A Rusin in the era of social cataclysms in Russia (a case study of Grigoriy Mokriy)

Abstract

The article explores an understudied issue - the social adaptation of Rusins from among the prisoners of the First World War, who became ordinary participants in public, military and political events in Western Siberia during the Russian Revolution. The authors take the tragic fate of Grigory Georgievich Mokriy (1894-1920) as an illustrative example. In his life, Mokriy twice alternately combined the activities of a psalmist of the Greek Catholic and later Orthodox churches with military service in the Austro-Hungarian and White armies and a short-term participation in the antiBolshevik underground. The authors connect draw on a complex of unpublished sources, which is part of the archival criminal case initiated by the Omsk GubChK against Mokriy, as well as on church records, press materials, and memoirs. The research metholodgy involves the anthrological approach, problem-chronological, historical-comparative, and biographical methods. This theoretical combination made it possible to interpret Mokriy's behavior during the social cataclysms in the most detailed way, linking the biographical facts with the specific historical situation and personalities, with whom he was directly or indirectly connected. The authors conclude that the conservative-patriarchal mentality, based on the national-religious idea of the Rusins about their belonging to the Russian world, prevented Mokriy from fulfilling himself under the Bolsheviks. This article may be of interest to those who study the history of Rusins, military and social history, as well as national and religious politics.