a maximum of 50,000 electors, whilst in districts where the Ukrainians were in a majority (and these were often absolute) one deputy represented more than 100,000 votes. It must be recorded that the system of proportional representation existed everywhere where it was favourable to the Poles, but it was inoperative in the regions where it was unfavourable to the Poles (the towns of Eastern Galicia).
Thus it is that the Ukrainians of Eastern Galicia, of which the Ukrainian population is more than 70 per cent., were only able to elect 28 deputies, while the Poles had the right to 30.
The elections for the Galician Diet were carried out under conditions still more unfavourable for the Ukrainian party.
In Northern Bukovina the situation was practically the same as in Galicia. In Hungarian Ukraine it was still worse.
Thus the situation was difficult enough in Austria-Hungary, but in Russia under the yoke of the Tsars it was unbearable. The existence for a long time of a national school in Galicia and in Bukovina, and the fact of the population being accustomed to taking part in the political struggles, has given to the inhabitants of these districts an education and patriotic determination that the inhabitants of Eastern Ukraine, held under the most rigorous suppression until 1917, have been unable to acquire.
