Socio-Political Conditions of the 1846 Galician Slaughter in the Zagórze Region in the Light of an Unpublished Manuscript by Sebastian Flizak
Socio-Political Conditions of the 1846 Galician Slaughter in the Zagórze Region in the Light of an Unpublished Manuscript by Sebastian Flizak

Summary/Abstract: RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to reconstruct the local dimension of the 1846 peasant uprising in Galicia, known as the rabacja (Galician Slaughter), which constitutes a unique testimony of collective memory and the microhistory of the Zagórze region (including Mszana Dolna and Poręba Wielka). This text provides interdisciplinary research material of importance to history, ethnography, as well as political and administrative sciences. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The primary research problem was to determine how Flizak interpreted the relationships between the peasantry, the clergy, the landed gentry, and the administration during the peasant unrest of 1846, and how his account reflects the local experience of socio-political transformation. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The authors begin by outlining the origins and course of the 1846 peasant uprising, then present the figure of Sebastian Flizak and his intellectual work, and finally discuss the contents of the manuscript devoted to the rabacja in the areas inhabited by the Zagórze Highlanders. RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis of Flizak’s manuscript has shown that it constitutes a valuable source for understanding the Zagórze perspective on the rabacja. It portrays the uprising not merely as a spontaneous social outburst but as a phenomenon deeply rooted in longstanding conflicts over serfdom, common rights, and property boundaries. The document also reveals the role of both estate and state (Austrian) administrations, as well as the various forms of legitimization of the revolt in the eyes of the peasants. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The conducted analysis confirms the crucial role of the microhistorical perspective in the fields of political and administrative sciences and underscores the need for further editing and publication of local sources, which constitute essential material for studying the dynamics of power, memory, and the peasant uprising of 1846.

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