In the footsteps of the Rusyns in Europe: Ukraine, Slovakia, Serbia, Poland and Hungary. 9788090888302, 9788074190100

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Petr Kokaisl, Andrea Štolfová, Pavla Fajfrlíková, Veronika Němcová, Jana Zychová, Irena Cejpová et al.

In the footsteps of the Rusyns in Europe Ukraine, Slovakia, Serbia, Poland and Hungary

Members of the collective of authors: Tereza Braunsbergerová Irena Cejpová Kristýna Došková Pavla Fajfrlíková Veronika Fučíková Šárka Hlaváčková Albina Iskandarova Petr Kokaisl Jakub Kovář

NOSTALGIE [email protected]

2023

Marie Milenovská Romana Mondryk Veronika Němcová Filip Obermajer Andrea Štolfová Tanir Tlegenov Václav Vlna Jana Zychová

KOKAISL, Petr, ŠTOLFOVÁ, Andrea, FAJFRLÍKOVÁ, Pavla, NĚMCOVÁ, Veronika, ZYCHOVÁ, Jana, CEJPOVÁ, Irena et al. In the footsteps of the Rusyns in Europe: Ukraine, Slovakia, Serbia, Poland and Hungary. Prague: Nostalgie, 2023. 288 p. Edition Varied Europe – https://pestraevropa.hks.re ISBN 978-80-908883-0-2

Reviewers: Paul Robert Magocsi, Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) Professor, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto

ISBN 978-80-908883-0-2

doc. PhDr. Anna Plišková, PhD. Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture University of Prešov in Prešov

FOREWORD The aim of this monograph is to present the current situation of Rusyns in those European countries where, according to official or estimated statistics, their number is the highest - Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Serbia. In presenting the situation of the Rusyn population in these countries, an attempt has been made to indicate the number of Rusyns in the countries under study and at the same time to point out the problems of obtaining accurate data on Rusyns. Another aim of the research was to find out what the main elements of Rusyn ethnic identity are - here, regardless of geographical differences, religious affiliation or Byzantine rite (Catholic or Orthodox) stood out in the first place. The research also focused on the use of the Rusyn language and changes in its status, the possibilities of teaching the Rusyn language and the interest in teaching it among the Rusyns themselves. In addition to these two main aspects of Rusyn identity, other key elements of Rusyn material and non-material culture were also investigated. Emphasis was placed on the use of primarily qualitative methods to refine the available quantitative data. The results presented in this publication are based on both field research and research with Rusyn respondents conducted remotely via electronic communication in 2014-2019. Although this is a five-year period, it is possible to compare the individual Rusyn communities in the five countries studied, at least in part, synchronically (i.e. here and now). The research in Slovakia was carried out by Romana Mondryk, Veronika Fučíková, Kristýna Došková, Marie Milenovská, Šárka Hlaváčková, Filip Obermajer and Petr Kokaisl, with the assistance of Irena Cejpová. The research on Rusyns in Ukraine was carried out by Tereza Braunsbergerová, Albina Iskandarova, Tanir Tlegenov, Petr Kokaisl, Kristýna Došková, Veronika Fučíková, Marie Milenovská and Romana Mondryk, who also conducted field research among the Hutsuls. Research among Ukrainian and Romanian Hutsuls was carried out by Olena Povkhanych. The chapter on Ukrainian Rusyns was written by Veronika Němcová. Research in Poland was carried out by Petr Kokaisl and Václav Vlna, with final editing by Pavla Fajfrlíková. The research in Serbia was carried out by Jakub Kovář and the data was processed by Andrea Štolfová. Research in Hungary was carried out by Šárka Hlaváčková and Filip Obermajer, and final processing was carried out by Jana Zychová. PETR KOKAISL Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague 11 January 2023

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. RUSYNS 1.1.1. The formation of the Rusyn nation The Rusyns are in many ways a special nation - although they meet almost all the criteria for inclusion in the "prestigious" group of recognised nations, in some cases this inclusion is questioned for many reasons. This questioning comes (or has come) not only from representatives of the states where Rusyns have lived and live, but often directly from the Rusyn community itself. A part of the Rusyns not only did not emphasise their own national identity, but also rejected this distinction and tended to understand their own ethnicity as part of another, usually surrounding majority nation. The reasons for this can be traced back to the 19th century, when there were widespread attempts by leaders of small nations to increase their political or at least cultural autonomy. However, not all so-called small nations were in the same position to realise their revivalist aspirations. The number of members of a given national group also played an important role in the activation of revival processes, and by this criterion the Rusyns (along with other small nations) were at a considerable disadvantage. In some cases, the leaders of small nations had already expressed some national ambitions in the nineteenth century, but these were mostly limited to linguistic and cultural goals; in others, the groups remained at the level of ethnic categories, and in still others, a very limited regional folk community. It is worth noting that these were generally groups with numbers well below, rather than just above, the 500,000 mark, whereas the least numerous ethnic groups from which the successful national movement emerged numbered around a million. They were thus a kind of remnant of the earlier ethnic diversity, where assimilation of ethnic groups had stopped at a certain stage. Many of them came to the fore in the 20th century. The best known are probably the inhabitants of certain valleys on the Italian and Swiss sides of the Alps: the Rhaeto-Romanic Friulians, the Grishuns and Ladins, and the Val d'Aosta. In France, this group includes the Bretons and Corsicans; in the Netherlands, the (West) Frisians; in Denmark, the North Frisians and Faerians; in the far north, the Sami; in central Europe, the Upper and Lower Sorbs, the Kashubians; in eastern Europe, the Karelians, Ingrians, Livonians, Gagauzians, Hungarian (Transcarpathian) Rusyns. In these cases, however, the national movement - if we can speak of it at all - never achieved any significant success. 1 ........................................... 1

HROCH, Miroslav. Národy nejsou dílem náhody: příčiny a předpoklady utváření moderních evropských národů. Praha: Sociologické nakladatelství (SLON), 2009. ISBN 978-80-7419-010-0.

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Introduction

Rusyns

The emergence of politically recognised nations in Central and Eastern Europe has had a distinct peculiarity. The vast majority of the nations in the region only found their own statehood in the twentieth century, after the First World War and, in some cases, after the collapse of the socialist camp. Until then, they had been under the domination of the great continental powers - the Austrian (from 1867 Austro-Hungarian) and Russian empires, as well as Prussia and Saxony, which were united with several other states in 1871 to form the German Empire. This situation influenced not only the development of the ethnic identity of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, but also the emergence of political nations in the region. In this respect, the Rusyns of the Austrian (Austro-Hungarian) Empire faced a difficult choice: whether to participate in the formation of the "great" Russian nation as one of its ethnographic groups, or to cooperate with the Russian Ukrainians in the creation of an independent nation of Belarus (which later became the Ukrainian nation). The situation was aggravated by the political domination of the Poles in Galicia and the Hungarians in Hungarian Rus (Transcarpathia), who had clear territorial claims against them and, if they did not try to assimilate the Rusyns, regarded them as inferior, capable only of holding second-class positions in all spheres of public life. In the end, the Austrian authorities were well aware of all these contradictions and tried to exploit them for their own ends. 2 Attempts to assimilate the Rusyns into some other Slavic nation have perhaps appeared from the very beginning of the declarations of Slavic reciprocity. An example of this was the Slavic Congress in Prague in 1848, before which Ivan Beyitsky pointed out that there were many who denied that the Rusyns were a separate nation, and among them were mainly Poles. They want to have a state within the old borders from the Baltic to the Black Sea, with one institution and one language, which means that they want to rule not only over the weak Rusyns, but over the Slavs in general. 3 This text indicates an attempt to incorporate the Rusyns into the Polish nation, but it is of course questionable to what extent the ethnonym Rusyn was intended to refer to the Rusyns as they were understood at the turn of the 20th century - it could just as easily have referred to a group of Slavic peoples that we would now call Ukrainians, Belarusians or Rusyns, as the Assembly discussed both the Polish and Russian sections. The previous paragraph showed the attempt of the Poles to include the Rusyns in the Polish nation (although other Slavic peoples besides the Rusyns may have been involved). The Polish-Austrian university teacher and politician from Galicia, Stanisław Count Tarnowski, wrote about the efforts of the Russians to include other Slavic peoples, including the Rusyns, in the Russian nation. ........................................... 2

SOLOVJEV, Kirill Andrejevič. Rusiny Avstro-Vengrii i rossijskoje obščestvo. Vestnik RGGU. Serija: Politologija. Istorija. Meždunarodnye otnošenija, 2015, 11 (154). 3 TOBOLKA, Zdeněk V. Slovanský sjezd v Praze roku 1848. Praha: F. Šimáček, 1901, p. 85.

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According to him, as soon as the Moscow princes freed themselves from Tatar rule, they began to turn against the Russian-speaking populations of Poland and Lithuania and had themselves titled Tsar of All Russia (tsarów wszech Rusi). In this way, the Russian tsars wanted to make it clear that all territories where the Russian language was spoken (ruskim językiem) belonged to them, as if it were the same thing to use the term lud ruski or rosyjski. Similarly with language: język ruski is not the same as język rosyjski. Tarnowski emphasises the difference between those who live on the territory of Russia and those who live outside the Russian state, seeing them as separate groups. According to him, this is a Moscow deception that even the Germans, the French or the English believe, namely that Rusyns are the same as Russians.4 Another attempt to incorporate Rusyns into another nation comes from the present - today Ukraine is the only state where Rusyns live compactly and in large numbers, but Rusyn nationality is not recognised by the state and can only be declared as a subset of the Ukrainian nation. Attempts to declare Rusyn nationality and to have it officially recognised by the state are considered political Rusynism, which is often associated with political separatism. It is a fact that Rusyn efforts for recognition of the Rusyn nation are supported by Russia, and for this reason the Rusyn movement is completely rejected by many Ukrainians. The situation of the Rusyns in Ukraine today is thus similar to that of the Ukrainians at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when the Ukrainians/MaloRussians were referred to as a branch of the great Russian nation.5 In the second half of the 19th century, however, the name Rusín / Lemko was still understood in some places not to refer to a nation, but to a family, as Kateřina Romaňáková (✵1941) mentions, whose ancestors came to Romania around 1850 and came from what is now north-eastern Slovakia, Kamienka: Our family comes from Kamienka, which is now in Slovakia, not far from Poprad, near Stara Ľubovna. Our ancestors left there four generations ago or even earlier. At that time it was basically Podkarpatska Rus, or simply Rusyns. Our family belonged to the Lemkos. They didn't really count themselves as Rusyns, people there distinguished between Rusyns and Lemkos.6

The events after the Second World War also had a significant impact on the Rusyns and their national consciousness - most of them found themselves in states that enforced the policy of non-existence of the Rusyn nation. As a result, Rusyns were discriminated against in many ways and could not claim Rusyn nationality. The largest number of Rusyns lived in Subcarpathian Rus, which became part of ........................................... 4

TARNOWSKI, Stanisław. O Rusi i Rusinach. Krakow, 1891. Ottův slovník naučný: Illustrovaná encyklopædie obecných vědomostí. 16. díl. Praha: J. Otto, 1900, p. 717. 6 Kateřina Romaňáková [online] © Projekt Sudetské osudy. 3. 5. 2006. [cit. 13. 1. 2020] Available from: https://www.pametnaroda.cz/cs/romanakova-katerina-20060503-0. 5

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the USSR. No Soviet census allowed Rusyns to declare their Rusyn nationality, and Rusyns were considered a subgroup of Ukrainians. The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia (3rd edition, 1969-1978) considers Rusyns to be clearly Ukrainian: Rusyns (from Rus'), the name given to the Ukrainians of the western Ukrainian regions of Halychyna (Galicia), Bukovina, Transcarpathian Ukraine, which was most widespread when they lived under the oppression of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The special historical conditions for the development of these groups of Ukrainians (long foreign domination, division by state borders, social and national oppression, assimilationist policies of foreign feudal and bourgeois rulers, etc.) caused a certain peculiarity of their language and culture. The entry on Rusyns in the 1966 Czechoslovak encyclopaedia Příruční slovník naučný is similar: Rusyns, Rusnyaks, Malorussians, obsolete names in bourgeois literature for the Ukrainian population of the former Halich , Carpathian region and Bukovina.7

Figure 1. Rusyn women in Bukovina, early 20th century. The Great Retreat: photographs taken by AustroHungarian officers as Russian troops retreated during the First World War. Retrieved from: https://kulturologia.ru/blogs/1 30516/29395/

Soviet ideology treated other groups in a similar way (the Boykos, one of the groups of Verkhovyntsi / Highlanders, an ethnographic group of Ukrainians)... The change in the perception of Rusyn nationality began only with the fall of the socialist regimes - only since the 1990s has it been possible to declare Rusyn nationality in censuses in countries with a Rusyn population. The exception was socialist Yugoslavia, which recognised Rusyn nationality in the autonomous region of Vojvodina. The census and the declaration of Rusyn nationality remain a political issue in Ukraine to this day - Rusyns can only declare themselves as part of the Ukrainian nation. ........................................... 7

Příruční slovník naučný. Třetí díl. Praha: Academia, 1966, p. 911.

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For the sake of simplicity, this publication uses the ethnonym Rusyn (without the adjective), although - in the words of P. R. Magocsi - every Carpatho-Rusyn is a Rusyn, but not every Rusyn is a Carpatho-Rusyn. What kind of Rusyns they are is quite clear from the context of this publication. The period of the collapse of the socialist camp in Europe at the end of the 1980s is often referred to as the 3rd national revival in relation to the Rusyns. In connection with this, Rusyn civic associations were formed in individual countries:

• • • •

1989, April – Association of Lemkos, Poland

• • • • •

1990, December – Ruska Matka, Serbia

1990, February – Obshchestvo karpats'kŷch Rusynov, Ukraine 1990, March – Rusyn Revival in Slovakia , 1990, October – Society of Friends of Podkarpatska Rus, Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia) 1991, March – World Congress of Rusyns, Slovakia 1992, May – Organisation of Rusynsin Hungary 2000, September – Cultural Society of Rusynsof Romania 2003, June – Company "Rusnak" in Croatia.

1.1.2. Rusyn statehood Despite partial efforts to create an independent Rusyn state (which never included the entire territory inhabited by Rusyns), Rusyn "statehood" was always very short-lived. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Rusyns (in the broader national sense, i.e. including Ukrainians and other Slavic national groups) declared themselves to be one nation: o People's Republic of Western Ukraine (with representatives mainly associated with the Greek Catholic Church). The republic formally ceased to exist when it merged with the Ukrainian People's Republic (formed from part of the territory of the former Tsarist Russia), but in practice the two parts remained quite distinct due to their historical background. o The Western Lemko / Lemko-Rusyn People's Republic with its capital at Florynka (see map 61 on p. 191). This republic was created by the merger of two Lemko-Rusyn councils (věče / вече) in Krynica and in the village of Gładyszów. According to the recollections of the participants, there were votes in the council for the union of the Republic with Russia, for the creation of an independent Republic, and even for incorporation to Czechoslovakia, but no one voted for the 9

Introduction

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union with Poland. The final decision on the future of the region was left to the Paris Peace Conference, which was not friendly to the Rusyns/Lemkos. The republic was led by representatives imprisoned by the Austro-Hungarian government. o The East Lemko Republic (Komancza Republic) formed from 33 municipalities with a strong orientation towards the West Ukrainian People's Republic . The reason for the disappearance of the Rusyn republics on the territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire was largely due to the fact that they were created on a confessional basis. The main conflict between the Rusyn Lemkos People's Republic and the Eastern Lemkos and Western Ukrainian People's Republics was that the leaders of the Rusyn Lemkos People's Republic were Orthodox, while the leaders of the Eastern Lemkos and Western Ukrainian People's Republics were Greek Catholic.8 Another unsuccessful attempt to proclaim a Rusyn state dates from the period before the outbreak of the Second World War, when an independent Carpathian Ukraine (see p. 49) - the territory of Czechoslovak Podkarpatska Rus - was proclaimed for several days. The first Subcarpathian government was appointed in Prague on 11 October 1938 (before the so-called Vienna Arbitration, but after the loss of the Sudetenland forced by the Munich Agreement) on the recommendation of Subcarpathian representatives. The six-member cabinet, headed by Andrej Bródy, was pro-Russian (in the terminology of the time, it was a group of Rusynophiles and Russophiles). However, after only 14 days, the Czechoslovak government accused some of the cabinet members (including Bródy) of spying for Hungary and Poland.9 By appointing a new cabinet headed by the Greek Catholic priest Augustin Voloshin (Avhustyn Voloshin), the Czechoslovak government in Prague sided with the so-called Ukrainophiles. Less than six weeks after the Munich Agreement, another protocol was signed in the framework of the so-called Vienna Arbitration (2 November 1938), which ........................................... 8

CHAVIČ, Oleg. Děn' v istorii. 5 děkabrja. [online] 5. 12. 2018. [cit. 12. 11. 2019] Available from: https://ukraina.ru/history/20181128/1021869859.html 9 Immediately after his arrest, Bródy (✵2 July 1895, ✟7 December 1946) began a hunger strike in protest at his arrest and imprisonment. He was released on 11 February 1939 and after a meeting with the President of the Czechoslovak Republic (then Czecho-Slovakia) Emil Hácha, he was sent to the Tatra Mountains for treatment, from where he fled to Hungary. After the Hungarian occupation of the entire Subcarpathian region in March 1939, Brody returned to Uzhhorod. In May he became an un-elected member of the lower house of the Hungarian parliament, where until 1944 he led a group of Transcarpathian deputies demanding autonomy for the region. When Soviet troops began to occupy the Transcarpathian region, he refused to emigrate to the United States, even though a plane was waiting for the members of the Hungarian parliament. He was arrested by the Soviet NKVD on 29 November 1945. In May 1946 he was sentenced to death by a Soviet court for collaborating with the government of Miklós Horthy. According to various sources, he was executed on 11 June or 7 December 1946. He was rehabilitated on the basis of Article 1 of the Law of the Ukrainian SSR "On Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression in Ukraine" of 17 April 1991.

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Rusyns

ceded the Czechoslovak territory inhabited by the Hungarian minority to Hungary. The original Hungarian demand for a large part of Slovakia and the whole of Subcarpathian Rus was reduced to the southern regions of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus, but the ceded territory of Subcarpathian Rus included the two most important administrative and cultural centres - Uzhhorod and Mukachevo. The reduced territory of Subcarpathian Rus (like Slovakia) nevertheless functioned as an autonomous unit with its own government in a reduced Czechoslovakia. After the 'return' of the southern part and the capital of Transcarpathia, Uzhhorod, to Hungary, Voloshin moved the seat of government to Khust. Voloshin's pro-Ukrainian orientation was reflected in the change of the region's name (Carpathian Ukraine) and the introduction of Ukrainian as the official and educational language. Representatives of the Ukrainian emigration also had their own plans for the Sub-Carpathian region, seeing it as a stepping stone to the creation of an independent Ukraine. Even representatives of Nazi Germany were not opposed to these ideas, maintaining a consulate in Khust and signing economic agreements with the autonomous government. However, as Hitler had more grandiose plans for Eastern Europe, he later sacrificed the Subcarpathian region and effectively handed it over to his Hungarian allies - on 15 March 1939, as German troops marched through Prague, the CarpathoUkrainian Diet declared independence, and on the same day Hungarian troops entered Khust and within days took control of the entire Subcarpathian region.10 Thus, if one speaks of the Subcarpathian region as a Rusyn state in the context of Rusyn statehood in the period just before the outbreak of the Second World War, this is only true to a very limited extent. Only the first autonomous government of Subcarpathian Rus, which lasted only a few days, has any connection with the Rusyns in its pro-Rusyn orientation. The other Autonomous Governments and the proclaimed Independent State, which lasted for a short time, can certainly no longer be called Rusyn because of their clearly pro-Ukrainian orientation. At present, Rusyns have autonomous status only in Serbian Vojvodina, where Rusyn is also one of the official languages. This status was already enshrined in the 1974 constitution of the Socialist Autonomous Region of Vojvodina (SerboCroatian or Croatian-Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian and Rusyn and their script are equivalent) 11. This equivalence allowed for basic education in these languages as well as their use in official relations.12 ........................................... 10

By: MAGOCSI, Paul R. A history of Ukraine: the land and its peoples. 2nd, rev. and expanded ed. Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2010. ISBN 978-1-4426-1021-7, pp. 657-569. 11 У Социјалистичкој Аутономној Покрајини Војводини равноправни су српскохрватски односно хрватскосрпски, мађарски, словачки, румунски и русински језик и писма. (U Socijalističkoj Autonomnoj Pokrajini Vojvodini ravnopravni su srpskochrvatski odnosno chrvatskosrpski, madjarski, slovački, rumunski i rusinski jezik i pisma.) 12 KATUNIN, Dmitrij Anatol'jevič. Rusinskij jazyk i jazyki drugich nacional'nych men'šinstv v zakonodatěl'stve Vojevodiny / Русинский язык и языки других национальных меньшинств в законодательстве Воеводины. Stat'ja 1. Rusin, 2015, 4 (42).

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1.1.3. Numbers of Rusyns For many ethnic groups it is very difficult to determine the number of members, and we often encounter two extremes - the official figures from central authorities are often much lower (small numbers of minority members find it easier to deny their demands for, for example, education in their own language, cultural or political autonomy). At the other extreme is the number of minority members reported by representatives of national associations, who often include in these figures residents who are fully assimilated and have little or no awareness of their minority status. In the case of the Rusyns, the inaccuracy of data on their numbers is exacerbated by their frequent indecision about which ethnicity to declare. An example of this is the situation found during the fieldwork in Slovakia. For many residents, it is still not a matter of course to declare their Rusyn ethnicity in the census, even though they consider themselves to be Rusyn. On the contrary, some may register as Rusyns in the census, but this is a custom and they do not consider themselves to be Rusyns. According to the census, 80% of respondents in the Rusyn municipality of Runina declare themselves to be Rusyns. Some of the respondents consider themselves to be Rusyns and therefore register themselves in the census. Some respondents reported that the Rusyn nationality is as fictitious and invented as the Ukrainian nationality, but they still registered as Rusyns in the census. Other respondents could not remember which nationality they had declared in the census - whether Slovak, Rusyn or Ukrainian. Still other respondents reported that they were Rusyns but did not declare this nationality in the census because they did not want to support the representatives of the modern Rusyn movement.13 The following table is based on data from the Joshua Project. Due to the large number of field workers who verify official data and refine estimates of ethnic group numbers on the ground, these data are generally reliable. The largest difference between official and actual figures is in the case of Ukraine. Table 1: Numbers of Rusyns in European countries in 2019. Country Number of Rusyns Ukraine 503,000 Rusyns Hutsul Slovakia 33,000 Serbia 11,000 Poland 11,000 Hungary 3,700

Official statistics 10,183 (2001) 21,400 (2001) 33,482 (2011) 15,905 (2002) 10,531 (2002) 3,882 (2011)

........................................... 13

KOKAISL, Petr. Co znamená být slovenským Rusínem? Proměna etnické identity rusínské menšiny na Slovensku. Historická sociologie, 2017, 9.2: 85–102.

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Rusyns

Croatia 1,800 906 (2001) Montenegro 1,700 946 (2011) Czech Republic 800 739 (2011) Total 566,000 Source. [online] © 2019 Joshua Project. [cited 5 November 2019] Available from: https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14601; Čysel'nist' osib okremych ethnohrafičnych hrup ukrains'koho etnosu ta jich ridna mova, 2001. © 2003-2004, Derzhavnyj komitet statistyky Ukrainy ; Tab. 156 Population by nationality, mother tongue and sex. Bratislava: Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (http://bit.ly/20SK-stat); Population: data by localities. Belgrade: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 2003. ISBN 86-84433-51-3; Population. Demographic and social status and structure. Warsaw: Głowny Urząd статистиyczny, 2013. ISBN 978-83-7027-521-1; TÓTH, Ágnes and János VÉKÁS. National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary in the Period 2001-2011. Statisztikai Szemle. 2014, 92 (17), 95-112.; Population by ethnicity, by castles/opæinama, 2001 census [online] National Institute of Statistics. (http://bit.ly/dzs-hr-20); Census of housing, domaćinstava i stanova u Crnoj Gori 2011. godine. Podgorica: Zavod za statistiku, 2011; Population by nationality, sex and age. CSO, 2019.

The table does not include Romanian Rusyns, although they are still singled out in some publications, they are counted as Ukrainians in the census. Although some villages in Romania still identify themselves as Rusyn, the majority of the population consider themselves primarily Ukrainian and do not see any major differences between Rusyns and Ukrainians. The most numerous of these are in the north of the country, in Maramures and Suceava, and within this group are the Hutsuls, an overlap with the indigenous population of the Carpathian part of Ukraine. As a result of historical border changes, there are Ukrainians living in what is now Romania and a minority of Romanians living on the Ukrainian side of the border. Ukrainians in Romania (2011) Districts with a proportion of Ukrainians above 0.5% of the population

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Rusyns

In the Maramureshe region, where the Hutsuls live, all respondents said they were both Hutsuls and Ukrainians. There are schools where Ukrainian is taught at the level of the mother tongue. There is even a Ukrainian lyceum in Sighet Marmației. The interviewee from Valea Vișeului, who teaches in a local school, explained that she tries to adapt the teaching of Ukrainian to the Hutsul dialect.14 The second largest group are the Banat Ukrainians, also known as the Rusyns. They are the descendants of emigrants from the territory of present-day Slovakia (from the Šariš region), who probably moved here at the time of the migration of Greek-Catholic Rusyns (from 1745) from Šariš and Zemplín to Vojvodina - the Lower Country. The local population overlaps with another nationality - Slovaks. Some of them consider themselves Slovaks, although they use a language that can be described as Rusyn. No, we are Slovaks. Although such weaker Slovaks, the real ones are from Nadlak, and the Rusyns (Rusyns ) are the ones who came from Maramuresh.15

The religious affiliation, or rather the ritual itself, remains a difference – in Maramures a Rusyn vicariate (Rom. Vicariatul General Special al Rutenilor) is established within the Greek Catholic Church. Ukrainian communities in Banat include Copăcele, Zorile, Sălbăgelu Nou and Cornuțel (Caraș-Severin county) and Soca, Pogănești, Știuca, Drago-mirești (Timiș county). The last (and smallest) distinct Ukrainian group consists of small groups in the Danube delta in Tulcea. Unlike the Russians who also live in this area, they are descendants of the Cossacks from Zaporozhye who migrated here at the end of the 18th century. The number of Romanian Ukrainians can be described as relatively stable, despite some decline. Until 1948, the majority of Ukrainians in Romania belonged to the Greek Catholic Church (31 Greek Catholic parishes with 41 churches and 40,000 believers). After its dissolution, its leaders and faithful (despite initial resistance, when many priests and faithful were sentenced to many years in prison) converted to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Within the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate, however, the Ukrainian faithful had their own vicariate. Under the communist regime, Ukrainian schools were closed in 1963, leaving Ukrainian churches as the only public institutions where the Ukrainian language was used. The Greek Catholic Ukrainian Vicariate in Romania was only restored in 1996. ........................................... 14

POVKHANYCH, Olena. Etnické vědomí Huculů na Ukrajině a v Rumunsku. Praha: PEF ČZU, 2017, p. 29–30. 15 MAL'COVSKA, Marija. V objatjach biloho chliba. Narodny novinky 21–24/2005, p. 1, 3. Additional availability: http://www.rusynacademy.sk/image/21-24.pdf

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Today, however, Greek Catholics are already a minority among Ukrainians in Romania (about 14,000 people), while the rest (about 37,000 people) belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church (Orthodox Ukrainian Vicariate). Number of Ukrainians in Romania

Figure 2. Number of Ukrainians in Romania (1930-2011).

Figure 3. Greek Catholic Ukrainian church in Vișeu de Sus. Vișeu de Sus, 3. 7. 2017

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Rusyns

Ukrainians in Romania have also preserved the original (Orthodox) celebration of Christmas. Although most Ukrainians and Romanians are Orthodox, the church calendar is different. The Romanian Orthodox Church follows the Gregorian calendar and so celebrates Christmas on 24 and 25 December (which is rather unusual for Orthodox Christians) - the official public holidays in Romania are 25 and 26 December. Orthodox Ukrainians, on the other hand, follow the Julian calendar and do not celebrate Christmas until January. The official liturgical calendar of Greek Catholics in Romania is almost identical to that of Roman Catholics.

Figure 4., 5. Sunday Orthodox Ukrainian service. Bistra (Maramureș County), 2 July 2017

The church remains an important means of preserving the Ukrainian language in some villages. Not all the clergy of the Ukrainian vicariate in Romania conduct services in Ukrainian, but Romanian is becoming more common here too. Nevertheless, even these priests can have a very strong sense of belonging to the Ukrainian ethnic group and try to baptise in their parishes the original Ukrainian customs, such as the Bethlehem plays or the Easter egg decorating - pysanky.

16

Introduction

Rusyns

Figure 6. Christmas Nativity plays in the village of Krasna (Crasna Vişeului).

Despite the fact that Ukrainians in Romania are a permanent settlement and the absolute majority in 27 municipalities, not everyone is optimistic about their future and the preservation of Ukrainian characteristics. It all depends on the next generation - and that could be the stumbling block. While members of the older and middle generations speak Ukrainian with each other, it is not so obvious among the children. Even in some villages, where over 90% of the population is Ukrainian and there are Ukrainian schools, children speak Romanian more often than Ukrainian. Thus, the main attribute of Ukrainian nationality is no longer a specific language - Ukrainian with some differences and some old expressions compared to the written Ukrainian in Ukraine. A more important element is a sense of history - many Ukrainians clearly consider themselves Ukrainians, even if they do not use Ukrainian, but are very aware of their distinct origins.16

Figure 7. Ruscova - a village with a 94 per cent Ukrainian population. Ruscova, 3. 7. 2017

........................................... 16

Ukrajinci v Rumunsku. [online] Pestrá Evropa 2017. Hospodářská a kulturní studia PEF ČZU v Praze, www.hks.re [cit. 4. 1. 2020] Available from: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/ukrajinci_v_rumunsku/

17

Introduction

Rusyns

The situation in Moldova is similar to that in Romania. The population that claims Ukrainian nationality in the census (it is the first largest minority group in Moldova) is in some cases aware of their Rusyn (or Hutsul) origin. However, this is not an expression of ethnicity. Respondents in Ukrainian villages (in 2017) mentioned their ancestors who came to the territory of today's Moldova in different ways - in the 19th century from the territory of today's western Ukraine (the surname Gucul remained), during the 1st World War, when they fled from the Soviet Union. During the First World War, when they fought for the AustroHungarian Empire and were captured by the Russians, and during the Second World War, in connection with the advance of the 2nd Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Malinovsky (today the village of Malinovscoe, Rîșcani region). The connection with these ancestors (if they came from Rusyn and possibly Hutsul areas) leads to the labelling of Rusyn, Hutsul. To those around them, however, they present themselves as Ukrainians, with Ukrainian ethnicity largely overlapping with Russian. This is most evident in their use of language, which is largely Russian.

Figure 8. The village of Răcăria, Rîșcani district, Moldova, with 80% Ukrainians. The former name of the village was Jegorovka / Egorovka. Photo 4. 7. 2017.

The majority of Ukrainians live in the north and east of the country, where there are many municipalities with more than half the Ukrainian population. However, a large number of Ukrainians do not use the Ukrainian language. The teaching of Ukrainian in Moldova began in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Currently, there are several dozen schools (including in Transnistria) where at least Ukrainian language and history are taught. 17 ........................................... 17

KOKAISL, Petr. Etnické minority v Evropě. Česká zemědělská univerzita, Provozně ekonomická fakulta, 2014, p. 302–304. ISBN 978-80-213-2524-1.

18

Introduction

Rusyns

Ukrajinci v Besarábii a Moldávii

Ukrainians in Bessarabia and Moldova (1897-2004) 800 000 1979 560 679

600 000

400 000

1989 600 366

1959 1970 420 820 506 560

1897 379 698

2004 282 406

200 000

0 1890

1910

1930

1950

1970

1990

2010

Figure 9. Ukrainians in Bessarabia and Moldova (1897-2004). Source Pervaya Vseobshchaya perepis' naseleniya Rossiiskoi Imperii 1897 g. Raspredeleniye naseleniya po rodnomu jazyka. S.-Petersburg: 1903-1905.; Settlement and demographic structure. [online] © 2014 National'noje bjuro statistiki R. Moldova. [cited 2014 Sep 4]. Available from: http://bit.ly/2-MD. The year 1897 refers to the whole of Bessarabia, 2004 is without the Republic of Transnistria.

The list of municipalities indicates the number of Ukrainians in the municipality and their percentage according to the 2004 Moldovan census. Clişcăuţi Codreni Moșana Grozniţa Unguri Slobozia Medveja Halahora de Sus Nicolaevca Ştiubeieni Tețcani Bulăiești Calaraseuca Ramazan Mihaileni Chirilovca Bogdanovca Veche Medveja Bocicăuți Valcinet Grimești Malinovscoe Riscani Soroca

192 902 1633 368 1365 47 1053 307 406 2525 1560 1564 532 775 9 1215 1489 34 2566 200 1112 897 94

94% 94% 93% 93% 92% 92% 92% 91% 91% 91% 91% 91% 90% 90% 90% 90% 90% 89% 89% 89% 89% 89% 88%

Mihailovca Usurei Octeabriscoe Berlinți Bratusenii Noi Balanul Nou Sagaidac Naslavcea Stolniceni Mîndra Caracușenii Noi Berezovca Slobozia-Șirăuți Tăura Veche Danu Vasileuti Ceparia Beleuti Luparia Elizavetovca Comarovca Racaria

19

705 402 41 1356 527 365 318 968 1284 683 464 481 937 452 2969 1191 216 193 198 412 239 1557

88% 88% 87% 87% 87% 86% 86% 86% 85% 85% 85% 85% 85% 84% 84% 84% 84% 84% 84% 83% 83% 83%

Introduction

Rusyns

The figures for Ukrainians (called Malorussians in Tsarist Russia) may also include Rusyns. While Ukrainians were classified as a subgroup of the Russian population in censuses until the early 20th century (unless they were directly classified as Russians), Rusyns were often not counted at all. According to the data of Russian ethnographers working in Bessarabia in the territory of presentday Moldova at the beginning of the 20th century, we can estimate that half of the population of the Bessarabian governorate, which was included in the number of Malorussians, consisted of Rusyns (Rusnaks). According to parish records from the mid-19th century, the Rusnaks were almost twice as numerous as the Malorussians and made up about 15% of the population of the entire gubernia.18

Figure 10. Moldovan municipalities with a share of Ukrainians above 80% (2004).

........................................... 18

SULJAK, Sergej Georgijevič. Rusiny Moldavii: osnovnye etapy etničeskoj istorii. Moskva, 2006.

20

Introduction

Rusyns

Figure 11: Current compact Rusyn settlement in Europe.

21

Introduction

Rusyns

1.1.4. Rusyns in America The nineteenth century was characterised by massive emigration overseas for many European nations, and the Rusyns were no exception. It is no longer possible to determine the exact number of Rusyns who emigrated to America, primarily for economic reasons, as migrants were mostly registered on the basis of citizenship rather than nationality. Statistical data from 1869-1910 show the extent of economic migration, which resulted in the loss of more than half a million people on the territory of present-day Slovakia. Apart from migration within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the main source of emigration was the USA.19 Most Rusyns initially went to Pennsylvania, which became the centre of the Rusyn Church. In 1880, an estimated 1,000 Rusyns lived in the mining areas of Pennsylvania; ten years later, there were 20,000, and in another ten years (1900), 40,000 Rusyn immigrants. In 1884 the first Rusyn missionary arrived in Shenandoah, and two decades later the first Rusyn bishop took up residence in Philadelphia. Again, it should be remembered that the term Rusyn referred to a different ethnonym than it does today. The ethnonym Rusyn was used as an umbrella term for immigrants of various origins. Because the national consciousness of many Rusyns did not fully develop until after World War I, the term Rusyn was also a common designation in American immigration records, adding to the confusion about the national origins of the immigrants. The ethnic term Ukrainian was used by the descendants of Rusyn immigrants from Austrian Halych/Galicia and Bukovina, while the term Rusyn was acceptable to most descendants of immigrants from the Hungarian region of Subcarpathia. 20 The Rusyns in the USA united (and separated themselves from their surroundings) mainly on religious grounds. Although they had no Greek Catholic priests of their own, they formed a Greek Catholic Association and (in 1888) asked the Bishop of Presov to send them a priest. This, however, required the approval of the American bishop. The latter was apparently unaware of the Uzhhorod Union (which has ensured full unity with Rome for the Church of the Byzantine Rite since the 17th century) and refused the married Greek Catholic priests. The Rusyn Greek Catholic priest then found acceptance in the Russian Orthodox Church, embraced Orthodoxy, and at the same time this move became the first schism among American Rusyns, several thousand of whom also converted to Orthodoxy. It was not until 1916 that the Vatican established Greek

........................................... 19

JAKEŠOVÁ, Elena. Reemigrácia a vysťahovalectvo obyvateľstva Slovenska v období po vzniku Československej republiky. Slováci v zahraničí. Martin: Matica slovenská, 1988. 20 PROCKO, Bohdan P. The Establishment of the Ruthenian Church in the United States, 18841907. Pennsylvania history, 1975, 42.2: 137-154.

22

Introduction

Rusyns

Catholic administrations - one for Rusyns and other Hungarian Greek Catholics in Pittsburgh and another for Ukrainians in Philadelphia.21 Divisions between Rusyns from Halych/Galicia, Subcarpathia or Bukovina, who preferred Russian, Hungarian or Ukrainian orientation, or who had no national preference and claimed to be Greek Catholic or Orthodox, led to a number of scandals, and in some cases to the establishment of a second or even third parish in the same community. In Hazleton, Pennsylvania, for example, there were three Rusyn parishes, each with its own priest and church. Some misunderstandings and conflicts even had to be settled by the courts.22 Those Rusyns who embraced Orthodoxy in America (most of the 29,000 Rusyn converts became members of the Russian Orthodox Church) at the same time eagerly adopted Russian culture and abandoned their native culture. 23 Nevertheless, many Rusyn emigrants maintained frequent contact with Rusyns in Slovakia and the Subcarpathian region until 1945. The Rusyn emigrated not only to North America, but also to the southern part of the American continent. A significant Rusyn settlement was in Paraná, Brazil, where the immigrants were troubled by the lack of priests of the Byzantine rite.24

Figure 12. Rusyn emigration – Rusyn newspaper from 1914 published in Brazil . Source: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_na_ukrajine, Lviv Museum, 2017.

........................................... 21

STOLARIK, M. Mark. Slovak Immigrants Come to Terms with Religious Diversity in North America. The Catholic Historical Review 2010/96 (1): 56-84, https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.0.0632. 22 PROCKO, Bohdan P. The Establishment of the Ruthenian Church in the United States, 18841907. Pennsylvania history, 1975, 42.2: 137-154. 23 ALTER, Peter T. The creation of multi-ethnic peoplehood. Journal of American Ethnic History 1996/15 (3): 3-21. 24 GUÉRIOS, Paulo Renato. Immigration and the maintenance of the religious moral order. Vibrant. Virtual Brazilian Anthropology, 2014, v10n2.

23

Introduction

Rusyns

Despite significant Rusyn emigration to America and efforts to maintain cultural elements associated with Rusyn ancestry, Rusyn Americans are largely absent from ethnic group statistics. In most cases there is no declaration of Rusyn nationality, but rather a declaration of religious affiliation. In the USA, the national Rusyn church is the Rusyn Byzantine Catholic Church. The number of members of the Rusyn Byzantine Catholic Church has declined significantly since the beginning of the millennium, and this trend has only stopped in recent years. Table 2: Number of members of the Rusyn Byzantine Catholic Church in the USA 1990 Metropolitan Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, USA Eparchy of Parma, USA Eparchy of Passaic, USA Eparchy of Holy Mary of Protection (Phoenix) Number of members of The Rusyn Byzantine Catholic Church in the USA

2000

2010

2015

2016

143,784

75,261

58,997

57,686

57,407

22,202

12,680

8,791

9,020

9,020

85,050

51,771

17,692

13,367

13,367

17,125

3,108

2,613

2,254

2,706

270,151

144,820

90,103

84,342

84,516

Number of members of the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church in the USA 300 000 250 000 200 000 150 000 100 000 50 000 0 1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

Source: The Eastern Catholic Churches 2016 [online] Annuario Pontificio 1990-2016, Ronald G. Roberson, CSP. [cited 14 October 2019] Available from: http://www.cnewa.org/sourceimages/Roberson-eastcath-statistics/eastcatholic-stat16.pdf

24

Introduction

Rusyns

Some Catholic Rusyns may also be members of other Catholic churches operating in America – the largest being the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with overseas eparchies: Metropolitan Archeparchy of Philadelphia, USA (14,199 persons in 2016), Eparchy of Saint Josaphat in Parma, USA (10,685 persons), Eparchy of Saint Nicholas of Chicago, USA (11,000 persons), Eparchy of Stamford, USA (14,420 persons), Metropolitan Archeparchy of Winnipeg, Canada (5,103 persons), Eparchy of Edmonton, Canada (5,359 persons), Eparchy of New Westminster, Canada (7,500 persons), Eparchy of Saskatoon, Canada (6,024 persons), Eparchy of Toronto, Canada (24,000 persons), Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne, Australia (33,600 persons), Eparchy of São João Batista em Curitiba, Brazil (85,700 persons), Eparchy of the Immaculate Conception in Prudentopolis, Brazil (also 85,700 persons), Eparchy of Santa Maria del Patrocinio en Buenos Aires, Argentina (167,800 persons). 25 Orthodox Russians in America (USA and Canada) also have their own eparchy/diocese - the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese. The number of believers in this eparchy, which is subordinate to the Patriarchate of Constantinople (8,500 people in 81 parishes and 91 priests in 2009), does not currently reflect the actual number of Rusyns - although it was originally established for immigrants from the Carpatho-Rusyn region of present-day Slovakia, Poland and western Ukraine, the faithful now include members of various ethnic groups. 26

........................................... 25

The Eastern Catholic Churches 2016. [online] Annuario Pontificio 1990–2016, Ronald G. Roberson, CSP. [cit. 14. 10. 2019] Available from: http://www.cnewa.org/source-images/Roberson-eastcathstatistics/eastcatholic-stat16.pdf 26 The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA. [online] © 2009 by the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the U.S.A. Webový archiv: https://web.archive.org/web/20091226063944/http://www.acrod.org/diocese/about

25

2. UKRAINE

2.1. INTRODUCTION The situation of the Rusyn minorities living in Ukraine is specific in its thematic unit. In all other countries mentioned in this publication, it is assumed that Rusyns are a recognised national minority in the country. In addition to European countries, Rusyns can also be found in large numbers in Canada, the USA and Brazil.27 However, the situation in Ukraine is problematic, if only because official policy defines Rusyns as a Ukrainian ethnographic group rather than a national minority with minority rights. Ukraine is one of the largest European states, and the highest concentration of the Rusyn population lives in the western part, in the Transcarpathian region, also called Podkarpatska Rus in the historical context, which was part of the Czechoslovak Republic in the first half of the 20th century. According to the authors who place the origins of the Rusyn nation in the early Middle Ages, this region is considered to be the original location of the Rusyns in the 6th and 8th centuries. Although other authors consider the Rusyns to be an ethnographic group of the Ukrainian nation, they have a strong sense of ethnic identity which, in addition to efforts to be recognised as a national minority, has led to repeated attempts at autonomy and separatism - often rejected by Ukrainian Rusyns and emphasised by Ukrainian nationalists. In addition to the historical context, the following text emphasises the ethno-cultural elements, especially language, religion, traditions, customs and costumes, that characterise Rusyn identity, and includes the view of the ethnic group from the perspective of Ukrainians living in the region. Research has also been carried out on the Hutsuls living in the Transcarpathian region. They are usually referred to as another subgroup of the Rusyn ethnic group28 living in the territory of present-day Ukraine and parts of north-western Romania. However, the ethnic identity of the Hutsuls is based on defining themselves against the Rusyns, and their relationship with the Ukrainians is contested because, from the Rusyns' perspective, the Hutsuls are gradually assimilating into the Ukrainian population, and some Hutsuls see themselves as an ethnographic group of Ukrainians, not Rusyns. From the perspective of the Ukrainians, the Hutsuls, with their costumes and customs, are seen as a group that has so far preserved ancient elements of Ukrainian culture. ........................................... 27

The Brazilian press, for example, mentions Rusyns in Brazil as early as the beginning of the 20th century. 28 In Ukraine, we can encounter Rusyn ethnic groups along the Polish border (Boykos) and along the Slovak border (Lemkos), mostly in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. As the collected data come mainly from the Transcarpathian region, other locations in Ukraine are not discussed in this chapter.

