A fight for law
A fight for justice is a novel by Karl Emil Franzos from 1882. It is set in Eastern Galicia on the edge of the Carpathian Mountains .
content
The Ruthenian farmer Taras Barabola married in a Hutsul village and was elected judge there. When the administrator of the Polish property steals part of the community's arable land, Barabola tries legally to get justice for his village. He even made his way to Vienna and hoped to get support from the emperor for his cause, which the local authorities had denied him.
When he does not get any help there either, he becomes a Hajdamak , a Carpathian robber and leader of a gang that supports the oppressed peasants against their noble masters.
He makes sure that only the guilty are punished and that there is no looting or personal enrichment. The money extorted from the nobles is returned to the village communities and not kept.
However, when he learns that one of his people had used him and his group as a tool for personal vengeance and thereby murdered an innocent man, he loses faith in his mission and faces justice.
He is sentenced to death and executed. Before that, he had learned that the stolen land had been given back to the village.
Taras Barabola is often compared to Michael Kohlhaas ; But he differs particularly in that he does not become a rebel because of a personal violation of rights, but because of the abused rights of his village.
References
- Maria Kłańska: The German-Language Literature of Galicia and Bukowina from 1777 to 1945 in German History in Eastern Europe. Galicia, Bukovina Moldova . Siedler Verlag. Pages 408 ff.
- Afterword by Henri Poschmann in Karl Emil Franzos: A Struggle for Law. Verlag Neues Leben Volume 89. Berlin 1970. Page 409 ff.