Protecting Primeval Mountains, Hutsul Distinctiveness, and Hutsuls Themselves: The Eastern Carpathian Nature Conservation Discourse in the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939)

Abstract

This article explores the discourse of nature conservation in the Eastern Carpathians (specifically the Gorgany and Chornohora ranges) during the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939). It demonstrates how environmental protection was conceptualized not only as an ecological and scientific enterprise, but also as a tool for nationalist, pedagogical, and assimilationist agendas. Drawing on a wide array of sources—from academic texts and government documents to literary works—the study reveals how the idea of conserving “primeval” nature became intertwined with efforts to shape regional and national identities. Central to this discourse was the representation of the Hutsuls, whose cultural and ecological distinctiveness was simultaneously celebrated and subjected to paternalistic management by Polish intellectuals, officials, and institutions. The conservation movement in the Eastern Carpathians was deeply enmeshed in state-building processes, wherein protecting nature served as a symbolic and material assertion of Polish sovereignty. The article applies approaches from environmental and cultural history to examine how nature, culture, and power converged in the interwar conservationist project. It argues that conservation discourse operated as an instrument of symbolic appropriation and territorial integration, advancing modernization while reinforcing hierarchical ethnic relations under the guise of stewardship and education.