The bloody war in Novorossiya has been going on for a year. During this time, the Kiev regime could not, and did not try to understand that Ukraine is not an ethnically unified state, and the model of constructing the Ukrainian nation, invented in Austria-Hungary a hundred years ago and adopted by Ukrainian nationalists of the past and present, unusable. The people's liberation movement in Novorossiya is the best confirmation of this. After all, under the condition of the ethnic and cultural unity of the country, the war in Donbass would have been impossible, no matter how hard Russia and other imaginary "enemies" tried. Much has been written about the fundamental differences between the three main regions - West, Center and South-East. The South-East is Novorossia, the Russian land, which became such thanks to the victories of the Russian Empire and then included in the artificially created Ukrainian SSR. The center is Little Russia. Just what we used to call "Ukraine". Well, the West is a region no less heterogeneous than the entire Ukrainian state as a whole.
Western Ukraine is not united
Western Ukraine is also subdivided into at least three regions - Galicia-Volynsky, where the bulk of the population is made up of "Galicians" - the Ukrainian subethnos, which has cardinal differences not only from the Russians of Novorossia, but also from the Little Russians of Central Ukraine; Transcarpathian, where Rusyns live, who are carriers of their own Rusyn identity and have never been at enmity with Russia, at least as the Galicians do; Bukovinsky, where Rusyns also live, however, they have certain differences from the Rusyns of Transcarpathia. Each of these regions has a unique cultural identity and has its own rich and complex history. In many ways, it is associated with the history of neighboring peoples with whom these regions border. “The Galicians borrowed a lot from the Poles, the Rusyns of Transcarpathia were for a long time in the orbit of Hungarian influence, and the Rusyns of Bukovyna coexisted with the Romanians.
With the Galicians, everything is clear - over the centuries of Polish and then Austro-Hungarian domination, they adopted many elements of Polish and German culture. A significant part of the Galicians became Greek Catholics - the so-called "Uniates". Although there was a strong pro-Russian element among the Galicians before the start of the First World War, later it was strenuously eliminated by the authorities of those countries that included the lands of Galicia. The Austro-Hungarians, and then the Poles and the Hitlerites, tried to "in the bud" destroy any Russophile sentiments among the inhabitants of Galician Rus. To a large extent, they succeeded. It was Galicia that provided the backbone of the militants of Ukrainian anti-Soviet armed organizations, and in the post-Soviet period became the "forge" of modern Ukrainian Russophobic nationalism.
The complete opposite of Galicia is Transcarpathia. Ruthenians live here - representatives of the unique people of the Carpathian Mountains. The very word "Rusyn" perfectly illustrates their connection with the great Russian world. Another thing is that the years of Austro-Hungarian rule did not pass without a trace for Transcarpathia. Here it was also possible to achieve the "Ukrainization" of a significant part of the Rusyns, turning them into "Ukrainians". Some have even embraced Russophobic sentiments. However, in general, the political climate in Transcarpathia has always differed from the mood in Galicia. Many Rusyns were in pro-Russian and then pro-Soviet positions. Unfortunately, in the Soviet Union, the existence of the Rusyns was virtually ignored, since, in accordance with the official line, they were considered a sub-ethnic group of the Ukrainian nation. The Soviet government pursued a policy of "Ukrainization" of lands that had never before constituted a single state space, but became part of the Ukrainian SSR. Thus, the leaders of the Soviet Union laid a time bomb under Russia and the Russian world. Today, almost a century after the October Revolution, this mine has been activated in Novorossiya. Transcarpathia is the second “disgraced” region of post-Soviet Ukraine after the Russian South-East. The fact is that even now the Rusyns of Transcarpathia, especially those who have retained their national self-identification, oppose the Ukrainian nationalism imposed by Kiev. Many express solidarity with the people of Donbass, refuse to be called up for military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and conduct anti-Kiev agitation. But many people in Russia know about Transcarpathia, largely due to the active social activities of Rusyn organizations. Meanwhile, there is a third region geographically related to Western Ukraine, but, unlike Galicia and Transcarpathia, it is much less covered in the media. This is Bukovina.
