Galician Russophilia

Galician Russophilia (Ukrainian: русофільство, romanized: rusofil'stvo), also known in Poland and Ukraine as Moscophilia (Ukrainian: москвофільство, moskvofil'stvo) was a cultural and political movement in modern-day western Ukraine, which emerged during the 19th century. First becoming popular in the region of Carpathian Ruthenia (then part of the Kingdom of Hungary), it later spread to Galicia and Bukovina, both ruled by Austria-Hungary. Its ideology emphasized that since the Eastern Slavic people of Galicia were descendants of the people of Kievan Rus' (Ruthenians), and followers of Eastern Christianity, they were thus a branch of the Russian people. The movement was part of the larger Pan-Slavism that was developing in the late 19th century. Russophilia was largely a backlash against Polonisation (in Galicia), Romanianization (in Bukovina) and Magyarisation (in Carpathian Ruthenia) that was largely blamed on the landlords and associated with Roman Catholicism.

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