Another piece of history fell into my lap.Parts of current Ukraine were ruled my the Austro-Hungarian empire. Some analyst said that hating Russians is what it means to be western Ukrainian. This region was referred to as Galicia. Centered on Lviv? Around 2 million Russian soldiers died in WWI so the 60K number killed below by authorities are different from those. Authorities hung people for reading Russian etc. Later concentration camps.
After writing this post I found the link below. It has much better formatting and pictures.https://www.rt.com/russia/572970-gallows-and-executions-without-end/https://t.me/iEarlGreyTV/4961"...By the start of WW1, the Russophile movement in Galicia was experiencing tough times. As a result of the “divide and rule” policy implemented by the Austrians, the movement suffered a split. The oldest and most respected organizations ended up in the hands of pro-Austrian leaders who advocated Ukrainian, not Rusyn, identity.
“Those suspected of ‘Russophilia’ were hung on these trees in front of the windows. They would hang there for a day, then would be taken off and others would take their place… ” recounted one of the peasants in the Gorodetsky district.
Repressions against the intelligentsia were followed by those against the general public. Anyone who was thought to sympathize with Russia or Russian culture became a suspect. This included people who had once visited Russia, read Russian newspapers, or were just known as “Russophiles.”...
...
On August 28, 1914, there were two thousand prisoners in Lviv alone. It was then that the Austrian authorities decided to establish concentration camps. In September 1914, the huge Thalerhof place of incarceration was set up in Styria. The first prisoners were delivered on September 4. According to the testimony of one of the survivors, priest Theodor Merena, prisoners were “people of different class and age”. They included clergy, lawyers, doctors, teachers, officials, peasants, writers, and students. The age of the prisoners ranged from infants to 100-year-olds.
...People slept on the ground in the open air despite the rain and frost. The latrines were uncovered and used by twenty people at a time. When the barracks were built, they were overcrowded, housing 500 people instead of the intended 200. The prisoners slept on straw beds which were rarely replaced. Naturally, epidemics were widespread. In just two months following November 1914, over three thousand prisoners died of typhus.
...To instill fear, prison authorities constructed poles throughout the camp and regularly hung “violators” on these poles. The violation could be a mere trifle, like catching someone smoking in the barrack at night...
The camp operated for nearly three years and was closed down in May 1917 on the order of Charles I of Austria.
...The exact number of victims in Thalerhof is still disputed. The official report by Field Marshal Schleer dated November 9, 1914, stated that 5,700 Russophiles were imprisoned there at the time. According to one of the survivors, in the autumn of the same year there were about 8,000 prisoners.
Twenty to thirty thousand Russian Galicians and Bukovinians passed through Thalerhof in total. In the first year and a half alone, about 3,000 prisoners died. According to other sources, 3,800 people were executed in the first half of 1915.
Overall, in the course of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian authorities killed at least 60,000 Rusyns....
In modern Ukraine, the Rusyn genocide isn’t publicly discussed. Thalerhof is not mentioned in any school textbooks on the history of the country. The idea that Russians once lived in Galicia – the proud center of “Ukrainian culture” – does not fit the nationalistic ideology of contemporary Ukraine. Most young people have never even heard of Thalerhof...."
https://web.archive.org/web/20230316022325/https://www.rt.com/russia/572970-gallows-and-executions-without-end/pon edit
The tragedy marked the end of the Russophile movement in Galicia. All those who did not submit and did not take on a Ukrainian identity were physically annihilated. Just a few years after the tragic events, public views changed. The region came under the influence of other movements and politicians. When Austria-Hungary fell apart after the First World War, Galicia turned into a powerful center of the Ukrainian nationalist movement.
FILE PHOTO. Bird's-eye view of the Talerhof concentration camp
https://forgottengalicia.com/about/what-is-galicia/A timeline of the territory of Galicia:
1199–1245: Principality of Galicia-Volhynia
1245–1349: Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia
1349–1569: Kingdom of Poland
1569–1772: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
1772–1918: Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a crownland of the Austrian Empire
1918–1939: Republic of Poland1939–1941: Soviet Occupation (eastern half)
1941–1944: Nazi German Occupation
1945–1991: Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and Polish People’s Republic
1991– Independent Ukraine and Poland (Third Polish Republic from 1989)
https://forgottengalicia.com/historical-maps-of-galicia-1775-1918/