26

Ukraine

Literary research

2.2. LITERARY RESEARCH Probably the most comprehensive survey and analysis of the more than 4,600 studies that appeared between 1975 and 2009, covering all aspects of CarpathoRusyn history and culture, is the five-volume publication by historian, political scientist and head of the Department of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, and Honorary President of the World Congress of Rusyns, Paul Robert Magocsi, Carpatho-Rusyn Studies: An Annotated Bibliography.29 Another important survey publication from the pen of P. R. Magocsi is Carpathian Rus': A Historical Atlas. 30 Magocsi deals with Rusyn history, culture, religion and issues related to the concept of national identity of Rusyns in his book A Nation from Nowhere: an Illustrated History of the Carpathian Rusyns.31 The book is accompanied by a wealth of visual material documenting the local landscape, architecture, customs and traditions, whether in the form of photographs, illustrations or maps of the area. In this way Magocsi conveys to the reader the Rusyn environment in its peculiar and diverse form, which can be found on the northern and southern slopes of the Carpathians. At the time of Magocsi's collection, Rusyns made up the overwhelming majority of the population in the area. Magocsi attributes the Slavic origin of the Rusyns to the original White Croats, the inhabitants of Halych/Galicia and Podolia, and the Romanian Wallachians, among whom assimilation had already begun in the 5th century. He considers the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century, when Christianisation and cultural growth gradually took place, as a turning point in the history of the Rusyns. The history of oppression and recognition of Rusyn minorities in Central Europe is the subject of Magdalena Dembinska's article Adapting to Changing Contexts of Choice: The Nation-Building Strategies of Unrecognized Silesians and Rusyns.32 The main theme is the historical variability of national borders in Central Europe and the associated changes in governments and policies that have affected several national minorities in one way or another. In relation to the Rusyn minority, Dembinska highlights the fact that there is no Rusyn state formation, which raises the question of how relevant it is to associate this nation with a specific political entity. She points out that the Rusyns are a recognised minority in several states, but not in Ukraine, where they are considered an ethnographic ........................................... 29

MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. Carpatho-Rusyn studies: an annotated bibliography. New York: NY Columbia Univ. Press, 2012. 30 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. Carpathian Rus': A Historical Atlas. Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto, 2017. ISBN 978-0-7727-5115-7. 31 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. Národ odnikud: ilustrované dějiny karpatských Rusínů. Užhorod: Vydavatelství V. Paďaka, 2014. ISBN 978-966-387-092-2. 32 DEMBINSKA, Magdalena. Adapting to Changing Contexts of Choice: The Nation-Building Strategies of Unrecognized Silesians and Rusyns. Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique. Canadian Political Science Association and the Société québécoise de science politique (Dec., 2008). Vol. 41, No. 4. pp. 915-934. ISSN 0008-4239.

27

Ukraine

Literary research

group. Recognition would give them rights derived from their status, access to political power and entitlement to financial support (e.g. for education) and other subsidy programmes. However, the 1991 referendum, in which 78% voted for territorial autonomy, was ignored by the official Ukrainian political establishment, and efforts were made to gradually assimilate the Rusyns. Identity, by its very nature, is not only constructed but can also be reconstructed through institutional support. Dembinska also discusses the situation of Silesians in Poland, but this topic is not developed further due to the nature of the paper. Oleh Protsyk is another author who deals with relations in Ukraine and the issue of Rusyn aspirations for autonomy in his article Majority-Minority Relations in the Ukraine.33 Protsyk sees the actions of the Ukrainian authorities as an attempt to maintain territorial integrity, which is one of the state's security priorities. For this reason, the Rusyns' attempts at autonomy are perceived as a deliberate attempt to separate from Ukraine. The second key issue is the notion of ethnic identity in the region, where from the author's perspective there are complications in the perception of identity, which are the reasons why the community does not fully assert itself collectively as an ethnic minority, leading to ambiguities in the notion of identity itself, but this is rooted in historical territorial changes. Alexandra C. Wiktorek reflects on the process of formation of Rusyn national consciousness in her work Rusyns of the Carpathians: competing agendas of identity.34 The author deals mainly with the cultural revival of the Rusyns and the question of building their national identity since the 19th century. Even then, Rusyns were striving for statehood through the national movement. Their identity was constructed along the lines of liberal nationalism, which is based on the theory that nations are defined by their culture and that individuals can acquire a self-determined identity if they are residents of a state (regardless of nationality) and are granted recognition and thus opportunities for development in a given territory. All this contributes to the protection of diversity, and the whole process is mediated by various institutions.35 The Hutsul ethnic group can be found not only on the territory of Ukraine and the Romanian border area, but also in the Vojvodina region, which, with the exception of the Rusyns, is in the territory of present-day Serbia. Sven Gustavsson deals with this issue more generally in his book South Slavic Rusyns, Their

........................................... 33

PROTSYK, Oleh. Majority-Minority Relations in the Ukraine. Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe. European Centre for Minority Issues (Flensburg, 2008). Vol. 7, Issue 1. ISSN: 16175247. 34 WIKTOREK, Alexandra C. Rusyns of the Carpathians: Competing agendas of identity. Master‘s Thesis, University of Georgetown, Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2010. 35 JUNKOVÁ, Karolína; KUBEŠOVÁ, Adéla; BYDŽOVSKÁ, Adéla; HLAVÁČOVÁ, Markéta; GODOČÍKOVÁ, Zuzana. Rusíni na Ukrajině.[online] Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2017. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2017:rusini_na_ukrajine

28

Ukraine

Literary research

Culture and Language. 36 According to Gustavsson, the Hutsuls of Vojvodina are strongly religious, observing ceremonial customs and honouring family traditions. Their ethnic identity is linked to a diverse range of handicrafts, including high-quality woodcarvings and locally produced fabrics, both of which are closely linked to traditional folklore motifs, as well as paintings. These historically preserved items can therefore be seen as valuable artefacts representing ethnicity. Gustavsson identifies certain negative aspects of the Hutsuls, such as their low level of financial literacy, which often leads to Hutsuls borrowing from moneylenders, and the minimal amount of quality literature published in Hutsul. Among the Czech authors interested in Rusyn ethnic groups, we can mention, for example, Petr Kaleta, who, with reference to the research work of František Řehor, wrote a book entitled Journey to Halych37, which deals with the way of life of the Hutsuls living in the historical territory of Halych/Galicia in the 19th century. Halych is a historical territory located between Poland and Ukraine, whose centres were Krakow (Poland) and Lvov (Ukraine). The Hutsuls are described here in terms of their personality traits; he appreciates their honesty and openness, but includes among the negative traits their vanity, cunning and tendency to alcoholism, although he considers them hospitable. He identifies 'hushlanka', made from fermented milk (completely unknown to contemporary respondents), as the national dish of the Hutsuls, and also includes corn porridge with cream among traditional dishes. Religion is also an important part of everyday life, as is the maintenance of family traditions, including arranged marriages by parents based on financial and property benefits rather than the choice of the bride and groom. The ethnic identity of the Hutsuls is the subject of the article The Main Manifestations of the Ethnic Identity of the Ukrainian Hutsuls38 by Romana Mondryk. The author emphasises in the introduction that the Hutsuls consider themselves Ukrainians in terms of ethnicity and that it is more important for them to belong to the region in which they live than to conceptualise their belonging in terms of ethnicity. However, they certainly do not see themselves as Rusyns. In her article, Mondryk describes the Hutsul way of life and economy, including crafts, religion, religious festivals, family rituals, and elements that characterise their culture and art. The interviewees overwhelmingly agreed that faith, spiritual and material culture were among the most important elements of their identity. As a result, the Hutsuls are relatively strict in observing the religious customs and traditions of their ancestors and are proud of their origins. ........................................... 36

GUSTAVSSON, S. R. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejih kultura a jazyk. Praha: FF UK, Ústav slavistických a východoevropských studií, 2006. ISBN 80-7308-137-7. 37 KALETA, Petr. Cesta do Haliče. Olomouc: Votobia, 2004. ISBN 80-7220-174-3. 38 MONDRYK, Romana. Hlavní projevy etnické identity ukrajinských Huculů. Kulturní studia 1/2017, p. 39-61. ISSN 2336-2766

29

Ukraine

Research conducted

2.3. RESEARCH CONDUCTED The data collection and subsequent processing was carried out by students of Economic and Cultural Studies at the Czech University of Life Sciences between 2016 and 2018, and the field research was carried out within the framework of the Varied Europe project between 2015 and 2018. The data collection was carried out in two ways, firstly through quantitative data collection and secondly through a qualitative approach in the form of questionnaires and semi-standardised interviews carried out on the territory of the Transcarpathian region (Subcarpathian Rus / Transcarpathia). The methods used to collect the necessary data included standardised interviews, semi-standardised interviews and questionnaires sent electronically. The fieldwork was carried out in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine, specifically in Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Svaliava and the area around Irshava. The research data collected and processed is complemented by relevant literature sources. Mobile and social media were used for data collection in the form of openended interviews for written questions, where the questions were first fully presented to the respondents and then answered. Povkhanych also mentions that the research was conducted during the armed unrest in eastern Ukraine, and that data collection was complicated by the fact that the majority of Ukrainians saw the research as an outrageous provocation that Rusyns and Hutsuls were being defined as separate peoples outside of the Ukrainian majority. Not only members of the Rusyn and Hutsul minorities were interviewed, but also respondents who in some way represented an external view of the situation of Rusyns in Ukraine, mainly in the Transcarpathian region. The researchers involved in the Varied Europe project appealed for the anonymity of the family members and local people they visited during the fieldwork. Name

Gender

Age

Occupation

Residence

Yevgen Zhupan

man

-

doctor

man

-

former chairman

Dmitry Pop

man

-

Pavlo Chuchka

man

-

linguist, regionalist Entrepreneur

man man man woman woman

22 35 23 46 35

student Rusyn activist -

Mukachevo (UA) Mukachevo (UA) Uzhhorod (UA) Uzhhorod (UA) Svaliava (UA) Snina (SK) Lviv (UA) Khust (UA) Svaliava (UA)

Ladislav Lecovic

Vasyl V. Kapustej Martin Veličko Ihor Marjana Oksana

30

Ethnic Ethnicity Rusyn Rusyn Rusyn RusynUkrainian Ukrainian Rusyn Ukrainian Rusyn Rusyn

Ukraine

Brief historical overview

Irina Stefanyuk

Woman

-

-

Tatiana Leta

Woman

28

-

man

31

-

Woman Woman

32

Retired -

man man

28 21

-

Ivan Leta Tatiana Stefanyuk Tatiana Nazar Victor Alexander

Prague (Czech Republic) Kobylecka Poljana (UA) Kobylecka Poljana (UA) (UA) Chernivtsi (UA) (UA) (UA)

Hutsul Hutsul Hutsul Hutsul Doliňanská (Hajnalská) Ukrainian Ukrainian

The table may appear incomplete at first glance, but the incompleteness of the data is due to the fact that the compilers of the individual surveys approached the collection of information about the respondents individually and not in a controlled manner. Thus, the initial incompleteness of the data is due to the effort to maintain consistency of processing and also to the fact that respondents provided only the information about themselves that they felt was necessary. Also, the exact number of anonymous respondents cannot be determined precisely (see above), which is why some passages in the following text are of a summary nature. One of the respondents is of Dolinyan (Haynal) ethnicity - this is due to the fact that some authors include Verkhovians, Dolinans / Haynals among the Rusyn ethnic groups.39 One of the difficulties of the qualitative research was, in some cases, a certain language barrier faced by the researchers in the field. Some of the researchers were fluent in Ukrainian and some were native speakers of Russian - this led to occasional and minor misunderstandings, especially with the Ukrainian respondents. They met the respondent Irina in person in the Czech Republic, which was crucial as she also became their informant, facilitating their entry into the environment and helping them to make contact with respondents living in Ukraine.

2.4. BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW In the case of the Ukrainian territory inhabited by the Rusyns, it is necessary to draw attention to the variability and definition of the geographical space, as well as the changes in the names used to refer to this territory from the 20th century to the present day.

........................................... 39

SYRUČEK, Milan. Rusko-ukrajinské vztahy. Praha: Grada Publishing, 2015. ISBN 978-80-247-5954-8.

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2.4.1. The earliest history and origins of the Rusyn nation The Rusyns are one of the Slavic peoples whose history is closely linked to the Carpathians. According to Magocsi, between the 6th and 9th centuries, together with the tribes of the White Croats (later considered a historical ethnonym for the Rusyns), they expanded into this area in small groups. They subjugated the local population and White Croatia was established on the territory of Transcarpathia. An important moment in the history of the Rusyn nation is the mission of the Slavic heralds Sts. Cyril and Methodius of Thessaloniki. At that time there was a boom in education and the spread of the Christian faith. White Croatia gradually disappeared after the invasions of the nomadic Hungarians who settled in the Carpathian Basin, so that in the early Middle Ages the southern part of the Carpathians became part of the Kingdom of Hungary and the northern part of the Carpathians became part of the Kingdom of Poland, as the so-called Lemkovina. Even then, a strict demarcation was problematic40 because another part of the territory inhabited by the Rusyns fell under Kievan Rus, which was founded in the 9th century and covered the present-day territory of Ukraine, Belarus and part of Russia. Recently, however, the interpretation of the Rusyn territory as part of Kievan Rus has changed considerably - even current atlases in Ukraine no longer show the territory inhabited by the Carpathian Rusyns as part of Kievan Rus in the 9th century. In the Kingdom of Hungary, the Rusyns were relatively free people, but their position in the social hierarchy became more complicated and the situation escalated at the beginning of the 13th century, when they became a serf class - in fact until 1848. At the same time, in the first half of the 13th century, the Kingdom of Hungary was devastated by numerous Mongol raids, which plundered the smaller Sub-Carpathian towns - for example, Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Berehovo and Khust. The politically unstable situation was gradually exploited by German colonists, who introduced German law and, in the following century, the so-called Wallachian law. 41

........................................... 40

In addition to Dembinska, the problem of borders in this area is addressed by K. M. Cantin, who conducted research in Transcarpathia in Ukraine and in the Presov region in Slovakia by interviewing respondents in 10 towns. She also examined the everyday life of Rusyns, including the interplay of political and power forces over the territory with the language, religion and traditions of the local population. In: CANTIN, Kristina M. Process and practice: groupness, ethnicity, and habitus in Carpathian Rus. Nationalities Papers, 2014, 42.5, p. 848-866. ISSN 1465-3923. 41 POP, Ivan. Dějiny Rusínů. Rusínské národní obrození (počátek 19. století - 1866). [online] Rusyn.sk, 2011. [cit. 15. 12. 2018]. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/dejiny-rusinu-g/

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2.4.2. From the Turkish invasion to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire The Ottoman invasions of Central Europe affected the history of the Rusyns in two ways: on the one hand, the territory inhabited by the Rusyns became a Turkish-Austrian war zone, and on the other hand, the church structure underwent profound changes. The Orthodox Church (to which the Rusyns belonged) was to renounce submission to the Patriarch of Constantinople42 and recognise the jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff. At the same time, the Byzantine-Eastern (Church Slavic) liturgy of the new Church was to be preserved. 43 The so-called Union Church, now known as the Greek Catholic Church, was founded in 1646. Among other things, the church played a significant role in the changes in Rusyn education at the end of the 18th century. The period of the Theresian and Josephine reforms saw many national revivals in Central Europe, as the individual Slavic nations reconstructed their identities and differentiated themselves, especially from the Germans and Hungarians. This was no different for the Rusyns under the leadership of Andrzej Baczynski. The Rusyn national revival at that time was based primarily on pedagogical and linguistic traditions, a revision of grammar and the creation of dictionaries; the situation was de facto parallel to the Czech national revival of the language, as in the case of the compilation of the Rusyn national history. On the basis of contacts with the Czech revivalists, the Rusyns, led by Dobrjansky, drew up a political programme that also dealt with territorial issues, with a vision of the unification of the Rusyn-Hungarian Rus, Galicia and Bukovina into one linguistic-cultural region under Habsburg rule. The second half of the 19th century was marked by the spirit of Rusyn national revival, and in two important cultural and parish centres, Mukachevo and Prešov, societies were founded to spread awareness of Rusyn culture and history.44 A. Dobryanskiy activated the activities of his group and began to prepare further negotiations in Vienna on the establishment of a Rusyn province and the

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The prestige of the Patriarch of Constantinople in Turkish captivity suffered anyway from the loss of credibility. 43 POP, Ivan. Dějiny Rusínů. Podkarpatská Rus v Rakousko-Uherské monarchii (1867-1914). [online] Rusyn.sk, 2011. [cit. 12. 12. 2018]. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/dejiny-rusinu-i/ 44 Although today Prešov is located in eastern Slovakia and Mukačevo in Ukraine, these two urban centres, as well as the entire regions in which they are located, are historically linked and their interdependence is significant from a historical point of view, as they were centres of education and culture. In a sense, they still fulfil this function today, especially in Prešov, where institutional support for Rusyns has been established in the form of the Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture at the University of Prešov in connection with the Centre for Languages and Cultures of National Minorities.

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recognition of the Rusyns as a separate nation. The activities of his group were initially supported from Vienna, but remained only proposals.45 Efforts to achieve national status were thwarted after 1867 with the proclamation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The vision of a unified Hungarian nation began to be realised in Hungarian territory, and local Slavic minorities were suppressed and forced to assimilate. Some pressure came from the growing influence of the Greek Catholic Church and its efforts to eliminate the Orthodox tendencies of the Rusyn nation, part of which tended to be Orthodox. The end of the 19th century is closely linked to the development of the whole region, mainly by German industrialists. However, economic problems and famines were the cause of numerous emigrations to the USA, Canada and Latin America. Rusyn families crossed the ocean in search of a better life, but many found it even harder. 2.4.3. Subcarpathian Rus during the Czechoslovak Republic With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the First World War, the question of which state Transcarpathia would belong to arose again, with claims being made from several quarters - Russia, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which it joined in 1919. This was the most politically advantageous alternative for Rusyn political activists, but at the same time it was welcomed in the context of the emerging politics of the Central European area. It also solved a political problem on the map of the new Europe, as it was not desirable to have a common state border between Poland and Hungary. This created the very ethnically diverse Subcarpathian Rus as an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia. It was a territory of 12,617 km2, with 487 municipalities, inhabited by 585,500 people, including 372,500 Rusyns, 103,000 Hungarians, 80,000 Jews, 14,000 Romanians, 12,000 Germans, 2,500 Slovaks and about 1,500 people of other nationalities.46 The Treaty of Trianon was also signed to regulate relations with Hungary. In the first half of the 20th century, the area was developed in all aspects, from agrarian reform to infrastructure and access to services from health to education. Changes also affected the transformation of the urban space of cities such as Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Khust and others. Podkarpatska Rus belonged to Czechoslovakia between 1919 and 1945 (in fact only until March 1939), and this official Czech and Slovak name was introduced by Article III of the General Statute of Podkarpatska Rus of 18 November 1919. The same name was later used in the Czechoslovak Constitution of 29 February 1920 in accordance with the Treaty of Saint-Germain. The introduction of the ........................................... 45

POP, Ivan. Dějiny Rusínů. Rusínské národní obrození (počátek 19. století - 1866). [online] Rusyn.sk, 2011. [cit. 15. 12. 2018]. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/dejiny-rusinu-g/ 46 POP, Ivan. Dějiny Rusínů. Podkarpatská Rus v Československé republice (1919-1939). [online] Rusyn.sk, 2011. [cit. 28. 12. 2018]. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/dejiny-rusinu-i/

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official name Rusínsko was also considered, but this name was not used by the local population and was abandoned by the authorities. Subcarpathian Rus was part of a larger historical area known as Karpatská Rus / Карпатская Русь - now in Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary and Romania. This area was not clearly defined geographically - its definition was the Carpathian Mountains and then the Slavic population with a specific culture. It should be remembered that before the incorporation of the territory of Subcarpathian Rus' (as "Rusyn territory") into the Czechoslovak Republic, the Rusyns formed politically very heterogeneous groups. They were often unable to agree on administrative, political or economic issues related to the territory of Subcarpathian Rus' and its population. Moreover, these groups were also geographically divided - in addition to the Rusyns of Subcarpathian Rus, there was also a group of Rusyns living in America. The incorporation of Subcarpathian Rus' into Czechoslovakia was certainly not an act that would have had the unequivocal support of all Rusyn leaders - a merger with Hungary, Ukraine, Russia or the creation of an independent state was also on the table. American Rusyns played the largest role in the negotiations on the future organisation of Subcarpathian Rus'. Neither the Rusyns nor the Czech politicians originally considered the incorporation of the Rusyn-populated territories into Czechoslovakia. However, the rapidly changing international situation forced Czech and Rusyn politicians to make serious adjustments to their original plans.47 The Rusyns of Subcarpathia had a special position within the Czechoslovak Republic in many respects. Their original situation - even before the establishment of Czechoslovakia - was similar to that of the Czechs and especially the Slovaks. It was mainly the foreign representatives of the Slovaks and Rusyns who decided to incorporate the territory and population into the newly formed Czechoslovak Republic. Before the outbreak of the First World War, there were about as many Rusyns living in the USA as in their original homeland. The national movement of the Rusyns was thus, to some extent, paradoxically formed not in their homeland, but in the completely different cultural and political conditions of the United States of America. The disunity of the Rusyn representatives was already evident in October 1919, when the Central Russian National Council in Uzhhorod split into two. The Russophile faction, led by Dr Antonij Beskid and Andrej Gagatko, formed the Central Russian National Council on 9 October 1919. It immediately took an oppositional stance to the government policy of the time, which it accused of allegedly supporting the Ukrainophile movement. In this sense, it strongly criticised the activities of Dr. G. Zhatkovich. The second part (under the strong ........................................... 47

ŠEVČENKO, K. V. Rusiny i mežvojennaja Čechoslovakija. K istorii etnokul'turnoj inženěrii. Moskva: Modest Kolerov, 2006, p. 95. ISBN 5-91159-001-9.

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influence of A. Voloshin and Dr. Y. Brashchayk) was clearly pro-Ukrainian (Ukrainophiles).48 From the very beginning, the incorporation of Subcarpathian Rus was linked to the creation of autonomy, which was also enshrined in international agreements. According to the parliamentary reply to the message of the President of the Czechoslovak Republic of 27 March 1919, the demand for autonomy of the Rusyn territory was recognised, which should lead to "a welcome immediate connection of our state with Romania".49 However, the drawing of the border with Romania was still perceived as an injustice by some Rusyn MPs years later. For one thing, the Romanian army had occupied Subcarpathian Rus at the end of the First World War, and some of the land owned by Rusyns remained in Romania after the border was drawn. Deputy Kurťak (3 February 1930). After the coup, the Romanian army occupied most of Subcarpathian Rus, the Romanian authorities, under military dictatorship, collected taxes, imposed counter-taxes on the population, confiscated the remaining livestock, allowed the army to loot freely and in the end returned nothing, the population received no compensation for damages - the files have been lying in the provincial office for 10 years. On the contrary, Romania occupied the Russian town of Marmaroshskaya Sihot (Сигіт-Mармароський) and its Russian surroundings, and the borders with Romania were established in such a way that more land of Russian villages and Czechoslovak citizens remained in the hands of the Romanians.50

MPs representing the population of Subcarpathian Rus could not even agree on a single language - depending on their affiliation to different political parties, they preferred Russian or Ukrainian (Malorussian), or a language based on local dialects (jazyčje). There were also misunderstandings, for example about the choice of textbooks. When local people in each village were asked which books the children should learn from, they usually replied that they should learn from Russian, i.e. Rusyn. Some officials deliberately did not explain further and introduced Russian, or Moscow, textbooks. These, of course, were considered incomprehensible. Despite the declared rights of all national minorities in Czechoslovakia, there was a clear condition of the leading role of the Czech nation - from the parliamentary reply to President Masaryk's message in March 1919: ........................................... 48

KONEČNÝ Stanislav. Rusíni v prelomoch dvoch tisícročí. In: PLIŠKOVÁ, Anna (ed.) Rusínska kultúra a školstvo po roku 1989. Prešov: Prešovská univerzita v Prešove, 2008. 49 Stenografický protokol, 27. 3. 1919. [online] Národní shromáždění československé 1918–1920 (40. schůze). [cit. 18. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_stenprot040 50 Stenografický protokol, 3. 2. 1930 [online] NS RČS 1929-1935 (13. schůze). [cit. 19. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1930-13

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... all this under the leadership of the Czechoslovak nation and its language. It was certainly the Czech nation that had already established a Czech state on the same territory in the past; it was the Czech nation that maintained the idea of its restoration...51

In the first year of the Czechoslovak Republic, this leading role was demonstrated by many tendentious and even pseudo-scientific proofs of the origin of the Slavic population on Czechoslovak territory. Opinions that did not conform to the official government view of history, or demands for a plebiscite on the question of the relationship between the nations and the Czechoslovak Republic, were dealt with in no uncertain terms, for example by the foreign minister (later the second Czechoslovak president), Dr Beneš: As for the Hungarians who say that the Slovaks, Rusyns and other nonHungarian populations are also demanding a plebiscite, we have to say that there is not a single Slovak or Rusyns who is demanding a plebiscite unless he has been sold out.52

Administration of Subcarpathian Rus (Carpathian Ruthenia) Although Subcarpathian Rus gained its own government in 1920 and the Czechoslovak government appointed an American citizen, Grigory Zhatkovich (Žatkovič), as its first governor, this was by no means autonomy, but the appointment of an official directly subordinate to the government in Prague. Moreover, the de facto government was exercised by the deputy governor, who was always a Czech. Žatkovič's appointment was criticised mainly by left-wing MPs. In his parliamentary speech of 5 October 1925, the Hungarian Communist MP Gáti described Žatkovič's inexperience in his first negotiations with the future president of Czechoslovakia, Masaryk, in 1918. He easily believed the promise of extensive autonomy, which turned out to be nothing. According to the Scranton Resolution of 12 November 1918: "The Rusyns in Subcarpathian Rus join the democratic Republic of Czechoslovakia with the widest self-government as a state on a federal basis, on condition that all the original Rusyn districts in Subcarpathian Rus belong to their country: Sharish, Zemplin, Abauj, Gemer, Borshod, Uzhorod, Ugocha, Bereg and Maramarosh. President Masaryk, through

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Stenografický protokol, 27. 3.1919. [online] Národní shromáždění československé 1918-1920 (40. schůze). [cit. 18. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_stenprot040 52 Stenografický protokol, 19. 2. 1920. [online] Národní shromáždění československé 1918-1920 (121. schůze). [cit. 10. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_stenprot121

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Captain Písecký, also sent this memorandum to the Rusyn National Council in Uzhhorod as an accepted condition.53

The demand for autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus' could not be fulfilled even after the adoption of the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1920. The first governor of Subcarpathian Rus' resigned and his work was considered unsuccessful. Žatkovič's biggest problem was probably a misunderstanding of the policy of the Czechoslovak government, which was clearly nationalist in the sense of favouring the Slavic peoples (in the order of Czechs, Slovaks, Rusyns). For Žatkovič, the main objective was to achieve autonomy for Subcarpathian Rus, primarily on the basis of the territorial principle. Therefore, he wanted to reach an agreement with the Hungarian representatives in Subcarpathian Rus. This, however, made him a traitor in the eyes of many Czechoslovak politicians, because "liking the Hungarians" was in itself a disqualification. In the years that followed, autonomy remained unfulfilled. On the other hand, the measures taken to unify local administration (1920), as well as the later reform of political administration (1927) and the creation of the provincial system, which lasted until 1938, had nothing to do with the realisation of the autonomous organisation of the Subcarpathian territory.54 At first glance it might seem that the creation of a separate entity, the country of Subcarpathian Rus, would satisfy the aspirations of the Rusyns for autonomy, but the reality was different, because the division into four countries strengthened the influence of the central government, which could interfere in every way in the administration of the individual countries. The members of the Czechoslovak parliament, who emphasised economic development, recognised the contribution of the Czechoslovak Republic to this region, which was in every respect the most backward part of Czechoslovakia, and for them the convening of an autonomous parliament was not a priority. MP Ščerecký (20 December 1929). The Carpatho-Russian population (the deputy used the ethnonym "Russian", not "Rusyn") is in the great majority completely satisfied with the government and administration of Carpatho-Russia. The Carpatho-Russian people, especially the peasants, have never shown hostility towards the government of the Czechoslovak Republic, on the contrary. Even if the Government of the Czechoslovak Republic had done nothing more for Carpatho-Russia than to build hundreds of houses, to open dozens and dozens of schools, and to open seven civic schools for us peasants, no one would have the moral right to demand more from it, and anyone who would demand

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Stenografický protokol, 5. 10. 1925. [online] NS RČS 1920-1925 (370. schůze). [cit. 10. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1925-370 54 MOSNÝ, Peter. Podkarpatská Rus. Nerealizovaná autonómia. Bratislava, Slovak Academic Press 2001.

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more from it is an enemy of the Czechoslovak Government and of the Republic itself. The Government of the Czechoslovak Republic has taken Subcarpathian Rus seriously from the first day of its existence, and for ten years it has not been able to heal what was destroyed in a thousand years by foreigners, enemies of the Russian people. The government first gave us the opportunity for cultural development, so that today, after a short time, we have our engineers, our doctors, our scientists, and this is a good sign. It is well known abroad that the Czechoslovak government did everything it could for Podkarpacie. Our demands are minimal. We are not asking for the impossible. The government of the Czechoslovak Republic has done everything possible for us, but we, the peasants, are asking first and foremost for cultural aid to be given along with economic aid. Without culture and science, economic aid is useless.55

For the nationalist MPs it was the other way around: Rusyn deputy Kurťak (28 June 1927). The affairs of an autonomous territory are administered without the control of the autonomous organs of the nation and without accountability by officials who are generally exposed, ignorant of our conditions, ignorant of the spirit and wishes of the people, and who on more than one occasion have acted directly against their cultural and economic interests. It is not local Rusyns who have been and are being recruited as state and autonomous officials. The Czech language is used everywhere, which has led to a general dissatisfaction among the people, aggravated by the sad economic situation of the country and the terrible unemployment.56

Another problem of the Subcarpathian Rus' was the unclear demarcation of its border with Slovakia. This led to fierce disputes between Slovaks and Rusyns, the latter demanding that the territory of their future autonomous region should extend to the area of Prešov, which the Slovak deputies in the Czechoslovak parliament considered to be purely Slovak. MP Hlinka (21 June 1922). We declare publicly here that we are not going to give any land to the Poles or to our Czech brothers, because this is Slovak land and Slovak land belongs to us Slovaks. But can we tear our country apart because on some mountains, on some hills, there are some poor Rusyns, of whom the question is whether they are Rusyns,

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Stenografický protokol, 20. 12. 1929. [online] NS RČS 1929-1935 (6. schůze). [cit. 10. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1929-6 56 Stenografický protokol, 28. 6. 1927. [online] NS RČS 1925-1929 (91. schůze). [cit. 12. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1927-91

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right out of the Slovak body? That would mean exposing Slovakia to new shocks. But that is what the Rusyns want.57

On the contrary, the Slovak MPs called for the Slovak border to be moved further east, which was criticised by the Rusyn MPs. MP Gagatko (1 July 1927). The question of borders has not moved from its place either. Instead of adjusting the borders on the basis of a voluntary agreement between the Slovak nation and the Carpathian people, the government is trying to shift even these provisional borders, which were established during the occupation, to the east. The provisional border along the Uže River is now being ignored, and purely Russian villages on the left bank of the Už, such as Domanince, Perečín, Kamenice, Berezné, etc., are to be administratively annexed to the large Košice district, without taking into account the fact that the Joint Czechoslovak State Commission decided in 1919 that the borders, the national borders, go much further to the west, and that the districts of Snina, Medzilaborce, etc., located far to the west of them, are undoubtedly purely Russian in nationality and should therefore be annexed to the autonomous Subcarpathian Rus. What has this achieved? What they have achieved is that today our Russian population, which voluntarily joined the Czechoslovak Republic, is divided against its will into two separate groups, those who have the right of autonomy and live in the so-called Autonomous Subcarpathian Rus, and those who do not have the right of autonomy under the Treaty of Sainte-Germain, i.e. the Subcarpathian Rusyns in Slovakia.58

The division of the Rusyns into two groups mentioned by the deputy Gagatko deepened in the following years, and today they are already very different groups. The connection between the Slovak and Subcarpathian Rusyns was not fictitious, because it existed for more than a hundred years, for example, at the level of church administration - it is interesting that none of the Rusyn representatives mentioned this argument. The Greek-Catholic Church in the territory of present-day Slovakia was closely connected with the Subcarpathian Rus - the first bishopric in Prešov, established in 1815, was created by separating it from the Mukachevo eparchy in the territory of present-day Ukraine. However, the area of central and southern Zemplín (today's eastern Slovakia) remained under the administration of the Bishop of Mukachevo (de facto until 1939, but the ........................................... 57

Stenografický protokol, 21. 6. 1922. [online] NS RČS 1920-1925 (150. schůze). [cit. 12. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_stenprot1922-150 58 Stenografický protokol, 1. 7. 1927. [online] NS RČS 1925-1929 (93. schůze). [cit. 12. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1927-93

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whole matter was only legally settled with the establishment of the Exarchate of Košice in 1997). 59 As Plišková states60, the Rusyns in Slovakia, unlike in Subcarpathian Rus, did not have the status of a nation forming a state. They were considered only as a national minority with a certain constitutional right to use their mother tongue in education and public life. The political fragmentation of the Rusyn representatives and the unclear definition of the Rusyn nation continued throughout the period of Subcarpathian Rus as part of the Czechoslovak Republic. The Czechoslovak deputy Husnay, a Rusyn from Subcarpathia, proved the Ukrainian origin of the Rusyns during his speech in the parliament on 26 November 1931: Among the Rusyn groups, the Ukrainian group is the true one, based on the living folk language and the protection of the ethnographic whole, as recognised by the scientific world and by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. They all had to acknowledge that our nation is part of the Ukrainian nation living in Halych, Bukovina and Greater Ukraine.61

In 1925, the Czechoslovak minister Klofáč called for support for Russian education for the Rusyns to protect them from Ukrainian influence: Dear brothers! We must not introduce the Ukrainian language in Rusyn schools. We must teach Russian in these schools, simply because Lvov is near and Moscow is far, and our Rusyns will never get to Moscow.62

Support for one side or the other was mainly an expression of political attitudes and a link to various foreign allies. Support for the Ukrainian language was explained on the one hand by an interest in weakening Russia by creating a Greater Ukraine, but on the other hand Ukrainisation efforts were interpreted as an attempt by the Russian Bolsheviks to create a bridge to control Czechoslovakia. Deputy Kurťak 3. 2. 1930. The Ukrainian question is a political question, it is a question of separatism, which wants to break off the south-western parts of Russia, wants to unite them with the Russian parts of Poland and Subcarpathian Russia in order to create a great Ukraine. This idea

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ŠKOVIERA, Andrej, et al. Nad slovenským prekladom božskej liturgie byzantsko-slovanského obradu. Slavica slovaca, 1999, 34.2: 137-148. 60 PLIŠKOVÁ, Anna. Jazyk karpatských Rusínov v područí mocenských ideológií, p. 71–107. In: WACHTARCZYKOVÁ, Jana; SATINSKÁ, Lucia; ONDREJOVIČ, Slavomír (ed.) Jazyk v politických, ideologických a interkultúrnych vzťahoch. Bratislava: Veda, 2015. 61 Stenografický protokol, 26. 11. 1931 [online] NS RČS 1929-1935 (148. schůze). [cit. 19. 9. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1931-148 62 Stenografický protokol, 26. 11. 1931. c. d.

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was born and nurtured in Austria and Germany, and was part of the German policy of 'Ostpolitik' (Drang nach Osten). In Communist Russia, the Ukrainian question became a means of bolshevising the West. They created the Soviet Ukraine in order to bring the Russian parts of Galicia, Bukovina and Czechoslovakia into the Soviet idea. This Ukrainian separatism is served by efforts to create a Ukrainian language, a Ukrainian vernacular, a Ukrainian culture. In this respect, the Ukrainian question in Czechoslovakia is an irredentist phenomenon, since its ultimate aim is to separate Subcarpathian Rus from the Czechoslovak Republic. The Social Democrats, the Communists and Voloshin's Christian People's Party advocated the Ukrainian order. Under the influence of these parties, the school administration has, since 1920, promoted the Ukrainisation of the Russian language and supported Halych emigrants of Ukrainian origin who entered state service in our country. Recently, these Ukrainian circles have switched to the full Ukrainian language according to the Kharkiv recipe, adopting Ukrainian grammar and spelling, and have declared war on those who stand for the centuries-old Russian traditions of the Carpathian people, who adhere to the rules of Russian grammar.63

Rather, the Czechoslovak government advocated a position that would draw the population neither to the side of Ukraine nor to the side of Russia - it would be about the Rusyns as a separate nation, but under strong Czechoslovak protection. This approach was criticised by both Russian (Greater Russia) and Ukrainian deputies, who did not recognise the Rusyn nation. Thus, political orientation became a very important part of Rusyn identity - it determined the preference for the use of the national language, religious preference (Catholicism versus Orthodoxy) and ethnic preference (Rusyns as a separate nation, as part of the Ukrainian nation, as Slavs led by Russia). Education in Subcarpathian Rus The development of education in Subcarpathian Rus was complicated by linguistic ambiguity. While there was a strong Hungarianisation of the area before 1918, pro-Hungarian members of the Czechoslovak parliament opposed the emerging Czechisation within Czechoslovakia. Deputy Kurťak (24 November 1926). It is a sad picture that there are 50 Czech schools in Russian villages in Subcarpathian Rus'. What is the purpose of these Czech schools? Forfeit our interests in these budgets, do not recognise that there are also us who voluntarily joined you on the

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Stenographic Protocol, 3 February 1930 [online] NS RČS 1929-1935 (13th meeting). [cited 19 September 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1930-13

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basis that we would have autonomous rights given to us by the world, oppress us further - we know one thing, that we have not received brotherhood in your brotherhood, but a great enemy... 64

The claim that the ultimate goal of the Czechoslovak government was to completely Czechise the population of Subcarpathian Rus' was not only made by Russophile or Ukrainophile MPs, but also in the literature of the Soviet period. 65 In reality, however, this was not possible - the Czech schools served more to support the rapid training of new cadres for the state administration, as there was a shortage of qualified local teachers. On the other hand, in his assessment of the development of education, MP Voloshin emphasised the increase in the total number of schools and the general increase in the literacy rate of the population: Deputy Voloshin (4 March 1926). For example, if we compare the current educational situation in Sub-Carpathian Rus' with the situation before the coup, we must admit that the positive side definitely outweighs the negative. Before the war, Russian was taught only in Greek Catholic schools. However, especially after 1907, as a result of Law XXVII of that year, the so-called "lex Apponyi", the number of Russian church schools rapidly decreased, and the use of Hungarian in the so-called Russian schools became more and more widespread, since this law ordered the teaching of Hungarian to begin in the first class of the general schools, and among the so-called patriotic subjects taught were not only Hungarian, history, geography and the study of the constitution, but also arithmetic. At the end of the fourth year, pupils in non-Hungarian schools were expected to be able to express themselves in Hungarian, so that in the upper classes they could also answer the inspector's questions in Hungarian. All state municipal schools, all continuation schools, all civil and secondary schools in Subcarpathian Rus were Hungarian-only. In the secondary schools of Uzhhorod, Prešov, Mukačevo and Sihota, Russian was only an optional subject. By contrast, on 1 January 1926 there were 501 Russian secondary schools, 15 Russian gymnasiums, 4 Russian grammar schools, 3 Russian teacher training colleges, 1 Russian-Hungarian commercial academy and 2 commercial schools. At the same time, the non-Russian minorities of the Subcarpathian Rus also have their schools: at the beginning of this year there were 122 Hungarian, 40 Czech, 14 German, 8 Romanian and 10

........................................... 64

Stenografický protokol, 24. 11. 1926 [online] NS RČS 1929-1935 (52. schůze). [cit. 4. 10. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1926-52 65 RYCHLÍK Jan; RYCHLÍKOVÁ Magdalena. Podkarpatská Rus v dějinách Československa 1918–1946. Praha: Vyšehrad 2016.

