The “German Intrigue” as an Element of the Anti-Ukrainian Campaign: A Case Study of Kyiv’s Russian Language Press, 1914-18
The “German Intrigue” as an Element of the Anti-Ukrainian Campaign: A Case Study of Kyiv’s Russian Language Press, 1914-18

Summary/Abstract: World War I proved to be a powerful catalyst for latent national movements on non-Russian frontiers of the multi-ethnic Romanov Empire. Based on original sources in Kyiv’s Russian language press, this article uncovers the attitude of the Russian media toward Ukrainian national self-determination in Southwestern Krai, the Empire’s borderland. Particularly, the study investigates the anti-Ukrainian campaign of the alleged “German intrigue.” Prejudice against the Ukrainian “foreign intrigue” originated in the media as a response to Russia’s pre-war controversy with neighbouring Austria-Hungarian and German empires. During World War I, such prejudice developed into a prominent defamatory technique. This research illustrates how a pre-war concern about a separate Ukrainian identity evolved into full-scale Russian hostility toward the newly established Ukrainian state by the end of 1918. In essence, the anti-Ukrainian campaign reflected the press’s worldview. Regardless of political affiliations, Russian newspapers unanimously professed state patriotism. Despite the emergence of a mass Ukrainian national movement in 1917, newspapers continued to assert the paradigm of the single all-Russian nation. In general, this attitude should be evaluated as a historic example of a clash between Russian and Ukrainian national projects.

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