Rusyn

people
Alternate titles: Carpatho-Rusyn, Lemko, Ruskyi, Rusnak, Ruthene, Ruthenian
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BY Paul Robert Magocsi | View Edit History

Carpathian Rus
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Rusyn, Rusyn ruskyi, also called Ruthenian, Carpatho-

Rusyn, Lemko, or Rusnak, any of several East Slavic peoples (modern-
day Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Carpatho-Rusyns) and their languages. The name
Rusyn is derived from Rus (Ruthenia), the name of the territory that they inhabited.
The name Ruthenian derives from the Latin Ruthenus (singular), a term found
in medieval sources to describe the Slavic inhabitants of Eastern Christian religion
(Orthodox and Greek Catholics) living in the grand duchy of Lithuania and, after
1569, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Rusyn-inhabited territories in those
states had from the 10th to the 14th century belonged to several principalities
referred to collectively as Kievan Rus. The Latin term Ruthenus (plural Rutheni) is
the equivalent of the Slavic Rusyn (plural Rusyny), meaning “an inhabitant of the
land of Rus.”
Rusyn (Ruthenian) language
Rusyn (Ruthenian) refers as well to language. Ruthenian was the term used to
describe the written medium (initially based on spoken Belarusian) that functioned
as the official or chancellery language of the grand duchy of Lithuania and to refer to
the spoken, or simple (prosta), language of the duchy’s East Slavic inhabitants
(present-day Belarusians and Ukrainians). Ruthenian (German: Ruthenisch;
Hungarian: rutén) was also the official designation for the spoken and written
language of the East Slavs (present-day Ukrainians and Carpatho-Rusyns) living in
the Habsburg-ruled Austrian Empire. Today the name Rusyn refers to the spoken
language and variants of a literary language codified in the 20th century for
Carpatho-Rusyns living in Ukraine (Transcarpathia), Poland, Slovakia, Hungary,
and Serbia (the Vojvodina).
Rusyns before World War II
Following the partitions of Poland-Lithuania in the late 18th century, Rusyn-
inhabited lands were divided between the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus and
much of Ukraine) and the Austrian, later Austro-Hungarian, Empire (present-day
western Ukraine, southeastern Poland, and northeastern Slovakia). In the course of
the “long” 19th century (1780s–1914), the name Ruthenian fell out of use in the
Russian Empire and was replaced by either White Russian or Little Russian. The
term Ruthenian continued to be used, however, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as
the official designation (German: Ruthenen; Hungarian: ruténok) for the East Slavic
inhabitants living in that state’s provinces of Galicia and Bukovina and the
northeastern counties of Hungary. A large-scale immigration from Austria-Hungary
to North America during the half century before World War I saw the introduction of
the term Ruthenian to describe those newcomers in American and Canadian census
reports.