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Hebrew national schools. There are Hungarian branches of the civic schools in the towns and of the grammar school in Berehová.66

For a long time after the proclamation of the Czechoslovak Republic, the educational situation in the territory of Subcarpathian Rus was rather chaotic. As late as 1932, the Czechoslovak Minister of Education admitted that the Ministry did not know the internal regulations under which schools were run. Minister of Education and National Enlightenment Dr. Dérer (26 July 1933). In Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus there was no central school authority before the coup, nor was there a complete set of regulations on school administration. After the coup, the only known regulations were those that had already been translated into Slovak, Russian or German under the former Hungarian government. As such translations were rare, there were cases in all branches of state administration where many internal regulations were not sufficiently accessible and known to our authorities. As a result, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus often followed the rules of Western countries. In order to eliminate this situation in the approval of textbooks, I issued a decree regulating the approval procedure uniformly for the entire territory of the Czechoslovak Republic. With this decree, all Hungarian regulations became invalid.67

In fact, the chaotic situation of language use in education was not resolved at all. As late as 1937, the deputy Klíma mentioned in his speech (17 June 1937): Linguistic chaos is being artificially introduced into Podkarpackie; Czech schools are being established and Russian textbooks, incomprehensible to the local population, are being introduced into local schools, and cultural development is being artificially hindered.68

Another major problem for Rusyn education was the unclear demarcation of Rusyn territories. The Rusyns living in eastern Slovakia were subject to considerable Slovakisation, with Slovak officials invoking Hungarian laws from the Austro-Hungarian period and prohibiting education in the Rusyn language on the basis of these laws. This was pointed out by the deputy Dr Pješčak (30 November 1937): In many Russian villages, the language of instruction is Slovak. For 19 years the Russian people in eastern Slovakia have been forcibly

........................................... 66

Stenografický protokol, 4. 3. 1926 [online] NS RČS 1925-1929 (12. schůze). [cit. 4. 10. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1926-12 67 Stenografický protokol, 26. 7. 1933 [online] NS RČS 1929-1935, interpelace poslanců (tisk 2195/II). [cit. 4. 10. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1933int 68 Stenografický protokol, 17. 6. 1937 [online] NS RČS 1935-1938 (106. schůze). [cit. 4. 10. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1937-106

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denationalised. For 19 years the people have been demanding that Russian be introduced as the language of instruction in their schools. There are many memoranda in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of National Education, but nothing happens. Dozens of municipalities are waiting for a change in the language of instruction; their applications were submitted long ago but have not yet been decided. It is downright absurd that the Russian people in this republic, which they joined voluntarily, are being further denationalised. After the World War, after the coup d'état, all schools in our country began to teach Russian. The Department of the Ministry of Education in Bratislava simply took note of this in its decree of 27 January 1921 and ordered that, in addition to the language of instruction, children should be taught three hours a week in the Czechoslovak language. This lasted only a few days, however, as the same Ministry of Education decreed: "In schools where Russian was not allowed to be the language of instruction under Law XXVII of 1907, it cannot now be introduced as such".69

However, the poor state of education in the Rusyn cannot be blamed solely on the Czechoslovak Republic. The problems of education in the Rusyn territories were mentioned in a magazine as early as 1908, and the huge number of illiterates was pointed out. At the same time, it is pointed out that the oppression of the dominant peoples is not always to blame for this situation, but that the members of the minority peoples themselves bear a considerable share of the blame. 70 The literacy statistics in the various parts of the Czechoslovak Republic according to the 1920 census also show quite clearly the backwardness of Subcarpathian Rus. While the overall literacy rate in Czechoslovakia (for persons over the age of five who could read and write) was 91.5%, it was above average in Bohemia (97.1%) and even higher in Moravia and Silesia (95.9%). Slovakia's overall literacy rate was below average (82.1%) and in Subcarpathian Rus less than half the population could read and write (48.2%).71 Religious situation The policies of the Czechoslovak governments were often based on an antireligious ideological foundation, often characterised by violent anti-Catholicism, especially in the Czech lands. This was also based on T. G. Masaryk's strongly anti-Catholic view of the meaning of Czech history. After the First World War, the anticlerical movement also manifested itself in the other successor states of ........................................... 69

Stenografický protokol, 30. 11. 1937 [online] NS RČS 1935-1938 (117. schůze). [cit. 4. 10. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1937-117 70 BOCZKOWSKI, H. Slovanská vzájemnost a studentský sjezd. Naše doba, Svazek 15, 1908, p. 778. 71 Statistický přehled Republiky Československé. Praha: Státní úřad statistický, 1930, p. 12.

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the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but nowhere did it reach such intensity as in Czechoslovakia.72 The Czechoslovak government wanted to create a national church and limit the influence of the Catholic Church. The Orthodox Church, favoured by the government, lent itself to this policy. Some Czech deputies described Greek Catholic representatives in Sub-Carpathian Russia and Slovakia as sympathisers of the monarchy and Hungary, and referred to the alleged popular hatred of Greek Catholics. MP Dr Patejdl (21 November 1921). The diplomacy of the Vatican does not understand that Bishop Papp, this monarchist, should have been removed a long time ago. ... The result is the understandable hatred of the people against the Uniate clergy. ...

This policy, which included the closure of church schools, did not go down well with the majority of the population of Sub-Carpathian Rus. It was precisely this that was criticised by MPs who, in other respects, recognised Czechoslovakia's contribution to the development of the region: Deputy Voloshin (4 March 1926). I can also point out that a great deal has been done in the field of education, but that there are still serious shortcomings, especially with regard to the Church schools, the number of which has fallen from 346 to 90 as a result of party politics. I will not dwell on the errors of the Church's policy, which has also given rise to a great deal of discontent, which is exploited by demagogues against the Republic.73

The deputy A. Voloshin (29 March 1926) also points to a completely different situation in Subcarpathian Rus in relation to Catholicism: Immediately after the incorporation of Subcarpathian Rus into the Czechoslovak Republic, agitation against the Greek-Catholic Church began, and this cultural struggle is the main cause of dissatisfaction and disorientation of broad strata of the population in Subcarpathian Rus'. The originators of this struggle did not take into account the fact that Catholicism is deeply rooted in our country but acted as if Catholicism was only an imposed form of religion in our country, and this was a completely wrong position.74

........................................... 72

TRAPL, Miloš: "Kulturní boj" v nástupnických státech Rakousko-Uherska po roce 1918 s hlavním zřetelem k českým zemím. p. 91–99. In IVANTYŠYNOVÁ, Tatiana (ed). Národ – cirkev – štát. Bratislava 2007. 73 Stenografický protokol, 4. 3. 1926 [online] NS RČS 1925-1929 (12. schůze). [cit. 4. 10. 2019] Available from: http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1925ns/ps/stenprot/012schuz/s012006.htm 74 Stenografický protokol, 29. 3. 1926 [online] NS RČS 1925-1929, interpelace I/528 (překlad). [cit. 4. 10. 2019] Available from: http://bit.ly/psp-cz_1926-int

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After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, the state borders did not coincide with the borders of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Prešov - 21 parishes of the Eparchy of Prešov belonged to Hungary. As a way out of this situation, the Vatican established a special Greek Catholic apostolic administrative unit in Miskolc, Hungary, in 1923.75 Summary of the situation of Czechoslovak Rusyns in the interwar period More than 725,000 inhabitants lived on the territory of 12,617 km². According to the 1930 census, 446 thousand people declared themselves to be Rusyn. However, according to the methodology of the time, this figure included, as in the 1921 census, members of the Rusyn ethnic group as well as inhabitants who considered themselves Russians and Malorussians/Ukrainians. There were also 103,000 Hungarians, 80,000 Jews, 14,000 Romanians, 12,000 Germans and 2,500 Slovaks. In terms of religion, the Greek Catholic Church predominated with 359 thousand adherents, followed by the Orthodox Church with more than 112 thousand adherents.76 In retrospect, it can be said that in the newly established Czechoslovakia after the First World War, the Rusyn nation experienced its second national revival, which was most evident in the field of education and culture. The Rusyn community was recognised by the state as a minority and was guaranteed rights in this respect. However, it should also be mentioned that despite the declarations of a staterecognised Rusyn minority, the 1921 census in Czechoslovakia, for example, did not allow people to choose a Rusyn nationality, but only a Russian nationality (which included the nationalities of Velko-Russians, Ukrainians and CarpathoRussians) - similar to the 1930 census. According to the chosen concept of national identification, the Rusyn intelligentsia split into three streams - Russian, Ukrainian and Rusyn. However, this fragmentation mainly affected the Rusyn intelligentsia, while the broader strata of the Rusyn minority remained indifferent. 77 It was only the Munich Agreement and the events in Czechoslovakia after 1938 that put an end to the wave of national revivalism. The Autonomous Subcarpathian Rus, along with the newly created Carpathian Ukraine, disappeared in 1939 after the territory was occupied by Hungarian troops.78 ........................................... 75

CORANIČ, Jaroslav. The History of the Greek-Catholic Church in Slovakia. Folia Historica Cracoviensia 2007 (13). p. 21–31. 76 POP, Ivan. Malé dejiny Rusínov. Bratislava: Združenie inteligencie Rusínov Slovenska, 2011, p. 73, 74. ISBN 978-80-970354-4-0. 77 KONEČNÝ, Stanislav. Rusíni na Slovensku. Rusyn.sk. [online] 2019. [cit. 18. 8.2019], p. 2, 3. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/data/files/14.pdf 78 FUČÍKOVÁ, Veronika, MONDRYK, Romana, DOŠKOVÁ, Kristýna, MILENOVSKÁ, Marie. Rusíni na Slovensku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia (HKS) [online], Provozně ekonomická fakulta ČZU v Praze, 2015. [cit. 12. 5. 2019] Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/2015:rusini_na_slovensku.

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The change of name and political direction came in 1938, when the Ukrainian nationalist trend came to power and pushed for a change of name to "Carpathian Ukraine", effective from 1 January 1939. However, Ukrainian nationalists from the Polish Halich called the region "Zakarpattia Ukraine" because of its geographical location behind the Carpathian Mountains. This name was adopted by the Soviet authorities in 1944 when they annexed the territory de facto and then de jure in 1945 to the Ukrainian SSR, the Soviet Union. At the end of the Second World War, the USSR began to incorporate Subcarpathian Rus into its territory, but the Czechoslovak government in exile wanted at least to restore the pre-war borders. Diplomatic negotiations were held in November and December 1944, after which both sides reached an agreement - Czechoslovakia renounced its claims to the territory of Subcarpathian Rus in favour of the USSR, and the Soviet Union in turn ceased negotiations with the "For Soviet Slovakia" movement and supported Czechoslovakia in the border dispute with Poland over Těšín, Orava and Spiš.79 Among the most positive aspects of the Czechoslovak government in Subcarpathian Rus, one can mention a certain economic upliftment of a very backward region, together with the elimination of illiteracy among a large part of the population. However, the policy of the Czechoslovak Republic in the interwar period had a number of elements that cannot be described as positive. The main problem was strong nationalism - the republic was not meant to be an equal home for all its inhabitants. According to many government declarations, the Slavic element was to be promoted above all. This was to be the Czechoslovak nation, hastily created by the merger of the Czech and Slovak peoples to make it numerically the strongest and thus an opposition to the Germans and Hungarians. In reality, however, the brotherhood of Slavic nations did not work - the Czechoslovak Republic had major foreign policy disputes with neighbouring Poland, and the Slovak leaders were certainly not going to give in to the territorial demands of the Rusyn representatives. On the contrary, they criticised the Slovak approach, which sought to place part of the territory of Subcarpathian Rus under Slovak administration. Another peculiarity of the Czechoslovak Republic was its strong anti-Catholic policy, which was to some extent also implemented in the Subcarpathian Rus': the Greek-Catholic churches and the local clergy were historically the main carriers of the Rus' specific culture and the opportunity to receive an education. For this reason, the Czechoslovak government's fight against church schools was met with considerable opposition and the government's policy as a whole was judged negatively. ........................................... 79

RATAJ, Jan, HOUDA, Přemysl. Československo v proměnách komunistického režimu. Praha: Oeconomica, 2010. p. 13, 14. ISBN 978-80-245-1696-7.

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Czechoslovakia was quite active in the field of education in Subcarpathian Rus, but again this activity was not well received by all groups of the population. Czech schools were established on a large scale, while Rusyn education received much less support (in proportion to the population) and traditional church schools were closed. The Hungarian population felt even more neglected in terms of educational support. The deputies from Subcarpathian Rus, who demanded the introduction of an autonomous system as the most important thing, saw in the Czechisation of the region a certain analogy with the Hungarianisation before and during the First World War. On the other hand, deputies who did not see autonomy as a priority saw the increase in the literacy rate of the population as clearly positive. All in all, the twenty years of the Czechoslovak government in Subcarpathian Rus cannot be regarded as a demonstration of political skill and the ability to satisfy, at least in part, the needs and demands of all national groups. Nevertheless, with the benefit of hindsight, the interwar period is usually viewed positively by contemporary Rusyn organisations - there is still a T.G. Masaryk Museum and a Czech School Museum in the Transcarpathian region - as well as by Czech historiography. Another example is the Stare Selo open-air museum in Kolotschava, which highlights the past of the First Republic as well as Rusyn artefacts.

Figure 13. Olbracht's beer hall in Koločava. Kolochava, Stare Selo open-air museum, 6 July 2018.

Compared to the period of the Second World War and the post-war integration into the USSR, the Czechoslovak period of the history of Rusyn in the Subcarpathian region is a relatively positive period, when the region developed continuously in many areas. 2.4.4. Transformation of Subcarpathian Rus into Transcarpathia After the Munich Agreement in 1938, Subcarpathian Rus gained first autonomy (on 22 November 1938, still within Czechoslovakia) and then independence for a 49

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few days in 1939 (from 15 March to 18 March 1939) as the so-called "Carpathian Ukraine".80 The unstable and tense political situation in Central Europe was exploited by Ukrainian nationalists under the leadership of Stepan Andreyevich Bandera almost immediately after the proclamation of the Slovak fascist state. Although the final borders with Hungary were established by the Treaty of Trianon at the beginning of June 192081, the Hungarians took advantage of the situation as early as the autumn of 1938, when they occupied a part of Subcarpathian Rus under the so-called Vienna Arbitration (see p. 9), and then in the spring of 1939, when they occupied the whole territory, including a part of eastern Slovakia, and the so-called Carpathian Territory was created. The main deportations of the Jewish population from the Subcarpathians did not take place until 1944. "After the occupation of Hungary by the German army on 19 March 1944, a staff was set up in Budapest to prepare the deportation of the Jews under the command of Adolf Eichmann. The area of Kárpátalja was designated as deportation zone No. 1. From the territory of Subcarpathian Rus, 76,271 Subcarpathian Jews were deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp, of whom 71,620 perished. The total number of Holocaust victims in Subcarpathian Rus was 104,177".82 After the Second World War, the territory was claimed by the USSR in accordance with the agreements on the territorial organisation of Europe. Diplomatic negotiations began between the Czechoslovak Republic and the Soviet Union, but without the presence of the Rusyn political representation, although the Czechoslovak government-in-exile envisaged the restoration of the borders to the minimum extent of the original republic. On 29 June 1945, Part No. 28/1945 was signed by Beneš, containing the Constitutional Decree of the President of the Republic No. 60/1945 on the preparation of the implementation of the Treaty between the Czechoslovak Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Transcarpathian Ukraine and the Government Decree No. 61/1945 on the preparation of the option under the Treaty between the Czechoslovak Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Transcarpathian Ukraine. Subcarpathian Rus was thus separated from the Czechoslovak Republic, the territory was annexed to the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) respectively, and the territory was subsequently renamed Transcarpathian Ukraine. A fundamental problem that can be mentioned in this context was the issue of nationality recognition. The abovementioned government decree did not take into account Rusyn or Hutsul nationality, let alone the Jewish population. Thus, it directly dealt only with the ........................................... 80

However, Ukrainian nationalists from Polish Halychia called the area Transcarpathian Ukraine because of its geographical location behind the Carpathian Mountains. 81 HRBEK, Antonín. Podkarpatská Rus. Stoleté výročí vzniku. Olomouc: Poznání, 2018 p. 61. 82 POP, Ivan. Dějiny Rusínů. Podkarpatská Rus v době 2. světové války (1939-1945). [online] Rusyn.sk, 2011. [cit. 30. 12. 2018]. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/dejiny-rusinu-j/

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question of citizens of Czech, Slovak, Russian and Ukrainian nationality (see §1 of No. 61/1945 Coll.). Another reason for the oppression of minorities in the Central European region was the socialist rhetoric and the implementation of the vision of one nation in one state policy, and therefore there was an increasing tendency to assimilate the Rusyn ethnic groups into the common Ukrainian nation, which happened not only on the territory of Ukraine, but also in other Union republics. The question remains as to how distinct the ethnic sub-groups that have been singled out within Ukrainians are, and when they already constitute a separate ethnic group. The division of ethnic groups into 'nations' or 'ethnographic groups' may also have a political basis - although Rusyn organisations clearly refer to Rusyns as a nation, the Ukrainian government vehemently opposes this term and does not allow people to declare their Rusyn nationality in the census.83 History of Subcarpathian Rus on postage stamps

In the 1920s, Subcarpathian Rus still had a field post office (the first postmark) due to the presence of troops - the order to demobilise did not come until July 1920. Other postmarks show the development of the country - from place names in Czech only to bilingual postmarks.

In 1928, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia, a stamp with typical Subcarpathian churches was issued in Jasina (in a series with other Czechoslovak towns). In 1939, a very similar stamp was issued on the occasion of the first session of the Carpathian-Ukrainian Assembly in Khust (within the so-called Czecho-Slovakia). A few days later, an independent republic was proclaimed, but it lasted only a few days - its existence was ended by the Hungarian occupation. In 1943, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak government in exile in London issued another stamp with the Jasina motif (on the sheet together with Prague, Bratislava and Velehrad).

........................................... 83

KOKAISL, Petr. Etnické minority v Evropě. Praha: Provozně ekonomická fakulta ČZU, 2014. ISBN 978-80-213-2524-1, p. 270.

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The first Hungarian occupation of a part of Carpathian Rus took place in November 1938. On this occasion Hungarian commemorative postmarks were issued with the inscription visszatért (returned). After the proclamation of the independent state on 14 March 1939, Hungarian troops were already operating on the territory of the Subcarpathian region. Some of the Czechoslovak stamps were hand-stamped with the Ukrainian trident motif, sometimes accompanied by the text "Glory to Ukraine", in areas not yet occupied by Hungary.

In November 1944, after the "liberation" of Subcarpathian Rus, the Czechoslovak government delegate allowed the use of Hungarian stamps with a Czechoslovak overprint.

After the Soviet occupation of Subcarpathian Rus in 1945, temporary stamps with the theme of broken fetters or Hungarian stamps with overprints were used. 84

Soviet stamp from 1965 commemorating the 20th anniversary of the unification of "Transcarpathian Ukraine" with Soviet Ukraine, never issued. Ukrainian stamps showing customs in "Transcarpathia": "radunica" (commemoration of the dead at Easter) and the feast of St Cosmas and Damian.

........................................... 84

By: VERLEG, J. Carpatho Ukraine: Postal History and Stamps 1786-2000. Private edition, 2012.

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2.4.5. Geographical and conceptual definition from the 20th century to the present day After World War I, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a significant part of this territory became part of the Czechoslovak Republic (often referred to as the First Republic) as Podkarpatská Rus. Despite unsuccessful attempts at autonomy, the first breakthrough came in 1938, when the Rusyns were granted autonomy for only a few months. After the Second World War, Subcarpathian Rus was separated and the territory became part of the Soviet Union and was renamed Transcarpathian Ukraine. After the collapse of the USSR and the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state, the region was renamed Zakarpattia Oblast for the last time. However, the renaming of the region remained controversial throughout the 20th century. Locals perceive the region as 'under the Carpathians', as the primary geography of the area is closely linked to the Carpathians. Hence the name Podkarpattia, as the locals see the mountains as an integral part of their lives and history, and have always considered the area of present-day Ukraine to be 'under the Carpathians'. From the opposite perspective of central Ukraine, from Kiev, Transcarpathia is perceived by Ukrainians as a place 'beyond the Carpathians' because the mountains physically divide the area, hence the official name Transcarpathian region, with which the locals (not only Rusyns) do not identify and continue to insist that from their point of view they live in Transcarpathia and Ukrainians live beyond the Carpathians, in Transcarpathia. Members of the Hutsul ethnic group live mainly in the eastern part of the Transcarpathian region, but can also be found in the Chornohor, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi regions. Because the Hutsuls are considered by some authors to be a subgroup of the Rusyns, their history is often associated with the Rusyns of the Carpathians, the so-called Carpathian Rusyns.85 The classification of the Hutsuls as an ethnic or linguistic group is of course controversial today, and was ambiguous even at the turn of the 19th century, when Lubor Niederle, quoting Chubinsky, divided the Malorussians into three types - 3 types - Polesian, Ukrainian, and Podolsk-Halician, to which he included the Rusyns: To the third type belong the people of Western Volhynia and Galicia, for whom the old name of Rusyns was adopted on the Polish-Hungarian border, and in addition Rusňaks and a number of smaller local names in the Subcarpathian region (Bukovinians, Krajnjac, Hrivnjac, Opolans, Halychians, Lvovians, ........................................... 85

The nature of national history in this case encounters the pitfall of viewing the Hutsuls as part of the history of the Rusyns, and the nuanced narrative as the grand historical narrative of the nation is problematic to tease out, and so they are summarized in a solitary subsection at the end of the historical overview.

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Samborans, Peremyshljac, etc.). The core of them are the Carpathian highlanders, who go by the general name of Gorjane, Gorene and partly Verkhovinci (against the inhabitants of the Podgorjane, Zagorjane foothills). Four Russian tribes are particularly distinguished here: Lemkos on both sides of the Beskydy Mountains in the west, mainly in the districts of Sandek, Jasel and Sanok; Boykos, neighbours of the previous ones in the east beyond San, Tukholts, then to the south-east in the mountains from Sambor to Stanislavovsk and still further in the mountains of Kolomyia, Stanislavovsk, in Bukovina and in Marmaros the Hutsuls, who, however, all call themselves only Kresteni, Rusnaki, Ruski Ljude. The latter are a peculiar and interesting tribe, a real problem in Slavic ethnography. They have also given rise to different interpretations. Ivan Vahylevich derived them from the Turkish Uzes, Moshkov from the Thracians or Skythians, and more recently Volkov found contacts with the Caucasus. Others admit at least a strong dose of foreign element in the Slavic nucleus (Filevich, Kaindl), others consider them pure Slavs (Pol, Shukhevych). They are distinguished by their beautiful stature, antiquity and richness of customs, artistic creativity, picturesque costumes, but also by their poor education, one of the lowest among the Slavs. Even today, 93% of them are illiterate! The name Hutsul is probably of Romanian origin (goc + the suffix ul). The number of Hutsuls in Shukhevych was 60,000 (in 1890).86

Figure 14. Hutsuls in the Subcarpathian region around 1920. Source: World Digital Library, https://www.wdl.org/en/item/10064/

The Hutsuls in Ukraine today mostly claim Ukrainian citizenship and are considered by the Ukrainian authorities to be a subgroup of the Ukrainian nation. As the south-eastern part of the Carpathian Mountains lies on the border between Ukraine and Romania, Hutsuls can also be found on the Romanian side of the border in the Maramures and Suceava regions. Although these ethnic groups on different sides of the border do not maintain close relations with each other, they have much in common. There are few differences in costume, ........................................... 86

NIEDERLE, L. Slovanský svět. Praha: Jan Laichter, 1909 (Laichterův výbor nejlepších spisů poučných. Kniha XXXV) p. 31–33.

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language or traditions. Today, attempts are being made to achieve a degree of unity between the Ukrainian and Romanian Hutsuls, but this is difficult to achieve. 87

2.5. IDENTITY OF THE INHABITANTS The Rusyns have never achieved their own statehood and are not recognised as a national minority in Ukraine, but as an ethno-graphic group, and their actions in seeking recognition as a national minority and autonomy for the Transcarpathian region are often seen as a separatist tendency. "Today's national policy in Transcarpathia does not perceive the Rusyns as a distinct people with all the attributes of a nation - language, distinct culture, religion, common territory and traditions - but as an ethnographic group of the Ukrainian nation. Rusyn activists are unwilling to accept this view, seeing it as another step towards the suppression of their identity. It is about the non-recognition of the distinctive Rusyn culture and, not least, the Rusyn language".88 However, the understanding of this national-political issue is generally problematic. For example, Dmitry Sidor (representative of the Rusyn movement in Transcarpathia) says: We live in a Rusyn land that became part of Ukraine by its own vote. We Rusyns voted to join Ukraine, and now it is strange to hear some Ukrainians say that we are separatists. Together with the Ukrainians, we are a state-building nation. We Rusyns are concentrating all our Rusyn forces on preserving the unity of Ukraine, and it is within Ukraine that we Rusyns want to see our new mother state, where we can fully open up as a people and build a united political Ukrainian nation together with Ukrainians. 89

According to the research conducted, members of the Rusyn ethnic group are fully aware of their difficult situation, but they do not have a unified opinion; moreover, awareness of the Rusyn population in Ukraine is not widespread among other citizens of the state due to the absence of the topic of Rusyns in the educational system.90 According to Natalia, it is not in Ukraine's interest to recognise the Rusyn minority: ........................................... 87

POVKHANYCH, Olena. Huculové na Ukrajině a v Rumunsku. c. d. MALINOVÁ, Irina, OTČENÁŠEK, Jaroslav, LENDĚLOVÁ, Věra. Skejuš - Skejušané - Skejušan: Rusíni v Chomutově: původ, historie a současnost. Praha: Karolinum, 2016. ISBN 978-80-246-3329-9. p. 51 89 Priznanije rusinov nacional'nost'ju (ně) protivorečit Konstitucii. (Признание русинов национальностью (не) противоречит Конституции) / Přiznání národnosti Rusínů (ne)odporuje Ústavě. [online] Unian.net, 14. 3. 2007 [cit. 29. 11. 2018]. Available from: http://bit.ly/unian-net 90 Malyj narod i mnogovekovaja istorija. (Малый народ и многовековая история) / Malý národ a velká historie. [online] Russian.rt.com, 02. 05. 2018 [cit. 29. 11. 2018]. Available from: https://russian.rt.com/science/article/508753-kto-takie-rusini 88

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In my opinion, this is because if Ukraine recognises the Rusyns as an official minority, there will be a question of autonomy and then independence of the region from Ukraine.

Finally, according to Magocsi, the Carpathian Rusyns are considered by the International Committee of Slavic Languages in Poland to be one of the fourteen Slavic peoples with their own language, Rusyn. 91

Figure 15, 16. Demonstration of Ukrainian Rusyns for the recognition of the Rusyn nation. Year 2015, www.fraza.ua.

According to official statistics, the 2001 census in Ukraine recorded 21,400 inhabitants claiming to be Hutsuls. 92 The position of the Hutsuls in Ukraine is similar to that of the Rusyns; they are also considered an ethnographic group of the Ukrainian nation, and are also perceived as such in Romania. There, the Hutsul ethnic identity is strongly defined against the Romanians, who see them as a Ukrainian minority. In both countries, however, the Hutsuls share a sense of belonging and membership in one nation, regardless of national borders. In Ukraine, the situation is more complicated because, according to respondents, the Rusyns define themselves against the Hutsuls because of the Hutsuls' affinity with the Ukrainian majority, which in the past was reflected in official statistics where the Hutsuls listed Ukrainian as their language instead of Hutsul.93 ........................................... 91

MAGOCSI, Paul R. Národ odnikud… c. d. Čysel'nist' osib okremych etnohrafičnych hrup ukrains'koho etnosu ta jich ridna mova / Чисельність осіб окремих етнографічних груп украінського етносу та їх рідна мова, 2001 [online] . © 20032004, Deržavnyj komitet statystyky Ukrajiny / Державний комітет статистики України . Available from: http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/results/nationality_population/nationality_popul2/select_5/?data1=1&box =5.5W&rz=1_1&rz_b=2_1&k_t=00&botton=cens_db 93 Čysel'nist' osib… c. d. 92

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At the same time, respondents identify themselves primarily as Hutsuls and only secondarily as Ukrainians, which can be seen as identification with the ethnographic group of Ukrainians.94 In the 2001 census, their status and representation in the statistics was 52.42% higher than that of Rusyns alone, although according to unofficial statistics there are many times more Rusyns than Hutsuls living in Ukraine95 - according to statistics from Hutsul associations and organisations, there may be as many as 300,000 Hutsuls living in Ukraine.96 However, Hutsuls show their view on politics and their belonging to the majority by celebrating national holidays, but at the same time they go to churches during church holidays in Hutsul costumes, one of the respondents justifies this by the unstable political situation in Ukraine, according to her they show their opinion on the revolution and the political coup to the public. It is important to note that the identity of the Hutsuls is closely linked to their geographical environment, especially the mountains, from which the term "Hutsul" as in "mountain" derives much more than ethnicity or religion97,98. Even among the Ukrainian interviewees it was expressed that they themselves consider themselves to be a nation rather than an ethnic group, whose cultural heritage is an important enriching element of the Ukrainian one, which the interviewee Viktor summarised as follows: Everyone can feel their existence in Ukraine, even if not everyone realises it. You can hear their songs on TV or on the Internet. You can see paintings by famous painters depicting them. You can buy their beautiful handmade products.

2.5.1. Language In Ukrainian political rhetoric, the very concept of the Rusyn language remains problematic. Officially, state officials consider Rusyn to be just one of many dialects of Ukrainian, the so-called Transcarpathian dialect. The Rusyns strictly reject this claim, since language as such is one of the main constitutive elements of their ethnic identity, and thus a fairly fundamental ........................................... 94

For example, one respondent said that Hutsuls often refer to themselves as Ukrainians, not Rusyns. According to some estimates, there are about 750,000 Rusyns living in the Transcarpathian region, but it is more than difficult to quantify the specific figure, because according to the last Ukrainian census in 2001, there were about 10,000 Rusyns living there. The statistical enumeration of the Rusyn minority is further detailed in the subchapter Language, for the reason that unofficial statistical data expressing the numerical representation of the Rusyn minority is derived by the number of speakers, not by nationality. 96 PALÍK, Branislav. Huculi – horali ukrajinských Karpat. [online] Dobrodruh.sk, 1. 8. 2008. [cit. 13. 3. 2019]. Available from: http://www.dobrodruh.sk/cestopisy/huculi-horali-ukrajinskych-karpat 97 VASYĽČUK, Mykola. Sofron Vytvyc'kyj – Istoryčnyj narys pro hucul'iv. / Софрон Витвицький – Історичний нарис про гуцульів. L'viv, 1863. 98 Vasylchuk also mentions that, according to Vytvyts'kyi, the Hutsuls may have arrived in the western Carpathian region in 862 together with the Vaygar prince Rurik, the founder of the Russian Rurik family and Kievan Rus. 95

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element of national consciousness. The first wave of the Rusyn national revival at the end of the 19th century, modelled on the Czech national revival, referred to this ethnic consciousness. Aleksandr Duchnovich, who was very committed to the Rusyn language, is still a very important historical representative of the Rusyn intelligentsia and a national awakener who symbolises the development of the Rusyn language and culture for future generations.99 Dukhnovich cannot be called a linguist, because he did not deal with theoretical questions of language. He was a priest, an intellectual who saw the question of language as fundamental to the construction of the national identity of the Rusyns. He can be better described as a man of letters, as his literary and artistic works attest. His spelling, however, has no rules, and on the question of the written language he oscillates between three different linguistic concepts. Numbers of Rusyns Statistical quantification of the number of speakers is also problematic, but there are unofficial statistics which estimate that Rusyn is spoken in Ukraine only by about 560,000 speakers from the Rusyn population of the Transcarpathian region100, and from a global perspective we can speak of up to 1.5 million Rusyns, of whom at least 0.5 million live in Transcarpathia101 - this was also the case before the Second World War, when 570,000 Rusyns lived in Transcarpathia.102 Not only these figures are the reason why the current data of the Ukrainian Statistical Office are considered manipulated, because "the claim is based on the statistics of the census of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia, according to which the number of Rusyns in Subcarpathian Rus reached 372,500 in 1921 and even 446,916 in 1930".103 The census of minorities in Ukraine is still not without problems: "At first the Ukrainian Parliament did not take into account the demand for recognition of the Rusyn ethnonym, then the representatives of the Rusyn associations decided to participate in the census as observers, and in parallel they worked out their statistics on the number of Rusyns in the territory, where they estimate that there are about 740,000 Rusyns (including Polish Rusyns/Lemkos with a number of about 90,000, who were forcibly expelled after the Second World War). It is only under pressure from the EU and the international community that Ukraine publishes its official statistics on the Rusyn minority, which are many times ........................................... 99

In the case of this Ruthenian national awakening, one can draw not only possible parallels with the Czech national awakening, but also parallels with František Palacky. 100 Rusyn: A language of Ukraine. Ethnologue, Languages of the World [online]. [cit. 2018-11-29]. Available from: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/rue 101 Rusyn: A language of Ukraine. Ethnologue, Languages of the World [online]. [cit. 2018-11-29]. Available from: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/rue 102 Ruthenian in Ukraine. People groups [online]. [cit. 29. 11. 2018]. Available from: https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14601/UP 103 KOKAISL, Petr. Etnické minority v Evropě. c. d., p. 270.

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lower".104 Thus, as of the last census in 2001, the statistical office recorded only 10,183 Rusyns in Ukraine. After 1989, when the disintegration of the USSR was gradually deepening, the so-called third wave of Rusyn national revival emerged, accompanied by new efforts to revitalize the Rusyn language and its codification. Various cultural organisations and linguists have been involved in shaping the rules of the written language and its grammatical structure, and the hard work culminated in 1995, when the official act of codification of Rusyn took place in Slovakia, allowing the language to enter the functional spheres. 105 The first edition of the grammar of the Rusyn language was published in the Subcarpathian region in Mukachevo in 1999 by a collective of authors: M. Almašij, I. Kerč, V. Molnar, S. Popovič: Materyns'kyj jazyk: pysemnycja rusyns'koho jazyka / Материнськый язык: писемниця русинського языка106. Rusyn belongs to the category of East Slavic languages, and because it is similar to Ukrainian, it is considered by Ukrainians to be a dialect of Ukrainian. Rusyn uses the Cyrillic alphabet, similar to Ukrainian, but with some differences. It is a relatively grammatically stable language. In the past, the Rusyn language was mainly preserved through oral tradition and folklore, such as folk songs. Nowadays it is also preserved in spoken form and through literature, while Rusyn has been pushed out of the folklore tradition by translations into Ukrainian. In recent years, however, there has been a linguistic revival in the field of folklore, with the Transcarpathian National Ensemble, whose members dress in traditional costumes and sing folk songs, playing an active and significant role. According to respondents, Rusyn is mainly used in the countryside, less in the cities, and is almost disappearing in politics, where Ukrainian is the dominant language, but other respondents are proud of their language. Pavlo. I mostly use Ukrainian, but I like to communicate in Rusyn with my older friends, so Rusyn becomes more of a complementary language to the main one, Ukrainian.

In general, respondents emphasised the linguistic borrowings of Rusyn from other Slavic languages, usually due to the state with which the area where Rusyns live borders. They often mention the enrichment of Rusyn with verbal expressions ........................................... 104

BRAUNSBERGEROVÁ, Tereza. Rusíni na Ukrajině – Podkarpatští Rusíni. In: KOKAISL, P. a kol. (2018) Burkiňané ve Francii, Češi v Rakousku, Češi v Rumunsku, Rusíni na Ukrajině, Italové ve Slovinsku, Poláci v Rumunsku, Tataři v Rumunsku, Krymští Tataři, Turci v Německu, Makedonci v Albánii, Alsasané. Praha: Nostalgie. ISBN 978-80-906207-7-3. 105 PLIŠKOVÁ, Anna. Materinský jazyk Rusínov na začiatku 21. storočia. In: Academia.edu [online]. Ústav rusínského jazyka a kultury. Prešovská univerzita v Prešově. Available from: http://bit.ly/2rE5fcc 106 MAGOCSI, Paul R.; GAJDA, Stanisław (ed.). Najnowsze dzieje języków słowiańskich. Rusin′skyj jazyk. Uniwersytet Opolski, Instytut Filologii Polskiej, 2004, p. 117.

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from Slovak, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Russian and occasionally Polish, and some words from Czech have been preserved in a historical context. Pavlo Chuchka. I see a risk of politicised Rusyns defining themselves more radically against Ukrainians and Ukrainian in a way that tends to favour the Russian language (and in some cases politics). Vasyl. The inhabitants of Transcarpathia mainly use Ukrainian for everyday communication, Russian is rarely spoken and the younger generation is adopting English; it is rare to find villages in the border areas where Slovak or Polish is spoken. The problem goes deeper language borrowing is fragmenting the Rusyn language, which complicates the situation. If they feel more like Rusyns than Ukrainians or Slovaks or Poles - depending on where they live - they certainly make a point of it and speak more of their dialect, a specific language, but one that is difficult to write down because it has no fixed spelling rules and is passed on by word of mouth.

Research has also shown that although the Hutsuls are considered to be one of the Rusyn ethnic groups, especially in older literature, they do not consider themselves to be Rusyns, or strictly speaking, and use their own language Hutsul. Neither language is an acceptable option for official communication in Ukraine, but Rusyn is an official language in, for example, the autonomous region of Vojvodina in Serbia, where Rusyns also live.107 Rusyn is also developing in official use in Slovakia through the application of the Law on the Use of National Minority Languages and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Hutsul is a Rusyn language, but unlike Rusyn, it is not officially codified in any country, nor is it used as an official language in any country.108 According to some authors, who include a subgroup of Boykos, Lemkos or Hutsuls in the group of Rusyns, it is the language that shows the closeness of these ethnic groups. The people living in the Carpathian Mountains, referred to as Karpatorusins (карпатороссы), Uhrorussians (угрорусы), Uhrorusins (угрорусины), are Slavs, and the basis of their language is a pan-Slavic vocabulary. The part that considers itself Rusyns with more certainty (Boykos, Lemkos, Hutsuls ) belongs to the group of East Slavic languages, which developed under the conditions of strong influence of West and South Slavic languages. The ........................................... 107

Vojvodina v Srbsku byla řízeně osidlovaná už v dobách Marie Terezie, tehdy se jednalo o 200 rodin, které sem z Karpat migrovaly dobrovolně, neboť to pro ně bylo ekonomicky výhodné a monarchií podporované osidlování nově získaného území. 108 As already mentioned in the chapter Rusyns in Ukraine , Rusyn can be used in official contacts in Vojvodinain Serbia and partly in Slovakia.

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very first acquaintance with the dictionaries of the Rusyn language amazes with the vocabulary known from Old Russian texts: English - Czech - Rusyn - Russian squirrel – veverka – vyvirka, vovirka / вывірка, вовірка – belka / belka vein – žíla – žyla, žŷla – vena flame – plamen – polomiň / поломінь – plamja / пламя plough – zorat – pooraty / поорати – vspachat' / вспахать Ard (plough) – rádlo – ralo, pluh / рало, плуг – plug / плуг shoulder – rameno – rameno, pleče / рамено, плече – plečo / плечо 109 While the above examples tend to show the proximity of Rusyn to the West Slavic languages, another thing is also apparent - the question of whether it is a separate language or a dialect of another language is often a very subjective one. This is also evident in the dictionary of the Hutsul dialect, whose authors advocate the thesis of the all-encompassing role of Ukrainian in relation to Hutsul, as well as to the Bukovinian, Mid-Western Carpathian, Boyko and Lemko dialects.110 According to the authors of the Hutsul dictionary, the Hutsul language itself has phonetic and morphological specificities. Among the phonetic differences from Ukrainian we can mention different articulation – e.g. klean (maple) instead of Ukrainian klen / клен, sein (son) instead of syn / син, žeito (rye) instead of zhyto / жито, different softening of some consonants. Morphological differences include, for example, the different use of double number endings – e.g. dvi nozy (two legs) instead of the Ukrainian dvi nohy / дві ноги, the use of the particle maj when grading adjectives, the use of different forms of the pronouns my, ty, sy (me, you, yourself) as opposed to the Ukrainian meni, tobi, sobi / мені, тобі, собі... 111 Although the language has been largely supplanted by Ukrainian in formal social intercourse and by Romanian in Romanian territory, it is still widely used in the countryside for communication between family, friends and residents of Hutsul villages. Literature in the region is typically in Ukrainian and Russian, with occasional literature in Rusyn, but no literature in Hutsul as such, which is why Hutsul is often referred to as a Western Ukrainian dialect. Due to the former high rate of illiteracy in the region, the literary tradition is underdeveloped (almost non-existent). Hutsul identity should therefore be abstracted from folk art, handicrafts and indigenous creativity.112 ........................................... 109

STARIKOVA, Galina Nikolajevna. Nominativnyj sostav jazyka rusinov kak otraženije nacional'nospecifičeskich uslovij žizni naroda. Rusin, 2019, 56. 110 ZAKREVS'KA, Ja. Hucul's'ki hovirky. Korotkyj slovnyk. L'viv: Nacional'na akademija nauk Ukrajiny, 1997. 111 ZAKREVS'KA, Ja. Hucul's'ki hovirky. Korotkyj slovnyk. c. d., p. 9–10. 112 HOŘEC, Jaromír. Země naděje: o minulosti a současnosti Podkarpadské Rusi. Praha: Česká expedice, 1995. Podkarpatská Rus. ISBN 80-85281-18-X.

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Irina. Hutsul is a big mix of Ukrainian, Russian, Rusyn, Slovak, Hungarian, but also Czech. There is also a noticeable resemblance to Rusyn in Hajnal113, but the main difference is in intonation – as close as we may be to the Hajnals, we may not understand each other at all.

