Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily
diasporicA diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
ethnic groupAn ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as
RusynRusyn , also known in English as Ruthenian, is an East Slavic language variety spoken by the Rusyns of Central Europe. Some linguists treat it as a distinct language and it has its own ISO 639-3 code; others treat it as a dialect of Ukrainian...
. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of
RutheniansThe name Ruthenian |Rus']]) is a culturally loaded term and has different meanings according to the context in which it is used. Initially, it was the ethnonym used for the East Slavic peoples who lived in Rus'. Later it was used predominantly for Ukrainians...
who did not adopt the use of the
ethnonymAn ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms or endonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for...
"
UkrainianUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
" in the early twentieth century. The use of the term
Rusyn was prohibited by some governments, as seen after 1945 in
Soviet TranscarpathiaThe Zakarpattia Oblast is an administrative oblast located in southwestern Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Uzhhorod...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
Today,
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
,
HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
,
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
officially recognize contemporary Rusyns as an ethnic minority. In 2007, Carpatho-Rusyns were recognized as a separate ethnicity in Ukraine by the Zakarpattia Regional Council. Rusyns within Ukraine have Ukrainian citizenship, and most have adopted a Ukrainian ethnic identity. Most contemporary self-identified ethnic Rusyns live outside of Ukraine.
Of the estimated 1.2 million people of Rusyn origin, only 55,000 have officially identified themselves politically or ethnically as such, according to contemporary censuses. The ethnic classification of Rusyns as a separate East Slavic ethnicity distinct from
RussiansThe Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
,
UkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
, and
BelarusiansBelarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
is, however, controversial. The majority of Ukrainian scholars, as well as some Rusyns when considering their self-identification, consider Rusyns to be an ethnic subgroup of the Ukrainian people. This is disputed by some Lemko scholars.
The terms Rusyn, Rusniak, Lemak, Lyshak and Lemko are considered by some scholars to be historic, local, and synonymical names for Carpathian Ukrainians. Others hold that the terms Lemko or Rusnak are simply regional variations for Rusyn.
Location
Until the middle of the 19th century, ethnic Ukrainians referred to themselves as Ruthenians ("Rusyn" in Ukrainian). This term continues to be used today and is found in Ukrainian folk songs. The ethnonym
Ukrainian came into widespread use only in modern times for political reasons, replacing the ethnonym Ruthenian initially in Sloboda Ukraina, then on the banks of the
Dnieper RiverThe Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
, and spreading to western Ukraine in the beginning of 20th century. Today a minority group continues to use the ethnonym Rusyn for self-identification. These are primarily people living in the mountainous Transcarpathian region of western Ukraine and adjacent areas in Slovakia who use it to distinguish themselves from Ukrainians living in the central regions of Ukraine. Having eschewed the ethnonym Ukrainian, the Rusyns are asserting a local and separate Rusyn ethnic identity. Their distinctiveness as an ethnicity is, however, disputed.
Those Rusyns who self-identify today have traditionally come from or had ancestors who came from the Eastern Carpathian Mountain region. This region is often referred to as
Carpathian RutheniaCarpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
. There are resettled Rusyn communities located in the Pannonian Plain, parts of present-day
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
(particularly in
VojvodinaVojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
– see also
Ethnic groups of VojvodinaThere are many ethnic groups in Vojvodina.-Serbs:*Serbs – Serbs constitute an absolute majority of people in Vojvodina. According to the 2002 census, there were 1,321,807 Serbs in Vojvodina or 65.05% of the population...
), as well as present-day
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
(in the region of
SlavoniaSlavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
). Rusyns also migrated and settled in Prnjavor, a town in the northern region of present-day
Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
. Analysis of
population geneticsPopulation genetics is the study of allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four main evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes into account the factors of recombination, population subdivision and population...
shows statistical differences between
LemkosLemkos , one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic groups who also call themselves Rusyns , are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains...
, Boykos, Hutzuls, and other Slavic or European populations.
Many Rusyns
emigrateEmigrate is a heavy metal band based in New York, led by Richard Z. Kruspe, the lead guitarist of the German band Rammstein.-History:Kruspe started the band in 2005, when Rammstein decided to take a year off from touring and recording...
d to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. With the advent of modern communications such as the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, they are able to reconnect as a community. Concerns are being voiced regarding the preservation of their unique ethnic and cultural legacy.
