What is "Galacian tobacco" and what is its significance?

Question

Chapter 7 of Sweet Darusya refers to "Galacian tobacco" being smuggled between Poland and Ukraine. What exactly was this, and what was the significance of it being specifically that kind of tobacco?

I do recall from Zinky Boys that Soviet citizens typically placed a high premium on certain kinds of luxury goods, especially Western goods that were hard to acquire; was that what was going on here?

Note: I'm listening to the audiobook version, so I'm not 100% sure that I have the spelling correct. Please feel free to correct me if I have that wrong.

Answer 1

Galician, not Galacian.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Galician smuggling cartels specialised in cigarettes and tobacco. It was a big illegal industry in Iberia, and perhaps extending further afield in Europe too. More recently, they've started dealing in cocaine imported from Colombia, but the tobacco smuggling still continues as well. Even in 2023, large-scale illegal tobacco operations in Galicia are exploiting Ukrainian refugees.

In the 70s several Galician fishermen organized themselves to create routes that favored the smuggling of tobacco from Portugal

When under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Spaniards smuggled in tobacco. To this day, Galician clans smuggle in illegal tobacco (tobacco that fails to comply with legislation).

Cigarette Smugglers Turn to Cocaine
July 9, 1990
VILLAGARCIA DE AROSA, Spain (AP) - Police lying in wait that Friday night in April were after the usual tobacco smugglers. What came along the road was a fortune in cocaine and a new, much bigger problem.

Galicia! From Tobacco Smuggling to Europe’s Cocaine Getaway

Answer 2

According to the original text in Ukrainian:

• it was clearly incoming smuggling;
• the author seems to deliberately use the older Roman name of Spanish Galicia — probably, to avoid the possible confusion with the name of Ukrainian region.

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Original text:

Але минає день-другий - і просвистить з того на цей бік камінь від польського постового із прив'язаним запашним ґаліцейським тютюном […]

A vague translation:

And one or two days pass — and whizzes from that [side] to this side a stone from a Polish [border] guard with attached odorous Gallaecian tobacco […]

Later in the paragraph, the author talks about dried plums that go in return.

Using caps below as not every font would show the difference between Г /h/ and Ґ /g/ (with a hook).

In Ukrainian, Galicia is ГАЛИЧИНА (/halychyna/);
The adjective is ГАЛИЦЬКИЙ (/halytsʲkyj/).

The author uses ҐАЛІЦЕЯ (/galitseja/)
and the adjective ҐАЛІЦЕЙСЬКИЙ (/galitseysʲkyj/)

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Western goods were especially valued at all times under the Russian/Sovjet rule. Considering the total poverty, smuggling itself was a huge benefit for the populace living near the border with the free world.

Answer 3

I note there are two regions in Europe which are spelled "Galicia" in English. One is the northwest corner of Spain, the other a region in modern Poland and Ukraine. Rand al'Thor mentions the Spanish Galicia, but if any tobacco was grown in the other Galicia it would be easier to smuggle in eastern Europe.

Here is a link to a map showing the borders of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria compared to modern borders.

Earlier use of the geographic name of Halice or Galicia in eastern Europe may have covered somewhat different areas.

This map of tobacco growing indicates that some might be grown in the Galicia in eastern Europe.

This map shows that Poland and Ukraine are tobacco-producing countries.

Tobacco from different regions often has, or is believed to have, different properties making it more or less desirable. And smugglers who don't pay import taxes can sell tobacco cheaper.

Tobacco grown in the former Kingdom of Galica & Lodomeria would have a shorter distance to be smuggled between Poland and Ukraine. Rand al'Thor's answer shows that there was a lot of smuggling of tobacco from Galicia in Spain.

So I don't know where the smuggled Galician tobacco comes from in Sweet Darusya, and seems like an open question to me.

Note: Emperor Charles VI (d.1740) claimed so many kingdoms that his list included both kingdoms of Galicia.