Hutsul, like Rusyn, is used by local people to communicate with family, close friends and elders. According to interviewees, it is also a way of showing respect to elders and at the same time emphasising their pride in being Hutsuls, although statistics can only state that almost all Hutsuls subscribe to the Ukrainian language.114 Although the language is mainly preserved through oral tradition and oral folklore, the Hutsuls have their own stories, legends and myths, including national heroes. Oleksandr Dovbush, an "oprich" who lived in the first half of the 18th century, is considered by the Hutsuls to be their national hero from the time of the peasant uprising against the local nobility. His figure has been largely erased from popular history because of the deeds he did for the locals on the slopes of the Carpathians, "taking from the rich and giving to the poor".115 In the context of the Slavic milieu, Dovbush's courage and ingenuity can be compared to a Slovakian hero such as Juraj Janosik, a similar symbol of unbridled spirit, freedom and the mountain way of life. 116 2.5.2. Education As the Rusyn population is not a minority supported by state and national funds, Rusyn schools are de facto in decline. Nevertheless, efforts have been made to establish at least Sunday schools where the Rusyn language is taught. In 2001, Dmitry Pop 'was instrumental in establishing Rusyn schools in the Svaliava region, an almost exclusively Rusyn area'.117 In the past, the development of Rusyn schools was also supported by the American-Canadian Rusyn Society, whose members are descendants of Rusyns who emigrated to America in the 20th century. On the other hand, in the border area on the Slovak side of the UkrainianSlovak border, there are several schools supported by the Slovak government, but this is due to the minority status of Rusyns living in the European Union. The ........................................... 113

The dialect of the Doliňans. Čysel'nist' osib… c. d. 115 ISAJENKO, Ol‘ha. Uljublena ukrajins'ka čytanka. Chrestomatija dlja pozaklasnoho ta simejnoho čytannja. 1-4 klasy. Klub Semejnoho Dosuha, 2015. ISBN 978-966-14-9664-3. 116 HISEM, O. B., MARTYNJUK, O. O. Istorija Ukrajiny. 8 klas: Rozborky urokiv. Charkiv: Ranko, 2008. ISBN 978-966-08-3756-0, p. 331. 117 BRAUNSBERGEROVÁ, T. ISKANDAROVA, A., TLEGENOV T. Rusíni na Ukrajině. In: KOKAISL, P. a kol. Pestrá Evropa: Italové v Chorvatsku, Poláci v Rumunsku, Rusíni na Ukrajině, Rusíni (Lemkové) v Polsku, Rusíni v Srbsku, Ukrajinci v Rumunsku, Turci v Makedonii, Turci v Rumunsku, Krymští Tataři. Praha: Nostalgie, 2017. ISBN 978-80-906207-6-6. 114

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Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture at the University of Prešov and the Polish side are the main proponents of Rusyn textbooks. Regarding the educational situation in Transcarpathia, Padjak disputes the unofficial numbers of Rusyns, suggesting that 772,883 Rusyns may have lived in the Transcarpathian region in 2001, based on the number of schoolchildren from Rusyn families attending compulsory school, 115,932, according to official statistics and demographic data.118 2.5.3. Media Although there are efforts to codify the Rusyn language, only one programme "Rusyn Family", which has been broadcast on Uzhhorod television since 2010 has penetrated the media and mass media. It is a weekly cultural programme of about 20 minutes, dealing mainly with ethnographic and folklore topics and the history of the Rusyn people. However, it is unacceptable that there is space for political issues.119 Three films in Rusyn have been produced in cooperation with the Association of Slovak Rusyns. Print media published in Rusyn today include newspapers, quarterly magazines, books and textbooks. The whole situation is greatly complicated by the lack of financial investment in publishing and publishing activities, and for this reason the cost of publishing is decreasing. The Rusyn language is mainly preserved in the oral tradition, but there is also Rusyn literature written in Rusyn, and this fact can be considered as a proof of the diversity and richness of the language. Among the prominent Rusyn authors writing in Ukraine are Volodymyr Fedynyshynets, Mykhailo Kemyn, Ivan Sytar, Ivan Petrovtsiy (a prominent translator and writer, winner of the Alexander Dukhnovich Prize) and Vasil Sochka-Borzhavin (poet and Rusyn national awakener). Steven Chepa, a businessman of Rusyn origin living in Canada, established the Alexander Dukhnovich Prize for the best literary work in Rusyn in 1945 (nominated works may be published no more than five years after the announcement). Another of Chepa's awards is the Prize for Significant Contribution to Carpatho-Russian Culture. At present, there are about 65 authors writing literature of various genres, from novels to satires, including fairy tales. Among the best known contemporary writers is Yuri Chori, who has published several books. Some respondents mention the poet Roman Pishchalnyk and Josef Lemko, who represents the younger generation and writes mainly musical lyrics, but among the most important personalities involved in the revival of the Rusyn language are M. ........................................... 118

PADJAK, Valerij. Rusinska škola: vidrodžennja narodnoju ocviti. Užhorod: Vid. V. Padjaka, 2013. ISBN 978-966-387-077-9. 119 BRAUNSBERGEROVÁ, Tereza. Rusíni na Ukrajině – Podkarpatští Rusíni. In: KOKAISL, P. a kol. Burkiňané ve Francii, Češi v Rakousku, Češi v Rumunsku, Rusíni na Ukrajině, Italové ve Slovinsku, Poláci v Rumunsku, Tataři v Rumunsku, Krymští Tataři, Turci v Německu, Makedonci v Albánii, Alsasané. Praha: Nostalgie, 2018. ISBN 978-80-906207-7-3.

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Almashii and members of the linguistic section of A. Duchnovich, who prepared the first grammar of the Rusyn language. As far as lexicography is concerned, I. Kerch should be mentioned - co-author of the first codification manuals (Grammar, 1999) and author of the monumental Russian-Rusyn dictionary and the Russian-Rusyn translation dictionary. Dimitry Pop wrote a trilingual dictionary (Russian-Ukrainian-Rusyn) containing 270 thousand words, various Rusyn phrases and poems.120 2.5.4. Religion and religious holidays Male, 42 years old, Lviv. I am a Christian. It is impossible to live without faith.

Rusyns see the adoption of Christianity in connection with the missionary work of the "Thessalonian brothers" Cyril (Constantine) and Methodius in Great Moravia. Thus, Sts. Cyril and Methodius are regarded not only as the "Apostles of the Slavs", but also as the patrons of Subcarpathian Rus - many local churches are dedicated to them, and the Grushevsky Monastery near Mukachevo is considered to be their direct founder. The Rusyns were Orthodox until the 17th century, but became Greek Catholic after the creation of the Uzhhorod Union in 1646. Some Rusyns, especially in the mountains, remained Orthodox. At the time when Subcarpathian Rus was part of the Czechoslovak state, some of the Greek Catholic Rusyns began to lean towards Orthodoxy (partly due to the anti-Catholic policies of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia). The banning of the Greek Catholic Church in the USSR in 1946 accelerated this process - the restoration of the Greek Catholic Church in the USSR did not take place until 1988. Today, more than 60% of Rusyns in the Transcarpathian region are Orthodox and 35% are Greek Catholic. 121 After the Greek Catholic Church was banned in the USSR, believers who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were persecuted in Subcarpathian Rus: Dr. Agáta Pilátová, nee. Csehilyová (✵1938). The Russians persecuted various people. For example, Greek Catholic priests, when they abolished the Greek Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia, because they also abolished it in the Soviet Union. Terrible things happened. Those who were not Orthodox were sent to Siberia. My grandfather was lucky to be eighty years old and died in a disciplined way. He wouldn't have joined the Orthodox either! One or two of my relatives went to Siberia. They were old and did not survive. And the internees who went

........................................... 120 121

BRAUNSBERGEROVÁ, T. ISKANDAROVA, A., TLEGENOV T. Rusíni na Ukrajině. c.d., p. 28. Religija rusinov. [online] Ob'jediněnije rusinov. [cit. 14. 10. 2019] Available from: http://yarusin.su/kultura-rusinov/religiya-rusinov.html

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first to the provisional camps in what was then Transcarpathia mostly ended up in Donbass. I don't want to say they gave up, I think many of them came back after ten, fifteen years. The irony was that none of them were soldiers. The Soviets pretended they were prisoners of war, they interned them to work. The Donbass had been bombed, it had to be rebuilt, and they used them for that.122 Religious situation in Subcarpathian Rus (1921) Others 0,1%

Evangelical Churches 10%

No religion Catholics 0,2% Roman 9%

Jews (Israeli religion) 16%

Orthodox 10%

Catholics Greek 55%

Catholics – Roman 55,164 9% Catholics – Greek 332,458 55% Orthodox 60,997 10% Evangelical Churches 62,955 10% Jews (Israeli religion) 93,341 15% Other 479 0.1% Without religion 1,174 0.2% Figure 17. Religious situation in Subcarpathian Rus (1921). Source: Statistický přehled Republiky československé. Praha: Státní úřad statistický, 1930, p. 10.

........................................... 122

PILÁTOVÁ, Agáta. Perzekuce řeckokatolické církve na Podkarpatské Rusi. [online] © 2008-2020 Paměť národa. [cit. 11. 1. 2020] Available from: https://www.pametnaroda.cz/cs/pilatova-rozcsehilyova-agata-1938

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The religion of the Ukrainian Rusyns, and especially the church administration, is in many ways specific. Although the majority of the population of the Transcarpathian region is Orthodox, Greek Catholics make up a very significant proportion of the Rusyn population. The Orthodox Church in Ukraine, however, suffers from a split along national and often political lines. From the collapse of the USSR until 2018, Ukrainian Orthodoxy was divided into three churches: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (of the Moscow Patriarchate), the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Church. The attempt by the Patriarch of Constantinople to unite Ukrainian Orthodox Christians into an autocephalous (self-governing) church in 2018 was rejected by the Moscow Patriarchate, which considers the territory of the former Ukrainian SSR to be its religious jurisdiction. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, on the other hand, clearly recognises the Roman Pontiff as its supreme representative, but again there is no panUkrainian unity. Almost the entire territory of Ukraine falls under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which has over 4 million followers. The exception is the Transcarpathian region, which has its own eparchy in Mukachevo, which reports directly to the Pope. Despite its common designation as a Greek Catholic Church, it is a Rusyn Byzantine Catholic Church. Thus, while Ukrainian Rusyns do not enjoy political autonomy from the central Ukrainian government, in the religious sphere they effectively have their own Rusyn Church - the number of believers reaches 320,000. 123 According to the Rusyn association Ob'edynenye rusynov / Объединение русинов (Association of Rusyns ) registered in 2011 in Moscow, many leaders of the Mukachevo Eparchy hold positions of political Rusynism, which is supposed to mean support for the movement for autonomy and even secession of the Transcarpathian region.124 The Hutsuls. The peculiarity of the ancient Hutsul faith lies in its connection with the surrounding nature and pastoral life, which did not change with the arrival of Christianity.125 Since the settlement of the Carpathians in the 7th century, the Hutsuls have been Orthodox or Greek, Eastern and Byzantine Christians. The first churches in Hutsul territory were also Orthodox. With the adoption of the Union of Brest-Litovsk in 1596, the Poles began to spread the Greek-Catholic faith among the population of Halych/Galicia and Bukovina. Also in Transcarpathian Hutsul, the Union of Uzhhorod was adopted in 1646, which sought to restore ecclesiastical communion between the churches of the Byzantine rite and the Roman Catholic Church. ........................................... 123

With other eparchies outside Ukraine (in the USA and the Czech Republic), the membership of the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church reached 419,500 in 2016. (The Eastern Catholic Churches 2016. 124 Religija rusinov. c. d. 125 TURKEVYCH, Vasyl'. All-Ukrainian International Christian Assembly. Published by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, 1998, p. 70.

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The Hungarian and Austrian authorities forced the Hutsuls to attend the Union churches, which were alienated from the Orthodox Church or newly built. Some of the Hutsuls accepted the Greek-Catholic Union religion because the services were still held in the Old Slavic language of the Church and the feasts remained the same. However, a significant number of Hutsuls remained Orthodox, which was illegal at the time. There were frequent disputes and disagreements between the two confessions, which were exploited by the authorities, who tried in various ways to destabilise relations between the inhabitants of the mountain areas. With the arrival of Soviet power in the Hutsul region in 1949, the Greek Catholic Church was banned and only reinstated in the last years of Soviet rule. Hutsuls are often willing to give whatever they can for the needs of the Church, not only money, but also bringing milk products, honey, bread, etc. They treat the priest with great trust and respect, addressing him as panotche / панотче (literally, Mister Father).126 In independent Ukraine (i.e. since 1991) the spiritual life of the Hutsuls has clearly developed, where Christian symbolism is intertwined with national and state symbols. The chapels are decorated with embroidered cloths and statues of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. Entering the chapels, one can see Ukrainian national symbols such as the trident and the Ukrainian flag. A particular cultural phenomenon that demonstrates the link between patriotism and religion are the local icons in Rachiv, which depict the Virgin Mary in a Hutsul embroidered shirt and Jesus in a Hutsul keptar (traditional embroidered waistcoat).127 Strong traditions of shamanism can also still be found in Hutsul. With a bit of luck, one can still meet a Hutsul mol'far (мольфар) – a person endowed with supernatural powers, seemingly an enemy, a sorcerer, or a folk magician. They used to be called "earth gods" and are nowadays called healers. The mol'far are held in high regard by the people, their prophecies have come true, and situations have been known where a mol'far has cured an otherwise incurable disease.128 In general, among the members of Rusyn ethnic groups129 we find Greek Catholics and Orthodox, but Hutsul people are more often Orthodox, to which one of the respondents adds: At the moment most are Orthodox, but this is a trend that started in the 70s in the USSR. There used to be more Catholic churches, but they started to become Orthodox.

........................................... 126

MONDRYK, Romana. Hlavní projevy etnické identity ukrajinských Huculů. Kulturní studia 1/2017, p. 39-61. ISSN 2336-2766. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7160/ks.2017.080103. 127 POVKHANYCH, Olena. Etnické vědomí Huculů na Ukrajině a v Rumunsku. Praha: PEF ČZU, 2017, p. 29–30. 128 MONDRYK, Romana. Hlavní projevy etnické identity ukrajinských Huculů. c. d. 129 The entire region is religiously heterogeneous, with Jews (mostly Hasidic) as well as Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics and Orthodox.

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Thus, religion is not a typical unifying element of Rusyn identity in the Transcarpathian region - it is rather a Byzantine rite. As a result, Transcarpathia has a relatively strong representation of Orthodox believers who recognise the Moscow Patriarch, and there are also Rusyns of Greek Catholic faith. Nevertheless, local believers are willing and able to borrow churches from each other for worship, masses and other sacraments. It is noteworthy that this phenomenon is not specific to the Rusyns of Transcarpathia, but also applies, for example, to the Rusyns (Skejusans, i.e. former inhabitants of the village of Scăiuș in the Romanian region of Caras-Severin) in the Chomutov region of the Czech Republic. Vasyl Kapustej. All in all, the differences between Orthodoxy and Greek Catholicism are not so great or marked; these two branches have much in common in terms of holidays, calendar, religious ceremonies, customs, etc. There are few differences.

Church festivals and related ceremonies follow the Julian calendar throughout the year, with Christmas falling in early January and Easter traditionally associated with the first full moon of spring. Christmas Both Orthodox and Greek Catholics follow the Julian calendar, so Christmas Eve is traditionally celebrated on 7 January - the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ - similar to Roman Catholic Christmas on 24 December. It is a family holiday, but there are some peculiarities. The Rusyn Christmas Eve table is decorated with the so-called snup, which symbolises the birth of Jesus on straw.130, 131 Marjana, 46 years old, Khust . On Christmas Eve, 12 fasting meals were served, if not, at least 9. Before Christmas, people fasted and did not eat on Christmas Eve. And before sitting down to dinner, pets were fed.

Figure 18. Snup Source: http://vk.volyn.ua/new s_61_5669_Oberegina shogodomu.html

The beginning of the meal also included washing in the stream. A woman laid a chain in a circle in the hallway as a symbol of family ties ........................................... 130 131

V ukrajinštině se užívá ještě názvu snip. Viz obrázek vpravo: Snup Avšak toto bývá interpretováno dvojím způsobem, jak upozorňuje Kaleta v knize Cesta do Haliče, odkud čerpá i autorský kolektiv Malinová a spol. v knize Skejuš – Skejušané – Skejušan: Rusíni v Chomutově, původ, historie a současnost. Druhou možnou interpretací je míněn snup jakožto symbol bohaté sklizně a chovu hospodářských zvířat.

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and good housekeeping. The Christmas Eve meal was accompanied by bread with salt, garlic and honey, Lenten cabbage soup, cold plum soup called plum brandy, dumplings, fish, sweet pastries and home-made brandy. At the festively set table, all members of the family say a prayer before dinner and sing Christmas carols together after dinner. It is a tradition for families to extinguish the candle flame with their fingers after dinner, and if the smoke rises straight up, it means that all family members will live in good health in the coming year.132, 133 On the following evening, 8 January, the second feast of the Nativity (also known as Sbor / Sobor / Feast of the Most Holy Theotokos), groups of young men dressed as shepherds go to visit families. Two of them are dressed as angels, usually carrying a handmade crib, and the eldest is the 'dido' (grandfather who blesses the family). Together they perform a religious sketch in each family, blessing them and giving them a reward such as moonshine. The third day of the Feast of the Nativity falls on 9 January, when the day of the first disciple Stephen is celebrated.134 Typical of Hutsul Christmas is a tree called 'didukh', which is decorated the day before and symbolises the presence of the spirit of the family's ancestors. At Christmas Eve dinner, 'kutia', a cereal porridge flavoured with nuts, honey and poppy seeds, is served, followed by the singing of Christmas carols in the family circle. 135 Among the Hutsuls, the carols are similar to those of the Rusyns living in Ukraine on the second day of Christmas, except that, according to those interviewed, only one of the boys dresses up as the devil and the eldest is called 'didi', which means grandfather. Easter Easter is also important to Rusyns, if not more so than Christmas. Lent lasts for 40 days, ending with Holy Week and culminating in Mass on Resurrection Sunday. In Ukraine, it is mainly associated with Easter bread, called Pascha, although the recipe varies considerably from country to country. Easter bread also appears in the eastern part of Ukraine, but it tends to be a sweet bread, while the western Rusyn bread is closer to the classic savoury bread. According to interviewees, Rusyns decorate the 'paskha' with plaits that form a cross at the top and put it together with other food (e.g. eggs, cottage cheese, butter, sausages, salt and ........................................... 132

MRVÍKOVÁ, Tereza; POVKHANYCH, Olena; TREICHELOVÁ, Lucie. Rusíni na Ukrajině. [online] Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2016. [cit. 15. 10. 2019] Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2016:rusini_na_ukrajine 133 JUNKOVÁ, Karolína; KUBEŠOVÁ, Adéla; BYDŽOVSKÁ, Adéla; HLAVÁČOVÁ, Markéta; GODOČÍKOVÁ, Zuzana. Rusíni na Ukrajině.[online] Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2017. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2017:rusini_na_ukrajine 134 Ibidem. 135 Beekeeping is an integral historical part of Hutsul agriculture and honey is considered a symbol of prosperity and harvest.

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vegetables) in a basket to be taken to church for consecration. During the consecration, it is important to keep a festive candle burning in the basket. Other interviewees mentioned the tradition of cutting a boiled egg into the same number of pieces as the number of family members as a symbol of cohesion. A piece of ham bone is buried in the ground as a sign of a bountiful harvest, and eggshells are buried in vegetable beds to increase size and growth. Boys go around pouring water on girls, not the other way round as with Roman Catholics. Traditionally, Rusyns make Easter eggs called 'pysanky'. The Hutsuls celebrate Easter with a mass in church on Palm Sunday, when the whole family is together and no work is done during the Easter period. Customs and traditions are strictly observed and Easter is a very important holiday for them, as it is for the Rusyns. For decoration, the Hutsuls mainly use wood, namely lime, birch and viburnum, from which they make various decorations for doors and gardens, as one respondent explained: Gardens and homes are most often decorated during the Green Festival, which is counted down from Easter and is about 40 days after Easter Sunday. Mostly in May.

There is a tradition of taking a blessed branch of flowering holly (called catkins) to Palm Sunday Mass before Easter because of its healing powers, and on Easter Sunday people bring a basket of Easter eggs to church to be blessed similar traditions are common in other nations. Traditional cuisine Talking about traditional Rusyn (or Hutsul) cuisine in Ukraine is largely a matter of repetition when introducing typical dishes of Rusyns from other countries. The traditional cuisine of Ukrainian Rusyns (and Rusyns in other countries as well) is still largely influenced by Greek Catholic and Orthodox holidays, whose traditions are reflected in the common dishes of everyday and festive life. Some festivals were associated with typical dishes, but these were characteristic not only of the Rusyns, but also of the population around them.136 The Rusyn respondents were not asked directly about their traditional cuisine, except for Christmas and Easter dishes. The respondents themselves pointed out the similarity of Rusyn cuisine in general in the region, from the Slovak Spiš to the Ukrainian Khust. ........................................... 136

KOKAISL, Petr. Transformacija etničeskoj iděntičnosti rusinskogo men'šinstva v Slovakii. (Трансформация этнической идентичности русинского меньшинства в Словакии). Rusin 52/2018. DOI: 10.17223/18572685/52/17

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Rusyn cuisine in the Subcarpathian region has absorbed many ingredients and methods of preparation from other ethnic groups that have lived in this ethnically diverse area in the past and still do. Elements of Hungarian, Jewish, Slovakian and Romanian cuisine are also intertwined in the preparation of Rusyn dishes. Simple, hearty meals based on staples - mostly potatoes, cabbage, bread, sour milk, cheese, beans and corn - are popular throughout the Transcarpathian region. Lunch is often served with a starter or soup - there are dozens of recipes for these, most of which include noodles. An important grain used throughout the Transcarpathian region is maize - a number of recipes using flour are based on the use of maize flour. Pastoralism has always been central to much of the Transcarpathian region due to the natural conditions in which the local population live. As a result, the main staples of the diet of people living in the foothills and mountains are meat (especially on festive occasions), milk and various products of their processing. According to the interviewees, Hutsul cuisine is varied and mainly associated with sheep's milk products - various dairy products, cheese and bryndza. Other staples include cereals, cornmeal, potatoes and mushrooms. The most commonly mentioned dish is 'kuleša', which is described as a baked bread-like dish made from a dough of cornmeal and potatoes, which is then served in a pan with cream and cheese. The Hutsuls also cook chicken broth with cream and mushrooms called 'banuš', smoked meat and root vegetables (e.g. beetroot) are popular, as is 'bograč' goulash, mentioned by one respondent: Bograč is also a typical dish of Hajnals. It differs mainly in the way it is served. The Hajnals serve it in bread.137

2.5.5. Art and Architecture Culture consists of a number of heterogeneous elements, therefore it is necessary to define culture as such: "The self-determination of Subcarpathian Rus is connected with the essence of national life, which has all the features of a distinctive development and its own culture. It has created a specific enclave, wedged between Ukrainians, Poles, Romanians, Hungarians and Slovaks, which for centuries has preserved a pure and convincing authenticity, not only the austere folk ornamentation and the peculiarity of architecture, costumes and customs, which have always been preserved in Subcarpathian Rus".138 Although times and political regimes have changed in the course of the twentieth century, ........................................... 137

HLAVOVÁ, Kateřina; KRÁL, Tomáš; PRŮCHOVÁ, Veronika; ŠPÁLA, Ondřej; ZAJÍČKOVÁ, Gabriela. Huculové na Ukrajině. [online] Hospodářská a kulturní studia (HKS) Provozně ekonomická fakulta, Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze, 2015. [cit. 21. 10. 2019] Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/2015:rusini_na_ukrajine. 138 HOŘEC, Jaromír. Země naděje: o minulosti a současnosti Podkarpatské Rusi. Praha: Česká expedice. Podkarpatská Rus, 1995. ISBN 80-85281-18-X. p. 9.

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it is necessary to recognise the relevance of this premise in the present, because the foundations of national revivals are built on a certain unchanging form of national history, made up of historical moments. During the Czechoslovak era, the sculptor Jelena Mandičová, a native of Rusyn, left her mark on Subcarpathian art, for example, by creating a statue of T. G. Masaryk, and "another monumental work of Jelena Mandičová was a bronze statue of the Rusyn national awakener Alexander Duchnovič from 1932, which is located in Prešov".139, 140 Hrbek includes among other now neglected artists Gyuyl (Julija) Virag, a native of Khust who, in addition to his artistic work, participated in religious paintings for the Greek Catholic Church, becoming the official painter of the Greek Catholic Diocese of Mukachevo and "decorating the St Nicholas Church near Mukachevo". 141

Figure 19. Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Prague, detail of the roof. The wooden Orthodox church was built in the 17th century in the so-called Boyko style in the village of Velyki Lučky (near Mukachevo), from where it was moved to the village of Medvedovce in the 18th century. During the First Czechoslovak Republic (1929) it was brought to Prague as a gift from the Ruthenians to the capital. After its restoration, it was on display in Prague's Kinsky Garden until 28 October 2020, when almost the entire church was destroyed by fire. It is currently being restored. Source: author's archive, Veronika Němcová

The neo-realist painter Josyf Bokšay (1891-1975) was committed to the visual treatment of architectural and folkloric motifs in his paintings, which to some ........................................... 139

The sculptor was inspired by Myslbek's work, which points to the interconnectedness of CzechSubcarpathian relations during the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic. 140 HRBEK, Antonín. Podkarpatská Rus. Stoleté výročí vzniku. Olomouc: Václav Lukeš – Poznání, 2018. ISBN 978-80-87419-70-0. p. 226. 141 HRBEK, Antonín. Podkarpatská Rus. Stoleté výročí vzniku. c. d., p. 244.

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extent become an artefact of historical and documentary value from the period of Subcarpathian Rus.

Figure 20, 21. Hutsuls.

Figure 22, 23. Hutsul woman. Winter in the village. Josyf Bokšay, taken from https://www.dartesro.sk

As mentioned above, the Rusyns are followers of both the Greek Catholic and Orthodox churches, and in both cases you can find admirable traditional church Wood was used as a building material until the beginning of the 20th century. The churches, called "cerkvy", in the areas inhabited by the Rusyns are mostly made of wood, including their interior decoration, which reflects the craftsmanship and folk creativity of the local population. The interior was divided into three parts:

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the vestibule, the space for the faithful - the oratory and the iconostasis, and a separate space for the altar and the priest - the presbytery.142 These types of sacral buildings in the territory of the former Subcarpathian Rus are of two styles - Lemko or Boyko. The Boyko style is characterised by a tripartite "half-timbered house" with three naves (the narthex is reserved for women, the nave for men and the choir for priests). The central part of the church is higher than the other two, each of which is topped by a square frame and a tower. The individual towers are formed by a segmented roof of two to five storeys. Very often the temples are oriented with the presbytery on the east side. Apart from Transcarpathia, Lemko temples can be found along the eastern border of Slovakia and in the south-eastern Polish borderlands. They differ from the Boyko style in that they have more elaborate decorative elements in the interior, the temple is extended on the outside with an arcaded gallery, so they tend to have two naves, and the tower above the narthex is the dominant and tallest tower of the building, as it was used as a lookout tower.143

Figure 24. The 18th century Church of St. Nicholas in Danilovo. Marmaros Gothic (originally from Romania) is a unique type of sacral architecture in the Transcarpathian region. A typical feature is a high tower above the "babinec" with four small towers around it. Danilovo, 7. 7. 2018.

........................................... 142 143

HRBEK, Antonín, 2018. Podkarpatská Rus. Stoleté výročí vzniku. c. d., p. 234. BENDA, Michal. Roubené skvosty z Podkarpatské Rusi a východního Slovenska: Sborník referátů ze semináře: Regionální muzeum ve Vysokém Mýtě 21.–22.11.2005. Vysoké Mýto: Regionální muzeum ve Vysokém Mýtě, 2006. ISBN 80-239-7517-X.

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Historically, houses with a tripartite structure, consisting of an entrance vestibule144, a living area145 and chambers, are typical of residential houses. Because of the landscape and climate, the walls of the houses are relatively thick, with beech and oak logs at the base. The central element of the traditional dwelling was the dining table, and the stove was built to the left of the entrance to the cottage. Benches and a large bed under the windows were standard features. A covered veranda is often found on the outside of the house. Straw thatched roofs appear on houses and outbuildings. Wooden shingles are typical of religious buildings, bell towers, craft buildings and larger family houses. The larger family house, the so-called long house146, was built by changing the basic plan into an elongated rectangle; the extension included a stable147, a barn148 and a shed.149 Despite this foundation, village architecture remained relatively limited in order to preserve the functionality of the dwelling (primarily protection from the changing climate) and the basic necessities for rural survival, as the Rusyn population was mainly peasant.150 In addition to the Lemko and Boyko styles of Rusyn architecture, the Hutsul style can also be found in Ukraine. The Hutsuls build timber-framed churches similar to those of the Rusyns, with the only difference that some can be made up of up to five parts, and their ground plan corresponds to an isosceles Greek cross. However, such Byzantine-style churches can only be found in the eastern part of Transcarpathia.151

Figure 25. Hutsul dwelling hražda (building). Source: ukrcenter.com152

........................................... 144

Also called siňja, sieň or pitvor. Also called chyža or peredňa chyža. 146 Commonly called dovha hut. 147 Called a stable. 148 It was used to store agricultural tools and later technology. It is often called a pelevňa, bojisko or stodolja. 149 Called a shopa. 150 OSTAPCHUK, E. Folk Art of Carpathian-Ukraine. Toronto: Published by Phillip Ostapchuk, 1957. 151 VAVROUŠEK, Bohumil. Církevní památky na Podkarpatské Rusi. Praha: Kvasnička a Hampl (Orbis), 1929. 152 Hucul's'ka chata-hražda. Ukrcenter.com. Ukrajins'ka Fotohalereja. [online]. 9. 2. 2011. Available from: www.ukrcenter.com/Фотогалерея/48186/hranom/48761/Гуцульська-хата-гражда in: MONDRYK, Romana. Etnická identita ukrajinských Huculů. Praha: PEF ČZU, 2017. 145

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The traditional Hutsul building is the homestead, the so-called "hražda", which is typical of ordinary rural architecture. A hražda can be seen as a residential complex that also includes agricultural buildings, the individual buildings being connected by a common courtyard.153 This type of building was intended to protect the Hutsul family from strangers, wild animals or strong winds and snow". The outbuildings were usually further subdivided into a shed or barn for storing tools, a sheepfold and food storage areas. According to the research carried out, similarities with the Hutsul castle can be found, for example, in the villages of Osturňa, Litmanová and Nižné Repaše. Mondryk also includes several towns - Jasina, Yaremche, Verkhovina, Rachov and Kolomyia.154

Figure 26. Cottage of the so-called Boyko type, early 19th century. Figure 27. Cottage from the vicinity of Svaljava, 17th-18th century. Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture (open-air museum) in Uzhhorod, Tereza Braunsbergerová, http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2018/rusini_na_ukrajine, 2018

Figure 28. Hutsul dwelling in Uzhhorod open-air museum. Tereza Braunsbergerová, Albina Iskandarova, Tanir Tlegenov http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_na_ukraji ne Year 2017

........................................... 153 154

The windows in the living area are often located on the north side of the house. MONDRYK, Romana. Hlavní projevy etnické identity ukrajinských Huculů. Kulturní studia 1/2017, p. 39-61. ISSN 2336-2766. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7160/ks.2017.080103.

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2.5.6. Folklore traditions and costumes In the past, there was not so much room for the development of traditions and folklore, but today there is a considerable revival in this respect and great efforts are being made to preserve and develop Rusyn culture. For example, Rusyn folk songs are broadcast on the radio and performed at festivals, but the fact that oral folklore is preserved in its original language without translation is an important factor.

Figure 29: Transcarpathian National Ensemble155

The Hutsul culture is indeed diverse and remarkable, although this ethnic group is historically associated with a high level of illiteracy, which is linked to the absence of artistic creation in the form of literature. According to Anna Kibych, the region's characteristic crafts include woodcarving, pottery, blacksmithing and jewellery making, with an emphasis on copperwork.156 According to Podogin, the Hutsuls are also good tanners and weavers of cloth and carpets. As far as folk art is concerned, we should not forget the processing of fabrics used to make national costumes and, in the case of the Rusyns, highquality hand embroidery of various types and styles. "In recent years there have been efforts in Ukraine to revive Ukrainian spiritual culture, and the Hutsuls, their traditions and costumes are often cited as an example of its preservation.157,158 ........................................... 155

Zakarpatský národní sbor. [online] Available from: http://philarmonia.uz.ua/team/transcarpathion.php As mentioned by other authors in this publication, Kibych also believes that the Hucul orientation towards agriculture, cattle breeding and wood processing and wood carving was strongly influenced by the mountainous relief of the Carpathian Mountains where the Hucul population lives (Kibych, A., 2010). 157 Pogodin also notes similarities between the Rusyns and Hutsuls in Ukraine and the Yugoslav Rusyns in what is now Serbia's Vojvodina. 158 POVKHANYCH, Olena. Huculové na Ukrajině a v . In: KOKAISL, P. a kol. (2016). Pestrá Evropa: Turci v Bulharsku... Praha: Nostalgie. ISBN 978-80-906207-5-9. 156

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Figure 30: Participants of the Hutsul festival with trembits, Ukraine.159

Figure 31. Mountain Hutsul and their typical trembits. The tools are made from two hollowed-out pieces of wood that are re-bonded together. Romana Mondryk, 2015. http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2015/Hutsulove-UA

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The Hutsuls are considered musicians and are generally a musically talented ethnic group. Popular folk musical instruments include the Hutsul 'tylynka', a simple, smaller flute usually made of willow.160 The tylynka is taught practically from early childhood. Other traditional musical instruments include the 'trembits', a type of long horn made from a single piece of wood and measuring up to 4 metres in length. "Trembits are visually similar to the Alpine horn, and in Slovakia there is an analogue called the 'fujara', which was mainly used by shepherds, but all three have the same function - both for herding sheep and for communicating by sound signals in mountainous areas. Communication by sound played an important role in the past, as it was used to announce various social events such as important festivals, weddings and funerals, as well as to warn mountain dwellers of possible dangers or threats. It is clear from the statements of the Ukrainian interviewees that members of the majority have at least a minimal knowledge of Hutsul culture: Vasil. The Hutsuls are well known for their culture, many traditions, costumes and musical instruments.

Another respondent, Alexandr, who is aware of the specifics of Hutsul culture and music (including knowledge of instruments such as the trembita) presented on television, perceives the situation in much the same way. In addition to the instruments described above, Hutsuls also like to play the trumpet, the accordion and occasionally stringed instruments, especially the violin. Rusyn costumes and embroidery In general, we can look at costume in two ways: first, the national costume is a garment for both everyday and festive wear. "Individual regions distinguished themselves from the inhabitants of other regions, even from village to village, by their clothing. Clothing was still a sign that said a lot about the wearer, not just the village he came from".161 The costume, including the embroidery, has become a sign that represents its wearer and thus contributes to the definition of his or her identity. From this point of view, the distinction between men's and women's traditional clothing is obvious; it also indicates age, status and social position. ........................................... 159

Participants of the Hutsul festival with trembits (traditional Hutsul musical instrument), Ukraine. In: POVKHANYCH, Olena. Hutsuls in Ukraine and Romania. [online]. 2016. Available from: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2016/Hutsulove-na-ukrajine-a-v-rumunsku 160 The name tylynka is used in Hutsul, Hungarian and Romanian, but in Rusyn and Ukrainian the term Kalyuka is used. 161 MERTOVÁ, P. a kol. Výšivka, krajka a aplikace na tradičním oděvu. Strážnice: Národní ústav lidové kultury, 2013. ISBN 978-80-87261-86-6. p. 10

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Figure 32. Peasant women on a Sunday morning. Oporets, Halych/Galicia (today's Lviv region), early 20th century. The Great Retreat: photographs taken by Austro-Hungarian officers as Russian troops retreated during the First World War. Retrieved from: https://kulturologia.ru/blogs/130516/ 29395/

Figure 33. Russian women in interwar Czechoslovakia. Source: folkcostume.blogspot.com

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In the Subcarpathian region, costumes are characterised by elaborate, colourful and precise detailing. The uniqueness of the decorative elements, as well as the individual parts of the costume itself, is closely linked to the specific geographical areas of Transcarpathia. The influence of the landscape of the area should be taken into account - in the mountainous regions, woollen materials are characteristic of the costumes, while in the lowlands linen is widely used.162 Rusyns from the lowlands of the Danube basin are characterised by relatively open and loose costumes. Men's clothing consists of a loose shirt with long, wide sleeves; men wear a decorative waistcoat over the shirt, and trousers are looser, with decorative piping on the legs. Women wear blouses with sleeves and round pleated skirts. The use of red, blue, purple and black in fabrics, embroidery and other decorations is typical of this area.

Figure 34. Traditional clothing of Rusyn men at the beginning of the 20th century. Source: https://pestraevropa.hks.re163

........................................... 162

In the past, for example, the costumes of the Ruthenians in present-day Slovakia were also influenced by the German folklore of the local immigrants, when brocade appeared in textiles, batik was added to the processing and patterning of fabrics, and some motifs on lace were adopted. 163 Tradiční oděv rusínských mužů na počátku 20. století. In: BRAUNSBERGEROVÁ, T. ISKANDAROVA, A., TLEGENOV, T. Rusíni na Ukrajině. Pestrá Evropa. [online] 2017. Available from: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_na_ukrajine

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For Rusyns living in mountainous regions, the basic cut of the costume is modified due to the colder climate, and wool is mostly used for its production. The men's costume is much more fitted to the body. Lace trimmings have practically disappeared from women's clothing, blouses are also fitted, practically without necklines, and sleeves have been replaced by long, narrow ones. The colour palette of fabrics and embroidery was earthy and natural, with brown, green, red and orange dominating.164

Men's clothing. Kosivska Poljana, Maramaros, Transcarpathian Oblast, Ukraine . Retrieved from: http://rusyncenter.blogspot.com/2012/ 03/carpatho-rusyn-folk-costumes.html

However, Rusyn embroidery is a very specific element representing a particular ethnic group, it is almost a treasure of Rusyn culture. The individual ........................................... 164

RIGHETTI, John J. Carpatho-Rusyn folk costumes.[online]. Copyright 2003 John J. Righetti. CarpathoRusyn Society. 5. 3. 2012 [cit. 21. 10. 2019] Available from: http://rusyncenter.blogspot.cz/2012/03/carpatho-rusyn-folk-costumes.html

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patterns and ornaments are the very hallmark of the costume, they have a symbolic function, where you can see where a woman or man comes from (region, village, etc.), what is their family status, social status, but the pattern also has a magical function, where it protects its owner, brings him abundance, fertility or health. Hutsul costumes and embroidery According to J. Hořec, folk art is the key element from which Hutsul culture can be abstracted, be it traditional carving, ceramics, painting or embroidery. Embroidery, in particular, is associated with religious and spiritual symbolism among the Hutsuls. In general, the ornaments and patterns used in embroidery vary from region to region in Ukraine and are considered part of the Ukrainian cultural heritage, of which the interviewees are justifiably proud.165 Respondents agreed that they rarely wear traditional costumes - this was stated by one respondent: The costumes are usually worn for religious festivals or by children for school performances.

Figure 35. Hutsul family in Jaremche (possibility to borrow traditional clothes for photography). Romana Mondryk, 2015. http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2015/Hutsulove-UA

........................................... 165

MONDRYK, Romana. Hlavní projevy etnické identity ukrajinských Huculů. Kulturní studia. 1/2017, p. 39-61. ISSN: 2336-2766. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7160/ks.2017.080103

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Hutsul embroidery is mainly geometric, never floral, and the individual symbols are primarily meant to protect the wearer and bring only good things into his or her life.166

Figure 36, 37. Hutsul embroidery. Vereta – woolen fabric (National Museum of Hutsul in Kolomyia). Romana Mondryk, 2015. http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2015/Hutsulove-UA

Embroidery is also a classic decorative element of Hutsul costumes, and according to the interviewees, Hutsul costumes are characterised by their colourfulness - green, yellow and blue are often used. In terms of cut, Hutsul women's costumes mainly have richly ruffled sleeves and wide skirts, which is a fundamental difference from the Hajnal costumes, which are simpler and the skirts narrower, but otherwise very similar in terms of colours and types of embroidery.167 2.5.7. Revitalisation of cultural heritage Since the establishment of independent Ukraine in 1991, Rusyns have been experiencing a third wave of national revival, linked to a cultural and linguistic revival. This has led to the emergence of various cultural activities and, at one time, a rich social activity, which has declined in recent years due to the political situation in the country, often due to accusations by the authorities that it is an incitement to separatism or an attempt to achieve autonomy. Nevertheless, there is a desire and effort on the part of the Rusyns to take care of their cultural heritage. The Rusyn National Council has been campaigning for the past decade for the recognition of the Rusyn as a minority, at least in the territory of the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine,168 since 2015 has supported the Kiev ........................................... 166

According to the respondents, the floral embroidery of poppies, for example, immediately distinguishes the Ukrainian national costume from the Hutsul costume. 167 Hajnals – a subgroup of Hutsuls, also referred to as Doliñans. 168 While this is a form of recognition of a minority on Ukrainian territory, it does not ultimately change the position of Rusyns in Ukraine, except that it was mentioned at the beginning of this article that they do not live only in the Transcarpathian region.

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government's efforts to initiate integration processes following its efforts to join the European Union, which are expected to deepen decentralisation and democratisation processes in Ukraine, as well as to improve the status of minorities living on the territory of Ukraine.169 Festivals and associations There are various Rusyn communities and associations in Ukraine, and not only in Transcarpathia, but not all of them are currently active. This inactivity also reflects the policy of Kiev, which regards some of these activities as movements supporting autonomy and separatism, or sees the work of the associations as linked to Russian politics and the Russification of the local population.170 Due to the unrest in the eastern part of Ukraine and the events of autumn and December 2018, when martial law was declared in the eastern border region for a whole month in connection with the events in Crimea and the Black Sea, some Rusyns also retreated into seclusion. From the respondents' point of view, Rusyns are not so much an oppressed minority, but this negative stigma is allegedly created by politicised Rusyns. Ukrainian respondents are aware that there are primary schools in Transcarpathia that teach in Rusyn and do not agree that Rusyns are somehow oppressed in Ukraine: Vasyl. In my opinion, Rusyn separatism is not nearly as serious and strong as that in eastern Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk), but there are nevertheless considerable efforts by Rusyns for autonomy, inspired in the east by Russian separatists or by Moldovan separatists in Transnistria, especially in Ukraine, as there are no conditions for this in Poland or Slovakia, nor are there nearly as many Rusyns as in Ukraine (especially in the Transcarpathian region).