History
Rusyns formed two ephemeral states after
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
: the
Lemko-Rusyn RepublicThe Ruthenian National Republic of the Lemko People , often known as the Lemko Republic or the Lemko-Rusyn Republic, was founded in Florynka on 5 December 1918, in the aftermath of World War I, after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
and
Komancza RepublicThe Komancza Republic was an association of 30 Lemkos villages, founded in eastern Lemkivshchyna in Komańcza on 4 November 1918. It had a Ukrainiophile orientation, and planned to unite with the West Ukrainian National Republic. It was suppressed by the Polish government on 23 January 1919 during...
. Prior to this time, some of the founders of the Lemko-Rusyn Republic were sentenced to death or imprisoned in
TalerhofTalerhof was a concentration camp created by the Austro-Hungarian authorities of Franz Joseph I of Austria in the first days of World War I, in a sandy valley in foothills of the Alps, near Graz, the main city of the province of Styria....
by the prosecuting attorney
Kost LevytskyKost Levytsky was a Ukrainian politician. He was a founder of the Ukrainian National Democratic movement and the leader of the State Representative Body of the Ukrainian government declared on June 30, 1941-Biography:...
(Ukrainian: Кость Леви́цький), future president of the
West Ukrainian National RepublicThe West Ukrainian People's Republic was a short-lived republic that existed in late 1918 and early 1919 in eastern Galicia, that claimed parts of Bukovina and Carpathian Ruthenia and included the cities of Lviv , Przemyśl , Kolomyia , and Stanislaviv...
. In the
interwar periodInterwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, the Rusyn diaspora in Czechoslovakia enjoyed liberal conditions to develop their culture (in comparison to Ukrainians in Poland or Romania). The Republic of
Carpatho-UkraineCarpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent republic on March 15, 1939, but was occupied by Hungary between March 15 and March 18, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the Nazi occupation of Hungary in...
, which existed for one day on March 15, 1939, before it was occupied by
HungarianThe Kingdom of Hungary also known as the Regency, existed from 1920 to 1946 and was a de facto country under Regent Miklós Horthy. Horthy officially represented the abdicated Hungarian monarchy of Charles IV, Apostolic King of Hungary...
troops, is sometimes considered to have been a self-determining Rusyn state that had intentions to unite with
KievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. The Republic's president, Avgustyn Voloshyn, was an advocate of writing in
RusynRusyn , also known in English as Ruthenian, is an East Slavic language variety spoken by the Rusyns of Central Europe. Some linguists treat it as a distinct language and it has its own ISO 639-3 code; others treat it as a dialect of Ukrainian...
. Ukrainian insurgents from Galicia did attempt to bolster the defences of Carpatho-Ukraine but were unable to resist the Hungarian invaders, supported as the latter were by Nazi Germany.
The Rusyns have always been subject to larger neighbouring powers, such as
HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
,
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
,
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, and
RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. In contrast to the modern Ukrainian national movement that united Western Ukrainians with those in the rest of Ukraine, the Rusyn national movement took two forms: one considered Rusyns a separate East Slavic nation, while the other was based on the concept of fraternal unity with
RussiansThe Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
.
Most of the predecessors of the Eastern Slavic inhabitants of present-day Western Ukraine, as well as of Western Belarus, referred to themselves as Ruthenians (Rusyns) ' onMouseout='HidePop("55907")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Romanization_of_Ukrainian">translit.
The romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian is the representation of the Ukrainian language using Latin letters. Ukrainian is natively written in its own Ukrainian alphabet, a variation of Cyrillic....
Rusyny) prior to the nineteenth century. Many of them became active participants in the creation of the Ukrainian nation and came to call themselves
UkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
(
UkrainianUkrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
: Українці,
translit.The romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian is the representation of the Ukrainian language using Latin letters. Ukrainian is natively written in its own Ukrainian alphabet, a variation of Cyrillic....
