SLAVS
53
SLAVS
chased by the United States in 1867. The Russian
Greek Orthodox chureh has been on American soil
for over a century. The immigration from Russia
is however composed of very few Russians. It is
principally made up of Jews (Russian and Polish),
Poles, and Lithuanians. Out of an average emigra-
tion of from 2.50,000 to 260,000 annually from the
Russian Empire to the United States, 0.5 per cent have
been Jews and only from three to five per cent actual
Russians. Nevertheless the Russian peasant and
working class are active emigrants, and the exodus
from European Russia is relatively large. But it
is directed ea.stward instead of to the west, for Russia
is intent upon settling up her vast prairie lands in
Siberia. Hindrances are placed in the way of those
Russians (except the Jews) who would leave for
America or the west of Europe, while inducements
and advantages are offered for settlers in Siberia.
For the past five years about 500,000 Russians have
annually migrated to Siberia, a number equal to
one-half the immigrants yearly received by the
I'nited States from all sources. They go in great
colonies and are aided by the Russian Government
by grants of land, loans of money, and low transporta-
tion. New towns and cities have sprung up all over
Siberia, which are not even on our maps, thus rivalling
the American set t lenient of the Dakotas and t he North-
West. Many Russian religious colonists, other than
the Jews, have come to America; but often they are
not wholly of Slavic blood or are Little Ru.ssians
(Ruthenians). It therefore happens that there are
very few Russians in the L^nited States as compared
with other nationalities. There are, according to the
latest estimates, about 75,000, chiefly in Pennsylvania
and the Middle ^^■est. There has been a Russian
colon}' in San Francisco for sixty years, and they are
numerous in and around New York City.
The Russian Orthodox Church is well established here. About a third of the Russians in the LInited States are opposed to it, being of the anti-govern- ment, semi-revolutionary type of immigrant. But the others are enthusiastic in support of their Church and their national customs, yet their Church includes not only them but the Little Russians of Bukovina and a very large number of Greek Catholics of Gali- cia and Hungary whom they have induced to leave the Catholic and enter the Orthodox Church. The Russian Church in the United States is endowed by the tsar and the Holy Governing Synod, besides having the support of Russian missionary societies at home, and is upon a flouri.shing financial basis in the United States. It now (1911) has 8.3 churches and chapels in the United States, 15 in Alaska, and IS in Canada, making a total of 126 places of wor- ship, besides a theological seminary at Minneapolis and a mona-stery at South Canaan, Pcnn.sylvania. Their present clergy is composed of one archbishop, one bishop, 6 proto-priests, 89 secular priests, 2 archimandrites, 2 hegumens, and IS monastic priests, making a total of 119, while they also exercise juris- diction over the Servian and Syrian Orthodox clergy besides. Lately they took over a Greek Catholic sisterhood, and now have four Ba-silian nuns. The United States is now divided up into the following six di.stricts of the Russian Church, intended to be the territory for future dioceses: New York and the New England States; Pennsylvania and the Atlantic states; Pittsburg and the Middle West; \A"estem Pacific States; Canada; and Alaska. Their statis- tics of church population have not been published lately in their year-books, and much of their growth has been of late years by additions gained from the Greek Catholic Ruthenians of Galicia and Hungary, and is due largely to the active and energetic work and financial support of the Russian church authori- ties at St. Petersburg and Moscow.
They have the "Russkoye Pravoslavnoye Obshches-
tvo Vzaimopomoshchi " (Russian Orthodox Mutual
AidSociety) for men, founded in 1895, now (1911) hav-
ing 199 councils and 7072 members, and the women's
division of the same, founded in 1907, with 32 councils
and 690 members. They publish two church papers,
"American Orthodox Mes.senger", and "Svit";
although there are some nine other Ru.ssian papers
published by Jews and Socialists.
VI. Ruthenians {Rusin; adjective russky, Ruthe- nian). — These are the southern branch of the Rus- sian family, extending from the middle of Austria- Hungary across the southern part of Russia. The use of the adjective russky by both the Ruthenians and the Russians permits it to be translated into English by the word "Ruthenian" or "Russian". They are also called Little Russians (Malorossiani) in the Empire of Russia, and sometimes Russniaki in Hun- gary. The appellations "Little Russians" and "Ruthenians" have come to have almost a technical meaning, the former indicating subjects of the Rus- sian Empire who are of the Greek Orthodox Church, and the latter those who are in Austria-Hungary and are Catholics of the Greek Rite. Those who are active in the Panslavic movement and are Russo- philes are very anxious to have them called "Rus- sians", no matter whence they come. The Ruthe- nians are of the original Russo-Slavic race, and gave their name to the peoples making up the present Russian Empire. They are spread all over the south- ern part of Russia, in the provinces of Kieff, Kharkoff, Tchernigoff, Poltava, Podolia, and Volhynia (.see above, V. Russians), but by force of governmental pressure and restrictive laws are being slowly made into Great Russians. Only within the past five years has the use of their own form of language and their own newspapers and press been allowed by law in Russia. Nearlj' every Ruthenian author in the empire has written his chief works in Great Russian, because denied the use of his own language. They are also spread throughout the ProA-inces of Lublin, in Poland; Galicia and Bukovina, in Austria; and the Counties of Szepes, Saros, Abauj, Zemplin, Ung, Marmos, and Bereg, in Hungary. Thej- have had an opportunity to develop in Austria and also in Hungary. In the latter country they are closely allied with the Slovaks, and many of them speak the Slovak language. They are all of the Greek Rite, and with the exception of those in Russia and Bukovina are Catholics. They use the Russian alphabet for their language, and in Bukovina and a portion of Galicia have a phonetic spelling, thus dif- fering largely from Great Russian, even in words that are common to both.
Their immigration to America commenced in 1880 as labourers in the coal mines of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and has steadily increased ever since. Although they were the poorest class of peasants and labourers, illiterate for the most part and unable to grasp the English language or American customs when they ar- rived, they have rapidly risen in the scale of prosperity and are now rivalling the other nationalities in pro- gre.'is. Greek Ruthenian churches and institutions are being established upon a substantial basis, and their clergy and schools arc slcadilx- advancing. They are scattered all over the United States, and there are now (1911) between 480,000 and .500,000 of them, count- ing immigrants and native born. Their immigration for the past five years has been as follows: 1907, 24,081; 1908, 12,361; 1909, 15,S0S: 1910, 27,907; 1911, 17,724; being an average of 20,000 a year. They have chiefly settled in the St ate of Pennsylvania, over half of them being there; but Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois have large numbers of them. The Greek Rite in the Slavonic language is firmly established through them in the I'nited States, but they sufTer greatly from R\issian Orthodox endeavours to lead thera from the Catholic Church, as well as
