The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-19

people, or the Little Russians. The Ukrainians have not made much noise in the world lately. They have been held under. and suppressed for centuries by the Russian autocrauc government, now happily defunct. But their spirit has never been crush ed. They are one of the most 1mpor- tant and numerous branches of the Slavic family, counting 32,OO0,000 in Russia alone. They have great tra- dition, a great civilization and great literature, the preservation of which would seem the enrichment Of the whole world. Present Free Russia has full appreciation of this and will no doubt grant them their lib- erty. But unless the rest of the world, especially the United States, comes to the rescue of the western provinces of Ukraine their political deliverance may have arrived too late A large part of the people of western Ukraine are threatened with utter annihi1ation. We appeal to the noble generosity of the American peo- pie to aid the Ukrainians in the same munificent spirit in which they have helped other distressed peoples dur ing this war.
 President Wilson, even at the pres- ent crisis, has thought the Ukrain1an cause of sufficient importance to pro- mlai Ukrainian Relief Day, April 21, throughout America.
 Tag day will be held in the streets of Bridgeport, and a generous re- 1 sponse is expected. The local com l mittee is Edward Ganowacz, John Boiko, Michael Beck, Andrew Po- lacik, and Nicholas Wowazok.
 The following about the Ukrainians l will be enlightening to many persons: The fowe countries where the strug- gle has ragged most fiercely, viz: Western Ukraine, Poland, Bosnia and 1 Macedonia have not been adminis- tered by their own people. The Rus- sian Poles have been ruled. by Mus covites, the Ukrainians of Eastern
 Galicia by the Polish nobility, the Serbs of Bosnia by the Austrian Ger | mans and Macedonia by the Serbian government. Being under foreign domination and divided under two or 1 even more empires these countries have for long time invited conquest 1 on thee part of the military powers. But what the submerged nationalities work for and long for is self-govern- ment
 Among the subject population of Europe in whom the war has stirred old ambitions for freedom are the | Ukrainian people. The name is un- familiar. They are better known as little Russians the name they bear in Czar's Empire, and as "Ruthen- ians," in Galicia. Of a. total estima- l ted population of 35, 5,000,0 ,000, about l four millions are under Austrian rule. l The rest form a solid block in south- western Russias This is the famous t'black earth district of Russia noted ! for it's fertility" The Russian Ukraine produces one-third of the entire grain | and cattle produce, 60 per cent. of
 the manganese iron-ore, 79 per cent I of the pit coal 99 per cent. of the
 anthracite and 50 per cent. of the | salt produce of the whole empire. ! Next to the Great Russians or Mus covites,~ the Ukrainians constitute by
 far the most important numerical element among the races of the Rus
 siac Empire, differing from the Mus covites in language, traditions and general characteristics From among them the Russian Revolution receiv-
 ed many of its best men. To Russian Literature they have given one of its | the Russian novel. The melodies ir
 minor key which the Americans take
 as characteristic of Russian music are Little Russian. The Ukrainiar
 language, which since the 16th cen. tury has acquired great literary i'm.
 portance, shows many distinguished
 modern writers. Had a talented in-
 terpreter been found to do fol
 Ukraine what Brandes has done fol
 the poets of Scandinavia, Europe
 would have gained a new source o1
 literary enjoyment.
 The national poetry of few Ian.
 guages excels that of the UkrainiaI
 n enerey of expression and depth 0,
 feeling," says the French savant Eli
 see Reclus. The Ukrainian folk ar
 IS justly famous.
 Yet this race is unknown. The Uk
 raine, European country twice a.
 large as France, with a population
 equal to that of Italy, is unknown t,
 the world
 How is this possible? How can tn,
 existence of so large and distinct
 community be overlooked? The ex
 planation is really rather. simple. Fo years the Ukrainians in Russia ant : Galicia have had no national aristo | SAASJ. All 1ASSid CIlc upper SAdSSc
 of this Ukrainian race have bee,
 Russianized, in Galicia the greate
 part have been Polonized. This dena
 tionalization took course with tn
 18th and 17th centuries, when tn, country of the Nkrainians was diyid ed between Poland and Muscovy.
 A race without an aristocratic clas
 does not count in Eastern Europe Because the aristocracy of the Uk
 rafne is Russian or Polish, Ukrain, does not count as Ukraine and i
 known as an individual country il
 Europe.
 Both in Eastern Galicia and South ] ern Russia, that is to say in tn Ukraine, the peasant. the industria l, worker, and the middle-elass man ar z Ukrainians. but the great land owne and the high officials are Poles o
 Russians. As long as the peasant re mained uneducated, poor and weak
 very small aristoeratio minority o ; non-Ukrainian race ruled over tn ] Ukra1nian masses very much as tn French peasant was ruled by his lord before the Revolution of 17Ss. , But when the villagers self-con seiousnes5 awakened after the abol ishmeht of serfdom in Austria ii 1S4a and in Russia in 1861, the re , |'vtva1 of the Ukfainian language be
 gan. The Ukrainian movement il
 Russia, which has grown rapidl
 since the Revolution in 1905, is a pro
 gressive movement of the Ukrainia
 country people, of the intellectua