Mruchkovskyy P. Ethnic Structure of Population in West-Ukrainian Region (A Social-Geographic Analysis)

The concepts of ethnos and population’s ethnic structure as an object of social-geographic studies were discussed; geographical specificities of ethnic processes were analyzed; and methods applied in the study of population’s ethnic structure and variety were disclosed in the dissertation paper. Historic-geographical specificities of settlement and formation of population’s ethnic structure in the region were studied; territorial differences in and specificities of ethnic structure of population living in the West-Ukrainian Region and its borderline “almost mono-ethnic” Ukrainian-Polish and Ukrainian-Belarusian segments; “poly-ethnic” Zakarpattia and Chernivtsi Oblasts; and ethnically most homogeneous Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts were explored. A point-based evaluation of territorial spreading and ranking significance of ethnic groups in the aspect of administrative rayons and towns of the West-Ukrainian Region of Ukraine was carried out as well as said groups were classified according to the degree of population’s ethnic variety; territorial irregularities in settlement of ethnic minorities were disclosed and functional dependence of the degree of ethnic variety upon town size, urbanization level and ethnographic position of the territory was established. The effect of population’s ethnic structure on the formation of demographic situation and the course of demographic and migration processes was revealed. It was established that different ethnic groups possess different ethno-demographic potentials, and have different intensity and directions of external migrations. Geographical specificities of ethno-linguistic situation and manifestations of ethnic processes were characterized. The biggest ethnic groups living in the West-Ukrainian Region were assessed for the degree of ethno-linguistic self-identification and language assimilation. The effect of specificities of ethnic minorities’ settlement upon the degree of language assimilation that precedes ethnic assimilation was disclosed. Specificities of manifestation of ethnic processes were brought to light through the example of poly-ethnic ethno-contact zone