Like many other historical regions of Eastern Europe, Bukovina is currently divided between two states. The southern part of Bukovina is part of Romania and forms the county (region) of Suceava. Northern Bukovina in 1940, together with Bessarabia, became part of the Soviet Union. Then the Romanian authorities, fearing a military operation by the USSR to annex Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, made voluntary territorial concessions. So Northern Bukovina became the Chernivtsi region of the Ukrainian SSR, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, under the same name, it remained in the “independent” Ukraine.
From Austria-Hungary to Soviet power
Since ancient times, the "land of the beech", namely in honor of the tree, the region is called, was inhabited by Slavic tribes, on the basis of which the Rusyns ethnos subsequently formed. Since the X century. the northern part of Bukovina was part of the orbit of influence of the ancient Russian state. Until the first half of the XIV century, it was part of the Galician, and then Galicia-Volyn princedoms, then for two decades it was part of the Hungarian kingdom, and from the second half of the XIV century. politically and administratively became part of the Moldavian principality. From the 16th to the end of the 18th centuries. the lands of Bukovina, like the whole of Moldova as a whole, were dependent on the Ottoman Empire. Following the results of the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774. the lands of Bukovina were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This happened because the Austro-Hungarian troops, taking advantage of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, occupied by the war with Russia, invaded the territory of Bukovina and forced the Turks to cede the region to them. The transfer of Bukovina to Austro-Hungarian rule was documented in Constantinople in 1775. As part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bukovina formed the Chernivtsi District of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and in 1849 received the status of a separate duchy. The city of Chernivtsi became the capital of the Duchy of Bukovina.
The First World War led to the collapse of four empires - Russian, Ottoman, German and Austro-Hungarian. On the territory of Austria-Hungary, in accordance with the manifesto of Charles I of Habsburg, it was planned to create six sovereign states - Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Ukraine. As for the Bukovinian lands, they were expected to be included in the planned Ukrainian state. Such an alignment was quite expected, since in the last decades of its existence, Austria-Hungary has been strenuously pursuing a policy of "Ukrainization" and tried to artificially form the Ukrainian nation, the nucleus of which were the Galicians - the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, who are most loyal to the Austrian authorities. Other Western states were also satisfied with the plan to create a Ukrainian state, since it contributed to the dismemberment of Russia and the Russian people. The problem was that there were practically no “Ukrainians” in Bukovina, that is, Galicians. The local Slavic population was made up of Rusyns, who at that time, for the most part, were not yet carriers of Ukrainian identity. Only a few politicians, ideologically and possibly financially motivated at one time by Austria-Hungary, spoke about the "Ukrainianness" of the Bukovinian Slavs. Nevertheless, on October 25, 1918, power in Bukovina passed to the Ukrainian Regional Committee, in accordance with the decision of which the lands of Bukovina became part of the West Ukrainian People's Republic on November 3, 1918. Ukrainian politician Yemelyan Popovich was elected as the president of the region. However, what was happening did not suit the Romanian minority of the population of Bukovina. Despite the fact that the number of Romanians in Bukovina did not exceed a third of the region's population, they were not going to live under the control of the Ukrainian authorities. The Romanian communities of Bukovina counted on the help of Bucharest. On October 14, 1918, the People's Assembly of the Romanians of Ukraine was held in Chernivtsi, which elected the National Council and the Executive Committee, the head of which was Yanku Flondor. The National Council of the Romanians of Bukovina, having learned about the proclamation of the region as part of the West Ukrainian People's Republic, officially turned to the Romanian government for help.
On November 11, 1918, a week after the region was incorporated into Ukraine, units of the 8th Romanian Infantry Division, commanded by General Jacob Zadik, entered Chernivtsi. 4 days later, the General Congress of Bukovina was held at the residence of the Chernivtsi Metropolitan, at which the Romanian delegates predominated numerically. They determined the future of the region - the congress unanimously adopted the Declaration on unification with Romania. So for more than two decades, Northern Bukovina became part of the Romanian state. Naturally, in the years when Bukovina belonged to Romania, discrimination of the Ruthenian population continued in the region, expressed in the policy of “Romanization”. It should be noted that a significant part of the population of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina was not satisfied with the Romanian rule. Pro-Soviet communist organizations operated in the regions. The growth of anti-Romanian sentiments was facilitated by the discrimination of the Slavic population by the Romanian authorities. As during the Austro-Hungarian domination, the Russian language was banned in Romanian Bukovina, but those Rusyns who adopted the Ukrainian identity were also discriminated against. Bucharest was generally interested in the "Romanization" of all national minorities in the country.