Rusyn folk costume

Rusyn men and women in traditional folk costumes, Ukraine.
Silar
By the outset of the 20th century, the Rusyns in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian
empires (and in the North American diaspora) were gradually
becoming differentiated into Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Carpatho-Rusyns. At the
close of World War I, historic Rusyn-inhabited lands were divided between the Soviet
Union (the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic [S.S.R.] and the Ukrainian S.S.R.),
Poland, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. In Czechoslovakia, Ruthenian-Rusyn survived
as the official designation of a people, Carpatho-Rusyns (Czech: Karpatští Rusíni),
who lived in the far eastern part of that country—that is, in what is now northeastern
Slovakia and in a province called Subcarpathian Rus, or the Subcarpathian Rusyn
Land (Czech: Podkarpatská Rus; Země podkarpatoruská).
Subcarpathian Rus was endowed with autonomous status approved at the Paris Peace
Conference and inscribed in two international treaties (St. Germain [1919]; Trianon
[1920]) and in Czechoslovakia’s constitution (1921). Rusyn became
alongside Czech an official language of the province. Yet, despite international
treaties and constitutional guarantees, Subcarpathian Rus did not acquire full
autonomous status until October 1938. Pressured by Nazi Germany and its ally
Hungary, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede to those two countries parts of its
territory until it ceased to exist entirely in March 1939. During Czechoslovakia’s last
months, autonomous Subcarpathian Rus (also known at the time as Carpatho-
Ukraine) acquired its own elected diet, which on the last day of Czechoslovakia’s
existence (March 15, 1939) symbolically declared its independence as the “republic
for a day.”
Hungary annexed Subcarpathian Rus in March 1939, while the Carpatho-Rusyn
minority in Slovakia remained in that new state, which, like Hungary, was allied with
Nazi Germany. Hungary never implemented the autonomy that it promised, but it did
recognize what were called Hungarian Ruthenians (Uhro-Rusyns). At the same time,
Rusyn (ruskyi) was declared the official language alongside Hungarian in the region.
Status since the end of World War II
Following the arrival of Soviet armies in the fall of 1944, Hungarian rule was replaced
by a transitional local government (National Council of Transcarpathian Ukraine),
which rejected the return to Czechoslovak rule and instead fulfilled Joseph Stalin’s
desire to see the region annexed to the Soviet Union. In June 1945 Subcarpathian Rus
was ceded by Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union and became the
Transcarpathian oblast (region) of the Ukrainian S.S.R. The designations Rusyn and
Carpatho-Rusyn were banned, and the local East Slavic inhabitants and their
language were declared to be Ukrainian. Soviet policy was followed in neighbouring
communist Czechoslovakia and Poland, where the Carpatho-Rusyn inhabitants
(Lemko Rusyns in the case of Poland) were henceforth officially designated
Ukrainians. Hence, during the post-World War II communist era in central and
eastern Europe (1945–89), the ethnonym Rusyn lived on only among the
Carpathian diaspora in Serbia’s Vojvodina and Croatia’s Srem—regions
of Yugoslavia where Rusyns (locally known as Rusnaks) were designated an official
nationality—and among the large immigrant communities in the United States.
With the collapse of communist rule (1989) in central and eastern Europe, a
Carpatho-Rusyn revival took place during which national activists called for the
recognition of Rusyns as a distinct nationality with the right to use their language in
schools, the media, cultural life, and civic affairs. An important goal of the revival was
to codify a modern Rusyn literary language, something that occurred in Serbia as
early as 1923 and was achieved in 1995 in Slovakia and has since happened
in Poland (2000) and Ukraine (2014).
The status of Rusyns (Carpatho-Rusyns) varies from country to country. Since the
1990s, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and the Czech
Republic have recognized Rusyns as a distinct national minority eligible for state
support for educational and cultural activity. Ukraine has been reluctant to follow the
lead of its western neighbours, although in March 2007 the regional assembly in the
Transcarpathian oblast (Zakarpattya) recognized Rusyns as a distinct nationality, and
the central government in Ukraine adopted a law (August 2012) that lists Rusyn
(rusynska) as one of the country’s regional languages.
No country contains a distinct administrative entity called Ruthenia (Carpathian
Rus). Two countries, however, do provide a form of autonomy. Since 1993 Hungary
has allowed self-government for individual communities (villages as well as districts
in cities) that have a certain percentage of inhabitants of a given nationality other
than Hungarian. At present the Rusyn Minority Self-Government in Hungary consists
of 72 communities, mostly in the northeastern part of the country and in the centrally
located capital city of Budapest and surrounding county of Pest. Budapest is also the
seat of the statewide Administration for Rusyn Self-Government. Since 2002 the
province of Vojvodina in Serbia has provided for elected councils, among which is the
National Council of the Rusyn National Minority. It determines policy and the
distribution of state funds for cultural and civic activity among the Rusyns (Rusnaks)
of that province.
It is generally difficult to determine the number of people who belong to a nationality
other than the official one of the state in which they live. Rusyns (Carpatho-Rusyns)
are no exception, since not all countries where they live record them accurately on
census reports. Informed estimates suggest that there may be as many as one million
Rusyns living in their Carpathian homeland and adjacent countries. Much smaller are
the numbers found in official census data from the first decade of the 21st century
that are based on answers to questions of national or ethnic identity (Rusyn, Rusnak,
Lemko) or mother tongue or native language: Slovakia (55,500), Serbia (14,200),
Poland (10,500), Ukraine (10,100), Hungary (3,900), Croatia (2,300), Czech
Republic (1,100), and Romania (250).
Paul Robert  Magocsi

Ukraine: Transcarpathian
Rusyns Want Official
Recognition
A typical Rusyn house in the Presov region, northeastern Slovakia (Dr.
Michele Parvensky) PRAGUE, September 22, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Last week
the Transcarpathian Oblast Council appealed to Ukraine's president,
prime minister, and parliamentary speaker to grant Rusyns in the region
an official status of ethnic minority (nationality).
Rusyns, who live in a more or less compact territory in Ukraine, Slovakia, and
Poland, are officially recognized as a minority by Bratislava and Warsaw, while Kyiv
considers them to be a Ukrainian subgroup. Their struggle for official recognition in
Ukraine has continued for more than 15 years now.

Similar appeals to grant official recognition to Rusyns in Ukraine were already issued
by the Transcarpathian Oblast Council in 1992 and 2002. But official Kyiv ignored
them.
Will the situation repeat itself this time too?

Activists of the People's Council of Transcarpathian Rusyns (NRRZ), an umbrella

organization claiming to represent the interests of all Rusyns in the oblast, believe
that it will not.

Rusyns In High Places

There are at least two reasons for their optimism.

