Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/155

 as the result of a German victory they hoped for the creation of a Ukrainian State, comprising a part of Galicia and a very large part of Southern Russia. I have seen pamphlets written by Little Russians, or Ruthenians, or Ukrainians, as they are variously called, which advocate plans very much of the same kind. I must admit that the Ukraine movement is a very puzzling movement, because if you look at the Great Russian and Little Russian languages you will see that practically there is hardly more difference between them than between English and Scotch. When I was in Galicia last year, I spoke with Ruthenian peasants. I spoke Russian with slight modifications and they spoke their own language, and we understood each other perfectly. I had much more difficulty in understanding a cabman in Newcastle the other day than I had in understanding these people, although their language is declared to be a distinct language from Russian and a distinct literature is being created in this language. The fact of this difference in language is used as an argument sometimes by extreme Ukrainians for the establishment of a separate Ukraine State, and sometimes by the more moderate Ukrainians as a plea for the establishment at any rate of a separate administrative region for the whole of the Ukraine, or the greater part of Southern Russia. It is a very difficult question. There are certain differences of tradition, very powerful differences, between the Great Russians and the Little Russians. Their folk-songs are different, their music is different, and their temperament is different. In some respects the Southern Russian is the Irishman of Russia. Then, again, there