When in 1940 the Soviet Union, taking advantage of good relations with Germany at that time and the rapid seizure of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, presented an ultimatum to Romania, the royal government had no choice but to comply with Moscow's demands. In a statement that V. M. Molotov handed over to the Romanian ambassador, in particular, it was said that the government of the USSR sees the need to “transfer to the Soviet Union that part of Bukovina, whose population in its vast majority is connected with Soviet Ukraine both by a common historical fate and by a common language and national composition. Such an act would be all the more just because the transfer of the northern part of Bukovina to the Soviet Union could provide, however, only to an insignificant extent, a means of compensating for the enormous damage inflicted on the Soviet Union and the population of Bessarabia by the 22-year rule of Romania in Bessarabia. Within six days, units of the Red Army occupied the territory of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. On the lands of Northern Bukovina, the Chernivtsi region of the Ukrainian SSR was formed - the smallest union region in terms of territory. After the war, the borders of the USSR were fixed as of June 22, 1941, which implied the entry of Bessarabia partly into the Moldavian SSR, partly into the Ukrainian SSR, and Northern Bukovina into the Ukrainian SSR. However, despite the agreement with the Soviet Union, Romania never renounced territorial claims to Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, although at different periods of its history it preferred not to declare its claims publicly.
Soviet Bukovina made a real leap in socio-economic development. In the Chernivtsi region, modern industrial enterprises were created, schools, hospitals, and professional educational institutions were opened. The standard of living of the region's population has increased significantly. Chernivtsi became an important center for high-precision manufacturing, which contributed to an increase in the population of both the city and the region at the expense of specialists coming from other regions of the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR as a whole. Semiconductor materials were produced in the city; a branch of the Special Design and Technological Bureau of the Institute for Problems of Materials Science of the Academy of Sciences operated. Under Soviet rule, the population of Northern Bukovina for the first time forgot about what unemployment and illiteracy are (even at the beginning of the twentieth century, illiteracy here was almost universal, since there could not be Russian schools in Austria-Hungary, and in German Ruthenian children could not study due to language barrier).
Miraculous transformations of the ethnic composition of Bukovina
Joining the Ukrainian SSR meant the next stage of the "Ukrainization" of the Ruthenian population of Bukovina. It should be noted that more than a century ago, in 1887, the population of Bukovina reached 627, 7 thousand people. Of these, 42% were Rusyns, 29.3% were Moldovans, 12% were Jews, 8% were Germans, 3.2% were Romanians, 3% were Poles, 1.7% were Hungarians, 0.5% were Armenians and 0.3% - Czechs. At the same time, the Orthodox population of the region reached 61% of the population, Jewish - 12%, Evangelical confession - 13.3%, Roman Catholic - 11%, Greek Catholic - 2.3%. Another small and interesting group of the population of Northern Bukovina were Lipovans - Russian Old Believers who played a significant role in the economic life of the region. As we can see, the Orthodox population accounted for more than half of the inhabitants of Bukovina, and the Rusyns were the largest ethnic group. There is no mention of any Ukrainians in the list of nationalities of Bukovina at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, the absence of Ukrainians in the list of nationalities is not a suppression or a consequence of a discriminatory policy - until the beginning of the twentieth century, they really did not exist.
In Bukovina lived Rusyns, who considered themselves a "Russian" people (just like that, from the word "Rus"). As the well-known Bukovinian public figure Aleksey Gerovsky (1883-1972) wrote at one time, “the Russian population of Bukovina from ancient times considered themselves Russian and had no idea that there was any Ukrainian nation and that they should turn into“Ukrainians”and no longer call yourself or your language Russian. When, at the end of the last century, the newcomers Galicians began to propagate the idea of separatism in Bukovina, they at first, for several decades, did not dare to call themselves or their new "literary" language Ukrainian, but called themselves and their language Russian (through one " with"). All Russian Bukovynians considered it a Polish intrigue”(Quoted from: Gerovskiy A. Yu. Ukrainization of Bukovina).
