The language behavior of Galician Russophiles during the interwar period

By the end of the First World War, the once powerful Russophile movement had almost completely disappeared from the intellectual sphere of Galicia. During the interwar period, Russophiles gradually reorganized their activities. As they did not reach a broader audience they developed several new strategies. One particularly intriguing strategy was a reshaped use of the language that in their view 'did not, does not and cannot exist' at all: the Ukrainian language. The major innovation compared to Russophile Ukrainian-language publications of the prewar period was the introduction of the 'phonetic orthography' that the Russophiles had traditionally rejected with utmost unanimity. The Russophiles argued that a 'phonetic' spelling was precisely what was appropriate for a 'non-existant' language. The Russophiles' language behavior thus exceeded all limits of absurdity.