SPLIT IN THE RUSSOPHILE CIRCLES AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE RUSSIAN AGRARIAN PARTY
Authors: ORLEVYCH Iryna 
Published: December 2022

The activity of the Russophile party restored in the interwar period, which remained true to its own ideological orientations, declaring the longevity of its historical tradition and succession to the pre-war institution, is studied. Competing for influence in the political arena, this party, with its inherent conformism, was able to gain the support of the Polish government and regain control of its societies: Stauropegion, «People’s House», «Halychyna-Ruthenian Matica». The problem of fighting for the right to the «People’s House» – the only society for which government commissioners were appointed – has long gripped all Ukrainian politics, becoming the cause of inter-party conflicts and intra-party quarrels of Russophiles, the issue of political bargaining between parties and government in election battles, an indicator of relations with the state and one of the main public discourses.

It is shown that the struggle for the «People's House» was an important prerequisite for the split of the «Russian People's Organization» (RPO) in 1926. A group of people led by M. Bachynskyi, L. Cherkavskyi, and O. Lysiak left the RPO and founded the Russian Agrarian Party (RAP), explaining this by the desire to create a «healthy opposition» to the Russophile leadership and more actively defend the rights of the peasantry. RAP members enlisted the support of Polish government officials to seize the «People’s House» and win seats in the 1928 and 1930 elections. In the elections to the Sejm and the Senate in 1928, with the assistance of the Polish government, the RPO and the RAP united, but never received a single mandate. In the 1930 election campaigns, the RAP ran on the same electoral list as the pro-government BB party and won two seats.

An attempt is made to please the Polish authorities with the head of the RAP M. Bachynskyi, who declared the difference between the ideology of his political force and all Russophilia, positioning its members as «Ruthenians» who, unlike the RPO, did not seek unification with Russia (but at the same time they continued to profess the idea of the unity of the «Russian» people and used the term «Russian» to mean Ukrainians of Halychyna).

M. Bachynskyi's anti-Ukrainian position on complex aspects of Ukrainian-Polish relations is highlighted. This Russophile figure negatively assessed the patriotic Ukrainian forces, including the GCC, which he accused of not stopping the Polish-Ukrainian war of 1918–1919 by its clergy. He also did not condemn the «pacification» carried out by the Polish government against the Ukrainian population, opposed the introduction of national identifiers «Ukrainian», «Ukraine» and others. For the first time, the archives of the Stanislav Voivodeship show attempts by the Polish authorities to support Russophiles from the RAP, calling the members of this party «Ruthenians», just as the Poles called the entire Ukrainian people.

It was the agreement policy and unpopularity among the masses that led to the liquidation of the RAP (since 1931 – RAO) in 1934. Its members joined the «Russian Peasant Organization» (RPO)