Ukrainian Russophiles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Russophiles (Ukrainian: Pусофіли), also known as Moscophiles, were participants in a cultural and political movement in Western Ukraine known as Russophilia. This ideology proposed that the people of Western Ukraine were a branch of the Russian people, whose goal should be eventual assimilation into Russian culture and reunion with Russia. Russophilia was largely a reaction against Polish (and, in Zakarpatia, Hungarian) cultural suppression. It flourished among the Ukrainians in Galicia in the nineteenth century but largely died out there in the beginning of the twentieth century, having been eclipsed by a a feeling of Ukrainian patriotism. Russophilia has survived longer among the people of Zakarpatia than in other Western Ukrainian regions.
Contents |
[edit] Background
After the fall of the westernmost East Slavic state in 1349, most of the area of what is now Western Ukraine was under the control of Poland and Hungary, with Poland ruling Galicia and Hungary controlling Transcarpathia. The loss of independence began a period of gradual, centuries-long assimilation of much of the native elite into Polish and Hungarian culture. These elite adopted a national orientation in which they saw the native Rus population of Galicia as a branch of the Polish nation who happened to be of the Eastern Christian faith. They believed that the native language was merely a dialect of Polish, comparable to Mazovian, and that assimilation would be inevitable.
This process of Polonization was, however, resented by the peasants, the clergy, and small minority of nobles who retained their eastern Slavic culture and or religion. The latter two groups would form the nucleus of native national movements that would emerge with the loosening of Polish of Hungarian control in western Ukraine, which occurred when the entire region came under the control of the Austrian Habsburgs. The Austrian Emperor emancipated the enserfed peasants, introduced compulsory education, and raised the status of the Ruthenian priests to that of their Polish and Hungarian counterparts. Such reforms led to a gradual social mobilization of the native inhabitants of Western Ukraine and the emergence of a several national ideologies that were opposed to that of Roman Catholic Poland or Hungary and reflected the natives' East Slavic culture. This development was encouraged by the Austrian authorities because it served to undermine Polish or Hungarian control of the area. The cultural movements included: Russophilia, the idea that Galicia was the westernmost part of Russia and that the natives of Western Ukraine were, like all of the Russian Empire's East Slavic inhabitants, members of one Russian nation; Rusynophilia, the idea that the people of Western Ukraine were a unique East Slavic nation; and Ukrainophilia, the idea that the people of western Ukraine were the same as those of neighboring lands in the Russian Empire but that both were a people different from Russians - Ukrainians. Initially there existed a fluidity between all three national orientations, with people changing their allegience throughout their careers, and until approximately the turn of the century members of all three groups identified themselves as Rusyns. Initially the most prominant ideology was Rusynophilia. By the mid nineteenth century this orientation was supplanted by Russophilia (many of the old Rusynophiles became Russophiles).
[edit] Rise and Development
Western Ukrainian Russophilia appeared in Carpathian Ruthenia at the end of the eighteenth century. At this time, several people from the region settled in St. Petersburg, Russia and obtained high academic positions. The best known of these was Vasyl Kukolnik (father of Russian playwright Nestor Kukolnik), a member of an old noble family who had studied in Vienna before coming to Russia. Vasyl's pupils included Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia and Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich of Russia, the future emperor Nikolai I of Russia. These emigres, while adopting a sense of Russian patriotism, also maintained their ties to their homeland and tried used their wealth to introduce Russian literature and culture to their region.
In Galicia, Russophilia was stimulated by the Russian pan-Slavist Mikhail Pogodin, who stayed in Lviv in 1835 and 1939-1840, when he became acquainted with the local Ruthenian intelligentsia and became an influence on them. This circle came to adopt the Russian language and the idea of a union between a Galician Rus and Russia.
[edit] Decline and Fall
In the early twentieth century Russophilia had become eclipsed by Ukrainophilia in eastern Galicia but in Volhynia the tradition persisted.
[edit] Bibliography
- Paul Robert Magocsi, A History of Ukraine, University of Toronto Press: Toronto 1996, ISBN 0-8020-0830-5