CC BY
12DOI: 10.17223/23451785/1/7
Newspapers "Delo"and "Delo and New Slovo"as a Source of History Trial in Marmarosh-Sigot Years 1913 - 1914*
Ju. V. Danilets
Uzhgorod National University 3 Narodna Sq., Uzhgorod, 88000, Ukraine E-mail: jurijdanilec@rambler.ru
Антирусинский судебный процесс 1913-1914 гг. в Мараморош-Сиготе на страницах львовских газет «Дело» и «Дело и Новое слово»
Ю. В. Данилец
Published in: Rusin. 2014. Vol. 36. Is. 2. pp. 249-269 (In Russian).
URL: http://journals.tsu.ru/rusin/&journal_ page=archive&id=1103&article_id=34093
The Maramorosh-Sighet Trial of 1913 - 1914 became a high profile incident of that period. A lot of Ukrainian, Russian and foreign newspapers wrote about its causes, progress and consequences. Of course, depending on political preferences, the periodicals did not always give an objective account of the events they witnessed. However, the materials of the press published at beginning of the 20th century are an invaluable source for us, helping to fill gaps in historical knowledge. In this publication, the author analyzed the materials that had been published in the Lvov newspaper "Delo" (The Cause) and "Delo i Novoye Slovo" (The Cause and New Word), from December 1913 to March 1914. The "Delo" newspaper was founded in 1880 and
* The title of this article has not been translated into English correctly, so the correct translation is as follows: Anti-Rusin Trial of 1913 - 1914 in Maramorosh-Sighet and its coverage in the columns of the Lvov newspapers "Delo" and "Delo and Novoye Slovo".
History
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belonged to the Narodovetsky movement. It was last issued in 1939. The "Novoye Slovo" was published from 1912 to 1914. From December of 1913 till the beginning of February 1914, the two newspapers temporarily merged to be published under the title of "Delo i Novoye Slovo".
The newspaper articles shed light on the causes of persecution of Rusins, giving a detailed account of the indictment, the course of the investigation, the trial as it was, and its results. The reporters, who were present at the trial, referred in their reports to the important facts, to the names of the prosecutor, witnesses, lawyers and the accused. It became clear that the Hungarian authorities had used the services of paid agents and provocateurs for the preparation of materials of the process. The materials were characterized by critisism of the Orthodox movement; the newspaper regarded Orthodoxy to be a holdover from the Russophile propaganda.
The editors wrote a lot about the poor socio-economic situation of the Rusin population in Austria-Hungary. Criticism was primarily and justifiably aimed at the government which turned a blind eye to the impoverishment of peasants, and that, according to the editors, came useful for pro-Russian agitators. The newspaper articles reported that the head of the court held a meeting in the Hungarian language, but very few defendants could understand it. A lot of information was published about the contacts of Alexis Kabaliuk with the brothers Gerovski, Count V. Bobrinsky and the monasteries on Mount Athos in Greece.
The newspaper expressed compassion toward the defendants, reporting the terrible atrocities that had been committed by gendarmes and police officers during pre-trial investigation. Several peasants were certified as mentally ill and sent for compulsory treatment in the hospital. The newspaper also monitored the coverage of the trial by other periodicals. Its columns contain quotes and materials from the newspapers "Kievskaya Mysl'"(Kiev Thought), "Vera i Tserkov" (Faith and Church) and "Russkaia Pravda"(Russian Truth).
Besides the information on Alexis Kabaliuk, the newspaper paid much attention to Juri Vorobchuk, Mikhail Palkanints, Dmitry Petrovci and Ilia Pirchak. Yury Vorobchuk travelled to Russia, where he bought books and distributed them among Transcarpathians. D. Petrovci was a soldier in the Hungarian army. He was arrested on charges of propaganda against the Greek-Catholic clergy. He rejected that his words were politically charged, saying that their priest was a bad preacher and impoverished peasants.
Liturgical books, icons and church utensils were presented in court
as the evidence of guilt of the peasants. The examination of Greek Catholic priests, officials and Jewish traders showed the utter failure of the authorities. Most of those examined had a vested interest, and considered persecution of the Orthodox movement triggering their large financial losses.
On March 3, 1914, the newspaper printed information on the sentence. 32 defendants were convicted for incitement against the state and religion; 23 people were released. Alexis Cabaliuk was sentenced to the longest term of 4.5 years in prison, the other defendants got different terms from 6 months to 2.5 years in prison and all of them had to pay monetary fines; Kabaliuk's fine amounted to 100 krones.
Keywords
Peasants, charged, Orthodox, propaganda, tribunal, witness, priest.