This testimony is also important precisely because it is an indirect form of testimony to the distorted official statistics, as the local population is fully aware that there is a much larger group living in Transcarpathia than the mere 10,000 inhabitants reported by the Ukrainian State Statistics Service (see above). Associations dedicated to various activities related to Rusyn culture and traditions have been relatively numerous and active since the 1990s, especially in Transcarpathia. Rusyn associations are most active in Mukachevo and the ........................................... 169

In the case of the Rusyns, potential transnational cooperation at the level of Euroregions in connection with other EU Member States – Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania – could be considered, which could significantly improve their situation in Ukraine. 170 KOZLOFF, N. Ukraine: What Is the Position of Ethnic Minorities? An Activist Speaks. [online] The Huffington Post, 2015. Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikolas-kozloff/ukraine-whatis-the-posit_b_6358062.html

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surrounding area, and are supported by the local regional government. There is, for example, the Red Rose folklore festival. "This year's nineteenth edition did not take place due to the political situation and has been postponed for the time being to the summer of 2019. The festival always pays tribute to A. Duchnovich. It goes along the street named after him, stops at his memorial plaque and also at his statue near the square, where, among other things, Rusynslay lays wreaths. The whole journey is accompanied by Rusyn songs and live music and ends at the Mukács Theatre, where the festival continues. Here, Rusyn ensembles from different regions of Transcarpathia perform ten-minute shows - dancing, singing or otherwise representing their culture."171, 172 Another important Rusyn folklore ensemble is Skejušan, based in the Czech Republic, which is maintained by the local Rusyn community and plays an important role in spreading awareness of Rusyn culture. "Nowadays there are several associations, ensembles (e.g. Babka's Songs) and various groups that try to preserve Rusyn folklore - whether it is the Cultural and Educational Centre A. Duchnovich, founded in 1924 and based in Uzhhorod, which aimed to educate local Rusyns, or various associations of young Rusyns, women...".173 However, these activities can be divided into two categories. The first category includes associations working to revive and spread historical awareness of the Rusyns and their culture. These include the Union of Rusyn Authors of Transcarpathia and the Rusyn School Charity Fund. In the second category are associations and institutions that promote the rights of the Rusyn population on the territory of Ukraine, including those that work for the recognition of the Rusyn nationality, so that Rusyns have the same status as in other countries, not only in Europe. The first of these is the Association of Rusyn Organisations of Transcarpathia, which has been active since 25 March 2012, when three separate associations merged into one: the regional civil association "Regional Association of Transcarpathian Rusyns", the regional public association "People's Council of Transcarpathian Rusyns", and the charitable foundation "Gazda in Transcarpathia".174 Museums and institutions Museums and other cultural institutions make a significant contribution to the preservation, dissemination and revival of Rusyn culture. Exhibitions of artefacts related to Rusyn culture and traditions, including contemporary notions of everyday life, can be found in several museums in the western part of Ukraine. ........................................... 171

Mukachevo also has a Rusyn school, clubs for Rusyn children, mostly singing and music, sometimes tied directly to folklore traditions. 172 BRAUNSBERGEROVÁ, Tereza. Rusíni na Ukrajině – Podkarpatští Rusíni. c. d. 173 BRAUNSBERGEROVÁ, T. ISKANDAROVA, A., TLEGENOV T. Rusíni na Ukrajině. c. d. 174 KRUHLAŠOV, A., TOKAR, M. Elektoral'ni procesy Ukrajiny v rehional'nomu vymiri: Bukovyna i Zakarpattja. Užhorod: Polihrafcentr „Lira“, 2014. ISBN 978-617-596-169-8.

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These include the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, an open-air museum in Uzhhorod. The Uzhhorod open-air museum consists of several historic buildings and dwellings, a church with a bell tower, a smithy, a school chapel and a mill. The houses are furnished in the traditional way, so the exposition has about 14,000 artefacts, including costumes typical of the region.

Figure 38. Example of Rusyn traditions in the open-air museum in Uzhhorod Source: Demonstration of Rusyn traditions in the open-air museum in Uzhhorod. In: BRAUNSBERGEROVÁ, T. ISKANDAROVA, A., TLEGENOV T. Rusyns in Ukraine , op. cit.

Figure 39. The open-air museum in Uzhhorod. Source. Skanzen Užhorod. In: DOŠKOVÁ, K, FUČÍKOVÁ V., MILENOVSKÁ M., MONDRYK R. Rusíni na Ukrajině. Pestrá Evropa, 2015.

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In Uzhhorod, other exhibitions on Rusyn themes can be seen at the Transcarpathian Museum of Local History or at Mukachevo Castle, known as Palanok Castle. The monastery also ran a school and library and generally provided for the cultural and religious life of the region. In 1946, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was dissolved by the Soviet government and the monastery was forced to join the Orthodox Church, under which it remains to this day.175 The church of Kolochava has also become a museum with a Rusyn exposition, and the church of St Michael has become part of the exposition in the Uzhhorod open-air museum (originally in Mukachevo). "The position of the Hutsuls in Ukraine is much better than in Romania. They have their own museums (one can be found in Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk region), they publish their own magazines, they have associations, and there is also an annual festival of the Hutsuls and the Hutsul language (this year it was the 23rd).176, 177 According to Povkhanych, The museum in question is the National Museum of Hutsul and Pokuttya National Art in Kolomyia (Національний muzej народного мистецтва Гуцульщини та Покуття імені Йосафата Кобринського), where Hutsul costumes from various regions are on display, as well as a replica of a traditional Hutsul dwelling and a collection of original musical and agricultural instruments.

2.6. CONCLUSION The Rusyns are considered primarily as an ethnographic group of the Ukrainian nation on the territory of present-day Ukraine. This is not because they are actually a subgroup of the Ukrainian nation, but because of their political status. The Rusyns were declared a national minority in Ukraine in 2008 on the recommendation of the UN Council, as is the case in the other countries mentioned in the publication (including the USA and Canada). However, the status was only recognised for Rusyns living in the Transcarpathian region, not ........................................... 175

BRAUNSBERGEROVÁ, T. ISKANDAROVA, A., TLEGENOV T. Rusíni na Ukrajině. In: KOKAISL, P. a kol. Pestrá Evropa: Italové v Chorvatsku, Poláci v Rumunsku, Rusíni na Ukrajině, Rusíni (Lemkové) v Polsku, Rusíni v Srbsku, Ukrajinci v Rumunsku, Turci v Makedonii, Turci v Rumunsku, Krymští Tataři. Praha: Nostalgie, 2017. ISBN 978-80-906207-6-6. 176 O. Povkhanych mentions the 23rd edition in 2016, this particular festival was organized in the city of Rachiv in Transcarpathia, whose integral opening ritual was a parade accompanied by live music on trembits and drums. The festival included folk markets where Hutsul products – carvings, embroidered textiles and clothing, ornaments, paintings and sheep cheese – could be purchased. 177 POVKHANYCH, Olena. Hutsuls in Ukraine and Romania. In: KOKAISL, P. et al. A Varied Europe: Turks in Bulgaria, Turks in Romania, Serbs, Bosniaks and Albanians in Montenegro, Walsers, Germanspeaking groups in Italy, Ladinos in Italy, Rusyns in Serbia, Hutsuls in Ukraine and Romania, Russians (Old Believers) in Estonia, Sami (Lapps) in Finland. Prague: Nostalgie, 2016. ISBN 978-80-906207-59.

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on the territory of the state as such, and it is in fact only a status that does not actually confer minority rights on the Rusyn population. The issue of Transcarpathia/Subcarpathia, which has been deeply affected by various political transformations, is itself controversial. The region only belonged to Austria-Hungary in the 20th century, and after the First World War it became part of Czechoslovakia as the so-called Podkarpatska Rus. At the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the Rusyns briefly managed to declare their independence (although this independence is not always understood as Rusyn), but this effort was thwarted by the Hungarian occupation. At the same time, this was the period which some authors (I. Pop), was the most favourable for the codification and development of the Rusyn language in the Subcarpathian region - we can mention here the establishment (from January 1941) and activity of the Subcarpathian Scientific Society (Підкарпатське общество наук / Pidkarpats'ke obščestvo nauk) on the model of the Rusyn Academy of Sciences and the valuable results of its activity for linguistics, history and culture of the Rusyns. In these years the Rusyn painting reached its peak (I. Bokšaj, A. Erdeli / Erdélyi, I. Erdeli / Erdélyi, E. Grabovskij, F. Manajlo, Z. Šoltes, E. Kontratovič, I. Grabar). R. Fyodorov notes that for the artists of this school there was a natural connection with Budapest and Prague, but at the same time the source of their inspiration always remained in Subcarpathian Rus.178 Subsequently, after 1945, the region was incorporated into the Ukrainian Socialist Union Republic (USSR) under the name of Transcarpathian Ukraine until 1991, when it became part of the present-day Transcarpathian Oblast of Ukraine. Political and power pressures have affected not only the geographical space and the names of the region, but also the everyday life of the local population, not only the Rusyns, although it can be said that the Orthodox are more numerous among the Rusyns, and that both the Orthodox and the Greek Catholics use the Julian calendar for church festivals and ceremonies. Religion - and in particular adherence to the Byzantine rite - is the main element of ethnic identity for a large proportion of Rusyns. Rusyns are a nation with their own language, Rusyn, which was successfully codified in Slovakia in 1995 as part of the third wave of national revival. Rusyns are justifiably proud of their language, although they use it mainly in private with family, friends... and Rusyn is the language most commonly used by older people in rural areas. Although codification allows the language to penetrate into functional spheres, most often in the form of an official language, this situation is only found among Rusyns in Vojvodina in Serbia and currently in Slovakia. In Ukraine, there are only a few primary schools where Rusyn is taught or taught directly. Sunday schools were also important for teaching Rusyn in Ukraine, but ........................................... 178

FEDOROV, Roman Jur'jevič. Obrazy rusinskogo mira v tvorčestve zakarpatskoj školy izobrazitěl'nogo iskusstva. Rusin, 2018, 1 (51).

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these are now a thing of the past. Rusyn literature, textbooks, magazines and newspapers used to be published, but in general publishing and editorial activity is limited for financial reasons. According to interviewees, Rusyn can also be found in the media, for example in the television programme Rusyn Family, which is devoted to Rusyn history and folklore, but political issues are not allowed to be mentioned. The Rusyn have a significant presence in oral folklore, which is linked to the folklore traditions of the region. Rusyn culture is indeed diverse, ranging from traditional architecture, art, costumes, embroidery, folk art, songs, customs and preserved folklore traditions such as the Transcarpathian National Ensemble. In Transcarpathia there are also museum exhibitions dedicated to the Rusyns, in Uzhhorod there is an open-air museum, and in Mukachevo there are various festivals, the most famous of which is the Red Rose Folklore Festival. These activities are mainly related to the associative activities of the Rusyns, who were very active in the past, but unfortunately the current situation of the Rusyns remains problematic, mainly for political reasons. As the national policy in Transcarpathia de facto divides the Rusyn minority into two groups, one more moderate and the other more radical, in the form of territorial autonomy and, in some cases, movements raising the issue of separatism, the government in Kiev sees these tendencies as a potential security risk and therefore suppresses the Rusyn ethnic identity. Official statistics on the size of the Rusyn population are thus distorted, and there are indeed diametric differences - at the end of the Second World War there were almost half a million Rusyns, but according to the latest statistics from 2001 there were just over 10,000, although there was no genocide or mass migration, with virtually entire regions being displaced. In 2018, the situation has been exacerbated by the declaration of martial law in eastern Ukraine in December; although this is the so-called other end of the country, a de facto link can be seen in the fact that some separatist movements in Transcarpathia are also motivated by Russia. From the perspective of the interviewees, there is a slight difference of opinion on the current situation in Transcarpathia - some are in favour of maintaining an integral Ukraine, but for them it is important to be a recognised minority, including the rights and obligations that this entails for both sides, but this carries a potential risk of autonomy and separatism, which the interviewees themselves are aware of. On the other hand, from the point of view of the Ukrainians interviewed, the Rusyns are part of the Ukrainian nation and they consider their efforts unjustified; there were even situations in which the interviewees considered the questionnaires to be a provocation motivated by the Russian policy of dividing the Ukrainian nation into two others, and there is still an attempt to assimilate the Rusyns into the majority.

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The status of the Hutsuls in Ukraine is similar to that of the Rusyns; they are not considered by state policy as a separate nation, but only as an ethnographic group of the Ukrainian nation. The attitude of the Hutsuls is very different from that described for the Rusyns. Although the Hutsuls are considered by some authors to be a Rusyn ethnic group, they do not see themselves as such, on the contrary, they define themselves against the Rusyns - although they list their Hutsul affiliation first, they list their affiliation to the Ukrainian majority second, and according to the interviewees, they express their affiliation to the Ukrainians and to state policy by, for example, celebrating state holidays. However, the Ukrainians' view of the Hutsuls is very different. Ukrainians are aware that the Hutsul cultural heritage is an enrichment for Ukraine, and they are also aware of the specifics of Hutsul culture, including traditions, costumes, music and traditional instruments. Their attitude towards the Hutsuls is mostly positive. Hutsuls are often accused by Rusyns of assimilationist tendencies towards the majority. Compared to Rusyns, Hutsuls do not have political problems (see accusations of autonomy, separatism, etc.), and according to official statistics, more than half of the ethnic Hutsuls live in Ukraine than Rusyns, while according to unofficial statistics, significantly more Rusyns live in Ukraine. The identity of the Hutsuls is more closely linked to their geographical origins and to the highland way of life on the slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, associated with sheep and cattle herding, agriculture, forestry, bee-keeping, woodworking, but also woodcarving and other crafts and folk art. The fact that Hutsul is not a codified language (this may be due to the historically high illiteracy rate, the virtual absence of a literary tradition, or the complexity of the language in terms of linguistic borrowings from Slavic languages), but is still transmitted orally, as it is used for private communication, i.e. with family and close friends. It is also, according to interviewees, a way of showing respect to local landlords and of expressing pride in belonging to the Hutsul ethnic group. In contrast, Ukrainian is mainly used for formal communication and is the official language (in the case of Hutsuls living in Romania, the situation is practically identical, only Romanian is used for official communication). The Orthodox and Greek Catholic faiths also predominate among the Hutsuls, which is reflected in the celebration of Christmas, Easter and other religious holidays. The Hutsuls are devout and strictly observe their traditions, festivals and ceremonies. Hutsul architecture is represented mainly by traditional dwellings, the socalled castles, which can still be found in various villages in the territory of present-day Transcarpathia. The situation is similar in Ukraine and Romania - the Hutsuls have their own museums, exhibitions, open-air museums, festivals and folklore groups, although in Romania the situation is slightly better in some respects because they are considered by the Romanian side to be a Ukrainian minority. On the other hand, the situation of the Hutsuls in Ukraine can be 91

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considered better than in Romania in other respects, because of the richer publishing and association activities. The Hutsuls are generally considered to be a musical ethnic group, and their traditional musical instruments include the trembita and the tylynka. Traditional embroidery is considered to be the best-known manifestation of Hutsul traditions and craftsmanship, and is most often found on Hutsul costumes, making them seem distinct from Ukrainian national costumes. Hutsul embroidery is characterised by geometric ornaments rather than floral motifs - these hand embroideries are part of the cultural heritage.

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3. SLOVAKIA

3.1. INTRODUCTION The Rusyn ethnic group, not only in Slovakia, is an attractive research topic in terms of the approach of members of this minority themselves, on the one hand, and anthropologists, linguists or folklorists, on the other, who are looking for an answer to the basic question - are the Rusyns an independent nation in the modern sense of the word, or are they rather a group belonging to the Ukrainian nation? The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on the peculiarities of the ethnic identity of the Rusyns on the basis of available literary sources and research, which would support or refute the thesis of a separate nation or a mere subset of the Ukrainian nation. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a surge of political activity among Rusyns, including in Slovakia, demanding recognition of the Rusyn nationality and language. However, this political engagement does not always reflect the attitudes or wishes of the majority Rusyn population. Thus, the manifestations of Rusyn identity take on different categories, ranging from the aspiration for an independent state or autonomous territory (which concerns more the Subcarpathian Rusyns), through the recognition of the cultural specificities of the ethnic group, to the passive or even assimilationist tendencies of its members.

3.2. LITERARY RESEARCH The ethnic identity of the Rusyns has long been the subject of Paul Robert Magocsi, mentioned in the chapter on Rusyns in Ukraine. In 2002, together with the cultural historian Ivan Pope, he wrote a comprehensive work on the history of the Rusyn ethnic group in Central and Eastern Europe entitled Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture179. The authors draw attention to the loss of the historical memory of the ethnic group due to the suppression of elements of the Rusyn identity in the form of the right to self-determination, language or other cultural expressions in historical times. The encyclopaedia contains more than 1,100 entries relating to various areas of social, cultural or scientific activity of Rusyns in Europe. In his 2014 book, A Nation from Nowhere: an Illustrated History of the Carpathian Rusyns 180, Magocsi provides a primer for supporters of the idea of an independent Rusyn nation. According to him, the Rusyns had a distinct ethnic ........................................... 179

MAGOCSI, Paul. R., POP, Ivan. Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. 520 p. ISBN 978-080-203-5660. 180 MAGOCSI, Paul. R. Národ odnikud: Ilustrované dějiny karpatských Rusínů. Užhorod: Vydavatelství V. Paďaka, 2014. 120 p. ISBN 978-80-966-387-092-2.

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identity as early as the first millennium A.D., when European nations were being formed. The author also presents a brief history of the Rusyns and their political aspirations against the background of the historical milestones of the ethnic group. Supplemented by numerous illustrations, maps and contemporary photographs, the publication provides evidence of the diversity of Rusyn culture, the way of life of the ethnic group and the areas they have inhabited for a long time or have made their home in the recent past. Magocsi has not omitted personalities associated with Rusyn culture, such as Andy Warhol, the leading figure of American Pop Art, or Alexander Duchnovich and Adolf Dobryansky, the national builders of the Carpathian Rusyns. On the other side of the dispute over Rusyns' national determination, for example, is Vasyl Marchuk and Natalia Marchukova's 2012 work Ethnic Personality of Rusyns (in the original "Etnični osoblyvosti rusyniv")181. Together with other, mainly Ukrainian authors, they understand the Rusyn identity only as a "subethnos" (subgroup) of the Ukrainian nation, and thus do not admit a more distinct identity and specificity of Rusyn culture. The Slovak historian Soňa Gabzdilová studies the educational structure of the Slovak population. One of the subjects of her research is the ethnic minorities living in Slovakia. In her 1994 article Quality and structure of education of Slovak population in relation with ethnic differentiation182, she specifically focuses on Hungarian, Rusyn, Ukrainian, Romanian, etc. minorities. The author thus advocates the separation of the Rusyn and Ukrainian peoples. In 1980, Gabzdilova recorded the highest level of education among members of the Czech, Ukrainian and Rusyn minorities (8.2% of the population had achieved higher education). Slovak historians Marián Gajdoš and Stanislav Konečný, who specialise in the history of Rusyn and Ukrainian ethnicity in Slovakia and Central Europe in general, deal in their publications The Status of Rusyns and Ukrainians in Slovakia 1948-1953183 (1994) and Rusyns and Ukrainians in Slovakia in the Processes of Transformation (1989-1995)184 with the cultural elements influencing the formation of ethnic identity in the 20th century. The authors consider religion and its role in the use and preservation of the Rusyn language to be the dominant elements of identity, despite the fact that neither the Greek Catholic nor the Orthodox churches, which enjoy the favour of the Rusyn population in Slovakia, are very lukewarm about the use of Rusyn as a language of worship. Other linguists, ethnographers, folklorists and anthropologists whose ........................................... 181

MARČUK, Vasyl, MARČUK, Natalija. Etnični osoblyvosti rusyniv. Etnos i kuľtura, 2012, 8–9, p. 22– 27. 182 GABZDILOVÁ, Soňa. Quality and structure of education of Slovak population in relation with ethnic differentiation. Sociologia, 1994, 26 (5-6), p. 473. ISSN 1336-8613. 183 GAJDOŠ, Marián, Konečný, Stanislav. Postavenie Rusínov-Ukrajincov na Slovensku 1948–1953. Praha: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, 1994. 153 p. ISBN 80-85270-36-6. 184 GAJDOŠ, Marián, Konečný, Stanislav. Rusíni a Ukrajinci na Slovensku v procesoch transformácie (1989–1995). Prešov: Universum, 2005. 209 p. ISBN 80-89046-34-7.

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research focuses on the Rusyn ethnic group include Růžena Šišková (along with Mykola Mušinka and Alexandr Mušinka), who has also dealt with the Rusyn language in her research on Ukrainian dialects and their preservation in the form of recordings of fairy tales and folk songs in her 2005 work Ukrainian Dialects of Slovakia : Research and Sound Recordings from 1957-1967185. Stories and Songs of the Rusyns of Eastern Slovakia: South Carpathian Ukrainian Dialects in Authentic Recordings186 from 2009 by the collective of authors Růžena Šišková, Mikuláš Mušinka and Jozef Hrušovský preserve the specificity of the Rusyn language and culture in the form of folk tales and songs in the territory of the former Czechoslovakia. Almost all of them considered the Rusyns as part of the Ukrainian nation or used the ethnonym Ukrainian Rusyns in their works. In her 2013 article Process and practice: groupness, ethnicity, and habitus in Carpathian Rus187, American anthropologist Kristina Marie Cantin examines the role of socio-emotional experiences and practical interests among Carpathian Rusyns, based on long-term fieldwork in ten selected localities in the Prešov region of Slovakia and the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. In the past, the area was also a boundary between the Catholic and Orthodox religions. The identity of Rusyns in Slovakia is also mentioned by Peter Šoltés in his article História Slovenska – Rusíni na Slovensku188 (2007). The author points out the importance of analysing the coexistence of the Rusyns with other peoples living in Slovakia and Transcarpathia in the context of the formation of their ethnic identity. Šoltés considers the territory of eastern Slovakia as the original settlement area of the Rusyns. Until 1950, almost all members of the ethnic group belonged to the Greek Catholic Church, and they did not form a majority in any town in eastern Slovakia. According to the author, these factors slowed down the modernisation of Rusyn society, but at the same time prevented assimilationist pressure from the Slovak and Hungarian environment. The interdisciplinary anthology Rusyns in Slovakia189, published in 2012, is the result of a project to support the education of members of the Rusyn ethnic group in Slovakia in the field of human rights and intercultural dialogue with the majority society. The collection includes topics related to national minorities in Slovakia and in the neighbouring states of the Slovak Republic, the history of Rusyn education and the current state of Rusyn education, the formation and ........................................... 185

ŠIŠKOVÁ, Růžena, MUŠINKA, Mikuláš a MUŠINKA, Alexander. Ukrajinská nářečí Slovenska: výzkum a zvukové zápisy z let 1957-1967. Praha: Slovanský ústav AV ČR, 2005. 178 p. ISBN 80-8642020-5. 186 ŠIŠKOVÁ, Růžena, MUŠINKA, Mikuláš a HRUŠOVSKÝ, Jozef. Vyprávění a písně Rusínů z východního Slovenska: jihokarpatská ukrajinská nářečí v autentických záznamech. Praha: Slovanský ústav AV ČR, 2009. 311 p. ISBN 978-80-86420-35-6. 187 CANTIN, Kristina Marie. Process and practice: groupness, ethnicity, and habitus in Carpathian Rus. Nationalities Papers, 2014, 42.5, p. 848-866. ISSN 1465-3923. 188 ŠOLTÉS, Peter. Rusíni na Slovensku. Dobrodruh.sk. [online]. 11. 8. 2007 [cit. 25. 2. 2019]. Available from: http://www.dobrodruh.sk/historia/rusini-na-slovensku. 189 Rusíni na Slovensku – súčasné postavenie a historické kontexty vývinu. Združenie inteligencie Rusínov Slovenska. Vydavatelství ADIN, s.r.o.: Prešov, 2012. ISBN 978-80-89540-12-9.

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development of the Rusyn ethnic group in the Carpathian region, and the status of the Rusyn language. Anna Plišková from the team of authors focuses on the current status of the ethnic group in Slovakia. The author summarises the current representation of the minority in Slovakia in comparison with e.g. Ukraine and deals with the contemporary use of the Rusyn language and its involvement in the everyday life of the Rusyns in the majority Slovak society.

3.3. RESEARCH CONDUCTED Slovak Rusyns are more likely to be studied by historians, anthropologists and ethnologists working in Slovakia, or by members of this ethnic group. In the Czech academic environment, the Rusyn minority is only marginally dealt with, especially in the context of the Czechoslovak history of the so-called First Republic. Students, together with the academic and pedagogical staff of the Faculty of Economics at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, have been trying for a long time to capture the peculiarities of minorities in Europe. This study is therefore a compilation of research in the locations listed below and an analysis of the current state of the Rusyn community in Slovakia from internet and literary sources. The research question was: On what elements is the identity of the Rusyns in Slovakia historically based and what is the current situation of this Slavic ethnic group? The study is based on a field research with a collective of students of economic and cultural studies at the Faculty of Economics of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. The survey was conducted in 2014 and 2015 in the districts of Stará Ľubovňa, Bardejov, Svidník, Stropkov, Medzilaborce and Snina190, further research was carried out in 2017. The researchers used a qualitative approach with semi-standardised interviews with members of the Rusyn ethnic group with a predetermined set of topics based on previous study of relevant literature. The informants were active members of the minority involved in the social and cultural life of the minority - the interviews were conducted by employees of museums and open-air museums (Museum of Rusyn Culture in Prešov, open-air museums in Svidník, Humenné or Bardejovské Kúpely), the University Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture of the University of Prešov, spiritual communities or representatives of local governments, etc. The second data collection technique used was a questionnaire survey with 50 respondents. The questionnaire was distributed with the help of Rusyn associations and ........................................... 190

DOŠKOVÁ, Kristýna; FUČÍKOVÁ, Veronika; MILENOVSKÁ, Marie; MONDRYK, Romana. Rusíni na Slovensku. [online]. Pestrá Evropa, 2015. [cit. 19. 12. 2016] Available from: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2015/Rusini-SK/.

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communities. Most of the respondents came from the town of Humenné in eastern Slovakia. The text briefly presents basic information about one of Slovakia's minorities, which will be discussed in more detail in the following chapters. The "History of the Rusyns in Slovakia" is chronologically divided into the period before the incorporation of the Podkarpatska Rus into Czechoslovakia, because this historical fact is a significant milestone in the history of the ethnic group, then into the period of Rusyn life in interwar Czechoslovakia and the period between 1945 and 1989. A separate chapter is devoted to "The influence of the Greek Catholic Church on the Rusyn ethnic group", as part of the Rusyn population in Slovakia identifies with this religion as an element of identity. The identity of the Rusyns living in Slovakia is difficult to grasp, so it is presented in statistical surveys in connection with the declaration of ethnicity and mother tongue. "The current situation of the Rusyns" describes the linguistic situation of the ethnic group and its cultural activities on the basis of associations and organisations in the social and cultural sphere.

3.4. HISTORY OF RUSYNS IN SLOVAKIA The early history of the Rusyns on the territory of present-day Slovakia can be viewed in two ways. The beginning of the settlement of the Carpathian region by Slavic tribes is dated around the 6th-7th century AD. The Rusyn ethnic group was probably associated with the White Croats in this area. In the 11th century, Rusyn villages and farms in the area of Uz, Zemplín, Šariš and Spiš counties belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. North of the Carpathians, the Rusyn ethnic group belonged to the Kingdom of Poland at the same time. The second version of the origins of the settlement of the area is based on the thesis that the Rusyn population arrived after the Tatar invasion of Central Europe in the 13th century, or as part of the subsequent colonisation from Halych/Galicia and Bukovina, and were mainly peasants. Both views of the Rusyn population in Slovakia can be described as autochthonous. They preserved their customs, traditions, language and the already accepted Orthodox religion thanks to the isolation of the settled areas, the arrival of new immigrants from Halych and the so-called Wallachian colonisation of the Slovak territory from about the 14th to the 17th century. The Wallachians, originally from present-day Romania (specifically from Wallachia and Transylvania), migrated along the so-called Carpathian arc through presentday Slovakia to the area of north-eastern Moravia.191 Their economic and cultural contribution is mainly seen in the transmission of the Salasnik tradition of extensive pastoralism, together with the breeding of 'Wallachian cattle' (goat and ........................................... 191

KONEČNÝ, Stanislav. Rusíni na Slovensku. Rusyn.sk. [online] 2019. [cit. 18. 8.2019] Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/data/files/14.pdf.

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sheep breeding, wool and milk processing). 192 The ethnic identification of the Rusyns with, for example, the aforementioned Wallachian population or, in national terminology, with the Polish, Ukrainian or Slovak population was not necessary at this time, but was rather a gradual integration of ethnic groups and the formation of the local majority population. After the so-called Thirty Years' War, a new form of serfdom emerged with the advent of the absolutist monarchy and centralisation. The Rusyn colonists gradually lost the advantages they had gained and fell down the social ladder. Another reason for the lack of self-determination was the absence of a Rusyn nobility and bourgeoisie. Ethnic distinctions were limited to religious beliefs. The social activities of the Rusyns were closely linked to the priestly intelligentsia. Bishops such as Manuil Olshavskii (bishop 17431767), Ivan Bradach (bishop 1767-1772) and Andrey Bachinskii (bishop 1773-1809) stimulated the literary, cultural and social activities of both Figure 40. Bishop Andrei the clerical and secular Rusyn intelligentsia. For Bachinsky (1732-1809). the Rusyn ethnic group, the establishment of the Source. Wikipedia: wolna Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo193 and the encyklopedia [online]. 2019 subsequent separation of the Eparchy of Presov, [cited 19 September 2019]. Available from: when the city of Presov became the centre of the https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrej_ cultural and national aspirations of the Rusyns of Ba%C4%8Dinsk%C3%BD Hungary, seems to be an important moment in their history.194 The Rusyn intelligentsia and peasantry did not respond very actively to the European revolutionary tendencies of 1848-1849, although the path to Rusyn national revival was open. The main leaders were Adolf Dobryansky (18171901), a Rusyn politician and publicist of Russian orientation, and Aleksandr ........................................... 192

Historie a kultura. Valašsko moje. [online]. 2019. [cit. 5. 9. 2019]. Available from: http://www.valasskomoje.cz/historie-a-kultura. 193 The Eparchy of Mukachevo was and is the Greek Catholic Eparchy for the region of Subcarpathian Rus and Ukraine. However, the Eparchy of Mukachevo was canonically established only in 1771 by Pope Clement XIV. In 1776 the seat of the eparchy was established in Uzhhorod by Bishop Andrei Bachinsky. In 1881 the eparchy of Presov was separated from the eparchy of Mukachevo due to the extensive administration of the territory.Source: History and the present state of the Greek Catholik Eparchy of Mukachevo. Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo. [online]. 30. 12. 2010. [cit. 5. 9. 2019]. Available from: http://www.mgce.uz.ua/ipost.php?id=1&lang_id=2. 194 KONEČNÝ, Stanislav. Rusíni na Slovensku. Rusyn.sk. [online] 2019. [cit. 18. 8.2019], s.1, 2. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/data/files/14.pdf.

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Dukhnovich (1803-1865), also a pro-Russian educator. Together they wrote the first Rusyn political programme.195 The Rusyns did not participate to any significant extent in the wave of the emergence of modern European nations in the second half of the 19th century, or in the national consciousness and nation-building efforts that took place, for example, in Italy, Germany or Bohemia. In addition, after the so-called AustroHungarian settlement in 1867, the national minorities were Hungarianised. The beginnings of the Ukrainian and Russian orientation of a part of the Rusyn population can be found in this period. Nevertheless, it is possible to speak of a certain national revival of the Rusyns: despite the bleak economic situation, one of the important stages of the Rusyn national revival began in the territory of present-day Slovakia around the second half of the 19th century, initiated by the revolutionary year of 1848, which accelerated the process of Rusyn self-consciousness. However, unlike other Slavic and non-Slavic peoples, the Rusyns did not resolve any of the fundamental questions of their national existence during the process of their tentative national revival in the 19th century: neither the question of national identity, nor the question of cultural orientation, nor the question of a written language, nor even the question of their very name.196 Historical sources make it clear that the Rusyns did not constitute a nation as we understand it today, but rather a much less homogeneous group. This heterogeneity was deepened in the course of history by the creation of state borders on the territory where the Rusyns lived. For more than a century, historians have debated whether there really was a Rusyn population - depending on what each historian wanted to prove, it could have been Russian, Slovak, Polish, Ukrainian, Malorussian, Slavic, Hungarian and others.197 The dual view of the inhabitants of eastern Slovakia at the beginning of the 20th century may serve as an example: "The national question of the territory of eastern Slovakia in the past is not as clear as it is seen. We have Slovak glasses on our eyes, we see everything as Slovak. But other non-Slovaks may have a different view. I am talking about Vladimír Hnatiuk, a serious, reasonable, learned man who has travelled almost the entire territory of eastern Slovakia. He sees Russians (Rusyns) everywhere in this territory, where Slovaks see Slovaks, and therefore he calls this territory controversial in terms of its original nationality: the territory has been Russian since ancient times. It has diminished over time as ........................................... 195

RYCHLÍK, Jan, RYCHLÍKOVÁ, Magdaléna. Podkarpatská Rus v dějinách Československa 1918‒ 1946. Praha: Vyšehrad, 2016. p. 25‒28. ISBN 978-80-7429-556-0. 196 PLIŠKOVÁ, Anna. Rusínský jazyk na Slovensku: náčrt vývoja a súčasné problémy. Prešov: Metodickopedagogické centrum, 2007, p. 9. ISBN 978-80-8045-502-6. 197 KOKAISL, Petr. Co znamená být slovenským Rusínem? Proměna etnické identity rusínské menšiny na Slovensku. Historická sociologie, 2017, 9.2: 85–102.

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a result of the denationalisation of Rusyns in favour of Hungarians and Slovaks".198 From the 1920s onwards, there was a significant division of Rusyns in Czechoslovakia according to political orientation. Thus, political orientation became a very important part of Rusyn identity - it determined preferences in the use of the national language, religious preferences (Catholicism versus Orthodoxy), and ethnic preferences (Rusyns as a separate nation, as part of the Ukrainian nation, as Slavs led by Russia). In Subcarpathian Rus, Czechoslovak Rusyns tended more towards Ukrainian nationalism, while Ukrainian tendencies were much weaker in Slovakia. 3.4.1. World War II and the post-war period During the Second World War, the Slovak Rusyns were divided into two states the Slovak state and the Kingdom of Hungary. The totalitarian regime in Slovakia officially accepted the Rusyns as an ethnic minority, but in reality they were suspected of being Hungarians and Bolsheviks.199 In April 1945, the newly formed Government of Czechoslovakia adopted the Košice Government Programme, which indirectly annexed the Rusyns to the Ukrainian nation. The Government wishes and is convinced that this question will be settled in accordance with the democratically expressed will of the Carpatho-Ukrainian people and in full friendship between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. The Government will make all necessary preparations to this end. "200 Towards the end of the Second World War, the Slovak Rusyns and the Rusyns living in Subcarpathian Rus were separated because Eastern Slovakia, unlike Subcarpathian Rus, was not directly occupied by the Red Army and the NKVD. In the post-war period, there was also agitation by the Soviet authorities for the Rusyns remaining in Slovakia to move to the Soviet Union. Soviet citizens Czechs who had lived in Volhynia since the 19th century - were to be exchanged for Czechoslovak citizens - Rusyns from eastern Slovakia. This was described by Štefan Kruško (✵1940), whose father left his home in Slovakia: The Soviet government sent fifty political agents to eastern Slovakia. Their task was to persuade the Slovaks and Rusyns to exchange their old homeland for a new one. They managed to persuade 12,000 of our citizens. They chose the most devastated and war-ravaged villages for

........................................... 198

CZAMBEL, Samo. Slovenská reč 1906: 22. KONEČNÝ, Stanislav. Rusíni na Slovensku. Rusyn.sk. [online] 2019. [cit. 18. 8. 2019], p. 2. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/data/files/14.pdf. 200 Košický vládní program. Totalita.cz. [online]. 2019. [cit. 10. 9. 2019]. Available from: http://www.totalita.cz/txt/txt_kvp.pdf. 199

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their agitation – Certižné, Habura, Nižný Komárnik. Later, my father told me how in our village the commissars promised at the firing of the artillery grand houses, full stables and as many roles as you could earn. But nobody told people that after crossing the border they would immediately lose their Czechoslovak citizenship and become citizens of the USSR. 201

The Rusyns, who had believed the Soviet propaganda about the rich farms left by the Volhynian Czechs, were cruelly disappointed - after their arrival most of the properties were occupied. Those who tried to return to Czechoslovakia ended up in prison or the gulag. The first organised return of displaced persons to Czechoslovakia took place after Stalin's death in 1953. The return was successful for 70% of these people. The condition was an invitation from close relatives in the homeland to settle permanently in Czechoslovakia.202 The resettlement of 12,400 Eastern Slovak Rusyns to the territory of Ukrainian Volhynia can be considered one of the greatest tragedies of the ethnic group in its modern history. Rusyns in Czechoslovakia after the Second World War After the cession of Subcarpathian Rus to the Soviet Union, Rusyns in Slovakia lost an important territory in terms of their historical, cultural and social consciousness. Educational opportunities for the Rusyn minority in Slovakia depended on political, economic, cultural and social developments in Czechoslovakia after 1945. After 1945, the Ukrainian population in what is now Slovakia was privileged and seen as an extension of Moscow. During this period, Rusyns were seen as distinctly Ukrainian and the Rusyn nationality was described as a product of 'Hungarianisation'.203 With Act No. 95/1948 Coll., the State declared its monopoly on education and training with a clear ideological emphasis. In February 1948, the Law on the Unified State School was passed, according to which there was no possibility of ethnic differentiation in education. The basic unit became the unified state school with a defined content and ideological apparatus. The rights of the Rusyn minority, not only in the field of education, were defended by the Ukrainian National Council of Priyashevshchina (UNRP), which defended Rusyns and Ukrainians in Czechoslovakia - but it was abolished shortly after 1948. However, it was not Rusyn that was supported, but rather the question of whether pupils ........................................... 201

KRUŠKO, Štefan. Slovenskí presídlenci [online] 2013. [cit. 25. 3. 2017] Available from: http://bit.ly/presidlenci. 202 KRUŠKO, Štefan. c. d. 203 BOBÁK, Ján. Rusíni a Akcia P. Kultúra 16/2000.

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would be taught in Ukrainian or Russian, or whether their education would be in Slovak.204 In the 1950s, under Soviet rule, the trend was to Ukrainise society. In the area of north-eastern Slovakia, the Rusyn or Carpatho-Russian identity prevailed and a mixed dialect was used in everyday communication. Although it was widespread in this area, it was not possible to transform it into a codified and, above all, recognised written language. The linguistic situation of the Rusyns had a significant impact on the perception of ethnicity. In view of the pro-Russian orientation and the impossibility of national education, the parents of primary school pupils decided to identify with the Slovak nationality and thus to prefer Slovak as the language of instruction.205 The rise to power of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia in February 1948 meant an unfavourable development for the Rusyn ethnic group, especially in terms of religion. As part of the so-called Action P, the Greek Catholic Church was persecuted and officially abolished in 1950. This political move was aimed at further severing the links between the people of the Czechoslovak Republic and the West, or rather the Holy See in Rome, and at establishing a close alliance with the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in Moscow.206 The Greek Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia had over 300,000 members and its largest presence was in eastern Slovakia, where there were about 241 parishes. At that time, the diocesan bishop was Pavel Gojdič and the auxiliary bishop was Vasil Hopko. Together with most of the priests, they did not agree with the so-called return to the Orthodox Church. Since 1946 the less numerous Orthodox Church had been striving to expand its influence on the territory of Czechoslovakia, and since August 1949 it had been supported in this direction by the Ecclesiastical Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, with a recommendation and a financial contribution in the order of millions of crowns to actively focus on the Uniates in eastern Slovakia in the future. In 1950, the so-called Return Committees were formed and a massive campaign to promote Orthodoxy was launched. This was followed by the official dissolution of the Greek Catholic Church and thus the dissolution of the so-called ........................................... 204

VIROSTKOVÁ, Anna. Národnostné školstvo Rusínov a Ukrajincov (1945–1970) v slovenskej historiografii. Človek a spoločnosť. [online] 2012. [cit. 19. 09. 2019], 15 (3). p. 52. ISSN 1335-3608. Available from: http://www.clovekaspolocnost.sk/jquery/pdf.php?gui=5FLUAWHCYZ7IG5CZU4GB4U9W. 205 VIROSTKOVÁ, Anna. Zavedenie ukrajinského vyučovacieho jazyka na Slovensku v roku 1952. Človek a spoločnosť. [online] 2013. [cit. 19. 09. 2019]. 15 (3), p. 73‒75. ISSN 1335-3608. Available from: http://www.clovekaspolocnost.sk/jquery/pdf.php?gui=317L391BYTIF4VCSJFCNGLDL. 206 GAJDOŠ, Marián, KONEČNÝ, Stanislav. Príprava a priebeh tzv. pravoslávnej akcie na Slovensku. Človek a spoločnosť. [online], 2008. [cit. 09. 02. 2019]. 11 (4), s 28–30. Available from: http://www.clovekaspolocnost.sk/jquery/pdf.php?gui=1GF6CAKSBRS4W4IM2SEAPXL5X.