Ukrayintsi). There were, however, ethnic Rusyn enclaves, which were not a part of this movement: those living on the border of the same territory or in more isolated regions, such as the people from Carpathian Ruthenia, Poleshuks, or the Rusyns of Podlaskie. With no reason to change their
self-identifying monikersIn ethnolinguistics, an endonym or autonym is a local name for a geographical feature, and an exonym or xenonym is a foreign language name for it...
, these groups continue to refer to themselves as Rusyns.
According to a
2001 Ukrainian censusThe first Ukrainian Census was carried out by State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989....
, an overwhelming majority of Boykos, Lemkos, Hutsuls, Verkhovyntsi and Dolynians in Ukraine stated their nationality as Ukrainian. However, some of these ethnic groups consider themselves to be separate ethnicities, while others identify themselves as Rusyns. About 10,100 people, or 0.8%, of Ukraine's
Zakarpattia OblastThe Zakarpattia Oblast is an administrative oblast located in southwestern Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Uzhhorod...
(Province) identified themselves as Rusyns; by contrast, 1,010,000 considered themselves Ukrainians. Research conducted by the University of Cambridge during the height of political Rusynism in the mid-1990s that focused on five specific regions within the Zakarpattia Oblast having the strongest pro-Rusyn cultural and political activism, found that only nine percent of the population of these areas claimed Rusyn ethnicity. These numbers may change with the further acceptance of Rusyn identity and the Rusyn language in educational systems in the area; nevertheless in the present day, according to the Ukrainian census, most - over 99% - of the local inhabitants consider themselves to be Ukrainians.
The Rusyn national movement is much stronger among those Rusyn groups that became geographically separated from present-day Ukrainian territories, for example the Rusyn emigrants in the United States and Canada, as well as the Rusyns living within the borders of Slovakia. The 2001 census in Slovakia showed that 24,000 people considered themselves ethnically Rusyn while 11,000 considered themselves to be ethnically Ukrainian. The
Pannonian RusynsRusyns in Pannonia, or simply Rusyns or Ruthenians , are a Slavic minority in Serbia and Croatia...
in Serbia, who migrated there during the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, also consider themselves to be Rusyns. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some Rusyns resettled in
VojvodinaVojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
(in present day Serbia), as well as in
SlavoniaSlavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
(in present-day Croatia). Still other Rusyns migrated to the northern regions of present
Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
. Until the 1971
YugoslavYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
census, both Ukrainians (
SerbianSerbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
: Украјинци,
tr.In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
Ukrajinci) and Rusyns (
SerbianSerbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
: Русини,
tr.In linguistics, romanization or latinization is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman script, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system . Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written...
Rusini) in these areas were recorded collectively as "Ruthenes".
Podkarpatskije Rusiny is considered the Rusyn "national anthem".
In March 2007 the
Zakarpattia Regional CouncilThe Zakarpattia Oblast is an administrative oblast located in southwestern Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Uzhhorod...
adopted a decision which recognized Rusyns as a separate national minority at the oblast level. By the same decision the Zakarpattia Regional Council petitioned the Ukrainian central authorities to recognize Rusyns as an ethnic minority at the state level.
Historically, the
PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and
HungarianHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
states are considered to have contributed to the development of a Rusyn identity that is separate from that of traditional Ruthenians. Rusyns were recorded as a separate nationality by the censuses taken in pre-WWII Poland (see Cezary Chlebowski's
Wachlarz), Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
Separatist movement
In recent times considerable controversy has arisen regarding the Rusyn separatist movement led by the Orthodox priest Dmitri Sidor, his relationship with the
Russian Orthodox ChurchThe Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
or Moscow Patriarchate, and the funding for his activities.
Religion
In 1994 the historian
Paul Robert MagocsiPaul Robert Magocsi is an American professor of history, political science, and Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. He has been with the University since 1980, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1996...
stated that there were approximately 690,000 Carpatho-Rusyn church members in the United States, with 320,000 belonging to the largest Byzantine Rite Catholic affiliations, 270,000 to the largest Orthodox affiliations, and 100,000 to various Protestant and other denominations.
