field. It was hostility to Poland which induced the Little Russians to become part of the Muscovite realm, but after their incorporation into Russia antagonism began to make itself manifest between the Great Russians and the Little Russians; and this antagonism was not solely nationalist and linguistic, but extended likewise into the administrative and economic spheres. Through the partition of Poland and the acquisition of Bukowina a considerable proportion of Little Russian territory accrued to Austria. In Galicia, Austria inclines to protect the Little Russians in so far as this suits the aims of her policy towards Russia and the Pole. In Hungary the Little Russian tongue is proscribed.[1]
The linguistic and economic differences between north and south induced a nationalist movement among the Little Russians, a movement known as Ukrainism. At the outset the demand was for the cultivation of the folk-speech in the schools and in literature and for its use for official purposes, without political separation. Even Russian pedagogues, Ušinskii, Vodovozov, and others, laid due weight upon the linguistic differences, insisting on educational grounds that Little Russian should be used in elementary schools; for the same reason the St. Petersburg academy recently recommended that Little Russian should be employed as the medium of instruction. The use of repressive measures has led in course of time to the growth of a political separatist movement, social differences contributing also to this development.
The first ukrainophil program went so far as to demand that Ruthenians should be guaranteed autonomy and linguistic independence in a panslavist federation (republic) after the American model. The Great Russian language was to be no more than a general means of communication. This plan was based upon the theories of those historians who considered that the essence of the Russian state was not to be found in Muscovite tsarism but in the republic of Novgorod and in the South Russian Cossack state. In addition to Kostomarov, the historians P. V. Pavlov and Ščapov advocated this theory. In the year 1845, upon the basis of these historical ideals, Kostomarov founded in Kiev the Cyrillo-Methodian secret society which may be regarded as a continuation of the society
- ↑ The numbers of the Little Russians are given as follows: in Russia, twenty-two to twenty-six millions; in Austria (Galicia and Bukowina), more than four millions; in Hungary, half a million.
