This article deals with the very important and actual theme: the attitude of Russian historians to the Rusins. A case study of two friends – prominent Russian émigré historians G.V. Vernadsky and A.V. Florovsky – shows that the interest to the Rusins usually appeared in childhood and early youth and remained up to the end of the life. Vernadsky was greatly influenced by his father – the great Russian scientist and thinker V.I. Vernadsky. George wrote his first work on the Rusins at the beginning of his career and kept on doing research on this theme throughout his entire life in the emigration in Prague and the USA. Florovsky became interested in the Rusins when he was a teacher at Novorossiysk University. He continued to work on this theme in exile in Prague. The author draws on new historiographic and archival materials.