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Uzhhorod Union on 26 May 1950. The top leaders of the Greek Catholics, Gojdic and Hopko, were sentenced to life imprisonment.207 As a result of the dissolution of the Greek Catholic Church and the propaganda pressure to adopt the Orthodox faith, the Rusyns in Slovakia lost part of their cultural identity. In the years that followed, the Rusyn population became Ukrainised, for example in education or in the way they presented their nationality. In the 1950s, Rusyn schools had to start teaching the Ukrainian language. This administrative directive led to a decline in the number of Rusyn speakers.208 The Rusyn nationality was not recognised by the official state structures and members of the ethnic group were forced to choose another nationality, as one respondent from the village of Pichne recalls: In the 1950s, when the Rusyn nationality was banned, my parents had to choose, or their parents had to write down, another officially recognised identity for their children - my father got Ukrainian, my mother Slovak.209

However, even in the 1960s the situation in Slovakia regarding the possibility of choosing and declaring one's nationality did not improve significantly. One of the interviewees from the village of Ruská remembers the possibilities at that time: In 1969, the times and circumstances demanded that I declare my Slovak nationality, there was no other option at that time... 210

The 1960s and the political and social relaxation brought about an improvement in the situation of minorities in Czechoslovakia, including the Rusyns in Slovakia. In 1968 the Czechoslovak government adopted a constitutional law on the status of minorities in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the term Rusyn was reinstated and the Greek Catholic Church was reestablished. November 1989 and the establishment of a democratic Czechoslovakia, or a few years later the establishment of an independent Slovak Republic, could have ........................................... 207

Akce P. Akce namířená proti řeckokatolické církvi v ČSR. Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů. [online]. 2019. [cit. 01. 09. 2019]. Available from: https://www.ustrcr.cz/uvod/skupina-vyzkumu/akcep/. 208 KONEČNÝ, Stanislav. Rusíni na Slovensku. Rusyn.sk. c. d. 209 The survey was conducted by a research team of students of Economic and Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Economics of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, consisting of Veronika Fučíková, Kristýna Došková, Marie Milenovská, Romana Mondryk, during the summer semester 2014/2015 in Humenné, Slovakia. 210 Ibid.

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meant another wave of national revival for the Rusyn ethnic group. Instead, freedom of expression and the right to self-determination reignited a debate that has been a recurring theme in Rusyn history since the 19th century: the question of Rusyn national identity, in the sense of whether Rusyns are a distinct ethnic group or part of the Ukrainian nation. After 1989, the Rusyn national minority was recognised as a separate nationality with the possibility of declaring their membership in the census. Even after the collapse of Czechoslovakia, the Slovak government's friendly policy towards the Rusyns continued. In addition to the financial support given to all recognised minorities in Slovakia, the Rusyns have received special education in the Rusyn language since 1997. It is a paradox, however, that the education sought by the Rusyn revivalists more than a century ago is not very popular today, and Rusyn schools in Slovakia face fears for their future. But the 1990s also meant a decline in the standard of living for the Rusyns of eastern Slovakia. The Slovak districts with the largest number of Rusyns were almost always below the national average in terms of production indicators and living standards. Among Ukrainians and Rusyns in Slovakia, there was an aboveaverage proportion of Communist Party members, but because Rusyn Communist leaders were able to work in Rusyn areas to raise the standard of living in the villages, they were perceived more positively by the surrounding area. In the 1990s, when the economic system underwent a major transformation, eastern Slovakia fell further behind. The economically active Rusyn (and Ukrainian) population had an above-average share of employment in agriculture, education and health, and a much lower share in industry, construction and trade. By this time, the Rusyn population was no longer underdeveloped - the proportion of people with a university education was higher than the national average.211

3.5. THE INFLUENCE OF THE GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH ON THE RUSYN ETHNIC GROUP 212 In the northern part of Hungary and later in the north-eastern part of AustriaHungary, the Catholics were called Rusyns or Rusyns. During the reign of Maria Theresa, in 1771, the eparchy of Mukachevo was recognised (see chapter History of the Rusyns in Slovakia), and with it the Greek Catholic religion of the Rusyns. Thus, until the beginning of the 20th century, the Greek Catholic Church was exclusively represented in the Transcarpathian region, while the Orthodox Church

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GAJDOŠ, Marián; KONEČNÝ, Stanislav. Postavenie Rusínov-Ukrajincov na Slovensku 1948-1953. Praha: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, 1994, p. 57 a n. 212 Part of the chapter is taken from: KOKAISL, Petr. Co znamená být slovenským Rusínem?… c. d.

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gained more influence only after the so-called Action P (see chapter Rusyns in Czechoslovakia after the Second World War).213 The Greek-Catholic Church was involved in the Rusyn's efforts to forge their identity not only in the 20th century. During the reign of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, compulsory education was introduced, with instruction in the pupils' mother tongue. However, the situation in the Carpathian region did not allow for the introduction of this modernisation of the educational system of the Austrian Empire. The high level of poverty, the minimal level of education and the reluctance to change made it impossible to succeed. For the Bishop of Mukachevo and Uzhhorod, Andrey Bachinsky,214 the training of teachers was particularly important, and so the Rusyn language was taught in schools in the Uzhhorod region. Bishop Bachinsky also helped to spread Rusyn in education by translating the Bible into Church Slavonic, which was close to Rusyn.215

Figure 41. Greek Catholic church in the village of Hunkovce. Source: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2015/Rusini-SK

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History and the present state of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo. Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo. [Online]. 30 December 2010. [cited 05 September 2019]. Available from: http://www.mgce.uz.ua/ipost.php?id=1&lang_id=2. 214 Andrei Bachinsky was born near Uzhhorod in 1732. He studied philosophy and theology in Trnava and was ordained bishop in 1773. His initiative led to a meeting of representatives of the three groups of Greek Catholic believers in the former Hungary - Croats, Romanians, Rusyns and Slovaks. The council discussed various issues such as the censorship of books, church taxes and the reduction of the number of feasts. During his tenure, the seat of the bishop of Mukachevo was moved from Mukachevo to Uzhhorod. The bishopric under Bachinsky covered a large area - he administered over seven hundred parishes, in which, according to statistics, more than 1.3 million people lived. Source: Greek Catholic Church, parish of Prešov. [online]. [cited 19 September 2019]. Available from: http://presov.grkatpo.sk/o-nas/dejiny-greckokatolickej-cirkvi/prierez-dejinami-greckokatolickej-cirkvina-slovensku-mons-peter-sturak/11-mukacevsky-biskup-andrej-bacinsky/. 215 FUČÍKOVÁ, Veronika, MONDRYK, Romana, DOŠKOVÁ, Kristýna, MILENOVSKÁ, Marie. Rusíni na Slovensku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia (HKS) [online], Provozně ekonomická fakulta ČZU v Praze, 2015. [cit. 12. 05. 2019] Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/2015:rusini_na_slovensku.

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The Greek-Catholic Church in the territory of present-day Slovakia was closely connected with the Subcarpathian Rus - the first bishopric in Prešov, established in 1815, was created by removing the eparchy of Mukachevo from the territory of present-day Ukraine and was designated by Rome as Rusyn. However, the area of central and southern Zemplin (today's eastern Slovakia) remained under the administration of the Bishop of Mukachevo (de facto until 1939, but the whole matter was only legally settled with the establishment of the Exarchate of Košice in 1997). The turning point for the Greek Catholic Rusyns (and all other Greek Catholics) in Slovakia was 1950, when the Greek Catholic Church was abolished by decree of the Czechoslovak government and forcibly incorporated into the Orthodox Church. However, the Orthodox Church in the territory of Czechoslovakia suffered from a fragmented orientation towards Serbia and Moscow in the pre-war period. Several Orthodox parishes were also established by Russian emigrants who fled from Russia to Czechoslovakia after 1918. Numerically, the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia was significantly weaker than the Greek Catholic Church - in 1950, 57,500 believers claimed membership, compared to 305,654 Greek Catholics.216 However, after the Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948, there was a general political preference for the Orthodox Church (under the Moscow Patriarchate), many of whose members and clergy openly collaborated with the Communist Party. A council was held in May 1950, at which the participants unanimously decided to dissolve the Greek Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia and join the Orthodox Church. However, most of the clergy and faithful did not convert to Orthodoxy and either attended services and received the sacraments in secret or within the Roman Catholic Church. At the same time, there was persecution of those church leaders and believers who refused to become Orthodox. Klára Vacková (✵1937). My father, like his brother, was a Greek Catholic priest. Well, it started around 1950. At first it was just persuasion. They came to our house in a car. When the car came to this village, it was an event. My family didn't explain it to me, but I felt that something bad was happening. They came in the evening and brought drinks, came in new suits and talked to my father all night. And they seemed happy, but I could see the tension in the family. And it went on like this several times, getting my father to sign that he was converting to the Orthodox Church. They wanted the Greek Catholic Church to disappear. I don't think my father would have survived. He drank with them, celebrated with them, laughed with them, but he wouldn't sign. Well, when they lost patience, one day they came and took him away. They took him away and we didn't know where he was. Some of these

........................................... 216

VÉVODA, Rudolf. Řeckokatolická církev za komunistické diktatury. Getsemany 2000/112 (12): 317.

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priests gave in. My father had another brother who had a lot of children and he didn't want to sacrifice them. So he signed up with the Orthodox Church and stayed there. But then he went mad. When my father was taken away, my mother, who was an energetic person, started looking for where my father was, and it took her six months to find out. It was terrible for my dad. Being locked up broke him for life. He was a man who was scared of everything. When my father was arrested, my mother wrote to him in prison, and I have the letters here, telling him that she was looking forward to my father's release so that they could build a new socialist homeland together. Someone must have told her: "You have to write this, otherwise he won't be released." That's rape. Mum was told that if Dad left Slovakia they'd let him go. He'd muddy the waters there because the Russian Orthodox priests had already moved in. By then she had other 'spy' reports that there were already some priests in the Czech Republic. So she went here and asked for a flat.217

In the first half of the 1950s, Greek Catholic clergy were sentenced to long prison terms, mainly for obstructing the supervision of churches and religious communities: On 30 November 1954, Father Mikuláš Krett was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, loss of civil rights for ten years and a fine of one thousand crowns. With a smile, he quoted the words engraved on the window sill of one of the cells in Pankrác Prison, where he was imprisoned, about the programme and aims of the Communist Party: Every word is a lie, every promise is a fraud, every act is a crime. That's communism.218

Partial changes for the better occurred only in connection with the political relaxation in Czechoslovakia in 1968, when the Greek Catholic Church was restored. According to the data of the first post-communist population census in which religious affiliation was recorded (1991), the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia reached only 80% of its 1950 number. However, in the following period (1991-2001) the number of Greek Catholics increased by 22%.219 However, the restoration of the Greek Catholic Church in 1968 began a series of disputes between Greek Catholics and Orthodox over the ownership of churches and other property. It became common to accuse the Orthodox Church ........................................... 217

Klára Vacková [online] © Projekt Sudetské osudy, 16. 5. 2011. [cit. 13. 1. 2020] Available from: https://www.pametnaroda.cz/cs/vackova-klara-20110516-0 218 BABJAK, Ján. Zostali verní: osudy gréckokatolíckych kňazov. Dl. 5. Košice: Slovo, 1999. ISBN 8085291-72-X, p. 56–58. 219 MAJO, Juraj; ŠPROCHA, Branislav. Storočie populačného vývoja Slovenska II.: populačné štruktúry. Bratislava: Infostat, CSPV SAV, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, 2016. ISBN 978-80-89398-31-7, p. 68–69.

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of being Bolshevik and serving communism. The disputes often led to the destruction of church property, the desecration of religious objects and the violent expulsion of priests from parishes.220 But the arguments on both sides were also interesting - the Greek Catholics argued that the Orthodox should have handed over all the property they had acquired from them after 1950. The Orthodox argued that by uniting with Rome and abandoning Orthodoxy in the 17th century, the Greek Catholics had also taken over any Orthodox property that they had not returned. These religious disputes often pitted Rusyns from the same village against each other. Respondent from Runina (2015). Around 1968 it was terrible, there were even fights in some Ruthenian villages, people had drowned a priest's child in lime. But that's not religion, that's madness. In the 70s and 80s Christianity was persecuted, and again the opposite, in some places people could get along. Greek Catholics shared churches with the Orthodox, and Greek Catholics would sometimes go to Orthodox masses and vice versa.

Religion united the Slovak Rusyns with the emigrated Rusyns. In the village of Runina there is an Orthodox church built by the local people. The bells for the bell tower were bought from the collection of the villagers who emigrated to the USA to work. In other places, Rusyn emigrants contributed financially to the restoration of crosses or chapels. These sacred monuments have become an important part of the Rusyn community and, as 'places of memory', they keep alive a consciousness that might otherwise be forgotten.221 At present, Rusyns belong to the Greek Catholic or Orthodox Churches, and rarely to other churches or none at all. The most common factor for belonging to a particular church is family tradition. This is also very evident in the celebration of religious festivals and family rituals. Religion is the strongest determinant of Rusyns' identity, but not on its own, but together with other aspects. For the Greek Catholic respondent, religious affiliation is part of the family tradition: I am a Greek Catholic because I was born into a Greek Catholic family. Virtually my entire family on both my father's and mother's side is Greek Catholic. I would have to go back many generations to find anyone in my family who was not Greek Catholic.

........................................... 220

LUPČO, Martin. Sondáž do typológie konfliktov medzi gréckokatolickou a pravoslávnou cirkvou v období normalizácie. Historica Olomucensia 2013/45: 247–264. 221 KLEPETKO, Roman. Současná role národní identity aneb proč (ne)stavíme památníky. Kulturní studia 2014/1: 64–79.

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The Orthodox respondent expressed similar views on the issue of religion: Because I was born Orthodox, I will die Orthodox.

The respondent from a mixed family usually attends both Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic services: I come from a mixed family where my father is Greek Catholic and my mother is Roman Catholic, I was baptised Roman Catholic but the whole family attends both Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic services together.

According to the Greek Catholic priest Martin Tkačin (interview with respondent in 2016), the basis of Rusyn identity is religion, from which other parts of Rusyn culture are derived: Martin Tkačin. If the language and culture are not preserved, the Rusyn minority will disappear. That is why we preach in Rusyn and celebrate the liturgy in Old Slavonic. On the contrary, some ways of supporting the development of Rusyn culture can become a great cause of confusion about one's own identity. A recent example is the European Union's support for Rusyn folklore and traditions. In reality, however, it is just a matter of wanting to see people in costumes dancing in restored churches, drinking and eating something called traditional and preferably organic. But nobody wants to see anything to do with religion. And that's the biggest mistake. After all, it was through religion that the language of the Rusyns was passed on, the relationship to one's own language was formed, and ethnic consciousness was passed on.

Almost all respondents consider religion to be the strongest element of Rusyn identity. Although it is often described as a factor "distinguishing Rusyns from their Polish, Slovak and Ukrainian neighbours",222 this is not entirely true. The fact is that a number of other elements of Rusyn culture do indeed derive from religion - for example, the Rusyn Museum in Čirč [Chirch] is a national museum, but the structure of its exhibits is primarily religious. On the other hand, many of the Rusyns' neighbours (mainly Slovak and Ukrainian) profess the same religion, and the Rusyns themselves are divided between Greek Catholic and Orthodox. Even the unique religious chants of "prostopinije" are not only specific to the Byzantine Rite, but are also present in the liturgy of the Latin Rite. Ideally, there is a difference from Western (Latin) services, where there is usually accompaniment by a musical instrument, but in the churches of the Eastern Rite only "prostopinije", singing alone without ........................................... 222

SHEA, John J. Light From the East. America 1999/181 (15).

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musical accompaniment, is typical. The reality, however, is often different Greek Catholics themselves began to Latinise their church, especially after 1950, when the communist regime tried to force the faithful to convert to Orthodoxy. As a result, various Eastern elements began to see themselves as Orthodox, antiCatholic.223 The importance of religion for Rusyns can be illustrated by the example of Rusyns living in Bohemia, who do not differentiate between belonging to the Greek Catholic or Orthodox Church. In Prague, even Rusyn Orthodox attend Greek Catholic services at St Clement's Cathedral with other Rusyns, celebrate Easter together and are united in their preference for the Old Slavonic liturgy. When Greek Catholics cannot attend the Greek Catholic liturgy, they tend to attend Roman Catholic services. Slovak Rusyns who claim Orthodoxy do not seek Orthodox services because "there are Russians, Ukrainians and others".224

The religious situation in Slovakia (1921) Orthodox Evangelical 0,1% churches 18%

Jews (Israeli religion) 5%

Catholics Greek 6%

Catholics Roman 71%

........................................... 223

ŠKOVIERA, Andrej. K otázke používania hudobných nástrojov v prostredí Gréckokatolíckej cirkvi na Slovensku. Psalterium Folia (supplementum) 4/2010. 224 SULITKA, Andrej. K otázce etnické identity Rusínů v České republice. Český lid 2016/103 (3): 451472, http://dx.doi.org/10.21104/CL.2016.3.07

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Religion Catholics – Roman Catholics – Greek Orthodox Evangelical Churches Jews (Israeli religion) Other Without religion

persons 2,128,205 193,778 2,879 530,512 135,918 2,760 6,818

% 70.9% 6.5% 0.1% 17.7% 4.5% 0.1% 0.2%

Figure 42. Religious situation in Slovakia (1921). Source: Statistický přehled Republiky československé. Praha: Státní úřad statistický, 1930, p. 10.

The linguistic situation of the Rusyns was also closely linked to religion and the initiative of the representatives of the Greek Catholic Church. The priests worked among the Rusyns, and through publications in Rusyn they were in daily contact with the written form of the language. Discussions about the necessity of using the mother tongue of the Rusyns in pastoral practice appeared even before the codification of the Rusyn language. Pastoral work in the Rusyn language is associated with the name of Fr. František Krajňák, a priest who worked in the Greek Catholic parish in Medzilaborce for more than 20 years. At his initiative, a translation team of theologians and lay people was formed at the beginning of the 1980s and began to work on the translation of the Catechism, the Gospels and the Epistles. The first result of their work was the samizdat publication of the Small Greek Catholic Catechism for Rusyn Children (1982), the Apostolŷ (1985), and Jevanheliji na nedili a svjata ciloho roku / Gospels for Sundays and feasts of the whole year (1986). All four Gospels, the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and other texts of pastoral importance are translated. The translations are used in the pastoral work of about 20 Greek Catholic priests in the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Presov. The Rusyn liturgical texts have been well received by the faithful, but there are problems related to the lack of specific language training for future priests in the ethnically mixed area and the lengthy approval process for translations. The Orthodox Church still uses the Church Slavic language in the liturgy, and Slovak in some parishes. In pastoral work, however, it allows priests in parishes with a Rusyn population to use the Rusyn language or its dialect. The Orthodox Church, however, prefers to use only Slovak in religious education and publications. A change occurred after Vladyka Rastislav took office - since 2019 he has published the Christmas and Easter messages of the Holy Synod in the written language of Rusyn.225

........................................... 225

PLIŠKOVÁ, Anna. Karpatskí Rusíni a Rusíni na Slovensku na začiatku 21. storočia. Prezentace přednášky z 24. 10. 2019. Materiál poskytnutý autorkou.

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3.6. IDENTITY IN STATISTICAL SURVEYS The identity of the Rusyn ethnic minority in Slovakia is very specific and at the same time difficult to generalise. Religion can be seen as an important identifying and identity-building element. The Greek Catholic Church has long influenced the Rusyn community in terms of education, culture and awareness of their own specificity. This tradition was violently suppressed by the political situation in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s. Efforts to adopt a Ukrainian identity, closer to the Soviet power in the Central European region, were intensified. After the revolutionary year of 1989 in Czechoslovakia, some inhabitants of north-eastern Slovakia freely asserted their Rusyn ethnicity. On the other hand, in the 1990s the question arose again whether the Rusyns were a separate nation or an offshoot of the Ukrainian nation, which direction was most appropriate given the minority's historical tradition, etc. The fact that the Rusyn minority was divided before the establishment of the Subcarpathian Rus Autonomous Region and later subjected to assimilation and Ukrainisation, especially during the communist period in Czechoslovakia, caused some of its members to deviate from the Rusyn identity and become accustomed to Slovak or Ukrainian ethnicity. This is another reason why the number of Rusyns in statistical surveys is not constant or statistically predictable. In 1921 a census of the population of Czechoslovakia took place, during which a propaganda campaign was conducted in eastern Slovakia between Slovaks and Rusyns. Rusyn politicians tried to persuade the population to declare themselves Rusyn on the basis of their Greek Catholic religion. The Slovaks often confused Rusyns with Hungarians and therefore used official power to organise petitions against the annexation of Rusyn areas to Subcarpathian Rus, in response to Rusyn efforts to annex Zemplín, Šariš, Spiš and part of Už county to Subcarpathian Rus. Moreover, the results of the census were falsified by the official apparatus. The commissioners, who were mostly of Hungarian nationality, did not record the national identity according to the opinions and feelings of the inhabitants, but checked the knowledge of the language, for example by reading texts written in Cyrillic to the often illiterate Rusyn population. In this way they demonstrated their ignorance of the Rusyn language and script. In addition, they asked wrongly formulated questions that made it impossible to select the Rusyn nationality, e.g. "Are you Hungarian or Slovak?" or "Do you speak and understand Slovak?".226 The language questions followed the methodology of the Czechoslovak Statistical Office: According to the instructions for the first census, national tribal affiliation was understood as the main characteristic, which was usually the mother tongue; Jews could declare Jewish nationality. .... According to Section 2 ........................................... 226

POP, Ivan. Malé dejiny Rusínov. Bratislava: Združenie inteligencie Rusínov Slovenska, 2011, p. 80, 81. ISBN 978-80-970354-4-0.

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of the Language Law No. 122/1920, the linguistic stratification of the population of the Czechoslovak Republic is decisive for the linguistic rights of minorities. nationality.227 The numbers of Rusyns in the two censuses of the First Republic should be taken as very indicative, as the separate nationality of Rusyns did not appear in the census - instead it was the Russian nationality. The term Rusyn in the census was therefore ambiguous, as it could include not only Rusyns but also people who considered themselves Russians or Ukrainians.228 - in the ethnonyms of the First Republic they were also referred to as the Velkorus, the Malorus or the Karpatorus. Table 3. Number of Rusyns according to the 1921 and 1930 census of the Czechoslovak Republic.

Czechoslovak census 1921 inhabitant Bohemia 2,007 Moravia 976 Silesia Slovakia Subcarpathian Rus Total

338 85,644 372,884 461,849

Czechoslovak census 1930 % inhabitant % 0.4 Bohemia 7,162 1.3 0.2 Country 4,012 0.7 MoravianSilesian 0.1 18.5 Slovakia 91,215 16.6 80.8 Subcarpathian 446,780 81.3 Rus 100.0 Total 549,169 100.0

Source: TÓTH, Andrej. Politika československých vlád vůči národnostním menšinám 1918– 1938. Ministerstvo zahraničních věcí České republiky [online]. Praha, 2010. [cit. 28. 8. 2019]. Available from: http://www.mzv.cz/file/637455/NAR_MENS_MONOGR_20_stran.pdf. Sčítání lidu v republice Československé ze dne 1. prosince 1930. Díl 1. Praha: Státní úřad statistický, 1934.

Slovakia is currently the country with the highest number of Rusyns in the world (according to official data from national statistical offices). At the same time, it is the country where the increase in the number of Rusyns in the ten-year periods between censuses shows an increase of tens of per cent (in 2011 an increase of 38% compared to 2001, in 2001 there was a 40% increase in the number of persons of Rusyn nationality compared to 1991). ........................................... 227 228

POP, Ivan. Malé dejiny Rusínov. c. d., p. 7. RYCHLÍK, Jan; RYCHLÍKOVÁ, Magdaléna. Podkarpatská Rus v dějinách Československa 1918– 1946. Praha: Vyšehrad, 2016. ISBN 978-80-7429-768-7.

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Figure 43. Slovak municipalities according to the proportion of Rusyns – data from the census (2011) > 56,19% – 100% Obručné 92,68% Závada 86,11% Runina 81,18% Pstriná 76,67% Ruská Volová 75,68% Šarbov 71,43% Ruská Poruba 70,16% Rokytovce 70,00% Belejovce 69,57% Krajná Porúbka 69,09% Habura 67,09% Kalinov 64,38% Čertižné 64,00% Vyšná Pisaná 59,21% Roškovce 58,76% Zbudská Belá 57,25% Krásny Brod 56,43% Ňagov 56,19%

47,09% – 56,01%

Čabiny 56,01% Prituľany 55,56% Vyšná Jablonka 55,38% Medvedie 54,90% Malá Poľana 54,87% Čukalovce 53,80% Nechválova Polianka 53,33% Potôčky 53,33% Bystrá 53,33% Ruská Voľa 52,53% Valentovce 52,27% Oľka 51,88% Ruský Potok 51,49% Miroľa 51,39% Repejov 51,05% Palota 50,81% Bajerovce 50,00% Ondavka 50,00% Vyšná Polianka 49,07% Vyšný Tvarožec 48,72% Sukov 48,53% Výrava 47,09%

40,13% – 46,88%

Volica 46,88% Chmeľová 46,48% Oľšinkov 45,71% Údol 45,57% Klenová 44,64% Vagrinec 44,62% Nižná Jedľová 44,44% Čirč 44,11% Dubová 43,23% Osadné 42,33% Becherov 41,94% Jarabina 41,88% Havaj 41,87% Pčoliné 41,75% Dobroslava 41,18% Zbojné 40,94% Jakušovce 40,43% Vyšná Jedľová 40,40% Miková 40,13%

According to the 2011 census, 33,482 Slovak citizens, or 0.6% of the population, identified themselves as Rusyns, the third largest minority living in Slovakia. 55,469 people chose Rusyn as their mother tongue, representing 1% of the population.

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Table 4. National minorities in Slovakia from 1991 to 2011

National minority Hungarian Roma Rusyn Czech Ukrainian

Year 1991 Year 2001 Year 2011 567,296 10.8% 520,528 9.7% 458,467 8.5% 75,802 1.4% 89,920 1.7% 105,367 2.0% 17,197 0.3% 24,201 0.4% 33,482 0.6% 52,884 1.1% 44,620 0.8% 30,367 0.6% 13,281 0.3% 10,814 0.2% 7,430 0.1%

Source: Author's calculations based on publicly available data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. [online]. 2019. [cited 12 August 2019]. Available from: https://slovak.statistics.sk

Rusyns in Slovakia (1930–2011) 100 000 90 000 80 000 70 000 60 000 50 000 40 000 30 000 20 000 10 000 0

1930 1940 1950 1961 1970 1980 1991 2001 2011 undifferentiated 91 215 61 762 48 231 35 435 38 959 Russian

2411 1 389 1 590 1 997

Ukrainian

13 281 10 814 7 430

Rusyn+Ukrainian

36 849

Rusyn

17 197 24 201 33 482

Figure 44. Rusyns in Slovakia (1930-2011). Sources: Štatistický úrad SR; BENŽA, Mojmír a kol. Národnostný atlas Slovenska. Prešov: Dajama, 2015. ISBN 978-80-8136-053-4; Fórum Kisebbségkutató Intézet | Fórum inštitút pre výskum menšín | Forum Minority Research Institute [online] 2018. [cit. 8. 10. 2018] Available from: http://foruminst.sk/sk/

But how to interpret the growing number of Slovak Rusyns? A large increase in the number of members of a minority could, for example, be due to a high birth rate or massive immigration. However, this is by no means the case for Slovak Rusyns. Another possible explanation is the ongoing national revival of Slovak Rusyns and the strengthening of their ethnic consciousness. If we call the current situation of the Slovak Rusyns their national revival, then it should be added that it is a rather timid revival, still not very different from the majority environment. 115

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It is certainly not a fierce national struggle, but a very gradual discovery of one's own ethnic characteristics.229 The answers of the Rusyn respondents completely contradict the census figures - according to the respondents, the number of Rusyns is significantly decreasing and the use of the Rusyn language is also disappearing. This leads to the conclusion that there used to be a much larger number of Rusyns in Slovakia who did not declare their nationality because they were unable or unwilling to do so.230 Dimitrij Choma, respondent from eastern Slovakia, 2015. The number of Russians and Ukrainians in eastern Slovakia today is certainly much smaller than, for example, in the 1950s and 1960s. In my opinion, this is mainly due to the economic influence, i.e. the contact of the population of the previously closed villages, there was nowhere to go to work, these opportunities were created only after the war, plus the bus connection of all the villages, which did not exist before the war. After the change of regime and the economic situation, the countryside is depopulated, there are not enough children and schools often disappear.231

3.7. THE CURRENT SITUATION OF RUSYNS 3.7.1. Language as an Element of the Ethnic Identity of Slovak Rusyns232 The use of one's own language is very often one of the main pillars of ethnic identity. Language can very well act as a ticket (or barrier) between members of a particular group - speech with a particular accent immediately reveals 'the others' and defines them in relation to 'us'. But language can also have another function - it can be a highly valued ancestral heritage. Even in cases where the language of the surrounding majority is used for everyday communication, there is a strong sense of a common language among group members. The case of the Slovak Rusyns, however, is quite different. Census statistics in Slovakia show quite convincingly that the Rusyns' own language is certainly not the main element through which their ethnic identity is constructed. The Slovak census shows an increase in the number of people claiming to belong to the Rusyn minority (see Table 4 on p. 115). Although the number has almost doubled, it does not indicate a significant increase in the population. ........................................... 229

KOKAISL, Petr. Co znamená být slovenským Rusínem?… c. d. KOKAISL, Petr. Co znamená být slovenským Rusínem?… c. d. 231 FUČÍKOVÁ, Veronika. Vliv politické situace na vývoj rusínské etnicity. Praha: ČZU, 2016, p. 49. 232 Part of the chapter is taken from: KOKAISL, Petr. Co znamená být slovenským Rusínem? Proměna etnické identity rusínské menšiny na Slovensku. Historická sociologie, 2017, 9.2: 85-102. 230

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Rather, it is a kind of tendency to support the Rusyn ancestral identity and a possible strengthening of the ethnic consciousness of the minority. In a nationwide statistical survey conducted in 2011, more than 55,000 people identified Rusyn as their mother tongue. Compared to 2001, there was a slight increase of about 500 people. In 2001, about 50,000 people declared Rusyn as their mother tongue, but only half of them, i.e. 24,000 people, declared Rusyn nationality. In the 2011 census, 24,000 of them stated that they spoke Rusyn in public, and more than 49,000 people in Slovakia use Rusyn at home.233 Considering that in the 2011 census two-thirds more people declared Rusyn as their mother tongue than declared Rusyn nationality, and that only 54% of those who declared Rusyn as their mother tongue declared Rusyn nationality (41% declared Slovak nationality)234, the linguistic situation of Slovak Rusyns is to a large extent unique. In fact, the situation is much more common among ethnic minorities around the world - the number of speakers of a given language is almost always lower than the number of people of a given ethnicity. The current generations of Rusyns and their descendants in Slovakia still use the Rusyn language and the majority language - Slovak. Mark. We speak Rusyn together at home and we use Slovak when we have visitors who don't speak Rusyn. 235

The use of minority and majority languages is confirmed by the testimony of Lucie: I use both languages. With my mother I speak Slovak, because she is not Rusyn, and with the others I speak Slovak, sometimes also Rusyn.236

Nevertheless, some respondents feel that Slovak Rusyns are now largely abandoning the Rusyn language and switching to Slovak. Respondent from eastern Slovakia. The assimilation of the Rusyns is most evident in the area of language. I know many Rusyn families who have not taught their children their mother tongue. It is as if they were ashamed of it and forgot who their father, mother, grandfather and

........................................... 233

HORÁKOVÁ, Veronika; VAŇKOVÁ, Monika; JIRMANOVÁ, Tereza; HONZÍKOVÁ, Eva; GREGOR, Boris. Rusíni na Slovensku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia (HKS). [online] 2014. [cit. 15. 08. 2019]. Provozně ekonomická fakulta ČZU v Praze, 2014. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/rusini_na_slovensku. 234 Obyvateľstvo podľa pohlavia a národnosti. [online]. Štatistický úrad Slovenskej republiky, 2011. [cit. 19. 11. 2015] Available from: http://census2011.statistics.sk/tabulky.html 235 The questionnaire survey was conducted by a research team of students of Economic and Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Economic and Cultural Studies of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, consisting of Veronika Horáková, Monika Vaňková, Tereza Jirmanová, Eva Honzíková, Boris Gregor, during the summer semester 2014/2015 in the municipality of Jakubany in Slovakia. 236 Ibid.

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grandmother were, where they were born and who their brothers and sisters were.237

In 1991, the First World Congress of Rusyns in Slovakia was held in Medzilaborce. A year later, in 1992, a scientific seminar on the codification of the Rusyn language was held. The theoretical problems of language formation in the conditions of so-called small nations and practical ways of coordinating the work of linguists were discussed. The codification of the language should be based on the living colloquial language of the Rusyns, while each of the regions permanently inhabited by the Rusyns should create its own variant of the written language on the basis of the most widespread dialect. In 1995 the Rusyn language was codified. This opened the space for its use in various spheres of cultural and social life of the Rusyn community. Apart from family communication, it is used, for example, in literature, media, confessional, official and educational spheres. In the long term, this may have a positive impact on the level of national consciousness of the Rusyns.238 The following examples from the Gospel of Luke (the parable of the lost sheep, Luke 15:3-6) explain the difference in the languages used. Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” Text in Rusyn Cyrillic: (Ісус) 3. А він їм росповів образный приклад. Говорив: 4. „Ці є міджі вами такый чоловік, котрому кідь ся стратить єдна зо сто його овець, не охабить девятьдесять девять в пустыні а не іде по слідах страченой, покы єй не найде? 5. А як єй найде, бере собі єй на плечі, радує ся 6. а по приході домів поскликує приятелів і сусідів а повість їм: - Тіште ся зо мнов, бо єм нашов свою страчену вівцю. Ukrainian 3 А Він їм розповів оцю притчу, говорячи: 4 Котрий з вас чоловік, мавши сотню овець і загубивши одну з них, не покине в пустині

Transcription of the text into Rusyn Latin: (Isus) 3. A vin jim rospoviv obraznyj prîklad. Hovorîv: 4. Ci je midži vamî takyj čolovik, kotromu kiď sja stratîť jedna zo sto joho ovec´, ne ochabîť devjaťdesjať devjať v pustyňi a ne ide po sľidach stračenoj, poky jej ne najde? 5. a jak jej najde, bere sobi jej na pleči, raduje sja 6. a po prîchoďi domiv posklîkuje prîjateľiv i susiďiv a povisť jim: - Ťište sja zo mnov, bo jem našov svoju stračenu vivcju.239 Ukrainian transliteration 3 A Vin jim rozpoviv ocju prytču, hovorjačy: 4 Kotryj z vas čolovik, mavšy sotnju ovec' i zahubyvšy odnu z nych, ne pokyne v pustyni

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FUČÍKOVÁ, Veronika. The influence of the political situation on the development of Rusyn ethnicity. Prague: ČZU, 2016, p. 50. 238 PLIŠKOVÁ, Anna. Rusínsky jazyk na Slovensku: náčrt vývoja a súčasné problémy. Prešov: Metodickopedagogické centrum v Prešove, 2007. p. 10‒15. ISBN 978-80-8045-502-6. Available from: https://www.unipo.sk/public/media/11525/Rusinsky_jazyk_na_Slovensku.pdf. 239 Jevanhelije od sv. Luky / Євангеліє од св. Лукы. In: Tetrajevanhelije, p. 830 / Тетраєвангеліє, с. 311. Prešov: Svetový kongres Rusánov, 2009. The Ruthenian spelling of ecclesiastical texts differs slightly from the codified norm, as does the transliteration into Latin.

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тих дев'ятидесяти й дев'яти, та й не піде шукати загинулої, аж поки не знайде її? 5 А знайшовши, кладе на рамена свої та радіє. 6 І, прийшовши додому, скликає він друзів і сусідів, та й каже до них: Радійте зо мною, бо знайшов я вівцю свою тую загублену.

tych dev'jatydesjaty j dev'jaty, ta j ne pide šukaty zahynuloji, až poky ne znajde jiji? 5 A znajšovšy, klade na ramena svoji ta radije. 6 I, pryjšovšy dodomu, sklykaje vin druziv i susidiv, ta j kaže do nych: Radijte zo mnoju, bo znajšov ja vivcju svoju tuju zahublenu.

Slovak (Ježiš) 3 Vtedy im povedal toto podobenstvo: 4 „Ak niekto z vás má sto oviec a jednu z nich stratí, či nenechá tých deväťdesiatdeväť na púšti a nevydá sa za stratenou, kým ju nenájde? 5 A keď ju nájde, položí si ju s radosťou na plecia. 6 Príde domov, zvolá priateľov a susedov a povie im: ‚Radujte sa so mnou, lebo som našiel svoju stratenú ovcu.‘

Czech (Ježíš) 3 Pověděl jim toto podobenství: 4 „Má-li někdo z vás sto ovcí a ztratí jednu z nich, což nenechá těch devadesát devět na pustém místě a nejde za tou, která se ztratila, dokud ji nenalezne? 5 Když ji nalezne, vezme si ji s radostí na ramena, 6 a když přijde domů, svolá své přátele a sousedy a řekne jim: ‚Radujte se se mnou, protože jsem nalezl ovci, která se mi ztratila.‘

At this point it is worth mentioning an overview of Rusyn literary works in the territory of present-day Slovakia. • In the 18th century, under the influence of the Church Slavonic language, A. Padaľský, I. Vislocký, A. Kocák, A. Vaľkovský... • In the 19th century, under the influence of Russophile, Ukrainianophile and Carpathian traditions, I. Ripa, P. Lodij, M. Andrejkovič, A. Labanc, T. Podhajecká, A. Kriger-Dobrianska, M. Nevická, A. Duchnovič, P. Kuzmiak, A. Pavlovič. • In the 20th century, I. Žák, I. Novák, A. Capcara, A. Halgašová, M. Hvozda, A. Halčáková, J. Matašovská, Š. Smolej, M. Polčová, E. Capcara, A. Vladyková, J. Kudzej, H. Gicová-Micovčinová. • After 1989 and after 1995 in the written Rusyn language. Suchý, J. Charitun, M. Kseňák, Š. Smolej, J. Kudzej, K. Morochovičová-Cvik, I. Meľničaková, Ľ. Šandalová, P. Semancová, M. Hermanová and others.240 Since the 1997-1998 school year, primary schools in the Slovak Republic have been teaching Rusyn, which later became the language of instruction, with state support. This created an urgent need for university training of teachers for these ethnic schools. Its preparation has been entrusted to the Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture of the University of Prešov, which focuses on scientific research and development activities in the field of standardisation of the written Rusyn language, pedagogical and educational activities, publications and ........................................... 240

PLIŠKOVÁ, Anna. Karpatskí Rusíni a Rusíni na Slovensku na začiatku 21. storočia. Presentation of the lecture from 24 October 2019. Material provided by the author.

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documentation. It also organises an international summer school of Rusyn language and culture called Studium Carpato-Ruthenorum, which is held in parallel in Rusyn and English. The aim of the course is to provide those interested with knowledge of the Rusyn written language, ethnographic features of the minority or knowledge in the field of history or literature.241 The University of Prešov is also the only university in Europe to offer a doctoral programme in Rusyn language and literature - Slavic Studies - Rusyn Language and Literature. Among the institutions providing education in Rusyn was the primary and kindergarten school with Rusyn as the language of instruction in Čabiny, which was closed in 2015. At the beginning the school had 7 pupils, in 2014 there were 13 pupils.242 In 2011-2013, there was an elementary school with Rusyn language of instruction in the village of Bajerovce (Sabinov district). In 2014 a primary school with Rusyn language of instruction was established in Kalna Roztoka (Snina district) and in 2017 in Klenova (Snina district). In addition, Rusyn is taught only as an optional subject in primary schools in Svidník243, Pčoliné244, Stakčín245, Medzilaborce246 and Radvaň nad Laborcem247.248 Interesting is the project of the civic association Kolíska (The Cradle), which runs the project Evening Schools of Rusyn for children and adults - in 2019 there were 22 evening schools (27 classes and 400 students).

Figure 45. Map of villages providing education in Rusyn. defunct schools, functional schools (as of 2020).

........................................... 241

Ústav rusínského jazyka a kultury. Prešovská univerzita v Prešově. [online] 2019 [cit. 27. 8. 2019]. Available from: https://www.unipo.sk/9023. 242 The village is located in the Prešov region, in the region of Horní Zemplín, and has 346 inhabitants). The Rusyn Primary School in Čabiny was the first Rusyn school to teach since 2 September 2008. It was founded by the Greek Catholic priest M. Jasik and the mayor of Škovran. Source. [cited 10 August 2019]. Available from: http://www.zscabiny.wbl.sk/Historia-skoly----.html. 243 Svidník is located in the Prešov Region, in the Šariš Region, with a population of 10,800 inhabitants, of which 29.8% claim to be Rusyn. 244 This small village is located in the Prešov region, in the Zemplín regionand has 599 inhabitants. 245 The village is located in the Prešov Region, in the Zemplín Regionand has 2,400 inhabitants. 246 Medzilaborce is located in the Prešov Region, in the Zemplín Region, with a population of 6,541 inhabitants, of which 35.5% are Rusyn. 247 The village is located in the Prešov region, in the region of Horní Zemplín, and has 566 inhabitants. 248 Sčítanie obyvateľov, domov a bytov 2011. Štatistický úrad Slovenskej republiky [online]. 2011 [cit. 27. 8. 2019]. Available from: https://slovak.statistics.sk.

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Although Rusyn schools are being established, their continued existence appears to be very problematic, as evidenced by the disappearance of some schools. In the Slovak villages, Slovak schools are also struggling to survive due to declining enrolment. The general problems with education in small villages are also highlighted by the respondent from Svidník (interview 2015): The position of the Rusyns in Slovakia is very marginal. The entire village education system is disappearing, not to mention the national education system, which began to disappear in 1996, and if it were not for the activities of the Kolíska (The Cradle) civic association, the Rusyn language would no longer be taught anywhere.

Some parents are afraid to send their children to Rusyn schools so that they can be taught at a higher level in Slovak. 3.7.2. Rusyn cuisine in Slovakia Food is a very powerful tool for expressing identity, not just ethnic identity. Food can express a variety of symbols - religious, ethnic, social - and many cultures define themselves against other cultures through rules and food choices. Many respondents who are only aware of their Rusyn origins, do not use the Rusyn language or observe Rusyn traditions, yet cook Rusyn food. These meals, even if originally cooked on weekdays, have a festive character. Respondent 23 years old, Snina (2015). My grandfather still lived in a Rusyn village. But when the village was destroyed because of the dam, he moved to the city and my parents and I live in Snina. What we have left of the Rusyn tradition is the food. When there are holidays, we prepare some Rusyn dishes, and at Christmas we always have pirohy, it wouldn't be Christmas without it.

Rusyn cuisine is characterised by a large number of meatless dishes, of which potatoes and cabbage are the most popular. A typical Rusyn dish is boiled tatarčané pirohy (made from buckwheat or wheat flour, eggs, salt and water) stuffed with cheese, cabbage, potatoes and mushrooms.

