These are the statistics of Austria-Hungary, which then included Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia (the current territory of Western Ukraine).

Statistics were published in the Lviv journal for 1884. What language is it?  Almost the same as in Russia, only with the peculiarities of spelling (and pronunciation) of some words. To make sure of this, I’m giving you a few more pages from the same magazine. This includes a chronology of historical events. By the way, pay attention to what kind of events these are. They are taken from our ancient history, from the history of Muscovite Rus, and from the history of Lithuanian Rus and Galician Rus. At that time, no one doubted that we had a common history, and Russia (both Moscow, Lithuania, and Galicia) historically represented a single whole.

I am also posting several advertisements here, taken from the same source. I hope it is clear to everyone that no one would publish ads in a foreign language that is incomprehensible to the local population.

I remind you that Lviv was not part of the Russian Empire. There was no “forced Russification” there and could not be.

When you hear (read) again that Russian is a foreign language in Ukraine, forcibly imposed by the tsarist regime, remember this information.

Just remember!

@Varjag2007