Remaking 'Primordial Russian Land' The Imperial Russian Army's Occupation of Habsburg Galicia, 1914-1915' with guest speaker Prof Alexander Watson

At the start of the First World War, the Imperial Russian Army invaded Habsburg Galicia — a multi-ethnic region spread across today's southern Poland and western Ukraine. This paper examines the occupation of 1914-15 and explores Russian war aims and violence in this region. It argues that eastern Galicia — which due to its large Ukrainian-speaking population was seen as ‘primordial Russian land' by the occupiers — became the site of one of the twentieth century's first modern programmes of ethnic cleansing. The Imperial Russian Army frequently prioritised ideological over military goals during the 1914-15 occupation and its ideology and playbook of violence suggests long roots to Vladimir Putin's occupation in Ukraine today.