Migration of Ugric Rusin teachers to Russia at the turn of the 1870s

Hungarian Rus was one of the most underdeveloped peripheries of the Habsburg Monarchy, yet some of its natives had the opportunity to receive higher education and become teachers in higher and secondary educational institutions. In the 19th century, they were eagerly invited to work in Russia, where they were seen as European-educated “fellow tribesmen,” close in faith and capable of mastering the Russian literary language more quickly than other foreigners. Two waves of Rusin intellectual emigration to the Russian Empire can be identified: in the early 19th century and in the 1860s-1870s. Their precondition was the educational reforms implemented during these periods. The shortage of own qualified personnel was the reason to turn abroad in search of educators. In 1803-1804, three Ugro-Rusins became professors at the newly opened St. Petersburg Pedagogical Institute: Mikhail Andreyevich Balugjanski, Pyotr Dmitriyevich Lodiy, and Vasily Grigoryevich Kukolnik. After this institute had been transformed into St. Petersburg University, they continued their service there, with Balugjanski being elected its first rector. Their compatriot Ivan Semyonovich Orlay served as director of the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nizhyn and the Richelieu Lyceum in Odessa in the 1820s. The second, more mass wave of Rusin teacher migration was triggered by the gymnasium reform of 1864-1871, during which boys' gymnasiums were converted into classical ones. This created a high demand for teachers of Latin and Ancient Greek, and the shortage was partially met through the mass recruitment of educators from the Slavic lands of Austria-Hungary. Approximately one-third of the invited teachers were Rusins from Galicia, Ugro-Rus, and Bukovina. The first Ugro-Rusins accepted into Russian gymnasiums during this reform were Yury Yuryevich Hodobai, Pyotr Ivanovich Feyerchak, and Viktor Fyodorovich Kimak. Their example allows for an examination of the mechanisms of emigration and adaptation among Rusin educators.

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