Excerpt from Ukraine's Claim to Freedom: An Appeal for Justice on Behalf of Thirty-Five Millions This Situation is undoubtedly due to the fact that the movements for national and political independence in be half of these submerged nationalities had been growing prior to the war, and had become factors in the internal affairs Of the great nations Of Europe. The cry for autonomy or independence had mostly been heard from Russia, austria-hungary and the Balkan Peninsula, and particularly from the Slavonic national ities. However, the struggles of one nationality, which numbers and which inhabits South Russia and Eastern Austria, have been particularly bitter. These are the Ukrainians, in Austria known as Ruthenians, in Russia as Little Russians. In Russia the Ukrainians are not only subject to the general conditions prevailing in the country, but they have also been made the target of special restrictions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.