First, after President Viktor Yushchenko came to power and political life in Ukraine
became more democratic, Rusyns in Transcarpathia managed to organize several
cultural events with official support and to present their cause on local television,
where they were allowed to speak in their mother tongue. This year Rusyns also
opened 26 Sunday schools instructing in the Rusyn language and culture.

Second, the Rusyn movement now seems to have an advocate with meaningful
political leverage in Kyiv -- Viktor Baloha, former Transcarpathian governor and
former emergency situations minister. Baloha -- a councilor of the Transcarpathian
Oblast Council, who backed last week's appeal for the official recognition of Rusyns --
was recently appointed by President Yushchenko as head of the presidential staff.

NRRZ deputy head Fedir Shandor tells RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that a nationality
status for Ukraine's Rusyns would considerably boost their efforts toward developing
their linguistic and cultural heritage, which they see as distinct from Ukrainian.

"According to the census in December 2001, 10,069 people [in Transcarpathian

Oblast] declared themselves to be Rusyn. Thus, even despite the fact that such a
nationality is not in the [official] register, there are people considering themselves to
be of Rusyn nationality," Shandor says.
According to Shandor, the most urgent tasks for Transcarpathian Rusyns include
launching a regular television program in the Rusyn vernacular, establishing a chair
of Rusyn studies at a university in Uzhhorod, the capital of Transcarpathian Oblast,
and working out a standardized version of the written Rusyn language.

Some estimates say there may be as many as 1.5 million people of Rusyn origin, first
of all in Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, the United States, and Canada. But their Rusyn
identity is generally weak, primarily because Rusyns have never had their own state
or political independence.

Complicated History

The history of Rusyns -- East Slavic inhabitants of the Carpathian Mountains -- is

quite convoluted and subject to many scholarly controversies.

Throughout the 19th century and until World War I, when overwhelmingly rural and
agricultural Rusyns produced their own intelligentsia and articulated the idea of their
ethnic distinctiveness, their fatherland -- Transcarpathia (Carpathian Rus) --
belonged to the Austro-Hungary.

After World War I and the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian state, most of
Transcarpathia found itself within the borders of Czechoslovakia, where Rusyns
enjoyed a sort of self-rule with their own governor, schools, a national anthem, and a
national theater.

After World War II most of Transcarpathia was annexed by the Soviet Union, which
did away with the idea of Rusyn distinctiveness and declared all Rusyns to be
Ukrainians. The communist regimes in post-World War II Czechoslovakia and
Poland adopted the Soviet line and also decreed that Rusyns within their borders
were Ukrainians.

Rusyns reemerged after the collapse of the communist system in Poland and Slovakia
and the breakup of the Soviet Union.
A census in Slovakia in 2001 registered 24,000 Rusyns, up from 17,000 Rusyns
registered in a census 10 years earlier. A census in Poland in 2002 found that there
were 6,000 Lemkos (local name for Rusyns) in the country.

The officially established numerical strength of Rusyns is not particularly impressive

but the general trend seems to be propitious for them -- having started from nil,
Rusyns continue to gain in number.

Shandor believes that the official unwillingness to grant recognition to Rusyns

tarnishes Ukraine's international image.

"It is very important for Ukraine to register this nationality, in order to avoid various
manipulations at the level of the European Union," Shandor says. "There is a league
of unrepresented peoples [the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization],
which creates a negative image for Ukraine in connection with the fact that the Rusyn
nationality is not recognized."

According to a final document of the meeting of the Conference on Security and

Cooperation in Europe in Copenhagen in 1990, "to belong to a national minority is a
matter of person's individual choice." Moreover, the document says that "persons
belonging to national minorities can exercise and enjoy their rights individually as
well as in community with other members of their group."

But many Ukrainians, including intellectuals and academics, would argue whether
European standards could be applied to Rusyns in Ukraine. One of them is Mykola
Zhulynskyy, director of the Institute of Literature in Ukraine's National Sciences
Academy.

"I think that in this case the European experience is of no use. This is simply a big
problem that arouse in connection with the fact that Ukraine had not been united,
that she had been torn apart by different empires. [The Rusyns constitute] the
indivisible Ukrainian body," Zhulynskyy says.
However, historical arguments can also be used to question Zhulynskyy's reasoning,
if not to discard it altogether. No later than a century ago many Russians used to
argue in almost the same way, asserting that Ukrainians ("Little Russians") and
Belarusians ("White Russians") constituted "the indivisible Russian body."

Now that Ukrainians have an independent state, do they really need to behave toward
their own "younger brothers" -- Transcarpathian Rusyns -- like their erstwhile
oppressor, tsarist Russia, behaved toward them?

(RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service correspondent Nadiya Petriv contributed to this

report.)