Figure 46. Tatarčané pirohy. Ulič, 2015.

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Another widespread specialty is mačanka. It is a soup made with bacon and sauerkraut juice. It is made with sausage or mushrooms and eaten with bread dipped in the soup – hence mačanka. Porridges (kuljaša, čyr) made from oat, barley, corn and buckwheat flour were also popular. Outside Lent, they were topped with onions fried in bacon and washed down with milk or soup. Rusyn dishes can be found in Slovak restaurants, although Rusyn cuisine has influenced Slovak cuisine only in places where Rusyns live. On the other hand, there is no restaurant in Slovakia that specialises exclusively in traditional Rusyn cuisine. On restaurant menus, Rusyn dishes are presented as regional specialities of the Rusyn regions of Zemplín, Šariš and Spiš in the Prešov and Košice regions. Of the 4,000 Slovak restaurants with menus on the Internet, mačanka appeared in 192, pirohy in 44 and kuljaša in only two.249 Even today, the diet is strongly influenced by Greek Catholic and Orthodox holidays, which are reflected in the typical dishes of their daily and festive life. Certain festivals were, and still are, typical meals - but these were not necessarily the prerogative of the Rusyns, but also of the surrounding population. One example is the Easter meal, which was (and still is) taken to church on Easter Sunday for consecration. With minor variations, this dish is very similar not only in Slovakia, but also among Slovaks living as minorities in other countries - in the Hungarian Baňačka there are several dishes with Easter symbolism: The cake and the ham represented the body of Jesus, the sausage the whip with which Jesus was scourged, the eggs the stones with which Christ was stoned, the wine the blood, the lump the gall (which was put into Jesus' mouth with a sponge) and the stuffing the sponge.250 In eastern Slovakia, sirek, a speciality made of milk and eggs, is prepared, but it cannot be called a Rusyn speciality because sirek is also prepared in families that do not claim Rusyn nationality. In many villages of eastern Slovakia, the Rusyns distinguish themselves from the Slovak population by strict fasting during the main festivals of the church year - Easter and Christmas, and by strict abstention from certain food ingredients (milk, eggs...) during Lent. 3.7.3. Celebrating the holidays From the Rusyn revival in the 19th century until recently, Rusyn traditions have been recorded by a number of ethnographers and the results of their work are still of great interest to Rusyns today. The celebration of Rusyn festivals is based both ........................................... 249

REHÁK, Martin. Analýza etnických minoritných kuchyní a ich vplyv na regionálne kuchyne v definovanom regióne na území Slovenskej republiky. Brno: Vysoká škola obchodní a hotelová, 2013, p. 40-41. 250 KOKAISL, Petr, ŠTOLFOVÁ, Andrea; ZYCHOVÁ, Jana; HANUŠ Pavel a kol. Po stopách Slováků ve východní Evropě. Praha: Nostalgie, DOI https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3610.2168 ISBN 978-80906207-2-8, p. 146.

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on festivals dependent on the seasons and on festivals during the church year – it is the festivals associated with the liturgical calendar that are most resistant to change and resist extinction. The fact is that many customs are no longer alive today, but appear as artificial folklore. On the other hand, in some cases folklore is being adopted into family rituals – some Rusyns, after seeing museum exhibits or folklore performances with Rusyn customs, want to revive these customs in their families. However, changes in the celebration of festivals are not a recent phenomenon, but an ongoing process. The 20th century saw the gradual disappearance of many festivals - the old harvest festival of Spasa ceased to exist after the First World War. The very popular harvest festival (obžinky) disappeared after the Second World War, but was revived after collectivisation. After 2000, the custom was partly changed and there is an exchange of harvest wreaths between some villages on the Slovak and Polish sides of the border. Another example is the Celebration of the Souls (a Roman Catholic commemoration of deceased loved ones) on 2 November, which previously had no tradition in Rusyn villages. From the 1960s to the 1990s, this holiday was adopted by the Slovak Catholics and is now widespread. At the same time, this holiday has often become the only opportunity for the extended family to meet.251 Although the Greek Catholic rite has the same holidays as the Orthodox according to the Julian calendar, changes are taking place among Greek Catholic Rusyns as they increasingly use the Gregorian calendar. Until the 1970s, Rusyns used the Julian calendar and celebrated Christmas on 6 January, the same day as the Orthodox. Today, most Greek Catholic Rusyns celebrate Christmas on 24 December, but some celebrate it on 6 January with Orthodox Rusyns. However, it is very much up to the individual family to decide when to celebrate Christmas. According to the respondents, it is not possible to state clearly when Rusyns celebrate Christmas. Some respondents said that they celebrate Christmas twice in December with family and in January with friends. All holidays can be described as typical for Slovak Rusyns, but they are not celebrated in the sense of "we are Rusyns and therefore we celebrate these holidays". It is much more about the perception of the tradition of celebrating these holidays in connection with the liturgical calendar, and the way of celebrating, including the typical customs, is very similar or identical for both Rusyns and Slovaks.

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ŠIŠKOVÁ, Růžena; MUŠINKA, Mikuláš; MUŠINKA, Alexander. Ukrajinská nářečí Slovenska: výzkum a zvukové zápisy z let 1957-1967. Praha: Slovanský ústav AV ČR, 2005, p. 63-65.

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Customs and traditions of Slovak Rusyns252 Most customs and traditions are linked to the winter season, which is the most important holiday in both the common and liturgical calendars. The cycle of winter customs runs from the 30th of November (13th December in the Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar) until the end of Carnival. There are three successive stages: before the winter solstice, at the solstice (Christmas) and at Mardi Gras. The pre-Christmas customs escalate the Christmas customs and also form three typologically distinct groups of customs protective practices, circumambulations and a variety of divinations, the most prominent of which are love divinations. The purpose of all three groups of customs is to learn one's future and to ensure success in business and personal happiness. Christmas (Roždestvo, Ristvo). The culmination of the winter cycle of customs was the period of the solstice - Christmas, which represented the period from 24 December (6 January in the Julian calendar) to 6 January (19 January in the Julian calendar). Most customs were linked to Christmas Eve, called Vilija, Svjatŷj večur. The Christian motif and the elevation of Christmas to one of the most important church holidays gave greater solemnity and festivity to all the traditional customs. Christmas Eve was regarded as a day of destiny, when the most important and significant events of the coming year could be determined through various actions, both in the economy and in the family, whose members were at the centre of all customs. Even ordinary everyday actions were carried out according to certain rules and took on a ritual character. In every family, the established prohibitions were observed, as it was believed that failure to do so would have negative consequences in the coming year. On this day, nothing was to be borrowed from the house and no visitors were to be received, lest the farm be damaged by contact with borrowed or stolen objects. A strict fast was observed and nothing was to be eaten until the first star rose (až do zvizdŷ). The ecclesiastical injunction to fast was voluntarily obeyed to the point of a one-day hunger strike, the violation of which, according to the popular consciousness, led to failure and setback. Most of the magical and divinatory practices were concentrated around the preparation of the evening meal. During the day the men tended the cattle and the women prepared the pastries and dishes for the dinner. Many of the preparations were supplemented by verbal and movement magic to ensure the success of the activities performed. Special attention was paid to the ceremonial bread (kračun). Kračun was always baked on Christmas Eve and was the first to be put in the oven. As late as the 1940s, a 'new fire' was lit with flint and tinder (vakelija) before ........................................... 252

By: MAGOCSI, Paul Robert; PLIŠKOVÁ, Anna. Rusíni na Slovensku. Manuscript provided by A. Plišková. The text was prepared in 2017 for a history textbook on national minorities living in Slovakia entitled "Zoznámme sa - národnostné menšiny" (Let's get to know each other - national minorities).

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kračun was baked. This fire was said to have special cleansing powers, and it was believed that all food cooked over it would have a special cleansing and healing effect. "Kračun", as a symbol of prosperity, had special powers even before it was roasted, and contact with the new fire was said to strengthen its power. "Kračun was placed in the oven over a sick, weak child or sheep. The shovel used to put it in the oven was leaned against the door during a storm; the water in which the housewife washed her hands of the dough was poured over the trees; the dough scraps were put aside and made into crosses before dinner, which were stuck on the doors of granaries, stables and barns to protect the farm from witches (strigami / vorožŷľamy). It was also a symbol of wealth. It was not to be held in the bare hand, but only over an apron or glove, as the poverty symbolised by the bare hand was supposed to be transferred to the "kračun". It remained untouched on the table until New Year's Day, and no one was allowed to eat from it. During the meal, the "kračun" was used to perform various magical and fortune-telling rituals. In the Christmas Eve ceremony, kračun was a symbol of the peasant's year-round work and continuous care of the crops and the farm throughout the year. In the folk beliefs of the Rusyns it was considered a sacred object with special properties. Another ritual symbol of the Christmas Eve ceremony was the sheaf of oats. It was either the last or the most beautiful sheaf, which the farmer (gazda) would collect immediately after the harvest and keep separately. In some villages it was placed in a corner with the flails on Christmas Eve, representing the wealth secured by a good harvest. It also had an aesthetic function. With the spread of the Christmas tree, the bundle quickly lost its significance. In areas where the last sheaf was placed on the table, it fulfilled several functions. This is evidenced by the care it was given until the next harvest, when it was replaced by a new bundle and the old one was burnt. This old custom survived until almost the 1930s. Before putting it on the table, the snop was taken to the stream where the whole family washed themselves. There they symbolically sprinkled it with water and sand, hoping that the grain of the new harvest would be as clean as the sand and water. The sheaf remained on the table during the three days of Christmas and was only unfolded again on Epiphany (6 January / 19 January), the Second Holy Night (Druhŷj Svjatŷj večur). Throughout the year the sheaf was used as a protective and healing object. During a storm it was spread over the fence, sprinkled on the sledge and the ploughman when ploughing for the first time, or used to burn the grain when someone was bewitched. Straw was also a popular symbol of Christmas. Although people interpreted it as a sacrifice to Jesus Christ (žertva Isusu Christu), it clearly had a meaning of bringing wealth. The shepherd who brought the straw into the house wished the whole family well. The housekeeper would then sit down on the straw and cluck to the chickens to carry her well. This custom remained in the Rusyn Christmas ritual until the second half of the 20th century. However, it was no longer

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associated with the acquisition of wealth and became an element of entertainment. In the past, straw was spread around the room and people slept on it. From the 1960s this custom declined and was rarely seen. The straw was placed one by one under the table, on the benches, in the stable door, etc. It was left in the room during the three days of Christmas and then, as an object of prosperity, it was used on the heather, under the fruit trees, placed under the chickens so that they would lay well and under the fruit trees, or burned in the yard - the sacred object could not be thrown away, only burned. A relatively new phenomenon in the culture of the Rusyns of north-eastern Slovakia is the Christmas tree. It first appeared in the inter-war period in the homes of wealthy peasants and local intellectuals. Before or shortly after the Second World War it was domesticated in all families. From the beginning it had a purely aesthetic function. One of the acts of purification was the ceremonial washing in the stream before Christmas Eve. The cleansing power was attributed to the flowing water alone. The whole family would go to the water together. During the washing they held money in their hands to keep them rich throughout the year. After the ceremonial washing, the whole family sat down at the table, which was given special attention on that day because nothing was allowed to be missing from the meal. A sheaf of wheat was spread on the table, covered with a tablecloth. Bread was placed in each corner, and in the centre was a bowl of grain in which a candle was lit. Under the table was a chain, a ploughshare, an axe and a whip, and around the table was a locked chain. By the table there was a butter churn for making butter "zbenka" (bodenka) and in the corner there were tied flails. For dinner 9-12 dishes had to be served. This was preceded by a strict fast. All meals were prepared in oil and nothing from cattle or milk was allowed to be added. Meals were prepared from pulses, cereals, mushrooms and dried and fresh fruit. Traditional foods were garlic, honey, mushroom sauce (mačanka), opekance (bobaľkŷ), pirohy / pierogi, cabbage, peas, beans, boiled pears. The food was accompanied by customs to which specific meanings were attributed. Garlic was first passed around the table three times before being cut into as many pieces as there were members of the family, so that they would be healthy and not forget each other in the world. Family cohesion was ensured by a locked chain that was wrapped around the table and had to be touched by every member of the family. The Christmas Eve meal always had to be a success so that there would be enough for the whole year. While eating pierogi and fučiek (mashed potatoes), it was customary to emphasise the wishes for the future harvest in a commanding manner. Gazda would utter it while putting the first spoonful of each meal into a wooden pot (dijnyka) with water. The mushroom sauce had to be eaten without speaking, so that all mouths would remain silent and quiet throughout the year. When eating legumes, it was customary to throw a spoonful of beans or peas into the straw to ensure a bountiful harvest of oats and wheat. All these customs were similar in their effect on the quantity of crops, newborn cattle and bees. 126

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These Christmas Eve dishes are still served in various variations and combinations in Rusyn villages in Slovakia. However, some of the rules, especially those concerning fasting, are not as strict as in the past. Wafers and fish are served in some places, undoubtedly influenced by Slovak or Roman Catholic traditions. Leftovers from Christmas Eve meals were left on the table until morning for the souls of deceased ancestors. In some places, a special plate was placed on the table for the first spoonful of each meal. An integral part of the Christmas ritual was carol singing (koľadovaňa), which in Rusyn villages had a predominantly religious character. After Christmas Eve dinner, adult men would go caroling. The second form of caroling was the "polaznik"253. In order to be welcomed into the house, polazniks had to follow certain rules. They walked from the lower end of the village to the upper end, so as not to flood the farmhouse, and the boys had to go without hats, so as not to bring bad luck. A boy who jingled his money as he entered the house was a good polaznik and wished for wealth. The greatest happiness was when a Jew came as a polaznik, who, according to the villagers, was not only rich but also of a higher status (usually an innkeeper, a merchant) and of a different faith. In some families it was customary to bring a sheep or a bull into the house before the polaznik arrived. They would be led around the table three times, leaned against the stove and fed from the Christmas Eve meal. An integral part of the Rusyn Christmas ritual was the Bethlehem Games (Viflejem). The games were passed on orally from generation to generation and have been preserved to this day. The last day of the year and the New Year were not very rich in customs. According to the older generation, it was forbidden to eat poultry on New Year's Day, lest the family's good fortune should run out. The festive atmosphere of these days was filled with musicians going round the houses. A peculiarity among the Rusyns is the repetition of many of the usual speeches from Christmas Eve to the Feast of the Three Kings (Second Christmas Eve) - Druhŷj Svjatŷj Večur, Jordan (6 January / 19 January). Not only the decoration of the room, the table setting, but also the meals of legumes, cereals and dried fruits were the same as on Christmas Eve. Only the ceremonial bread (kračun) was replaced on the table by a round bread with two notches forming a kind of horns, hence the name rohač=horn. The most important event of the day was the collective blessing of the river water (Jordan vodŷ). The water was taken around the house, outbuildings and beehives three times to protect them from fire. At the same time, "Jordan water" was kept as a universal remedy for all illnesses. ........................................... 253

The custom of the "polaznik" and going to "polazovat" was to invite a neighbour, usually at Christmas, and treat him with a drink, a muffin... so that the host would be well. In some areas, the polaznik (it could be a girl or an animal) had a magical role. The custom was widespread among the Poles, in the Halicz region, in Slovakia and in Subcarpathian Rus, and there is evidence of it in Old Russian monuments. The western area of the custom is on the Moravian-Slovak border. In Národopisný věstník Českoslovanský. XXVII–XXVIII. 1934–1935, p. 93.

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The relatively long period from Epiphany to the fasting period before Easter belonged to Carnival. Because of its position in the calendar, Carnival forms a transition between the winter and spring seasons. The whole carnival period, but especially the last week, was characterised by "priadky" parties with "strašky", feasts with excessive amounts of food and drink. This is evidenced by the names of the last days of carnival - mjasnici, puščaňa. What was important at that time was the temporary abolition of certain hierarchical relations, norms and prohibitions that governed normal social life. Easter (Velykdeň). The most spectacular holiday of the spring season was Easter. It was associated with the beginning of basic agricultural work, the first ploughing, sowing and putting cattle out to pasture. The desire to influence the course of economic life accompanied almost all the customs of Palm Sunday and St George's Day. We find in them the motifs of the old spring festivals, representing the struggle between winter, death and new life. On the last Sunday before Easter (Kvitna nediľa) willow branches (mŷňkŷ) were lit. As sacred objects, they were placed on the roofs of houses, in cattle feed and, since the First World War, they have been used to decorate graves at Easter. But even the unconsecrated green twigs were important for future harvests. When the cattle were driven out for the first time and the first ploughing was done, the farmer or shepherd would bury a green branch in the field or meadow. The branch was used either for protection or to ensure healthy growth. The actual cycle of Easter customs began on Maundy Thursday, when the bells were tied. From that day until Easter Sunday a strict fast was observed. On Good Friday, from early in the morning, children of all ages would walk around the village carrying bells. Even from the bell tower only the rattle (corkotajlo, kovtanka) could be heard until Sunday. The sound of the rattle was originally meant to protect people from evil forces. Gradually this meaning was lost and the rattle was used for entertainment, especially by the younger generation. Mostly, however, it was associated with the supernatural power attributed to the water of Good Friday. At night, girls still went to the stream where the willow tree grew to comb their hair. It would grow as long as the willow's branches. Everyone went to the running water to wash. Before washing, they would throw money or part of their clothes into the water to buy water (zakupyly vodu) - to win it over to their side. The ceremonial washing was intended to ensure good health throughout the year. As on Epiphany, water was passed around and sprinkled on the house and the whole farm. White Saturday preceded the biggest holiday - Easter Sunday - when it was forbidden to cook, to borrow anything from the house or for women to enter first. All the preparations therefore fell on Saturday. The most important ceremonial object was the Easter cake - paska. When baking it, the housekeeper had to jump to make it a success, because the symbol of the prosperity of the farm was only a tall paska. A large paska made from white flour weighed about 5-7 kg, while a 128

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small paska made from black flour was also given to the cattle. The paska was believed to have divinatory and healing powers. The cracks in the top crust were used to tell where in the field the best harvest would be. The healing properties of passion fruit as a magical food were used to treat illnesses in both cattle and humans, especially to facilitate childbirth. Easter Sunday was the day of the consecration of the ceremonial meals during the spectacular consecration ceremony in front of the church. In the past, only a large paska, worn by women in a special apron (chlibivka), was consecrated in front of the whole congregation. As time went by, other foods were consecrated besides paska - ham, sausage, bacon, butter, curd, cheese (lump) and especially eggs, which were arranged in an Easter basket. The housewives ran from the church to quickly finish cleaning or other domestic chores. When they entered the house they greeted Christos voskres (Christ is risen) and their answer was Voistynu voskres (He is truly risen). They prepared the festive table on which all the consecrated food was placed. The variety and abundance of Easter food on the table was to ensure the well-being of the family throughout the year. Most of the usual speeches on Easter Sunday were of a family nature. Each family also observed slightly different customs that made the day festive. Similar to the role of garlic on Christmas Eve, the egg took over the Easter ceremony. It was eaten three times by all the members of the family before being cut into as many pieces as there were people in the family, so as not to forget one another and to ensure family cohesion. The leftovers from the sacred meal were put aside and used for the first ploughing, when the ham bone was buried in the first furrow, or when the cabbage was planted, the egg shells were put in the ground to make the cabbage heads grow big and white. The social part of Easter Sunday customs consisted of girls' games (khorovody) with an extensive cycle of ceremonial songs. The children rolled dyed eggs in the meadow (in the past they were dyed in a decoction of onion skins), played dodgeball, did somersaults, and the girls ran around the village ducking (kačkaly, kačkŷ hnaly), playing "na lyšečkŷ, na mostŷ". Easter Monday, as in the whole of Slovakia, belonged to the bachelors. They would go around the village, to every house where they had a girl, pour water over her or bathe her in the stream. The girl would treat them and give them painted eggs (pysanky). In recent times, perfume has been added to the water. In the evening, entertainment was organised in one of the village houses (now the community centre). In the past, watering was also done on Easter Tuesday, when girls came to water the boys. This tradition is now dying out. 3.7.4. Cultural activities of the Rusyn population in Slovakia The current cultural identity is mainly supported by the activities of Rusyn associations, museums, educational programmes, leisure centres, etc., which carry out activities in the Rusyn language. Some of the institutions and 129

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organisations active in the life of the Rusyn community in Slovakia are described below. The Round Table of Rusyns of Slovakia (Okrúhly stôl Rusínov Slovenska)254 is a platform for meeting representatives of organisations working in the field of initiating the Rusyn community in Slovakia in order to strengthen the national consciousness. The statutes of the organisation set the following goals for its members: to develop and promote the programme for the development of the Rusyn minority, to comment on legislation concerning the rights and interests of this minority, to increase the democratic legitimacy of the representatives of the Rusyn minority, e.g. in consultative bodies of the Government of the Slovak Republic, local authorities or public institutions, to involve the business sector in supporting the development of the community life of the Rusyn minority, and so on.255 In 2015, the Round Table of Rusyns of Slovakia elaborated the Programme for the Development of the Rusyn National Minority in the Slovak Republic, which addresses issues such as national self-government, or more precisely, an important point of this document is the need to adopt the Law on National Minorities in Slovakia, which was also elaborated by the organisation.256 It also lists priorities in the field of education - implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in order to increase support for the teaching of the Rusyn language on the part of educational institutions, to increase interest in the study of the Rusyn language, to establish Rusyn kindergartens, etc.; culture - support for Rusyn folklore groups in order to raise their artistic level, establishment of the House of Rusyn Culture for the development of Rusyn recreational art activities, financing of minority artistic activities with the support of the Prešov Region, etc. Institutions - increasing the budget of the Alexander Duchnovich Theatre and the Poddukel Folk Ensemble, preparing for accreditation of a new non-teaching study programme in Rusyn language and culture at the Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture at the University of Prešov, focusing on training of professionals working in various cultural fields related to the Rusyn minority, etc. Local government and regional development - preparing an analysis of the socio-economic situation and infrastructure of settlements in the Prešov and Košice regions where the Rusyn population is located, with the aim of raising the standard of living of the population and securing employment opportunities, promoting the development of agriculture, crafts, agro-tourism, tourism and alternative sectors of the local economy, etc.257 ........................................... 254

Okrúhly stôl. Okrúhly stôl Rusínov Slovenska. [online]. 2012 [cit. 19. 09. 2019]. Available from: https://okruhly-stol.sk/округлый-стіл-okruhly-stol/. 255 Ibid. 256 The "Law on National Minorities, their Financing and Self-Government and on Amendments to Certain Acts" has not yet been adopted at the time of writing. 257 Programme for the Development of the Rusyn National Minority in the Slovak Republic. Okrúhly stôl Rusínov Slovenska. [online]. 2015 [cit. 19. 9. 2019]. Available from: http://okruhly-stol.sk/wpcontent/uploads/2015/05/Program-rozvoja.pdf.

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The Rusyn.sk website publishes the online Rusyn newspaper e rusynFORUM (https://www.rusyn.sk/e-rusynforum/), which regularly reports on news in the community from various areas - society, culture and sport - on a weekly basis. Frequent contributions, and to a certain extent the whole website is designed as such, remind of the connection of Slovak Rusyns with Czechoslovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, e.g. The book The Czechoslovak World in the Carpathians by Vladimir Kuštek can be bought from 2019, there is also a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the common state of Czechs, Slovaks and Rusyns, or an article entitled "Uzhhorod's Dejvice and the Bata Colony". A piece of old Czechoslovakia remains behind the Carpathians". The website regularly publishes invitations to events organised by the minority, a section on the history of the Rusyns in Slovakia, a Rusyn calendar with important personalities of the minority, lyrics to folk songs of the Rusyn population or an online course in the Rusyn language. The online medium is published by the Association of Intellectuals of Rusyns in Slovakia (Združenie inteligencie Rusínov Slovenska).258 The online newspaper Akadémia rusínskej kultúry v SR (www.rusynacademy.sk) also plays an important role, as it is the only newspaper published in the written standard of the Rusyn language in Slovakia. Narodny novinky (a cultural and social "weekly"), Rusyn (a cultural and Christian bimonthly - currently a scientific and popular magazine), InfoRusyn and the children's monthly Kolŷsočka / Kolíska (Kolíbka)259 can also be mentioned. Since their inception, the periodicals Narodnŷ novynkŷ (1991-2016) and Rusyn (1990 - present) in particular have had a dominant position in the process of codification and cultivation of the language. The non-observance of the periodicity became a problem due to insufficient financial resources. Since 1995, the periodicals have been published without professional staff. The Rusyn language is also represented in the public media, which prepare and broadcast programmes in the Rusyn language: the Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), as well as the Rusyn.FM Internet radio, founded by the Young Rusyns. If we summarise the Rusyn media sphere in Slovakia, it is represented by • three civilian periodicals o InfoRusín – Narodnŷ novynkŷ (National news) o Rusyn o Kolŷsočka • two church periodicals o Blahovistnyk o Artos ........................................... 258 259

Rusyn.sk. [online]. 2019 [cit. 19. 9. 2019]. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/. Since 2017, Narodnŷ novynkŷ and InfoRusín have merged and are published under the name InfoRusín – Narodnŷ novynkŷ.

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•

• • o o

The current situation of Rusyns

two electronic public service media with national broadcasts: o Slovenský rozhlas (Slovak Radio) o Slovenská televízia (Slovak Television) one internet radio o Rusyn FM two online newspapers: Internet newspaper of the Academy of Rusyn Culture in the Slovak Republic, E-RusínFórum Združenia Inteligencie Rusínov Slovenska (Forum of the Association of the Intelligentsia of Rusyns of Slovakia).

The most important and probably the best-known Rusyn artistic ensemble is the Alexander Duchnovich Theatre in Prešov, which was founded in 1945 by decision of the Ukrainian National Council in Prešov. In its early years, however, it performed Russian repertoire; in the 1950s, due to the Ukrainisation of the Rusyn minority, the theatre performed works of Ukrainian origin, and only from the 1980s, also due to generational and political changes, it gradually switched to Rusyn plays.260Poddukelský umelecký ľudový súbor (Under the Dukla Folk Art Ensemble) is a professional art ensemble founded in Prešov in 1955 and is currently a contributory organisation of the Prešov Region. The 40-member ensemble presents the cultural wealth of the Rusyn region in three components music, dance and song. It specialises mainly in presenting the traditions of the Rusyns living in north-eastern Slovakia, but also presents folklore from other regions of Slovakia. The ensemble also tours abroad and has performed in Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Canada and the USA.261 Other active cultural ensembles in the field of music include the folklore singing group SOSNA in the village of Zbojné (Folklórna spevácka skupina SOSNA) and the folklore ensemble Ruthenia (Folklórny súbor Ruthenia) in Bratislava. The oldest and largest in terms of membership is the national cultural organisation Rusínská obroda (Rusyn Revival). Founded in 1990 with a constituent assembly in Medzilaborce, it is currently based in Prešov and has local and district organisations throughout Slovakia. The organisation has contributed to the codification of the Rusyn language and initiated the establishment of the Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture in Prešov. Its successor or offshoot is the "Mladí Rusíni" (Young Rusyns) Association (molody.Rusyny / molodŷ.Rusynŷ / молоды.Русины), which organises social, cultural and sporting events for young Rusyns and aims to promote Rusyn culture and Rusyn national consciousness. The association was founded in 2008 and has organised more than ........................................... 260

Stručná charakteristika inštitúcie. Divadlo Alexandra Duchnoviča [online]. 2019 [cit. 18. 9. 2019]. Available from: http://www.divadload.sk/page/9393/o-nas. 261 O nás. Poddukelský umelecký ľudový súbor. [online]. 2019. [cit. 18. 9. 2019]. Available from: http://puls-slovakia.sk/?lang=sk&page=1-vitajte.

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300 events. During the World Congress of Rusyns in Serbia in 2009 it became a member of the World Forum of Rusyn Youth. Regular events include "Večur rusynskŷch holosiv" (An Evening of Rusyn Voices), which brings together folk, pop and classical music artists. The audience can listen to the production of Rusyn music groups, folklore collectives or classical art ensembles. The annual meeting also aims to present artists of Rusyn origin from the Slovak or international music scene. Other activities of the Young Rusyns include a four-year research project called "Rusínske rozprávky" (Rusyn Fairy Tales). Members of the organisation recorded the intangible cultural heritage of the Rusyns during field research in the area of north-eastern Slovakia. The research focused mainly on folk prose - fairy tales, legends and folk tales passed on orally among the minority, which subsequently formed a collection published on CD. Active Rusyn civic associations, societies, associations and institutions in Slovakia:

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Združenie inteligencie Rusínov Slovenska (Association of Intellectuals of Rusyns of Slovakia) Spolok rusínskych spisovateľov Slovenska (Association of Rusyn Writers of Slovakia) Rusínsky kultúrno-osvetový spolok A. Duchnoviča (Rusyn Cultural and Advisory Association of A. Duchnovič) Spolok Rusínov Spiša (Society of Rusyns of Spiš) Rusín a Ľudové noviny (Rusyn and the People's Newspaper) Akadémia rusínskej kultúry v SR (Academy of Rusyn Culture in the Slovak Republic) Slovenská asociácia rusínskych organizácií (Slovak Association of Rusyn Organisations) Svetový kongres Rusínov (World Congress of Rusyns) Ruský klub – 1923 (Russian Club – 1923) Spolok sv. Jána Krstiteľa (Society of St. John the Baptist) Spoločnosť priateľov DAD (Society of Friends of DAD) Spoločnosť Andyho Warhola v Medzilaborciach (Andy Warhol Society in Medzilaborce) Molodŷ.Rusynŷ (Young Rusyns) Kolŷsočka-Kolíska (The Cradle) Divadlo Alexandra Duchnoviča v Prešove (Alexander Dukhnovich Theatre in Prešov) Múzeum moderného umenia A. Warhola v Medzilaborciach (A. Warhol Museum of Modern Art in Medzilaborce)

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SNM – Múzeum rusínskej kultúry v Prešove (SNM – Museum of Rusyn Culture in Prešov) Ústav rusínskeho jazyka a kultúry PU v Prešove (Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture of the University of Prešov in Prešov).

3.8. CONCLUSION It turns out that the ethnic identity of the Rusyns was very poorly defined in the past. For a relatively long time, the Slovak Rusyns have maintained a specific way of life that has shaped their ethnic identity, derived primarily from religion. The Greek Catholic Church, which has been active in the area since the 15th century, created the conditions for the awareness of the specifics of this minority in eastern Slovakia. It provided the opportunity to educate the ethnic group in Rusyn and spread a written form of the language. These activities were violently interrupted in the 1950s, when the Greek Catholic Church was officially abolished in communist Czechoslovakia and the Rusyns were directed as far east as possible by converting to the Orthodox Church. Although the Greek Catholic Church was restored in the 1960s and began to regain importance in Slovakia after 1989, its contribution to the Rusyn ethnic group has not returned to pre-1950 levels. During more than 50 years of Orthodox influence and Ukrainisation of the ethnic group, these elements became embedded in the identity of some members of the Rusyn ethnic group. The split that began in the 19th century as part of the Rusyn national revival thus became even more significant and reinforced the ambivalence of the Rusyn minority in Slovakia. One part of the Rusyn population professes Orthodoxy and tends towards the view that the Rusyns are part of the Ukrainian nation, while the other part professes the Greek-Catholic rite and considers the ethnic group to be independent of any other nation or ethnic group. The two currents in the Rusyn ethnicity probably result in an ambiguous position on their identity among a significant part of the Rusyn population in Slovakia, which is reflected, among other things, in the ambiguous number of members of the minority and the number of speakers of the Rusyn language. Although the Rusyn national revival in the 19th century led to a greater interest in Rusyn cultural elements, it did not bring what other small nations had achieved - there was no clear definition of national identity, no codification of the written language, and even the naming of Rusyns remained very controversial. The undefined and insipid identity of the Rusyns continued into the 20th century. Nevertheless, the population of eastern Slovakia (despite the various ethnonyms introduced from outside) retained an awareness of a certain specificity and difference from their surroundings. Today, Rusyn associations help to deepen their own ethnic consciousness. Although the actual number of Rusyns (those who share common cultural elements, regardless of what ethnology they use to 134

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describe themselves) is decreasing, statistically there is an increase - this is due to the fact that more and more people are claiming Rusyn nationality in the census.

Figure 47. Bilingual signs in villages with Rusyn minority. Source : http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2015/Rusini -SK/

In this context, it is worth mentioning that the need to define oneself in relation to the majority population is rather low. As the identity of the Slovak population was strongly influenced by the economic, agricultural and cultural conditions of the countryside, the character of the life of individual groups did not differ much. Throughout their history, the Rusyns did not achieve their own state or autonomous region, probably because the social composition of the population lacked the bourgeoisie and the more numerous intelligentsia. These two strata prove to be crucial in terms of national consciousness, as evidenced by the national revivals and the institutionalisation of modern nation states in Europe in the 19th century. Currently, the community is engaged in cultural activities aimed at activating the Rusyn population towards a deeper proclamation of their ethnicity. Another important point in the life of the Rusyns in Slovakia is the effort to revive the Rusyn language both in the everyday communication of the minority and in teaching at the level of pre-school and primary education. As an answer to the research question, in addition to the previous paragraphs, we can mention the testimony of one of the members of the Rusyn minority in Slovakia about the nature of the Rusyn identity in Slovakia: Primarily subjective sense of pride, intensity of perception of one's own minority identity. For example, even a descendant of Rusyn parents who has lived in the USA since birth and does not speak our language can perceive his national identity much more strongly than, for example, an academic in the field of Rusyn language, culture, etc., by the power of subjective disposition.262

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Field research in the territory of Humenné, Slovakia in 2014 – FUČÍKOVÁ, Veronika; DOŠKOVÁ, Kristýna; MILENOVSKÁ, Marie; MONDRYK, Romana. Rusíni na Slovensku. PEF ČZU v Praze, 2015. [cit. 18. 10. 2019] Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/2015:rusini_na_slovensku

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4. SERBIA

4.1. INTRODUCTION For those who ask whether these peasants are Russians or Ukrainians, there is only one answer. They are neither Russians nor Ukrainians. They are simply Rusyns. George F. Kennan 263 The following section is devoted to the story of the Rusyns who, in the mid-18th century, migrated from the territory of present-day Hungary, Ukraine and eastern Slovakia and settled permanently in Vojvodina in the territory of present-day Serbia. The aim is to show how a minority of around 15,000 people managed to remain a cohesive community up to the present day and preserve their own language, culture and traditions. Therefore, the Rusyn minority will be viewed through the individual identity-forming elements (language, education, religion, etc.) that have been gradually strengthened throughout the existence of Vojvodina's Rusyns despite the harsh moments that the historical events of the troubled region have prepared for them. As the above quote captures, Rusyns are not Russians or Ukrainians , they are simply Rusyns.

4.2. LITERARY RESEARCH Mihajlo Fejsa, who works in the field of Rusyn language and literature at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad, is interested in the Rusyns in Serbia. His academic article, "The Rusyn Journey from the Carpathians to the Pannonian Plain"264, examines the factors by which the Rusyns have been able to preserve their own identity since the beginning of their settlement in Vojvodina in the second half of the 18th century. Fejsa discusses the various factors, including language, religion, education and social life. He looks at the factors from the time of their origin, development and subsequent functioning to the present day. The paper “Improving the Situation of the Rusyn Minority in

........................................... 263

HORNJAK, Mihajlo. Rusyns In Vojvodina Between Disputed Past and Uncertain Future. Tripod [online]. Belgrade, 2002 [cited 16 November 2019]. Available from: http://rdsa.tripod.com/Rusyns.html 264 FEJSA, Mihajlo. The Ruthenian journey from the Carpathian mountains to the Panonian Plain. Rusin [online]. 2014, 36(2), 10 [cit. 16. 11. 2019]. DOI: 10.17223/18572685/36/10. Available from: http://journals.tsu.ru/uploads/import/1103/files/36-182.pdf

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Serbia”265 evaluates the current Rusyn associations maintaining Rusyn identity, as well as the possibilities of education in Rusyn at levels from primary school to the Rusyn major at the University of Novi Sad. The author also discusses religion, a crucial factor in Rusyn identity. The identity of Rusyns living not only in Serbia is the subject of Alexandra C. Wiktorek, a graduate of Georgetown University in the United States. In her master's thesis “Rusyns of the Carpathians: Competing Agendas of Identity”266, also published as a monograph (2012), analyses the modern history and current situation of Rusyns in Serbia and Poland. According to the author, the Rusyn population in Poland (Lemkos) is one of the most divided when it comes to the question of identity, while in Serbia the author speaks of a cohesive group identity, a positive attitude towards education and the use of the Rusyn language. The preservation of one's own identity is intertwined with the rights of national minorities in the state in which the minority is located. Mirella Pejčić, a writer who publishes books and articles on minorities, their diversity and integration into the majority society, is a successful graduate of Uppsala University in International Studies and Gothenburg University in Human Rights. In “Minority Rights in Serbia: Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in a Post-Conflict Serbia”267, the author assesses the situation from the perspective of the rights of national minorities in Serbia since the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia. In her work, the author concludes that the rights of national minorities have improved since the end of the war, but that the ideal situation is still far from being achieved. The economic situation in the various regions is more to blame than the disadvantages of minorities in terms of their inability to express their own identity.

4.3. RESEARCH CONDUCTED The chapter on Rusyns in Serbia is based on data from both secondary and primary sources. Life stories and everyday life are added to the literature and placed in the context of the present through interviews with Serbian Rusyns. These interviews are based on two field studies conducted in 2016 and 2017. For ........................................... 265

FEJSA, Mihajlo. Improving the Situation of the Ruthenian Minority in Serbia. Journal of Community Positive Practices [online]. 2012, 12(3), 462–477 [cit. 13. 3. 2018]. Available from: https://ideas.repec.org/a/cta/jcppxx/3127.html 266 WIKTOREK, Alexandra C. Rusyns of the Carpatians: Competing Agendas of Identity [online]. Washington, DC, 2010 [cit. 13. 10. 2019]. Available from: https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/552816/WiktorekAlexandraChristine. pdf?sequence=1 Magisterská práce. Georgetown University. Vedoucí práce Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer. 267 PEJČIĆ, Mirella. Minority Rights in Serbia: Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in a Post-Conflict Serbia[online]. Uppsala, 2007 [cit. 13. 10. 2019]. Available from: www.pcr.uu.se/digitalAssets/67/67531_1mfs_pejcic.pdf. Magisterská práce. Uppsala Universitet. Vedoucí práce Tomislav Dulić.

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research purposes, the region of Vojvodina was selected, which is characterised by the highest concentration of the Rusyn population. These were the municipalities of Ruski Krstur / Ruski Kerestur, Kucura / Kocur, Vrbas / Verbas and Novi Sad. The main objective of the research in these places was to map the current situation of the national manifestations of the Rusyn national minority. Informants played a crucial role in the fieldwork, helping the researchers to enter and move around the field. A common limitation in field research is the language barrier between the local people and the researcher. Interviews were conducted in both English and Rusyn, as the similarity between the Czech and Rusyn languages is sufficient for understanding. In case of incomprehension, local informants were helpful. In addition to semi-standardised interviews, the field research also used questionnaires and, last but not least, observations. The questionnaires included closed questions as well as open-ended questions that allowed respondents to elaborate on the issues under study. Observations were used by the researchers both as a control element during the narrators' stories and to illustrate the overall picture of the research at the research site. The table below records the characteristics of the people who participated in the field research during 2016-2017. Only age and place of residence were recorded during the research. All interviews and questionnaires were anonymised at the request of the narrators and respondents. The profile of the narrators and respondents shows that most of them came from the municipalities of Ruski Krstur (27 people) and Kucura (20 people), and the least from Vrbas (5 people) and Novi Sad (3 people). residence Russian Krstur Kucura Willow Novi Sad

frequency 27 20 5 3

Age

frequency

12 to 19

6

20 to 29

13

30 to 39

17

40 to 49

11

50 to 59

11

The age distribution of those who completed the 60 to 69 questionnaire or took part in the interviews is fairly even, 70 to 85 with the 30-39 age group being the most represented. n/a

4 5 5

4.4. BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW After the signing of the Peace of Karlovy Vary (Karlovac) with the Ottoman Empire in 1699, the Habsburg Monarchy acquired new territories that were

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ruined, sparsely populated and swampy.268 The Habsburg Monarchy dealt with these difficulties through both controlled colonisation and land reclamation, which involved draining the marshes and building new waterways.269 Not only Rusyns, but also Germans, Hungarians and Slovaks were invited to these territories. With the free status of citizens of the Habsburg Monarchy (the socalled Rutenus Libertinus),270 Rusyns came from the areas of north-eastern Hungary271, Ukraine, Romania and eastern Slovakia.272 At the beginning of the 18th century, they settled in what is now the Serbian autonomous region of Vojvodina. The Vojvodina region covers an area of 21,500 km2 and is situated in the south of the Pannonian Plain between the Danube and Tisza rivers, an area suitable for agriculture. Vojvodina connects 4 historical territories - Bačka, Srem, Banat and part of Mačva. It is said that the first Hom and Makovski families settled in the Bačka area between 1743 and 1746. As early as January 1751, a settlement agreement (the so-called Dessolata possessio Keresztur) was signed by 200 Rusyn families in the village of Bač Kerestur, which today is called Ruski Krstur / Ruski Kerestur.273 In the second wave of colonisation, the Rusyns settled in the neighbouring village of Kucura with about 160 families. Once again it was necessary to officially confirm the settlement, and in 1763 a settlement treaty was signed in Sombor.274 Two years after the signing of the treaty, the population of Sombor was 2,200, Ruski Krstur 1,341 and Kucura 779.275 The existing settlement became inadequate for the ever-growing Rusyn population, especially as the area of arable land rapidly diminished. The Rusyns therefore moved to other places in the region of Backa and now Srem, where they founded new villages. These were Shid, Novi Sad, Berkasovo, ........................................... 268

Peace was concluded between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League, which consisted of the Habsburg Monarchy, Venice and Poland. 269 JANKOV, Dragomir. Vojvodina: The Ruination of a Region: Data and Facts [online]. 1. Plakatila, 2005 [cit. 16. 11. 2019]. Available from: https://vojvodjanskiklub.rs/Download/Vojvodina-Jankov-knjigaENG.pdf 270 The Rusyns call their homeland Hornicja, which means the Upper Country, geographically around Zemplín and Šariš. After the war against the Ottoman Empire, they first went to north-eastern Hungary, to Mukó, Miskolc, Görömböle and Múcsone, where they stayed for some time, and then to Backa in Vojvodina. In GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. 4. Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, 2006. ISBN 80-7308-137-7. 271 Specifically from the regions of Zemplen, Saros, Abauj-Torna, Borsod, Szaboles, Ung, Ugocsa, Maramoros and Gemer. Source: FEJSA, Mihajlo. The Influence of International Relations on the Status of the Ruthenians, their Language and Culture. In: RATA, Georgeta, Hasan ARSLAN, Patricia-Luciana RUNCAN a Ali AKDEMIR. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Social Sciences. Newcastle: Cambridges Scholars Publishing, 2014. ISBN 1-4438-5579-0, p. 9. 272 HORNJAK, Mihajlo. Ruthenians… c. d. 273 HORNJAK, Mihajlo. Ruthenians… c. d.; FEJSA, Mihajlo. Improving the Situation… c. d. 274 FEJSA, Mihajlo. The Ruthenian journey… c. d.; LALIĆ, Milan. Comparative Analysis of EthnoDemographic Characteristics of Ruthenian and Ukrainian National Minorities in Vojvodina. Acta Geobalcanica [online]. 2017, 4(1), 8 [cit. 19. 11. 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18509/AGB.2018.05. Available from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/113f/86baa868407cd48a31fef1f190823266d433.pdf 275 HORNJAK, Mihajlo. Ruthenians… c. d.