The fastest growing Ukrainianization of Bukovina began before the First World War, when, in order to eradicate pro-Russian sentiments, the Austro-Hungarian authorities began to pay enormous attention to the formation of the construct of the Ukrainian nation. But even after the First World War, most of the Slavic population of Bukovina still identified themselves as Rusyns. The situation changed after the annexation of Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union. In the USSR, there was the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the title nation of which was the Ukrainians. These Ukrainians were to be formed from the Little Russians of Central Ukraine, Great Russians, Little Russians and Russified Greeks of Novorossia, and later from Galician, Bukovinian and Transcarpathian Rusyns. According to the official census of the population of Ukraine, conducted in 2001, in the Chernivtsi region, which exists on the territory of the historical Northern Bukovina, Ukrainians make up 75% of the population, Romanians - 12.5% of the population, Moldovans - 7.3% of the population, Russians - 4, 1 % of the population, Poles - 0.4% of the population, Belarusians - 0.2% of the population, Jews - 0.2% of the population.
The percentage of ethnic groups in the region is thus fundamentally different from the national map of a century ago. The situation is most understandable with the majority of the Jewish population of Bukovina, whose share decreased from 12% to 0.2%. Many Jews did not manage to survive the terrible years of Hitler's occupation; a very large number of Jews, starting from the end of the 19th century, emigrated to other European countries, to the USA, and from the middle of the 20th century to Israel. Some part, due to interethnic marriages, disappeared into the Slavic and Romanian population. The fate of the Poles is similar to the Jews - who emigrated, went to their historical homeland in Poland, who disappeared among the “75% of Ukrainians”. The number of Romanians and Moldovans also decreased, but not so noticeably. But the Ukrainian population now accounts for three quarters of the inhabitants of the Chernivtsi region. But are the Bukovinian Ukrainians united - that is the question?
Today, the “Ukrainians” of the Chernivtsi region include both the Rusyn population and immigrants from other regions of the Ukrainian SSR and post-Soviet Ukraine, as well as Russians, Moldovans, Romanians, Jews, Gypsies, Germans, registered as Ukrainians. The actual Rusyn population of Bukovina has never been united either. It is divided into three groups. The northeastern districts of the Chernivtsi region are inhabited by Rusnaks, or Bessarabian Rusyns. Podolians live in the north-west, Hutsuls live in the western part of the region. Each of the listed sub-ethnic groups of Rusyns has its own cultural differences and not all of them identify themselves as Ukrainians. Although, it should be noted that the position of the Ruthenian movement in the Chernivtsi region is much less strong than in the Transcarpathian.
The process of Ukrainization of the Ruthenian population of Bukovina was started at one time by the Austro-Hungarian authorities, who feared the spread of pro-Russian sentiments. Of course, the ideal option for the Austro-Hungarian leadership was the Germanization of the region. The German-speaking population was the majority in Chernivtsi, and in other towns of Bukovina - after all, the townspeople here were either Germans - immigrants from Austria and Germany, or Jews who spoke Yiddish, which is close to the German language. The Rusyn population was concentrated in rural areas and was not covered by the German-language school system. Therefore, the Austro-Hungarian authorities gradually realized that it would not work to Germanize the Ruthenian population and decided that a much more effective option would be to include it in the structure of the Ukrainian nation being constructed. The situation was complicated by the fact that there was a strong Polish influence in Galicia, a significant part of the population professed Uniatism, and the Greek Catholic clergy was a reliable conductor of the idea of “Ukrainization” of the Ruthenian population.
It was more difficult to Ukrainize the Orthodox Slavs of Bukovina - they did not understand why they should give up their Russian identity if they also profess Orthodoxy and speak the "Russian" language. As A. Yu. Gerovsky, “in the last decades of the last century, the Bukovinian Russian intelligentsia consisted mainly of Orthodox priests. There were very few Uniates in Bukovina, and then only in cities. But the Uniates also considered themselves Russians at that time. In the main city, Chernivtsi, the Uniate church was simply called the Russian church by everyone, and the street on which this church was located was even officially called Russishe Gasse in German (the official language in Bukovina was German) "(Gerovskiy A. Yu. Ukrainization of Bukovina).
