Stepan Kachala (, ) (1815 – 1888) was a Ukrainian priest politician and writer. Born in Firlejów near

Berezhany Berezhany ( ; ; ; , ''Bzhezhani''/''Bzhizhani'') is a small List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast, western Ukraine. It lies about from the administrative center of the oblast, Ternopil. Berezhany hosts the administr ...

(now Lypivka in Rohatyn urban hromada,

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (), also referred to as Ivano-Frankivshchyna () or simply Frankivshchyna, is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (region) in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. It has a pop ...

), he graduated from a gymnasium in Berezhany and then the

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

seminary. In 1842, he became a

Greek-Catholic Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite: ** The Albanian Greek Catholic Church ** The Belarusian Gr ...

priest. In the late 1860s Father Stepan made an inquiry into the causes of the Ukrainian peasants' poverty and then formulated a social program that the Greek Catholic clergy soon adopted. He did not find the roots of the peasant’s poverty where secular investigators have suggested these roots lay: in the inequitable terms of emancipation, in the transition to a money economy, and in the absence of factory industry to absorb the surplus labor in the countryside. Instead, Father Kachala found the peasant guilty of vices that led to his impoverishment: drunkenness, prodigality, and sloth. As antidotes to these vices, he suggested, among other things, abstinence, thrift, and enterprise. From 1861, Rev Stepan Kachala was a Ukrainian representative to the

Galician Sejm The Diet of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and of the Grand Duchy of Cracow was the regional assembly of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a crown land of the Austrian Empire, and later Austria-Hungary. In the history of the Polish ...

. In 1873-1879 he served as head of the Ruthenian Club (Ukrainian ''Руський клуб'', Polish ''Klub Ruski'') in the

Austrian parliament The Austrian Parliament () is the bicameral federal legislature of Austria. It consists of two chambers – the National Council and the Federal Council. In specific cases, both houses convene as the Federal Assembly. The legislature meets i ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kachala, Stepan 1815 births 1888 deaths People from Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Members of the Austrian House of Deputies (1873–1879) Members of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria 19th-century Ukrainian politicians