ABSTRACT
The news of the February Revolution and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II were received on the Thames with satisfaction. An alliance with the autocratic regime had long been a cause of embarrassment for British liberal public opinion, with the inept Tsar and his camarilla being blamed for Russia’s defeats on the battlefield and its internal chaos. The fortunes of the Ukrainian cause in Great Britain declined further towards the end of 1916, with the British government banning pro-Ukrainian publications in November, on the grounds that “the Ukrainian agitation is favoured by the Austrian Government in order to embarrass Russia.” The term “Austrian Ukraine” would make it to the British discourse, describing the eastern part of Galicia, but its traditions and present situation were seen as quite different, its inhabitants being referred to as Ruthenians, unlike the Little Russians living in the Russian Empire.
