Russkogo narodnogo soveta Prikarpatskoy Rusi zapiska po voprosu ob upravlenii oblastyami russkogo Prikarpat’ya [A Report by the Russian People’s Council of Subcarpathian Rus on the administration of regions of Russian Subcarpathia]

The report was written on 17 September 1916, when Russian troops occupied the region after the Brusilov Offensive, and sent to General A.A. Brusilov. The report was signed by V. Dudykevych, the Chairman of the Russian People’s Council of Subarpathian Rus, and G. Malets, a Council member. In the report, the leaders of the Carpatho-Russian movement mentioned the mistakes made when annexing the region to Russia early in the war, and made their proposals for the integration of Galicia into the Russian Empire. They wrote about the anti-Russian policy of the Poles in the region, which the Austrian and German ruling circles supported, and about the dominance of the Polish element in the administration of the region. They noted that the Uniate issue required a thorough examination and a cautious attitude. Uniatism was closely connected with Ukrainism. It was proposed to change the composition of the Uniate hierarchy, to guarantee full religious freedom and conversion from Uniatism to Catholicism. The authors of the report recommended to recognize Russian as the official language and to make it the language of instruction in public educational institutions of all levels within the ethnographic boundaries of Subcarpathian Rus. They also recommended to abandon local Little Russian (Ukrainian) schools as institutions violating the “national unity” and the “connection of the Little Russians with the rest of the Russian world” and “undermining the dominance of Russian culture”. The Polish national minority was supposed to have the opportunity to study in private schools in their mother tongue. The authors of the report found it necessary to cancel forfeitures and restrictions the Austro-Hungarian authorities imposed on the local population for their Russian beliefs, to prohibit free and unauthorized requisitions. According to the authors, it was also necessary to resume activities of the Russian People’s Council and other Russian organizations, local Russian press, to return refugees living in Russia, to encourage the development of local Russian trade and industry in Galicia. The document is stored in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire.

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