Mit wielokulturowości Lwowa na przełomie XX i XXI wieku

ENCreation of the Lviv multiculturalism myth started in the beginning of XX century. The books by Franciszek Jaworski (1873-1914), Stanisław Wasylewski (1885-1953) and JózefWittlin (1896-1976) had a great impact on this process. Main features of this myth concerned the idea that relations between representatives of different nations and cultures were always harmonic in ancient Lviv. This idea was based on the statement that there was no culture hierarchy and all the population cooperated in different spheres. Among Polish intellectuals the myth of multiculturalism became especially popular in the second half of the 20th century. At that time it turned out to be a form of resuming Polish period in the history of the city, as well as antithesis of national discourses, that evaluated Lviv history only from the point of view of one nation. Modern period of Lviv multiculturalism myth has begun in the 1990th. At that period special interest in multicultural heritage of Lviv showed Ukrainian representatives. Ignoring cultural facts of the USSR period, that had great impact on the city, Ukrainian culturologists, politicians and mass-media began to work at creation of new Lviv multiculturalisms variant. This process was closely connected with business interests as well as wish of Ukrainian authority to improve the image of the city. Modern Lviv multiculturalism myth has eclectic and didactic character and is directed for creating of new attractive image of the city, besides it is an element of political struggle in Ukraine.