Origins

Carpatho-Rusyns are East Slavs, whose ancestors have since the sixth and seventh centuries inhabited the north-central ranges of the Carpathian Mountains in the very heart of the European continent. The Carpatho-Rusyn homeland, known as Carpathian Rus’, is today found essentially within the boundaries of three countries: Ukraine (the Transcarpathian oblast); Slovakia (the Prešov Region); and Poland (the Lemko Region). There is also a small community (c. 30,000) of Carpatho-Rusyns who inhabit the Ba™ ka/Vojvodina region of Yugoslavia and far-eastern Croatia. The East Slavic population that inhabits these European territories numbers today about 1.2 million people, although only a portion identify themselves as Carpatho-Rusyns in the sense of belonging to a distinct people.

The Carpatho-Rusyn homeland is located along the borderland between the Catholic and Orthodox Christian worlds as well as along the linguistic divide between the East Slavs and West Slavs. As a result, Carpatho-Rusyns have been influenced significantly by the east and west. While the dialects they speak are basically East Slavic and most closely related to Ukrainian, Carpatho-Rusyn speech is at the same time heavily influenced by the West Slavic Polish and Slovak languages as well as Hungarian. Similarly, while their Cyrillic alphabet and traditional religious practices indicate that they are part of the Eastern Christian world, since the seventeenth century at least half of them have belonged to the Catholic church of the Eastern rite that has been known by various names: Uniate, Greek Catholic, or Byzantine Catholic. Hence, both in the homeland and in the countries to which they have immigrated, there are both Eastern-rite Catholic and Orthodox Carpatho-Rusyns.

Such diverse cultural influences have both enriched Carpatho-Rusyns and complicated their existence. For example, their very name has been a source of controversy. In the European homeland, the people have traditionally called themselves Rusyns or Rusnaks, terms that reflect their historic association with the larger world of the East Slavic Rus’ peoples (modern-day Ukrainians, Belarusans, and Russians). Foreigners and some of their own leaders have also used other names to describe the group, including Carpatho-Ruthenian, Carpatho-Russian, Carpatho-Ukrainian, or the local name, Lemko. These designations have seemed to imply allegiance to the Russian or Ukrainian nationality, or the existence of a distinct people known as Rusyn/ Ruthenian/Lemko.

The lack of consensus regarding their name is related in part to the fact that Carpatho-Rusyns, with minor exceptions, have never had their own state. Rusyns living on the southern slopes of the Carpathians came under the rule of the Hungarian Kingdom in the eleventh century. About the same time, Rusyns living north of the mountains in the Lemko Region were ruled by the Kievan Rus’ principality (later kingdom) of Galicia until it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland in the fourteenth century. By the nineteenth century, when large-scale Rusyn emigration began, all of Carpathian Rus’ was within the Austro-Hungarian Empire: the Lemko Region in the Austrian province of Galicia, and the area south of the mountains (Prešov Region and Transcarpathia, as well as the Vojvodina/Ba™ ka) in the Kingdom of Hungary.

With the close of World War I and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Rusyns north of the Carpathians set up in December 1918 a self-governing entity that came to be known as the Lemko Rusyn republic. After sixteen months of existence, it was incorporated, together with all of historic Galicia, into Poland. In May 1919 Rusyns living south of the mountains joined the new state of Czechoslovakia, where they received their own province (with promises of autonomy) known as Subcarpathian Rus’. That same year the Vojvodina was united with Yugoslavia. On the eve of World War II, Subcarpathian Rus’ finally gained full autonomy (1938–39) and was called Carpatho-Ukraine. Then, in the course of 1939, Carpatho-Ukraine was occupied by Hungary in March, and the Lemko Region in Galicia was made part of Nazi Germany after the destruction of Poland in September.

When World War II ended, Carpathian Rus’ was divided among three states. The Soviet Union annexed the former Czechoslovak province of Subcarpathian Rus’ (renamed Transcarpathia); the Prešov Region remained part of Czechoslovakia; and the Lemko Region remained part of a restored Poland. The status of the Lemko Rusyns in Poland was to change radically, however. Just after the war, they were either “voluntarily repatriated” eastward to the Soviet Union or forcibly deported to western Poland (1947). Although during the 1960s a few thousand were allowed to return from western Poland to their Carpathian villages, since World War II the Lemko Region has for the most part been denuded of its Rusyn population. Most recently, in the wake of the revolutions of 1989, Rusyns south of the Carpathians have found themselves within the borders of two new independent countries: Ukraine (1991) and Slovakia (1993).

Ruled as they have been throughout history by other states, Carpatho-Rusyns have been subjected to policies that frequently denied them their national rights. External political interference was particularly strong during the four decades of Communist rule that began after World War II. Following Soviet-inspired decrees, all Carpatho-Rusyns, regardless of where they lived, were declared to be of Ukrainian nationality. Thus, Rusyn nationality as well as their Greek Catholic Church were outlawed. Since the end of Communist rule after 1989, there has been a national revival in all countries where Carpatho-Rusyns live. This has led to the creation of several cultural organizations and newspapers, the codification of a Rusyn literary language, instruction in Rusyn in some elementary schools, and the recognition by certain countries (Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia) that Rusyns form a nationality distinct from Ukrainians.