“A primordial Russian corner of our Fatherland”: Chełm Land and the Chełm Question through the lens of the Volhynian periodicals (1909–1912)

This article analyzes how Volhynian periodicals covered debates surrounding the Chelm question from 1909 to 1912. While metropolitan newspapers focused primarily on the State Duma hearings concerning a separate Chelm Governorate, the regional Volhynian press engaged more deeply with the issue, publishing on the region's ethnographic, confessional, and socioeconomic specificities and actively deliberating on its future.This strong regional interest is understandable given the historical ties between VoLhynia and Chelm Land, which formed part of the Kingdom of GaLicia-VoLhynia in the 13th-14th centuries. Moreover, social and religious tensions in Chelm Land-such as conflicts between Polish Landowners and Russian peasants, and between Catholic and Orthodox communities-closely mirrored those in VoLhynia Governorate. These parallels, reinforced by dose religious connections, shaped a distinct perspective on the Chelm question within the VoLhynian press. Drawing on publications from periodicaLs such as Pochaevskiy Ustok, Volynskaya zemlya, Zhizn’ Volyni, Volynskaya pochta, Yugo-Zapadnaya Volyn, and Volyn’many introduced here into scholarly discourse for the first time - the study shows that both conservative and liberal Volhynian periodicals addressed key themes: main forms of the “Polish threat” to the Russian population of Chełm Land, the activities of Archbishop Evlogy (Georgievsky) and the Chełm Orthodox Brotherhood, and protests by Polish students in Lviv against the separation of Chełm Land. Conservative periodicals like Pochaevskiy listok, Volynskaya zemlya,Zhizn’Volyni, presented Chełm Land as historic Russian territory inhabited by a Russian population in need of protection from Polonization and Catholicization. Therefore, they viewed the establishment of a separate Chełm Governorate as not only logical but necessary. The liberal publishers in Volhynia expressed their stance more indirectly, demonstrated their position less overtly quoting articles from other periodicals or speeches by Duma deputies who opposed provisions of the Chełm project.

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