Greek Catholics
Most Rusyns are Byzantine rite Catholics, who since the
Union of BrestUnion of Brest or Union of Brześć refers to the 1595-1596 decision of the Church of Rus', the "Metropolia of Kiev-Halych and all Rus'", to break relations with the Patriarch of Constantinople and place themselves under the Pope of Rome. At the time, this church included most Ukrainians and...
in 1596 and the
Union of UzhhorodThe Union of Uzhhorod, also referred to as Union of Ungvár, was the 1646 decision of 63 Ruthenian Orthodox priests from the south slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, then within the Kingdom of Hungary, to join the Catholic Church on terms similar to the Union of Brest from 1596 in the lands of the...
in 1646 have been in communion with the See of Rome. They have their own
particular ChurchIn Catholic canon law, a Particular Church is an ecclesial community headed by a bishop or someone recognised as the equivalent of a bishop.There are two kinds of particular Churches:# Local particular Churches ...
, the
Ruthenian Catholic ChurchThe Ruthenian Catholic Church is a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church , which uses the Divine Liturgy of the Constantinopolitan Byzantine Eastern Rite. Its roots are among the Rusyns who lived in the region called Carpathian Ruthenia, in and around the Carpathian Mountains...
, distinct in some ways from the Latin-Rite Catholic Church. These retain the
Byzantine RiteThe Byzantine Rite, sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople or Constantinopolitan Rite is the liturgical rite used currently by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches, by the Greek Catholic Churches , and by the Protestant Ukrainian Lutheran Church...
liturgy, sometimes including the
Old SlavonicOld Slavonic may refer to:*Old Church Slavonic language*Common Slavonic language...
Church language, and the outward forms of Byzantine or
Eastern ChristianityEastern Christianity comprises the Christian traditions and churches that developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa, India and parts of the Far East over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in Western Christianity to...
.
The Rusyns of the
former YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
are organized under the
Eparchy of KriževciThe Eparchy of Križevci, sometimes referred to as the Croatian Greek Catholic Church or the Croatian Byzantine Catholic Church, is a recognized sui iuris Catholic Church listed in the Annuario Pontificio among the Eastern Catholic Churches of Constantinopolitan or Byzantine tradition as the Church...
. Those in the
diasporaA diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
established the
Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of PittsburghThe Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh is an autonomous Byzantine Rite particular church of the Catholic Church, originally serving members of the Ruthenian Catholic Church and their descendants in the United States...
.
According to the artist
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, a Byzantine Catholic from Pittsburgh born to Rusyn parents, the beginning of the film
The Deer HunterThe Deer Hunter is a 1978 drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep, John Savage, John Cazale, and George Dzundza...
shows an authentic Rusyn wedding, although the movie was about Orthodox Rusyns.
Eastern Orthodox Church
Although originally associated with the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, the affiliation of the Rusyn Orthodox Church was adversely affected by the
Communist revolutionThe Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
in the Russian Empire and the subsequent
Iron CurtainThe concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
which split the Orthodox diaspora from the Orthodox believers living in the ancestral homelands. A number of émigré communities have claimed to continue the Orthodox tradition of the pre-revolution church while either denying or minimizing the validity of the church organization operating under Communist authority. For example, the
Orthodox Church in AmericaThe Orthodox Church in America is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in North America. Its primate is Metropolitan Jonah , who was elected on November 12, 2008, and was formally installed on December 28, 2008...
(OCA) was granted autocephalous (self-governing) status by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1970. Although approximately 25% of the OCA was Rusyn (referred to as "Ruthenian") in the early 1980s, an influx of Orthodox émigrés from other nations and new converts wanting to connect with the "early" church have lessened the impact of a particular Rusyn emphasis in favor of a new American Orthodoxy.
Another large segment of Rusyn-Americans belong to the
American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox DioceseThe American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese or American Carpatho-Ruthenian Orthodox Diocese is a diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with 78 parishes in the United States and Canada. It was led by the late Metropolitan Nicholas Smisko of Amissos...
, which is headquartered in
Johnstown, PennsylvaniaJohnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania and east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County...
. From its early days, this group was
recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a self-governing diocese.
Ethnic subgroups
- Subcarpathian Rusyns:
- Dolynians:
- Lemaks. Lemaks are Rusyns from Bereg and Ung. Lemaks pronounce the word "only" as "лем/lem".
- Lyshaks. Lyshaks are Rusyns from Máramaros and Ugocsa. Lyshaks pronounce the word "only" as "лиш/lysh".
