Stepan Kachala (Ukrainian Степан Качала, Polish Stefan Kaczała) (1815 – 1888) was a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * Som ...

politician and writer. Born in

Firlejów Firlejów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Michałowice, within Kraków County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (in pl, województwo małopolskie ), also known as Małopolska, ...

near

Berezhany Berezhany ( uk, Бережани, ; pl, Brzeżany; yi, ברעזשאַן, Brezhan; he, בּז'יז'אני/בּז'ז'ני ''Bzhezhani''/''Bzhizhani'') is a city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It lies about fr ...

(now in

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast ( uk, Іва́но-Франкі́вська о́бласть, translit=Ivano-Frankivska oblast), also referred to as Ivano-Frankivshchyna ( uk, Іва́но-Франкі́вщина), is an oblast (region) in western Ukrai ...

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

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukra ...

seminary. In 1842, he became a

Greek-Catholic The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually. The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...

priest. In the late 1860s, a Galician priest, Father Stepan Kachala, made an inquiry into the causes of the Ukrainian peasant’s poverty and then formulated a social program that the Greek Catholic clergy as a whole soon adopted for its own. 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 Kalacha 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, and a head of the Ruthenian Club (Ukrainian ''Руськiй клуб'', Polish ''Klub Ruski'') in the parliament in 1873-1879.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kachala, Stepan 1815 births 1888 deaths People from Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Members of the Austrian House of Deputies (1873–1879) Members of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria Ukrainian politicians before 1991