To facilitate the task of Ukrainizing the Bukovinian Rusyns, the Austro-Hungarian authorities appointed teachers and administrators from Galicia to Bukovina, who had to convince the Bukovinian Rusyns by their personal example that they were “Ukrainian”. But the local population accepted such preachers of Ukrainian identity with hostility, and it was not only a lack of understanding of the very meaning of the imposition of "Ukrainism", but also in the banal everyday rejection of haughty strangers who, not only were appointed to positions instead of local residents, but also considered the latter second-class people. The hostile attitude of the Bukovinian Rusyns towards the preachers of “Ukrainianity” sent from Galicia led to accusations from the latter that the Bukovynians, instead of “uniting with brothers - Galicians”, were striking individualism and did not want to participate in the revival of the “united Ukrainian nation”.
The ideologists of the Ukrainization of Bukovina were two political adventurers of undetermined national origin, who for some reason considered themselves “Ukrainians”. The first was Stefan Smal-Stotsky, who was awarded a professorship by the Chernivtsi University without any scientific training. The merit of Smal-Stotsky was considered the persistent propaganda of the "independence" of the Ruthenian (Rusyn) language from the Russian language. Subsequently, Smal-Stotsky came under investigation for embezzlement of state funds. The second is Baron Nikolai von Vassilko. Kind of like an Austrian aristocrat, judging by the prefix "von", but with a name and surname too atypical for a German. In fact, Vassilko was the son of a Romanian and an Armenian and did not speak any of the Slavic languages and dialects at all - neither Russian, nor Galician, nor Ruthenian. However, it was he who was entrusted by Austria-Hungary to represent the Bukovinian Slavs in the Austrian parliament, since von Vassilko was an active supporter of the concept of the existence of a Ukrainian nation independent of the Russian people.
… In modern Ukrainian sources, Vassilko is called "Vasilko Mykola Mykolovich" and, of course, is called a prominent figure in the Ukrainian movement.
Baron Vasilko not only actively promoted Ukrainian identity, but also engaged in all kinds of economic machinations, playing an important role in the shadow economy of Austria-Hungary. As we can see, financial dishonesty often accompanied the supporters of Ukrainian nationalism - apparently the Austro-Hungarian authorities also chose people for their provocative activities who were easy to "keep on the hook." It was Baron Vassilko who became one of the initiators of mass repressions against the leaders of the Bukovinian pro-Russian movement before the First World War. According to Vasilko's denunciations, starting in 1910, the Austro-Hungarian authorities carried out the systematic destruction of the Orthodox Rusyn population in Bukovina. Many prominent figures of the Orthodox pro-Russian movement were killed or ended up in the Talerhof concentration camp. thus, this "fiery fighter for the Ukrainian idea" is guilty of the deaths and mutilated fates of many Bukovinian Slavs. After the Petliura Directory came to power, Vassilko served as the UNR ambassador to Switzerland. He died a natural death in 1924 in Germany.
The indifferent attitude of the inhabitants of the Chernivtsi region to the idea of "independence" is evidence of significant cultural differences between Bukovina and Galicia. During the Great Patriotic War, Ukrainian nationalists did not manage to enlist in the territory of Bukovina the support of the population comparable to Galicia. In the Great Patriotic War, fighting in the ranks of the Soviet army, 26 thousand of the 100 thousand Bukovinian men and boys called up for military service were killed. It turns out that every fourth Bukovinian man of military age gave his life in the fight against the Nazi invaders. Up to two thousand inhabitants of Bukovina went to partisan detachments and underground groups. Of course, there were those who joined the ranks of collaborationists, Ukrainian nationalist organizations, but on the whole they were in the minority.
Ukrainization, Romanization, or … together with Russia?
After the collapse of the USSR and the proclamation of Ukraine's independence, the population of the Chernivtsi region received this news less enthusiastically than the residents of Galicia and the Kiev nationalist-minded intelligentsia. Over the course of two post-Soviet decades, the Ukrainianization process continued in the Chernivtsi region, thanks to which Kiev was able to achieve certain progress in establishing Ukrainian identity, especially among the younger generation of Bukovyns. At the same time, the sentiments of the residents of the Chernivtsi region are much less nationalistic than in Galicia. Firstly, this is due to the presence of a significant proportion of national minorities in the region's population. For example, it makes no sense for the same Romanians to support the ideas of Ukrainian nationalism. Moreover, the Romanian population is well aware of the prospects for further developments in the region if the positions of the Kiev regime are strengthened - a course will be taken to Ukrainize not only the Ruthenian, but also the Romanian and Moldovan population of Bukovina. In a sense, the position of the Bukovinian Romanians resembles the Hungarians of Transcarpathia, but there are also significant differences. In recent years, Hungary has been almost the only country in Eastern Europe that has demonstrated the ability to more or less independent foreign and domestic policy. In particular, Hungary seeks to strengthen economic relations with Russia, Hungarian patriotic organizations are very concerned about the situation of their fellow tribesmen in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine.
