For Russia and for the Slavdom": the official and pro-governmental press of the White Siberia on the formation of Carpatho-Russian military units on its territory

The article is devoted to the participation of Rusyns in the Civil War in the East of Russia. The purpose of the research is to educe the peculiarities of advocacy campaign accompanied the formation of Carpatho-Russian military units in Siberia, on the basis of the official and pro-Government periodicals published since the summer of 1918 until the end of 1919. The overall goal - the reunification of all the Russian lands and the revival of Russian State - joined the Government of Admiral A.V. Kolchak and the Central Carpatho-Russian Council. The main leverage to the natives of Ciscarpathian located in the colonies of refugees and prison camps became the newspaper "Carpatho-Russian Word" that actively promote the idea of unity of Russian and Carpatho-Russian peoples, the living embodiment of this had to be the volunteer units of Rusyns within the Russian army of Admiral A.V. Kolchak. The story about "Single Indivisible Russia" ("narrative of reunification") formed among the Carpatho-Russian-Russophiles was integrated into the official discourse of Kolchak regime in the summer of 1919 and it became the ideological basis of conscription of all natives of Ciscarpathian Rus in age from 18 to 43 years. Public ceremonial events (Remembrance Day of M.T. Sandovich, the "Day of Carpatho-Russian", regimental holiday of the 1st Carpatho-Russian rifle regiment, consecration of regimental color), widely publicized by the official press, had well-defined mobilizing orientation. The authors come to the conclusion that, despite the massive (by the standards of Siberia of that time) information-ideological support, the mobilization campaign of the summer and autumn of 1919 proved to be ineffective. Units formed as a result of this campaign could not reverse the course of tactical activities on the eastern front of the Civil War.

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