and what is ruthenian in your eyes? do you think there was an actual generalized ruthenian language across lands of different empires? most of the modern ukrainian language was developed in ussr. it has fuck all to do with historical ruthenian. the rusyns (ruthenians) were ukrainianized by the soviets. the rusyns of austria hungary were trying to preserve their traditions, looking up to secede in favor of the russian empire prior to 1917. that didn't happen. they still continued to preserve the language until soviets came and ukrainianized them and poles as well (they didn't allow the locals to rule, they brought in eastern ukrainians). > american-canadian professor paul robert magocsi describes how in the 1945 census local residents, regardless of their self-designation, were recorded as ukrainians according to government directives. those who, when asked about their nationality, called themselves russians (as carpathian ruthenians had been calling themselves since ancient times) were asked if they were from russia, and when they answered that they were locals, they were told that this meant they were ukrainians. according to magocsi, such actions alone did not make carpathian ruthenians conscious ukrainians overnight, but over the following decades the soviet authorities succeeded in changing their consciousness more than many of their predecessor states did
Russian Federation