As for Romania, it is much more dependent on American foreign policy. In fact, Romania is following a puppet course like other Eastern European countries. Russia is perceived in Romania as a natural adversary, primarily in the context of the Transnistrian conflict. It is known that Romanian nationalists have long hoped to include Moldova in Romania sooner or later. Naturally, in this case we will talk about the seizure of Transnistria. It is the active policy of the Russian state that impedes the implementation of expansionist plans to create a "Greater Romania".
Back in 1994, three years after the collapse of the USSR, Romania denounced the Treaty on the regime of the Soviet-Romanian border. Thus, the claims against Ukraine regarding Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia became open. Only in 2003, a new treaty on the Romanian-Ukrainian border was signed between Ukraine and Romania, but it was concluded for a ten-year perspective and expired in 2013, just in the year of Euromaidan, and secondly, Romania signed it in order to have formal reasons to be admitted to NATO. After all, a country with unresolved territorial disputes cannot, according to the adopted rules, be a part of NATO. When President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in Kiev in 2014 in a riot, the Romanian government welcomed the “revolution” and pledged its support to the new regime. And this despite the fact that the real interests of Romania lie in the plane of returning Northern Bukovina to the country. It is no coincidence that a few years ago in the Chernivtsi region, a mass issuance of Romanian passports was made to all interested residents of Northern Bukovina of Romanian and Moldovan origin. In total, about 100 thousand Ukrainian citizens, residents of the Chernivtsi and Odessa regions of Ukraine, received Romanian passports.
Thus, Bucharest not only took under the protection of the Romanians and Moldovans of Bukovina and Bessarabia, but also made it clear that the likelihood of a situation when Romanian citizenship in Northern Bukovina becomes really in demand is possible. Of course, the Kiev regime will not return the Chernivtsi region to Romania, because otherwise the Ukrainian leadership will have no arguments about the situation with Crimea and Donbass. But in case of refusal to return Northern Bukovina to Romania, Ukraine is doomed to maintain a "smoldering conflict" with its southwestern neighbor. The only thing that can prevent this conflict is a direct ban on the showdown on the part of the American masters of Kiev and Bucharest, which we see at the present time.
As for the interests of the population of the Chernivtsi region, they are hardly identical with the ideas of the Romanian nationalists in Bucharest or the pro-American regime in Kiev. People of various nationalities inhabiting Northern Bukovina want to live and work in peace. Naturally, it is not part of their plans to die in the distant Donbass or send their fathers, husbands and sons to perish there. In fact, the population of the region, like other regions of Ukraine, became hostage to Kiev's policy. A policy pursued in the geopolitical interests of the United States, but not in the real interests of the Ukrainian population. Meanwhile, Russia should be more active in the direction of solving the same Bukovinian problem. It is likely that the surest geopolitical way out of this situation would be to strengthen the Russian position in the Chernivtsi region.
The revival of the national identity of the Rusyns - a people recognized in most of the countries of Eastern Europe, but ignored and discriminated against in Ukraine, is the most important task of Russia in the Carpathian region. From time immemorial, pro-Russian sentiments were strong among the Rusyn population, and only the “brainwashing” organized by the supporters of “Ukrainization” influenced the fact that the descendants of this unique and interesting people largely lost the memory of their nationality and began to classify themselves as Ukrainians. The development of Russian culture in Bukovina is a necessary, but very difficult to implement, especially in modern conditions, component of the policy to strengthen Russian influence. Nevertheless, Russia can also support the pro-Russian part of the region's population, as Romania does in relation to the Romanians or Hungary in relation to the Hungarians of Transcarpathia.
