Julian Yavorsky - a scholar, social and political activist of Carpathian Rus

Abstract

Julian A. Yavorsky (1873-1937) was a Carpatho-Russian scholar, social and political activist, son of a Greek Catholic priest. He graduated from Chernivtsi University in 1896. In 1903, he defended his doctoral dissertation “The Life of Peter and Fevronia of Murom as a Monument of Old Russian Narrative Literature” at the University of Vienna under the supervision of Vatroslav Jagic. After returning to Galicia, he taught in Polish gymnasiums. Since school, he participated in the Russian movement of Galicia. For his convictions, Yavorsky was expelled from the Drohobych, Sambir, and Lviv gymnasiums, Lviv and Vienna Universities. He was the leader of the “new generation”, fought with the “Old Rusins” At first, he advocated joint work with UkrainophiLe organizations to educate people and fight for their rights. In 1899, he published Zhivoe Slovo magazine and worked in the GaLician-Russian Matitsa. In the late 1890s, he began to publish his research in Lviv and Russian editions. In 1904, Yavorsky with his family moved to Kyiv, where he taught at the First Kyiv Gymnasium and then became a Privatdozent and Associate Professor at the Imperial University of St. Vladimir. He actively published in Russian academic journals, had several business trips to Galicia, where he collected folklore, searched for and acquired manuscripts to continue his research. With the outbreak of WWI, he headed the Carpatho-Russian Liberation Committee. After the capture of Lviv by Russian troops, Yavorsky became a member of the Russian People's Council. After the retreat of the Russian army from Lviv, he dealt with refugee issues, tried to form a Carpatho-Russian detachment as part of the Russian army. Yavorsky disapproved of the October Revolution. In 1920, he returned to Galicia and Lived in Lviv until 1924, where he participated in the activities of the Russian Movement in Galicia, published the newspaper Prikarpatskaya Rus’, prepared the first volume of The Telerhof Almanac (1924) for publication. In his “social Literary diaries”, he spoke sharply about the Bolshevik coup in Russia and the attempts of the Russian Executive Committee to form a “united front” with Ukrainian organizations. Along with journalism, collections of poems and prose, Yavorsky also published his research. In 1925, Yavorsky and his family moved to Czechoslovakia, where he taught at the Russian Gymnasium in Moravska-Trzebova, then worked at the Russian National University and the Slavic Institute. In Czechoslovakia, he wrote much about Carpathian Rus. He actively published in Uzhhorod and hunted for old manuscripts to introduce them into scholarly discourse. His editions of Local folklore accurately convey the speech of Local Rusins. Yavorsky kept faith in the unity of the Russian people. However, he aLso contributed to Ukrainian media. WhiLe in GaLicia, Yavorsky pubLished in Narnd, the press organ of the Russian-Ukrainian radicaL party. In CzechosLovakia, he pubLished in Naukoviy zbornik of Prnsvet Partnership in Uzhhorod. Yavorsky had cLose reLations with Ivan Franko. Yavorsky was buried in the Orthodox section of the OLshansky cemetery in Prague.