Lemkos

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Lemkos (Lemko dialect: Лeмкы; Ukrainian: Лeмки, translit. Lemky, singular Лeмкo, translit. Lemko) are one of four major ethnic groups that inhabit the Eastern Carpathian Mountains and that speak the Lemko dialect, a Rusyn language.

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[edit] Location

Main article: Lemkivshchyna

The Lemkos' homeland is commonly referred to as Lemkivshchyna (Ukrainian: Лeмкiвщина, Polish: Łemkowszczyzna). Until 1945 this included the area from the Poprad River in the east to the valley of the Oslawa River in the west, areas situated primarily in present-day Poland, in the Lesser Poland and Subcarpathian Voivodeships. This part of the Carpathian mountains is mostly deforested, which allowed for an agrarian economy as well as such traditional occupations as ox grazing and sheep herding.

The Lemkivshchyna area was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire until its dissolution in 1918, at which point a Lemko Republic declared independence. It was renamed the Lemko-Rusyn Republic (Ruska Lemkivska) later that year. The independence did not last long, and the territory was incorporated into Poland in 1920.

As a result of Operation Wisła, the majority of Lemkos from this territory were resettled throughout Poland and in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, leaving a significant population only in the Prešov Region of present-day Slovakia.

[edit] Etymology

The name "Lemko" derives from the common expression Lem (Лeм), which can mean "but", "only", or "like" in the Lemko dialect. "Lemko" came into use as an endonym after having been used as an exonym by the neighboring Boykos and Hutsuls, who do not use that expression in their respective dialects. Prior to this moniker, the Lemkos described themselves as Rusnaks ((Ukrainian: Руснaки, translit. Rusnaky) or Rusyns (Ukrainian: Русини, translit. Rusyny), as did the rest of the inhabitants of present-day Western Ukraine in the 19th century and first part of the 20th century. In the early 20th century some of these peoples became active participants in the creation of the Ukrainian nation and came to call themselves Ukrainians (Ukrainian: Українці, translit. Ukrayintsi). However, while they may have accepted the new state of Ukraine, many Lemkos, including those in Poland and Slovakia, consider themselves a distinct ethnicity, while some claim to be Rusyns and still others indentify as Ukrainians.

[edit] History

Lemkos are generally considered to be descendants of Ruthenian settlers who came in the 14th century or probably earlier to the area traditionally inhabited by Lemkos.

It is estimated that about 130,000-140,000 Lemkos were living in the Polish part of Lemkivshchyna in 1939.<!- need source citation here --> Mass emigration from this territory to the Western hemisphere began in the late 1800s, diminishing the cultural uniqueness of the Lemko homeland. Additional depopulation of these lands occurred when the Lemkos began to be removed in a forced resettlement, first to the Soviet Union (about 90,000 people) and later to Poland's newly-acquired western lands (about 35,000) in the Operation Wisła campaign of the late 1940s. This action was a state ordered solution to the struggle waged by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in south-eastern Poland.

While a minority of Lemkos returned (some 5,000 Lemko families returned to their home regions in Poland between 1957-1958[1], officially having been allowed the right to return in 1956), the Lemko population in the Polish part of Lemkivschyna only numbers around 10,000-15,000 today. Some 50,000 Lemkos live in the western and northern parts of Poland, where they were sent to populate former German villages in areas Stalin had ceded to Poland. Among those, 5,863 people identified themselves as Lemko in the 2002 census. However, it is estimated that no fewer than 80,000 ethnic Lemkos reside in Poland today. Outside of Lemkivshchyna, Lemkos live in the Polish villages of Łosie, Krynica, Nowica, Zdynia, Gładyszów, Hańczowa, Zyndranowa, Uście Gorlickie, Bartne, Binczarowa and Bielanka. Additional populations can be found in Mokre, Szczawne, Kulaszne, Rzepedź, Turzańsk, Komańcza, Sanok, Nowy Sącz, and Gorlice.

[edit] Religion

The Shelestove St Michael's wooden church (1777) is the classic example of Lemko architecture.
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The Shelestove St Michael's wooden church (1777) is the classic example of Lemko architecture.

Christianity in the region is thought to date to the efforts of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 800s. The religion of many Lemkos is Eastern Catholic. In Poland, they belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and to the Ruthenian Catholic Church (see also Slovak Catholic Church) in Slovakia. A substantial number belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church. Through the efforts of the martyred priest Fr. Maxim Sandovich in the early 1900's (canonized by the Polish Orthodox Church in the 1990s) Eastern Orthodoxy was reintroduced to many Lemko areas that had accepted the Union of Brest centuries before. The distinctive wooden architectural style of the Lemko churches is to place the highest cupola of the church building at the entrance to the church, with the roof sloping downward toward the sanctuary.

[edit] Dialect

The Lemko dialect is the western-most dialect of the Rusyn language. Lemko speech, however, includes patterns matching those of the surrounding Polish and Slovak languages, leading some to refer to it as a transitional dialect between Polish and Slovak (some even consider the dialect in Eastern Slovakia to be a dialect of the Slovak language).

In the late 20th century, some Lemkos, mainly emigres from the region of the southern slopes of the Carpathians in modern-day Slovakia, began an effort to codify and standardize a grammar for the Lemko dialect.

[edit] Famous Lemkos

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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