Russophile from Subcarpathian Rus in Czechoslovak Emigrant Institutions: the Political Portrait of Pavel Cibere (1940-1944)
The article examines the main aspects of the activities of the Russophile politician P. Cibere from Subcarpathian Rus in Czechoslovak emigrant institutions in the United Kingdom (1940-1944). Special attention is paid to the functioning of the Chancellery for Subcarpathian Rus under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was headed by P. Cibere. Consistently defending the idea that the East Slavic (Rusyn) population of Subcarpathian Rus belonged to the all-Russian cultural and civilizational sphere, and seeking to obtain the emigrant authorities commitment to granting broad autonomy to the region after the end of the war, P. Cibere actually found himself in political isolation. Many members of the government in exile covertly or openly sympathized with the forces that believed the population of Subcarpathian Rus to be Ukrainians. The article also examines P. Cibere's contacts with the representatives of the Rusyn diaspora in North America and with the Soviet authorities. The author's research is based on the documents from the National Archives of the Czech Republic.