Rusyns

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Rusyns
Total population 55,000 (est)
Regions with significant populations Slovakia :
24,201 (2001)[1]
Serbia:
15,626 (2002)[2]
Ukraine:
10,100 (2001)[3]

Croatia:
2,337 (2001)
Language Rusyn, Pannonian Rusyn, Ukrainian, Slovak, Russian
Religion Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic
Related ethnic groups other East Slavic peoples

Rusyns (also referred to as Ruthenians, Ruthenes, Rusins, Carpatho-Rusyns, and Rusniaks or Rusnaks) are a modern ethnic group that speaks the Rusyn language and are descended from the minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt a Ukrainian national identity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because an overwhelming majority of Ruthenians within Ukraine itself have adopted a Ukrainian identity[3], most modern Rusyns live outside Ukraine. The ethnic identity of Rusyns is therefore highly controversial, with some researchers claiming a separate East Slavic ethnicity distinct from Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians, while others considering Rusyns to be a subgroup of the Ukrainian nation. Some parallels can be drawn with the relationship of Moldovans to Romanians.

Contents

[edit] Location

Main article: Places inhabited by Rusyns

Rusyns have traditionally inhabited the area of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains and still inhabit those areas. While their homeland is often referred to as Carpathian Ruthenia, that area no longer exactly corresponds with the places inhabited by Rusyns. There are also resettled Rusyn communities located in the Pannonian plain, as well as in parts of present day Serbia (especially in Vojvodina – see also Ethnic groups of Vojvodina), as well as in present-day Croatia (in the region of Slavonia). Still other Rusyns migrated to the northern regions of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Many Rusyns also emigrated to the United States and Canada, and now are able to reconnect as a community with the advent of the internet, voicing their concerns and trying to preserve their separate ethnic and cultural identity.

[edit] History

Rusyns are an ethnic group that never attained the status of independent statehood, except for a half a year period in 1919 (Podkarpatska Rus). As such, their fortunes have rested in the hands of larger powers, such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, Poland, the Soviet Union, Ukraine, and Russia. In contrast to the modern Ukrainian national movement that united Western Ukrainians with those from the rest of Ukraine, the Rusyn national movement takes two forms: one considers Rusyns as a separate East Slavic nation, while the other is based on the concept of fraternal unity with Russians.

Most if not all of the Eastern Slavic inhabitants of present-day Western Ukraine referred to themselves as Rusyns (Ukrainian: Русини, translit. Rusyny) prior to the nineteenth century, the majority of these people became active participants in the creation of the Ukrainian nation and came to call themselves Ukrainians (Ukrainian: Українці, translit. 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 Podlachia. With no reason to change their self-identifying monikers, these isolated groups continued to refer to themselves as Rusyns even after the majority of their people had switched to a Ukrainian self-identification. In this sense, Rusyns are similar to other borderland ethnicities, and their national awakening can be viewed by some as a negation of Ukrainian nationalism.

Some scholars consider the Lemko, Boyko, Hutsul, Verkhovinetses (Verkhovynetses, or Highlanders), and Dolinyanin (Haynal) ethnic groups to be Rusyn. Indeed, as with the rest of the inhabitants of present-day Western Ukraine in the 19th century and first part of the 20th century, these peoples referred to themselves as Rusyns. However, some of these ethnic groups consider themselves to be wholely separate ethnicities, while some claim to be Ukrainians and still others indentify themselves as Rusyns. According to a recent Ukrainian census, an overwhelming majority of Boykos, Lemkos, Hutsuls, Verkhovinetses and Dolinyanins in Ukraine stated their ethnicity as Ukrainian. About 10,100 people, or 0.8%, of Ukraine's Zakarpattya oblast (province) identified themselves as Rusyns; in contrast, 1,010,000 considered themselves Ukrainians.[3] Research conducted by the University of Cambridge during the height of political Ruthenianism in the mid-nineties, that focused on five specific regions within Zakarpattya oblast with the strongest pro-Ruthenian cultural and political activism, found that only nine percent of the population claimed Rusyn ethnicity.[4] These numbers may change with the further acceptance of Rusyn identity and the Rusyn language in educational systems in the area, but at the moment most Ruthenians consider themselves 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 still included within the borders of Slovakia. A census in the latter country in 2001 showed that 24,000 people considered themselves Rusyn while 11,000 considered themselves to be Ukrainians.[5] The Pannonian Rusyns 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 Vojvodina (in present day Serbia), as well as in Slavonia (in present-day Croatia). Still other Rusyns migrated to the northern regions of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, although many of this ethnicity in Bosnia identify themselves as Ukrainians. Until the 1971 Yugoslav census, both Ukrainians (Serbian: Украјинци, tr. Ukrajinci) and Rusyns (Serbian: Русини, tr. Rusini) in these areas were recorded collectively as "Ruthenes". Podkarpatskije Rusiny is considered the Rusyn "national anthem", Ja Rusyn byl jesm' i budu the national song.

Historically, in order to separate the Ukrainian people, the Polish and Hungarian states are considered to have helped in the development of a Rusyn identity as a separate one from that of Ukrainians. Rusyns were even recorded as a separate nationality by the censuses taken in pre-WWII Poland (see Cezary Chlebowski's Wachlarz).

[edit] Religion

When the Rusyns accepted Christianity (and who or what they worshiped before) is a source of some debate, but it clearly occurred prior to the Great Schism between the Orthodox and Catholic churches in 1054. Many Rusyn churches are named after the Eastern Christian saints Cyril and Methodius, who are often referred to as the "Apostles to the Slavs."

