 In contrast to the pro-Polish attitude of many of Chełm's Uniate parishioners and clergy, during the mid-nineteenth century the Uniate Church of neighboring Galicia was dominated by anti-Polish Russophiles (for more information about them, see Ukrainian Russophiles)  Galician Russophile priests, recruited in Vienna by the Russian embassy and in Lviv by Yakiv Holovatsky, the Russophile president of the University, were encouraged to accept posts in Chełm by the Russian government, which provided them with higher salaries and more prestigious positions than they could expect in Galicia itself.The newcomers were often opposed by the local people of Chełm, and petitions to the last Uniate Bishop complained of "Galician wolves".The Russophile Galician priests would play a major role in the conversion of the Chełm Eparchy.