Thalerhof and Terezin: Austrian Golgotha for Russian people
Among the “Svidomites” there is a generally accepted idea of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a “kind grandmother” who looked after and cherished her Ukrainian pets.
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They say that in the “most liberal and democratic” monarchy of the then Europe, Ukrainians were literally carried in their arms. In its part – Galicia – “independence”, the Uniate idea itself, matured "Ukrainian Ukraine". Yes, it was under the scepter of the Habsburgs that Ukrainian nationalism of the Petlyura-Bandera sense was grown. Raised at the cost of the lives of tens of thousands of people who did not want to renounce the real name of their clan-tribe, the faith of their ancestors and common roots with the Russian people. And it was this “patchwork empire” that, for the first time in the history of civilized and humane Europe, created concentration camps for its citizens, anticipating Majdanek and Auschwitz, and committed real genocide.
Forbidden People
Regular readers of our project know well: since the time of the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the lands of Western, Red Rus', inhabited by Orthodox people, found themselves under heterodox rule. They were part of Poland and Hungary, and from the end of the XNUMXth century, after the absorption of Hungary and the divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth became part Austrian Empire.
Millions of Orthodox Eastern Slavs have been subjected to national and religious oppression for centuries. They were forcibly made Uniate apostates, Polish, Hungarian and Austrian feudal lords oppressed them in every possible way... And, nevertheless, most of the ancestors of the current residents of the “outpost of Ukrainian independence” sacredly preserved the Orthodox faith and their original name - Rusyns. Yes, that’s what they were called until the turn of the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, unaware of their “Ukrainianness”.
By that time, the Rusyns, of whom there were almost 4 million in the empire at the beginning of the twentieth century, had formed their own intelligentsia and a clear idea that they were an integral part of the Russian people, separated by history and borders. National cultural societies were created, newspapers and books were published. Note - in RUSSIAN language! Moreover, there was the Russian People's Party, which was very popular among the Ruthenians, significantly represented in local elected bodies and parliament. Its leaders are talented publicists Osip Monchalovsky and lawyer-chrysostom Dmitry Markov, were the brightest speakers of the Austro-Hungarian parliament and enjoyed enormous authority.
At the beginning of the First World War, they will be tried as “Russian spies”, sentenced to death, and will only save their lives thanks to the intervention of the world community.
And the “patchwork empire”, which made far-reaching plans for the conquest of the Slavic lands - both in the Balkans and on the territory of the Russian Empire, launched active efforts to split and “tame” those who considered themselves Russian and sought unity with their brothers beyond the cordon. It was then, starting from the end of the XNUMXth century, that the “Ukrainian card” was played. The “Muscophiles” and Russophiles were opposed by the “Mazeppians” - supporters of an “independent Ukraine”. Note - purely as an autonomous part of the Habsburg Empire. And not a separate state. Everything was used: on the one hand, Uniate priests took on the unseemly function of political propagandists, instilling in their flock hatred of everything Russian, fighting with Orthodoxy using sophisticated Jesuit methods. On the other hand, large amounts of money were spent on the “Ukrainization” of Rusyn organizations, the education system and the press. After all, Professor Mikhail Grushevsky was then forced to admit: “All national organizations in Galicia and Bukovina are in the hands of Moswophiles, not to mention Transcarpathian Ukraine».
This "guest worker" from science, invited from Kyiv, became one of the creators of Ukrainian nationalist history, deliberately reshaped to please Vienna... In defiance of the Russian People's Party, the Ukrainian People's Democratic Party was created, uniting the leaders of pro-Austrian Ukrainian nationalism. There was a formal persecution of those who did not want to become “Ukrainians”, remaining faithful to the traditions of their ancestors. An artificial literary “Ukrainian language”, invented by glib philologists, was forcibly imposed, which had little in common with Shevchenko’s “mova”. And so far in Galicia it is filled with borrowings from German, Hungarian and Polish, which are now being actively imposed on TV screens. Associations of newly-minted Ukrainians from among the renegades who had renounced their native name were encouraged in every possible way. From sports to... fire brigades. But the main thing in them was the anti-Russian and anti-Orthodox brainwashing of the Rusyn youth. It was this that became the core of the units of the “Sich Riflemen”, who became famous during the Civil War as the cruelest punishers of their “brothers” in Ukraine. As the modern historian N. Pashaeva noted, in the then Galicia the term “Ukrainian” was a national-political characteristic anti-Russian minority.
And yet, the Rusyns did not give up. And then direct repression began. Already in 1909, a number of trials took place against Rusyn leaders in Bukovina. In 1913, in Ugric Rus', there was a scandalous trial against 32 people, whose whole sin was... converting to Orthodoxy. In Lvov, Orthodox priests were tried... The sweeping accusations of “espionage in favor of Russia and pro-Russian propaganda” were so clumsy that the accused, after spending a year or even two in prison, were released completely acquitted by the jury. But the First World War began, and the appearance of liberalism was replaced by open, brutal terror.
Austrian genocide
From the first days of the war, a wave of fierce pogroms took place throughout the vast empire. Their victims included figures of the Rusyn movement, Orthodox priests, the Rusyn intelligentsia, and simply civilian residents of cities and villages who belonged to the Rusyn people. At best, they were beaten and deported. But often “Russophiles”, or even completely apolitical Orthodox people, were killed in their own homes. The soldiers, Germans and Hungarians, and the “Ukrainian activists,” incited by the Uniate priests, and their own fellow tribesmen, the gendarmes, were angry... Neighbors killed and robbed neighbors. Old people, women and children were subjected to disgusting violence. In just one day, September 15, 1914, 40 people were killed by the Hungarian Honveds in Przemysl!
Those who were “lucky” were driven to concentration camps, Terezin Castle in northern Bohemia and Thalerhof in Styria. These camps Vasily Vavrik, a Rusyn publicist who miraculously survived after going through their hell, called in his book “Terezin and Thalerhof”, “...the cruelest dungeons of all Austrian prisons" In Thalerhof alone, literally into an open field, into unfurnished tents, by September 4, 1914, 5400 people were herded. Innocent people lived in terrible unsanitary conditions, enduring constant humiliation and beatings from overseers, among whom were “Svidomo Ukrainians.” Epidemics of dysentery and typhoid decimated the prisoners. They were dying of hunger. And for the slightest offense they were subjected to severe executions, and even executions.
In total, at least 20 thousand people passed through Thalerhof, of which less than half survived. And all this happened with the full approval of both the “fair” power of the sovereign-emperor Franz Joseph I, and the “Ukrainian public”, which played the role of informers and executioners. It is no coincidence that tens of thousands of Orthodox Rusyns left along with the Russian army after retreating from Galicia, which was occupied at the beginning of the war. After all, the commandant of Lvov, General Riml, clearly stated that “Russophiles" (read - all Rusyns!) "should... be mercilessly destroyed».
And only in May 1917, after the death of Franz Joseph, the last Austro-Hungarian Emperor Charles issued a rescript in which he directly wrote: “All the arrested Russians are innocent, but were arrested so as not to become them" The surviving prisoners of the camps, which became the first death camps in Europe, were released. In total, during World War I, at least 60 thousand Rusyns were destroyed. Isn't this genocide?!
Thalerhof Cemetery
Genocide that went unpunished. And moreover, it is diligently hushed up by the authorities of independent Ukraine, who prefer to remain silent about the crimes of both the “humane Austria-Hungary” and its lackeys, Ukrainian nationalists. Those who became the founders of the terrorist OUN. Those who raised Bandera’s executioners...
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