Western Ukrainian Russophiles

Russophiles of Galicia or Moscowphiles (Ukrainian: Pусофіли, москвофіли, translit. Rusofily) were participants in a cultural and political movement largely in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (currently western Ukraine). This ideology emphasized that since the Eastern Slavic people of Galicia were descendents of the people of Kievan Rus' (Ruthenians), and followers of Eastern Christianity, that they were thus a branch of the Russian people. The movement was part of the whole Pan-Slavism that was developing in the late 19th century. Russophilia was largely a reaction against Polish (in Galicia) and Hungarian (in Carpathian Ruthenia) cultural suppression that was largely associated with Roman Catholicism.

Russophilia has survived longer among the Rusyn minority, especially those in Carpathian Ruthenia, the Lemkos of south-east Poland, and those in Bukovina.

The "Russophiles" did not always apply the term to themselves, and called themselves Russians, Rusians, Ruthenians or Rusyny (Rusyns). Some Russophiles coined such terms as Obshche-rossy (Common Russians) or Starorusyny (Old Ruthenians) to stress either the differences within their faction, referring to commonness with all Russians, or their unique stand within the whole of the Russian nation.

The ethnonym Ruthenians for Ukrainian people had been accepted by both the Russophiles and the Moscophiles for quite a long period of time. The new name Ukrainians began to be accepted by the Ruthenian Galicians (as opposed to Polonian Galicians) around the 1890s, under the influence of Mykola Kostomarov and the Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius in central Ukraine.

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Wikipedia