Historian Paul Robert Magocsi recorded that there were approximately 690,000 Carpatho-Rusyn church members in the United States, with 320,000 in the largest Catholic affiliations, 270,000 in the largest Orthodox affiliations, and 100,000 in various Protestant and other denominations.[6]

[edit] Eastern Rite Catholics

Many Rusyns are Eastern Catholics, who since the Union of Brest in 1596 and the Uzhorod Union in 1646, are united with other catholics under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, but retain their Old Slavonic liturgy and most of the outward forms of the Greek or Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Rusyns of former Yugoslavia are organized under the Eparchy of Krizevci.

[edit] 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 revolution in Russia and the subsequent Iron Curtain which split the Orthodox diaspora from those living in the ancestral homelands. A number of emigre communities have laid claim to continuing the Orthodox tradition of the pre-revolution church, while either negating or minimizing the validity of the church organization operating under Communist authority. For example, the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) was granted auto-cephalous (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 emigres 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.

[edit] Language

Main article: Rusyn language

Rusyn (less accurately referred to as the Ruthenian language) is in substance similar to the Ukrainian language–enough so that the Ukrainian government considers Rusyn merely a dialect of Ukrainian, to the resentment of some Rusyns. In the extreme west of Carpathian Ruthenia, the language approaches Slovak.

[edit] Pannonian Rusyn

Main article: Pannonian Rusyn language

Pannonian Rusyn has been granted official status and codified in Vojvodina. Since 1995, it has been recognized and codified as a minority language in Slovakia (in cases where there are at least 20% Rusyns). The Rusyn language in Vojvodina, however, sharing many similarities with Slovak, is sometimes considered a separate (micro)language, and sometimes a dialect of Slovak.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Permanently resident population by nationality and by regions and districts - Population and Housing Census 2001, Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic
  2. ^ (December 24 2002) “3. Population by national or ethnic groups by Census 2002, by municipalities”, Zoran Jančić: Issue LII, No. 295, Final Results of the Census 2002, Communication, Belgrade: Republic Statistical Office of Serbia, 6-7. YU ISSN 0353-9555 SRB 295 SN31 241202.
  3. ^ a b c Про кількість та склад населення Закарпатської області
    за підсумками Всеукраїнського перепису населення 2001 року
  4. ^ Political and Ethno-Cultural Aspects of the Rusyns’ problem: A Ukrainian Perspective - by Natalya Belitser, Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, Kyiv, Ukraine
  5. ^ 2001 and 1991 Slovakian censuses
  6. ^ Our People: Carpatho-Rusyns and Their Descendants in North America, 1994.

[edit] References

  • Chlebowski, Cezary (1983). Wachlarz: Writings on the Liberating Organization, a Division of the National Army (Wachlarz: Monografia wydzielonej organizacji dywersyjnej Armii Krajowej : wrzesien 1941-marzec 1943), Instytut Wydawniczy Pax. ISBN 83-211-0419-3
  • Dyrud, Keith P. (1992). The Quest for the Rusyn Soul: The Politics of Religion and Culture in Eastern Europe and in America, 1890-World War I, Balch Institute Press. ISBN 0-944190-10-3
  • ed. by Patricia Krafeik (1994). The Rusyns, Eastern European Monographs. ISBN 0-88033-190-9 *Magocsi, Paul Robert (1978). Shaping of a National Identity: Subcarpathian Rus', 1848-1948, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-80579-8
  • Magocsi, Paul Robert (1988). Carpatho-Rusyn Studies: An Annotated Bibliography (V. 1: Garland Reference Library of the Humanities), Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8240-1214-3
  • Magocsi, Paul Robert (1994). Our People: Carpatho-Rusyns and Their Descendants in North America, Society of Multicultural Historical. ISBN 0-919045-66-9
  • Magocsi, Paul Robert (1994). The Rusyns of Slovakia, East European Monographs. ISBN 0-88033-278-6
  • Magocsi, Paul Robert (1996). A New Slavic Nation is Born, East European Monographs. ISBN 0-88033-331-6
  • Magocsi, Paul Robert (1999). Carpatho-Rusyn Studies: An Annotated Bibliography, 1985-1994, Vol. 2, Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-88033-420-7
  • Magocsi, Paul Robert (2000). Of the Making of Nationalities There Is No End, East European Monographs. ISBN 0-88033-438-X
  • Magocsi, Paul Robert, Sandra Stotsky and Reed Ueda (2000). The Carpatho-Rusyn Americans (Immigrant Experience), Chelsea House Publications. ISBN 0-7910-6284-8
  • Magocsi, Paul Robert (2002). Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-3566-3
  • Magocsi, Paul Robert (2006). Carpatho-Rusyn Studies : An Annotated Bibliography Vol.3 1995-1999, East European Monographs. ISBN 0-88033-531-9
  • Mayer, Maria, translated by Janos Boris (1998). Rusyns of Hungary: Political and Social Developments, 1860-1910, Eastern European Monographs. ISBN 0-88033-387-1
  • Petrov, Aleksei (1998). Medieval Carpathian Rus': The Oldest Documentation about the Carpatho-Rusyn Church and Eparchy, Eastern European Monographs. ISBN 0-88033-388-X
  • Rusinko, Elaine (2003). Straddling Borders: Literature and Identity in Subcarpathian Rus', University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-3711-9

[edit] External links

Warning: While reading the sources listed below, as well as sources of Ukrainian and Polish origin, one has to be careful to recognize the underlying interest of each of these groups supporting their own national mythology by selective presentation of information and the inter- and extrapolations favorable to that mythos.

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