- Verkhovynians. Verkhovynians are descendants of Boyko
Boyko or Boiko are a distinctive group of Ukrainian highlanders or mountain-dwellers of the Carpathian highlands. The Boykos inhabited the central and the western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine, including the Dolynskyi and a part of the Rozhniativskyi Raions in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast ,...
s which moved in 17th and 18th centuries from Galicia to highland region of Subcarpathian Rus that is called as VerkhovynaVerkhovyna is a town located in the western Ukrainian oblast of Ivano-Frankivsk. Originally established as Żabie in 1424. The city is located in the Hutsul region of Carpathian Mountains called Pokuttya, upon the Cheremosh River, a tributary of the Prut. Verkhovyna is currently an important...
. Verkhovynians currently inhabit the eastern part of Velykyy Bereznyi RaionVelykyy Bereznyi Raion is a raion in Zakarpattia Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Velykyy Bereznyi. It has a population of 28 211.-External links:*...
, Volovets RaionVolovets Raion is a raion in Zakarpattia Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Volovets. It has a population of 25 474.-External links:*...
, and the northern and western parts of Mizhhiria RaionMizhhiria Raion is a raion in Zakarpattia Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Mizhhiria. It has a population of 49,890.-External links:*...
.
- Prešov
Prešov Historically, the city has been known in German as Eperies , Eperjes in Hungarian, Fragopolis in Latin, Preszów in Polish, Peryeshis in Romany, Пряшев in Russian and Пряшів in Rusyn and Ukrainian.-Characteristics:The city is a showcase of Baroque, Rococo and Gothic...
Rusyns:
- Sotaks. Sotaks are Zemplín
Zemplén is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently situated in eastern Slovakia under the name of Zemplín...
Rusyns which live in present-day Slovak districtsAn okres is an administrative unit in Slovakia. It is inferior to a Region and superior to a municipality.-Characteristics:Several districts form a "Region"...
: HumennéHumenné District is a district inthe Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia....
, MichalovceMichalovce District is a district inthe Košice Region of eastern Slovakia.Until 1918, the district was split between the Hungarian counties of Zemplín and Uh .-Municipalities:* Bajany...
and SobranceSobrance District is a district inthe Košice Region of eastern Slovakia.Until 1918, the district was mostly part of the Hungarian county of Ung, apart from the area around the municipalities of...
.
- Tsopaks. Tsopaks are Spiš
Spiš is a region in north-eastern Slovakia, with a very small area in south-eastern Poland. Spiš is an informal designation of the territory , but it is also the name of one the 21 official tourism regions of Slovakia...
Rusyns, which use word "цо/tso" within the meaning of "what". Tsopaks got their name because of the frequent use of the phrase "Цо пак?/Tso pak?" that means "What then?".
- Kraynyaks
- Galician Rusyns:
- Lemkos
Lemkos , one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic groups who also call themselves Rusyns , are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains...
- Boyko
Boyko or Boiko are a distinctive group of Ukrainian highlanders or mountain-dwellers of the Carpathian highlands. The Boykos inhabited the central and the western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine, including the Dolynskyi and a part of the Rozhniativskyi Raions in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast ,...
s
- Bukovinian
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
Rusyns
See also
- Carpathian Wooden Churches
Roman Catholic wooden church of St. Francis of Assisi in Hervartov has a Gothic character as represented by its tall but narrow structure unusual for a wooden church. It was built in the second half of the 15th century and thus represents the oldest of its type in Slovakia...
- Carpatho-Rusyn Society
The Carpatho-Rusyn Society is an American nonprofit organization promoting Rusyn culture in the United States, as well as in the traditional homeland in east Central Europe....
- Red Ruthenia
Red Ruthenia is the name used since medieval times to refer to the area known as Eastern Galicia prior to World War I; first mentioned in Polish historic chronicles in the 1321, as Ruthenia Rubra or Ruthenian Voivodeship .Ethnographers explain that the term was applied from the...
- Rusyn Americans
- Ruthenians
The name Ruthenian |Rus']]) is a culturally loaded term and has different meanings according to the context in which it is used. Initially, it was the ethnonym used for the East Slavic peoples who lived in Rus'. Later it was used predominantly for Ukrainians...
External links