Journal “Free Word: Carpatho-Russian Monthly” as an Important Source on the History of Subcarpathian Rus in the Inter-War Period

The journal “Free Word: Carpatho-Russian Monthly” published by Carpathian emigrants in the United States is an important source on the history of Galician, Ugric and Bukovinian Rus. From the first issue 1959 to the early 1989, its Editor-in-Chief was M.I. Turianitsa, a native of Subcarpathian Rus. The journal published materials of famous Russian figures of Carpathian Rus: M. Turyanitsa, brothers A. and G. Gerovsky, I. Tyorokh, D. Vergun, I. Shlepetsky, and others. These people hold true to the idea of the pan-Russian nation, so it is incorrect to identify them as Russophiles or Muscophiles. During WWI, the Austro-Hungarian authorities committed genocide and opened first concentration camps in Europe for the Russian population of Galicia and Bukovina. Denying them their right to identify themselves as Russians is equal to calling Germans Germanophiles, English - Anglophiles, Spaniards - Hispanophiles, etc. The theory of triune Russian nation was official in Russia before the Revolution. The idea was shared by most of the Great Russians, Little Russians, Belarusians and Rusins (who were officially identified as Little Russians). Only in 1917 in Austria-Hungary did the new emperor Charles I officially change the names “Ruthenian”, the “Ruthenian language” to Ukrainians and the Ukrainian language (Ukrainer, Ukrainisch). In Russia, the Little Russians were officially called Ukrainians after the February Revolution of 1917. However, for a long time, the local population called themselves Russians, Little Russians, Rusins, even on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. For example, the special supplement to the instructions for conducting a census in the USSR in 1926, issued for Ukraine, prescribed that to “correctly” record the nationality of people who would call themselves Russians, it was necessary to ask “to which” Russians “they thought they belonged (Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarus)”. Many famous scholars held to the idea of the unity of the Russian people after the Revolution. For instance, a well-known Czech archeologist, ethnographer, Slavist L. Niederle wrote, “White Russia, Ukraine and Great Russia will remain branches of one people, even if each of them gains political independence.” The memoirs of the figures of the Russian movement of the Carpathian Rus can promote a better understanding of the processes that took place in the region during the turning years, including those of the interwar period, when the Rusinian lands were annexed to various states. Most of Ugric Rus (Subcarpathian Rus and Eastern Slovakia) became part of Czechoslovakia. Of all the Rusinian regions, only Subcarpathian Rus gained statehood, albeit ephemeral, through becoming autonomy within the Czechoslovak Republic.

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