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Stari Vrbas, Petrovci, Mikluševci, Bačinci, Djurdjevo, Bikič Dol, Sremska Mitrovica, Novo Orahovo and Subotica.276 Along with the establishment of new settlements, Rusyn identity and community life were systematically promoted through religion, education and language. A parish was established in Ruski Krstur in the very year of its foundation (1751). Two years later, education in the Rusyn language began in the local primary school. The first Greek-Catholic church was built in Kucura in 1765. Primary schools were opened successively as the settlement expanded, i.e. in Shid / Šid (1818), Novi Sad (1823), Bačinec (1847) and Djurdjev/Durďovo (1880). The language was shaped by printed books, and the first Rusyn library was established in Ruski Krstur in 1876. The first book in the Rusyn language, entitled "Z mojoho valala" (From my village), was published in 1904 by the eminent codifier of the Rusyn language, Havriil Kosteljnik (Kosteľnyk).277 The Rusyns were mainly farmers and cattle breeders with renowned dairy products. In addition to farming, the Rusyns were hired as labourers by German landowners.278

Figure 48. Rusyn emigrant in Toronto, Canada. HODAK, Tanita. Rusyn emigrant in Toronto, Canada. In: Economic and Cultural Studies [online] 2017 [cited 21 November 2019]. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=ls2017%3Arusi ni_v_srbsku&media=ls2017:kostan_koljesar_u_kanaditoronto_kolo_1935.jpg

After the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed and, after the existence of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs for about a month, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was established on 1 December 1918. ........................................... 276

HORNJAK, Mihajlo. Ruthenians… c. d.; FEJSA, Mihajlo. The Ruthenian journey… c. d.; LALIĆ, Milan, Gordana JOVANOVIĆ a Milka BUBALO-ŽIVKOVIĆ. Demographic Processes of the Ruthenian National Minority in the Province of Vojvodina During the 20th and Beginning of 21st Century. In: 2 nd International Scientific Conference GEOBALCANICA 2016 [online]. Novi Sad, 2016, p. 8 [cit. 17. 11. 2019]. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18509/GBP.2016.40. Available from: http://geobalcanica.org/wp-content/uploads/GBP/2016/GBP.2016.40.pdf 277 FEJSA, Mihajlo. Improving … c. d. 278 ŠESTÁK, Miroslav. Dějiny jihoslovanských zemí. Praha: Lidové noviny, 1998. ISBN 80-7106-266-9.

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In its approach to minorities, it was inspired by Czechoslovakia, where the legal protection of the rights of national minorities was based on the international treaties of the Versailles Peace System, in particular the Treaty of SainteGermain, signed in September 1919. By signing this treaty, states undertook to guarantee "to all inhabitants, irrespective of origin, nationality, language, race or religion, full and complete protection of their life and liberty and the right to profess freely, both publicly and privately, any creed, religion or belief, the exercise of which is not contrary to public order and good morals".279 The commitment to minorities was already enshrined in Czechoslovak legislation in the Constitutional Charter itself280, and was also contained in laws of a constitutional nature on language281 and the acquisition of citizenship.282 The Czechoslovak Rusyns living mainly in Subcarpathian Rus composed their own national anthem283 and created the emblem of the Rusyns, which is currently used on the flag of the Transcarpathian region. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes also signed the Treaty of SainteGermain in December 1919. In practice, however, the protection of minorities was complicated and not always respected.284 The newly created territory combined areas previously ruled by the Habsburgs, the Ottomans and others. This meant different historical and cultural roots, which were reflected in the different economic and social levels of the population. Some areas were ethnically homogeneous (e.g. Slovenia, central Serbia), while others were highly heterogeneous (e.g. Vojvodina). Selected minorities, such as the Macedonians, were referred to as Southern Serbs, and a single name, Southern Serbia, was introduced for the areas of Macedonia and Kosovo. The numerically and economically important Hungarian minority was disenfranchised and discriminated against during the land reform in Vojvodina (1919-1941).285 Although the aim was to unite the various ethnic groups under one Yugoslav identity, the recognised national minorities were encouraged and given the opportunity to develop, for example by establishing cultural institutions. The halfmillion strong German-Swabian minority, living mainly in Bačka and Banat, took ........................................... 279

The establishment of Czechoslovakia, its constitutional foundations and the reaction of minorities. Czechoslovak governments' policy towards national minorities 1918-1938 [online]. 1. Prague, 2010, p. 20 [cited 16 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.mzv.cz/file/637455/NAR_MENS_MONOGR_20_stran.pdf 280 § 128-134 of the Constitution. Source: Vznik Československa, jeho ústavněprávní základy a reakce menšin. c. d. 281 § Section 129 of the Constitution - Language Law 282 Vznik Československa, jeho ústavněprávní základy a reakce menšin. c. d. 283 The words were written by the Ruthenian writer Alexander Duchnovich, based on the original text Chory na slova / Хоры на слова and the music was composed by the Rusyn Zdenek Lysko in 1919. 284 The new kingdom was founded on reason rather than the idealistic idea of uniting a South Slavic nation of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Source: ŠESTÁK, Miroslav. Dějiny jihoslovanských zemí. c. d. 285 The Hungarians, Germans and Romanians were not allowed to continue farming and reclaim the land, even though they had cultivated it for centuries. The aim was to strengthen the Slavic peoples (Serbs, Croats, Slovaks and Ruthenians) and to redistribute property (the Serbian Orthodox Church was not spared from the reform). Source: JANKOV, Dragomir. Vojvodina… c. d.

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advantage of this opportunity and founded the Swabian-German Cultural Association, which the Belgrade government hoped would counterbalance the Hungarian minority.286 The Rusyns were granted the status of a national minority in 1919, which opened the way for their national and cultural development. Their first steps led to the establishment of the Prosvita educational organisation in Novi Sad in the same year. The aim was to strengthen the Rusyn language by creating a formalised grammatical form, introducing Rusyn education in schools and using Rusyn in local periodicals. These goals were soon achieved. Cultural development was also indirectly supported by the fact that the Vojvodina region was one of the richer and more developed areas of the Kingdom of SHS / SCS (Serbs, Croats and Slovenes). It had an established, functioning agriculture with advanced modern technologies (agricultural machinery, fertilisers) compared to other parts of the country where the land was often still cultivated with a wooden plough. However, it was adequately taxed for its development, even more than similarly developed areas of Slovenia or Croatia. Table 5 shows that Vojvodina, with 11.5% of the population of the Kingdom of SHS, contributed almost 40% to the total budget. Table 5. Share of taxes collected by region in 1925 in Yugoslavia. Example of taxes collected in 1925 estimated Retrieved % budget from of national (in thousands (in thousands tax collection of dinars) of dinars)

% of the national population

Croatia and Slavonia

54,000

66,000

18.80

23.40

Bosnia and Herzegovina

23,000

30,000

8.40

16.10

Slovenia

29,000

56,000

15.90

9.00

Dalmatia

6,000

10,000

3.00

2.80

71,000

60,000

16.90

37.00

Serbia with Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro

Vojvodina 70,000 131,000 36.90 11.50 Source: JANKOV, Dragomir. The Ruination of a Region: Data and Facts [online]. Available from: https://vojvodjanskiklub.rs/Download/Vojvodina -Jankov-knjiga-ENG.pdf

In addition to above-average taxation, Vojvodina also underwent land reforms in the years 1919-1941 and 1945-1948. The land was managed not only by family farms, but also by the cities and the church, was redistributed by the state, and there was a move towards state-controlled collectivisation without prior knowledge of the customs and mentality of the inhabitants of Vojvodina.287 After ........................................... 286 287

ŠESTÁK, Miroslav. Dějiny jihoslovanských zemí. c. d. ŠESTÁK, Miroslav. c. d.

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1946, a land reserve was created, in which 668,000 hectares of agricultural land were taken from farmers.288 By 1948, 225,000 colonists, mainly from Bosnia, had settled in Vojvodina and received 235,000 hectares of land. Another aim of the agrarian reform reserve was to weaken the numerically strong minorities (Germans and Hungarians) and to favour the Slavic, especially Serbian, population.289 While good intentions accompanied the reform, its implementation did not include a long-term agricultural approach290.291 After the Second World War, the country suffered economic problems. Even agricultural areas such as Vojvodina and Slavonia were threatened by famine. In the period 1941-1945, the Yugoslav population suffered great loss of life and many were left disabled after the war. At the end of the war, many members of the Yugoslav peoples went into emigration. After the Second World War, the Serbian Rusyns found themselves under Tito's rule in a new state structure under the old name of Yugoslavia. However, their right to existence and cultural development remained valid. 292 The Rusyns managed to build on and develop the pre-war level of culture and education, especially in the field of education. With the help of government funding, primary and secondary schools were opened and expanded, and all subjects were taught in Rusyn. In addition to teaching in schools, publishing periodicals and organising cultural events, television broadcasts in the Rusyn language began in 1975.293 In the 1950s, the Yugoslav economy grew (the annual growth rate was around 10%). Economic stability helped to reduce animosity between Yugoslavia's various ethnic groups, as evidenced by the statistics on inter-ethnic marriages which accounted for up to a third of all marriages in the late 1950s and the first half of the 1960s. From the late 1960s, the powers of the individual republics of the federation began to expand formally, resulting in the new constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in February 1974, which gave Vojvodina greater autonomy comparable to that of the republics of the federation.294 With this change, the Rusyns gained the status of an official nationality, and Rusyn became ........................................... 288

Of this, 389,000 hectares were taken from the Germans. Source: JANKOV, Dragomir. Vojvodina… c. d. KOCSIS, Károly a Saša KICOŠEV. Changing Ethnic Patterns on the Present Territory of Vojvodina: Ethnic Map of Present Territory of Vojvodina 1941, 2002. Geographical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences [online]. Budapest: Geographical Institute, 2002 [cit. 17. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://www.mtafki.hu/konyvtar/kiadv/etnika/indexMAPe.html 290 Statistics show that between 1921 and 1929 the number of cattle fell from 47,000 to 27,000 and the number of pigs from 1 million to 600,000. Source: JANKOV, Dragomir. Vojvodina… c. d. 291 ŠESTÁK, Miroslav. Dějiny jihoslovanských zemí. c. d. 292 Unlike the Rusyns under the Soviet Union, who were not recognised as a minority. Source: FEJSA, Mihajlo. The Influence of International Relations… c. d. , p. 9. 293 FEJSA, Mihajlo. Improving the Situation... c. d. 294 ŠESTÁK, Miroslav. Dějiny jihoslovanských zemí. c. d. 289

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one of the six official languages of Vojvodina295, which meant that for the first time it could be used in offices, on public signs, etc.296 Tito wanted the new constitution to strengthen the method of control, but it strengthened nationalist tendencies. In addition, the economic crisis began to take its toll. Structural aid to alleviate the economic crisis did not have the expected effect. In the 1980s, economic problems became very visible (e.g. unemployment of more than 10% across all age groups and levels of education), and the population began to perceive the imaginary borders between the rich north (Slovenia, Croatia, Vojvodina) and the poor south (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, southern Serbia, Macedonia) in a negative sense, i.e. the northern countries subsidising the poorer, underdeveloped countries. The economy gradually began to function in separate economic systems of the Union republics, which were only partially interconnected.297 By the late 1980s, Rusyns could boast of having built a strong identity, a prominent status and an intellectual class consisting of professors, lawyers, officials in the Yugoslav government, journalists, writers and actors. However, the fall of communism did not bring the same hope of improvement to the Rusyns as it did to the oppressed Rusyns in neighbouring states, as the collapse of Yugoslavia brought with it the rise of nationalism based on the economic problems described above. The Rusyns were threatened by two actors in particular, the Serbs and the Croats. In March 1989, the process of constitutional reform was completed and Vojvodina's autonomy was reduced. The new constitution, which came into force in March 1990, completely abolished Vojvodina's autonomy. Since 1991, a series of wars have broken out throughout the Balkan region. The Rusyns' intention was to remain neutral and not to intervene in the wars. However, as a result of disputes, mainly between Croatia and Serbia, they have been drawn into the wars taking place throughout the Balkans, both on the Croatian and Serbian sides. So the Rusyns were fighting against each other. Many Rusyns fled the wars, either to other parts of Croatia or Serbia unaffected by the conflict, or further afield to Europe, America or Australia. Upon their return, the Rusyns (and not only them, but also Hungarians and other minorities) found their homes looted or occupied by the newcomers, especially the Serbs. Efforts to create an ethnically pure state were threatened by numerically strong minorities, as was the case in Vojvodina. This led the Serbian government to control the settlement of those areas where the demographic distribution of forces was unfavourable to the Serbs. As a result, some 200,000 Bosnian Serb refugees were resettled in Vojvodina. ........................................... 295

Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, Croatian, Romanian, Rusyn FEJSA, Mihajlo. The Influence of International Relations... c. d. 297 ŠESTÁK, Miroslav. Dějiny jihoslovanských zemí. c. d. 296

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Vojvodina also suffered severe economic damage during the war. Agriculture was deprived of its traditional export markets as trade barriers were erected between Serbia and its new neighbours.298 A comparison of Vojvodina's economic development with that of Slovenia, with which it was on a par in terms of economic indicators (GDP) in 1918, helps to illustrate the situation. During the 20th century, Vojvodina lost ground as a prosperous and rich region. By 1986, Slovenia had overtaken Vojvodina in terms of GDP by 40%. By the turn of the millennium, Slovenia had overtaken Vojvodina six times in terms of economic indicators.299 Such a significant decline in the last century is mainly due to external influences, the abovementioned land reform, higher taxation, violent changes in the ethnic distribution of the area, inefficient farming, the war in the last decade of the 20th century and the subsequent international sanctions caused hyperinflation, high unemployment and emigration.300 For the above reasons, the Rusyns have not gained a foothold in the Serbian (or Croatian) government. The activities of cultural and educational organisations, which helped to convey and strengthen Rusyn identity, have been limited or have ceased altogether. Financial support for Rusyns has come mainly from abroad; Rusyns from the USA and Canada have set up a fund to help Rusyns affected by the war.301 Although the economic situation in Vojvodina has stabilised over time, and cultural and educational organisations have been supported and are functioning, the Rusyn community is steadily shrinking. According to the 2001 and 2011 censuses, the trend in the number of Rusyns is downward. According to the latest census, one third of the population in Vojvodina is of retirement age, with an average age of 42 (45 for Rusyns302), which is the same as the Serbian average. Despite the fact that economic indicators show favourable figures, many people leave for job opportunities, either to the cities or abroad. Economic emigration abroad is more difficult for Serbian Rusyns than for Rusyns in other countries, as Serbia is not a member of the European Union and travelling for work involves many administrative hurdles.303 ........................................... 298

WIKTOREK, Alexandra C. Rusyns of the Carpathians... c. d. JANKOV, Dragomir. Vojvodina... c. d. 300 The UN Security Council imposed sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (consisting of Serbia and Montenegro) between 1992 and 1996. The reason for the sanctions was active support for the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Further sanctions were imposed by the UN, EU and US in 1998-2001 over the war in Kosovo. The Serbian economy was severely affected by the sanctions, with GDP fluctuating over the years from $16.75 billion (1995), $24.1 billion (1997), $18.3 billion (1998) to a low of $6.54 billion (2000). Source: GDP (current US$) - Serbia. The World Bank [online]. 2019 [cited 17 November 2019]. Retrieved from: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=RS&view=chart 301 At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Rusyn emigration to the USA and Canada took place due to the increasing Hungarianization, then as a result of the outbreak of the First World War. 302 Population by ethnicity, age and sex. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia [online]. 2017 [cit. 19. 11. 2019]. Available from: https://data.stat.gov.rs/Home/Result/3102010403?languageCode=en-US 303 : WIKTOREK, Alexandra C. Rusyns of the Carpathians... c. d. 299

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4.4.1. Development of the number of Rusyns Due to the fact that the majority of the population is Rusyn, this subchapter deals with statistical data related to Vojvodina. The population of Vojvodina fluctuated from the middle of the 19th century until the last census in 2011. Graph 1 clearly shows a continuous growth until 1981, after which the population starts to decline. The exception is 2002, when the population increased slightly. However, this increase was not due to natural growth, but to the immigration of about 260,000 inhabitants from the former Yugoslavia as a result of the wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.304 Population of Vojvodina (1857-2011). 2 500 000 2 000 000 1 500 000 1 000 000 500 000 0 1857 1880 1890 1900 1910 1921 1931 1941 1948 1953 1961 1971 1981 1991 2002 2011

Graph 1. Population of Vojvodina (1857-2011). Source: SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics and language rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and today's Serbia/Vojvodina[online]. HAS Institute for Minority Studies, 2015/12 [cited 2019-11-20]. Available from: http://real.mtak.hu/31794/1/Vajdasag_nyelviJogok_SzHGy_EN_2_u.pdf; own elaboration

Vojvodina, an autonomous region in northern Serbia, is more ethnically diverse than central Serbia305. According to the 2011 census, two-thirds of Vojvodina's population is Serbian, while the remaining one-third claims a nonSerbian ethnicity.306 Compared to Serbia as a whole, where 83% of the population ........................................... 304

STOJŠIN, Snežana. Ethnic Diversity of Population in Vojvodina at the Beginning of the 21st Century. European Quarterly of Political Attitudes and Mentalities EQPAM [online] 2015, 4(2), 13 [cited 19 November 2019]. ISSN 2285-4916. Available from: https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/42864/ssoar-eqpam-2015-2-stojsinEthnic_Diversity_of_Population_in.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&lnkname=ssoar-eqpam-2015-2stojsin-Ethnic_Diversity_of_Population_in.pdf 305 Serbia is divided into three entities: Central Serbia (consisting of three administrative regions Belgrade, Southern and Eastern Serbia, Sumadija and Western Serbia), the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina and the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija. 306 Tracking changes in the characteristics of ethnic groups in Vojvodina over time is difficult due to distortions caused by changes in the census methodology, as well as changes in the subjective

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claim Serbian citizenship, Vojvodina, where one in three people belong to an ethnic minority, can be considered an ethnically rich area. A graphical comparison of the proportions in Serbia and Vojvodina is shown in Figure 2. The most numerous minorities in Vojvodina are Hungarians (13%), Slovaks (2.6%), Croats (2.4%), Roma (2.2%), Romanians (1.3%), Montenegrins (1.1%) and others smaller than 1%307, including Rusyns (0.7%).308 Proportional distribution of ethnic groups in Vojvodina and Serbia 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Vojvodina

Serbia

Figure 2. Ethnic groups in Vojvodinaand Serbia (2011). Source: population by ethnicity, age and sex. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia [online]. 2017 [cited 2019-11-19]. Available from: https://data.stat.gov.rs/Home/Result/3102010403?languageCode=en-US; own elaboration

The ethnic diversity of Vojvodina is a result of its historical and demographic development. The arrival of the Rusyns was prompted by the challenge of colonising the sparsely populated territory acquired by the Habsburg monarchy after the Peace of Karlovy Vary in 1699. In addition to the Rusyns, other nationalities such as Hungarians, Germans and Slovaks arrived in the area. The ethnic distribution of Vojvodina in 1880 is shown in Figure 3. Compared to the previous figure (Figure 2), there is a greater diversification of ethnic groups. ........................................... perception of one's own ethnic identity for both temporary (political, social reasons) and permanent reasons (assimilation process). 307 Bunjevci, Yugoslavs, Macedonians, Ukrainians, Germans and Slovenes 308 Population by ethnicity, age and sex. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia [online]. 2017 [cited 19 November 2019]. Available from: https://data.stat.gov.rs/Home/Result/3102010403?languageCode=enUS

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Ethnic situation in Vojvodina (1880) Romanians 6%

Slovaks 4%

Croats 6%

Rusyns 1% Serbs 36%

Hungarians 23%

Germans 24%

Figure 3. Ethnic situation in Vojvodina (1880). Source: SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics and language rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and today's Serbia/Vojvodina[online]. HAS Institute for Minority Studies, 2015/12 [cited 2019-11-20]. Available from: http://real.mtak.hu/31794/1/Vajdasag_nyelviJogok_SzHGy_EN_2_u.pdf; own elaboration

If we focus on the Rusyns, their arrival can be divided into two phases. In the middle of the 18th century, 200 families came to Vojvodina in the first wave of migration, and about 160 families settled in the subsequent second wave. According to the Austro-Hungarian census of 1910, there were about 13,500 Rusyns in Vojvodina.309 Subsequently, under the crown of the Kingdom of SHS, 13,600 Rusyns in Vojvodina declared their Rusyn nationality after the First World War. The slight increase since the previous census is due to the loss of life during the war.310 Since the colonial period of Vojvodina in the eighteenth century, smaller migrations have been followed by major waves of immigration and emigration after the Second World War, which have significantly changed the ethnic distribution of the population and the overall course of the region. The wave of immigration was a controlled movement of people from the underdeveloped areas of Yugoslavia to the more developed areas. Vojvodina received more than 200,000 immigrants after 1945.311 People came mainly from what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo. At the same time, there was a parallel emigration of people from Vojvodina. These were mainly Germans, who made ........................................... 309

HORNJAK, Mihajlo. Ruthenians… c. d. KOCSIS, Károly and Sasa KICOSEV. Changing Ethnic Patterns... c. d. 311 Specific figures vary, with Djurdjev (1995) giving 216,000 and Breznik (1991) 246,000 inhabitants. Source: Ethnic Diversity of Population in Vojvodina... c. d. 310

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up one fifth of the population in 1921312 and less than a tenth after 1948313. Although Vojvodina remained a multi-ethnic area, the national balance of power was deliberately shifted by the state in favour of the Serbs.314 The next graph (Figure 4) shows the selected nationalities and their percentage representation between 1910 and 2011 on the territory of Vojvodina. Percentage of population in Vojvodina between 1910 and 2011 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1910

1921

1941

1948

1981

Hungarians

Croats

Slovaks

Rusyns

Germans

Serbs

1991

2011

Romanians

Figure 4. Ethnic situation in Vojvodina(1910-2011). Source: SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics and language rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and today's Serbia/Vojvodina [online]. HAS Institute for Minority Studies, 2015,, 12 [cited 20 November 2019]. Available from: http://real.mtak.hu/31794/1/Vajdasag_nyelviJogok_SzHGy_EN_2_u.pdf; LALIĆ, Milan, Gordana JOVANOVIĆ and Milka BUBALO-ŽIVKOVIĆ. Demographic Processes Of The Rusyn National Minority In The Province Of Vojvodina During The 20th And Beginning Of 21st Century. In: 2 nd International Scientific Conference GEOBALCANICA 2016 [online]. Novi Sad , 2016, p. 8 [cited 17 November 2019]. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18509/GBP.2016.40. Available from: http://geobalcanica.org/wp-content/uploads/GBP/2016/GBP.2016.40.pdf ; own elaboration

During the existence of Yugoslavia, the percentage of Rusyns in the population of Vojvodina reached 1.3%, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia the percentage decreased. At the last census (2011) it was 0.7%. Spatial mobility has changed Vojvodina's society not only at the level of numerical distribution, but also in terms of the population's subjective perception ........................................... 312

The exact figure is 21.9%. Source: STOJŠIN, Snežana. Ethnic Diversity of Population in Vojvodina... c. d. 313 The exact figure is 8.8%. Source: Ethnic Diversity of Population in Vojvodina... c. d. 314 JANKOV, Dragomir. Vojvodina... c. d.

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of ethnicity. The second wave of land reform (1945-1948)315 did not absorb all immigrants into the rural area. People moved to the cities, where the development of heavy industry was encouraged. Urbanisation processes led to the transformation of closed ethnic communities into an ethnically mixed society (mixed marriages, language assimilation, etc.). The original ethnicity of the population was replaced by a new unifying nationality, Yugoslav. Figure 5 shows the growth of the population claiming Yugoslav citizenship, which peaked in 1991316 and has since declined dramatically due to political events and social developments.317 Percentage of population claiming Yugoslav nationality in Vojvodina 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1961

1971

1981

1991

2002

2011

Figure 5: Percentage of population claiming Yugoslav nationality in Vojvodina. Source: Population: Comparative Overview of The Number of Population in 1948, 1953, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2002 and 2011 [online]. 2014. Belgrade: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 2014 [cited 19 November 2019]. ISBN 978-86-6161-109-4. Available from: https://pod2.stat.gov.rs/ObjavljenePublikacije/Popis2011/Knjiga20.pdf; own elaboration

As mentioned above, Vojvodina experienced a significant wave of immigration in the 1990s. According to statistics, one in ten inhabitants of Vojvodina was a newcomer from the former Yugoslavia318. Figure 6 shows the change in the ethnic composition of the population of Vojvodina between 1991 ........................................... 315

The reform concerned German landowners (389 thousand ha); owners above the limit of 74 thousand ha; owners who did not cultivate land of 42 thousand ha; church owners (churches, monasteries) of 34 thousand ha, etc. The new colonists coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo were allocated 235 thousand hectares of land. Source: JANKOV, Dragomir. Vojvodina… c. d. 316 In Vojvodina, the cities of Novi Sad, Subotika, Sombor and Pančevo had the highest proportion of people claiming Yugoslav citizenship. 317 KOCSIS, Károly and Sasa KICOSEV. Changing Ethnic Patterns... c. d. 318 Specifically, 88.5% were newcomers from the former Yugoslav republics, 10.2% from central Serbia and 1.3% from abroad. Source: STOJŠIN, Snežana. Ethnic Diversity of Population in Vojvodina… c. d.

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and 2002. The change has meant an increase in the proportion of Serbs relative to other minorities. Vojvodina absorbed a quarter of a million people, most of them Serbs from the newly independent states of Croatia319 and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The increase in the number of Serbs in Vojvodina was also caused by the shift away from Yugoslav ethnicity320 towards the original ethnicity of the population, which was predominantly Serbian.321 The exodus of Vojvodina's minority population was triggered by the wars during the break-up of Yugoslavia. The population fled to their home countries to escape military service and the unfavourable economic and social situation after the war.322 Percentage change in the ethnic structure of the population of Vojvodina between 1991-2002. 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Serbs

Hungarians

Yugoslavs

Croats 1991

Slovaks

Romanians

Rusyns

2002

Figure 49. Percentage change in the ethnic structure of the population of Vojvodina between 1991-2002. Source: SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics and language rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and today's Serbia/Vojvodina [online]. HAS Institute for Minority Studies, 2015/12 [cited 20 November 2019]. Available from: http://real.mtak.hu/31794/1/Vajdasag_nyelviJogok_SzHGy_EN_2_u.pdf; own elaboration

Figure below shows the growth trend of the Rusyn population that began in the 19th century and continued in the following century. The jump in growth was due to a methodological change in the census after 1945. Ukrainians323 also came to Vojvodina from Bosnia after the Second World War as part of the state-controlled ........................................... 319

Especially after the incorporation of the Republika Srpska Krajina (1991-1995), a separatist state formation on the territory of Croatia, into the Republic of Croatia. 320 Between 1991 and 2002, the number of Yugoslavs in Vojvodina fell from 174,000 to 50,000. 321 STOJŠIN, Snežana. Ethnic Diversity of Population in Vojvodina... c. d. 322 KOCSIS, Károly and Sasa KICOSEV. Changing Ethnic Patterns... c. d. 323 The first wave of immigrants (about 30,000 Ukrainians) came to the Kingdom of the SHS after the First World War. The reason for leaving their homeland was the developments after the October Revolution in Russia. They were mainly intellectuals who left Yugoslavia for Western Europe and North America after the Second World War. Source: Comparative Analysis...c. d.

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population migration. In the first Yugoslav censuses (1948-1961), Rusyns and Ukrainians were counted together. The reason for grouping these nationalities together was the similarity of certain characteristics, such as adherence to the Greek Catholic religion and the relative similarity of the two languages. However, Rusyns and Ukrainians differed in their spatial settlement. Ukrainians came mainly to the cities324, as the land in the countryside was already occupied. Only in later censuses (1971-2011) were the two groups recorded separately325. Numbers of Rusyns in Vojvodina (1948-2011) 30 000

1953 1961 23038 24548

25 000 20 000 15 000

1971 20109

1981 19305

1948 22077

1991 17652

2011 13928 2002 15626

10 000 5 000 0 1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2010

2020

Figure 50. Numbers of Rusynsin Vojvodina (1948-2011). Source: Kretanje broja Rusina u Vojvodini prema različitim popisima. (Kretaje broja Rusina u Vojvodini prema различиtim opisima). Republički zavod za statistiku, book 9, Beograd, 2004. In: SUBOTIĆ, Momčilo. Rusini i Ukrainciu Vojvodini. Politička revija 2018, 56 (2). DOI: 10.22182/pr.5622018.3. ISSN 1451-4281.

........................................... 324

The urban-rural distribution of Ukrainians and Rusyns is still evident today, with 74% of Ukrainians living in urban areas in 2011, while only 41% of Rusyns lived in urban areas in the same year. Source: Comparative Analysis... c. d. 325 The results of the census (1971) were as follows: 20,109 Rusyns (1.03% of the population of Vojvodina) and 5,006 Ukrainians (0.25% of the population of Vojvodina). According to the 2011 census, there were 13,928 Rusyns (0.72% of the population of Vojvodina) and 4,202 Ukrainians (0.22% of the population of Vojvodina). Source: Comparative Analysis... c. d.

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Number of Rusyns in Vojvodina between 1900 and 2011 30000 25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 1900 1910 1921 1931 1941 1948* 1953* 1961* 1971 1981 1991 2002 2011

Figure 51. Number of Rusyns in Vojvodina between 1900-2011. * Data adjusted for Ukrainians; source: KOCSIS, Károly and Sasa KICOSEV. Changing Ethnic Patterns On The Present Territory Of Vojvodina : Ethnic Map of Present Territory of Vojvodina 1941, 2002. In: Geographical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences [online]. Budapest: Geographical Institute, 2002 [cited 17 November 2019]. Available from: http://www.mtafki.hu/konyvtar/kiadv/etnika/indexMAPe.html; LALIĆ, Milan. Comparative Analysis of Ethno-Demographic Characteristics of Rusyn and Ukrainian National Minorities in Vojvodina. Acta Geobalcanica [online]. 2017, 4(1), 8 [cited 19 November 2019]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18509/AGB.2018.05. Available from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/113f/86baa868407cd48a31fef1f190823266d433.pdf. Own elaboration.

The Rusyns have been experiencing a population decline since the 1980s, which has affected the whole of Vojvodina. The change in ethnic distribution in favour of Serbs is also reflected in the relative representation of minorities in 2011.

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Ethnic distribution of the population of Vojvodina in 2011 Croats 3%

Romanians Rusyns 1% 1%

Germans 0,2%

Slovaks 3%

Hungarians 15%

Serbs 77%

Figure 52. Ethnic distribution of the population of Vojvodina in 2011. Source: Population by ethnicity, age and sex. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia [online]. 2017 [cited 19 November 2019]. Available from: https://data.stat.gov.rs/Home/Result/3102010403?languageCode=en-US; own elaboration

Vojvodina was particularly affected by the economic decline following the break-up of Yugoslavia, which has not yet been compensated for. This is reflected in the unfavourable age distribution of the population. The average age of Russians (Figure 9) and Hungarians is 45 years, of Romanians and Slovaks 44 years and of Croats 49 years.326

........................................... 326

Population by ethnicity, age and sex. Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia [online]. 2017 [cited 19 November 2019]. Available from: https://data.stat.gov.rs/Home/Result/3102010403?languageCode=enUS

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Figure 6. Age structure of the Rusyn population in Vojvodina . Source: Population: Religion, Mother Tongue and Ethnicity [online]. 1. Belgrade: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 2013 [cited 19 November 2019]. ISBN 978-86-6161-038-7. Available from: http://publikacije.stat.gov.rs/G2013/ PdfE/G20134002.pdf

Most ethnic groups have an unfavourable age structure, with the average age of the population being over 44327. The outlook for the coming years shows a continuation of the natural decline of the population of Vojvodina, including the ageing of the population, with the exception of the Roma.328 Field research has revealed the phenomenon of Rusyns moving to larger cities within Serbia (Novi Sad, Belgrade) or abroad, e.g. to Canada, the United States of America or Germany. The reasons are mostly economic. The interviewees often said that they lived better than they do now under Tito's rule, mainly because unemployment was lower. Jobs were said to be more secure and the government took better care of working people.

4.5. IDENTITY OF THE INHABITANTS The identity of the Rusyns in Vojvodina is strongly influenced by autonomy, which in many ways affects the cultural expressions of the national minority. Without the basic rights to their own identity, language or culture that Rusyns in Vojvodina have, the situation could not be as favourable as described by the interviewees. The fact that Rusyns are aware of their rights and that they put them into practice plays an important role. Unlike in other countries where Rusyns live, there is almost no tendency towards Ukrainisation in Vojvodina - in this respect, Vojvodina's Rusyns are the clearest about their ethnic identity of all the Rusyn minorities. ........................................... 327

The average age of the population of Serbia in 45 years. Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia [online]. 2017 [cited 19 November 2019]. Available from: https://data.stat.gov.rs/Home/Result/3102010403?languageCode=en-US 328 The minority, whose average age is 28, is the only minority in Vojvodina with a positive natural increase in absolute terms. Source: Population by ethnicity, age and sex. c. d.

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Respondent from the village of Ruski Krstur . We are Rusyns, we have nothing in common with Ukrainians. It's like when someone asks me if I'm Chinese, I tell them I'm not. We have nothing in common with the Chinese.

4.5.1. Religion Religion is an integral part of life for the Serbian Rusyns. Their Greek-Catholic religion distinguished them from other minorities and kept the Rusyn community together. In the same year that Ruski Krstur was officially founded (1751), a parish was established. Similarly, the village of Kucura was founded in 1763, and two years later the first Greek Catholic church was built. A third parish was founded in 1780 in the third Rusyn village, Novi Sad.329 The Rusyns were under the jurisdiction of the Bishopric of Križevac, in what is now Croatia, which was established in 1777 for all Greek Catholics. Today the Rusyns are under the Greek Catholic Apostolic Exarchate, established in 2003 and based in the village of Ruski Krtsur.330 Tanita Hodak, Kucura. The church played an important role in the life of the Rusyns when they arrived in Vojvodina. Everyone went to church. In the beginning there were no schools and their absence was compensated by priests, who often taught the youth of that age. Nuns took care of the children who would otherwise have gone to kindergarten. In those days, religion was what held the Rusyns (in Vojvodina) together. Under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Rusyns were deprived of their right to education, and at that time they were responsible for the education of their children. They organised it themselves.

........................................... 329

LALIĆ, Milan, Gordana JOVANOVIĆ and Milka BUBALO-ŽIVKOVIĆ. Demographic Processes... c. d.; PERKOVIC, Jelena. The Rusyns in Serbia. Ruski Krstur: National Council of the Rusyn National Minority Institute for Culture of the Vojvodinian Rusyns. NPI Ruske slovo, 2009. ISBN 978-86-7105210-8. 330 FEJSA, Mihajlo. Improving the Situation... c. d.; PERKOVIC, Jelena. c d..

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Figure 10. The Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas in Ruski Krstur, built in 1784, is the centre of the Greek Catholic Apostolic Exarchate in Serbia. Photo: Jakub Kovář, St. Nicholas Cathedral. In. Pestrá Evropa [online] 2017 [cit. 21. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_v_srbsku/

The activities of the Greek Catholic Apostolic Exarchate include the preservation of Greek Catholic values and the preservation of the Rusyn language and traditions through publishing. Regular publications include the bulletin Holos Mariji (Voice of Mary), the monthly Dzvoni (Bells), the annual Ruski Hristijanski Kalendar (Rusyn Christian Calendar) and occasional book publications. The relationship with religion has not disappeared among Rusyns today. The field research carried out showed that all the respondents (40 people) were baptised believers belonging to the Greek Catholic Church. Most of the respondents regularly attend the Greek Catholic Church, which is located in every village inhabited by Rusyns, on Sundays and holidays. In the multi-ethnic Vojvodina, belonging to different religions is the rule, so there is an Orthodox church close to the Greek Catholic church, which is used by the Serbian population, and often a Roman Catholic church, which is used by the Hungarian minority.331

........................................... 331

KOVÁŘ, Jakub, Michael ŘEHÁK, Michal KŘÍŽ, Jan HOŘENÍN a Marek BRZÁK. Rusíni v Srbsku [online]. Praha: Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2017[cit. 19. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2017:rusini_v_srbsku

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Figure 53: Rusyns visiting the Greek Catholic Church, Kucura village. Source. Rusyns in a Greek Catholic church. In: Hospodářská a kulturní studia [online] 2017 [cit. 21. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=ls2017:aaa.jpg

According to respondents, there have been many occasions when a church of one denomination has been closed (for repairs, for example) and worshippers have been welcomed in churches of other denominations. For the Rusyns interviewed, it is not a problem to attend an Orthodox church even when their church is open. This situation is said to be common, as Rusyns often go to church with their friends, who are mostly Serbs. They will go to the Orthodox church with them when they could go to the Greek Catholic church. Celebrating the holidays Based on the research, Rusyns appear to be very religiously active, not only in terms of church attendance, but also in terms of observing Christian traditions. One of the interviewees stated that she and her family celebrate all the major holidays that they have as Rusyn Greek Catholics, i.e. Christmas, Easter, St. Nicholas, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary or Kirbaj (pilgrimage/indulgence/feast). Rusyns also commemorate saints (St George, St Vladimir, St Ilya, St Mitro, St Anne and St Michael). Equally important is the blessing of water (twice a year), wheat and fruit. According to the interviewee, Rusyns celebrate many other holidays that have a different character from Christmas or Easter. Most of these holidays consist of 158

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a break from hard work. This is due to the fact that a large number of Rusyns in Vojvodina have worked and still work in the fields or in agriculture in general, and these holidays mean a well-deserved rest for them. Usually, this rest is accompanied by a visit to the temple, often a cake or bun is baked and sweets are eaten. One respondent said that if one of the holidays falls on a day that is not an official holiday in Serbia and the Rusyns have to work, they try not to work so hard.332 Christmas The interviewee described a six-week fast before Christmas. In the past, this fast was observed in its entirety, but now the interviewee's family only fasts on the first and last day. For example, some people fast every Wednesday and Friday (or days of their choice) during the six weeks. Fasting consists of deciding for oneself which foods to abstain from (e.g. meat). During the fasting period, good deeds are to be performed, something that is often forgotten today. A very important custom is the collective confession, which takes place a few days before Christmas. Decorating the Christmas tree, which Rusyns call Krachunske drevo, takes several weeks or days. The term krachun means Christmas and drevo means tree or sapling. Every year a nativity scene is placed under the Christmas tree, which must include Joseph, Mary, Jesus and shepherds with sheep. A month before Christmas, wheat grown in various containers is placed as a decoration. Christmas Eve, which falls on the sixth of January, is called Vilija by the Rusyns. Although they fast, in the morning they eat so-called kapušniky, prepared by the interviewee's grandmother. The respondent's mother cooks Christmas Eve dinner, which usually consists of fish and rice.333 In the Rusyn tradition, kapushniky are pancakes with cabbage. Unlike bread and other bakery products, kapushniky are cooked in oil in a pan. They are eaten throughout the day until the festive meal. Although more oil is used to fry bread dough, the cabbage adds a fresh flavour. Kapushniky are aromatic but not heavy because of the acidity of the cabbage. They are washed down with wine or rakija. Kapushniky according to the recipe of the interviewee from Kucur: - 400 g flour - 2 dl water - Half a packet of fresh yeast - A little oil - Salt to taste - 200g grated sauerkraut, well drained ........................................... 332

KOVÁŘ, Jakub, Michael ŘEHÁK, Michal KŘÍŽ, Jan HOŘENÍN and Marek BRZÁK. Rusyns in Serbia [online]. Prague: Economic and Cultural Studies, 2017 [cited 19 November 2019]. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2017:rusini_v_srbsku 333 KOVÁŘ, Jakub, Michael ŘEHÁK, Michal KŘÍŽ, Jan HOŘENÍN and Marek BRZÁK. c. d.

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Let the yeast rise with a little sugar and salt. Then mix the flour, water, salt and a little oil in a bowl. Leave to stand for 15 to 20 minutes. Form larger balls, roll them out and place the sauerkraut on each one, then form them into a ball again. Roll out again and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Fry in hot oil, in a frying pan or on the stove. If the kapushniki are made during the year and not during Lent, milk can be used instead of water.334

Figure 54. Kapushniky. KOVÁŘ, Jakub. Kapušnjiki. Available from: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_v_srbsku/

Christmas Eve dinner, which begins with the ringing of the bell at 5pm, is an opportunity for the whole family to come together. According to the interviewee, the vast majority of Rusyns in Vojvodina eat the same meal, but the time of the meal often varies from family to family because Rusyns work on this day - it is a working day in Serbia. After dinner, walnuts with honey and dried fruit are eaten instead of cakes and other sweets, as Christmas Eve is a day of strict fasting for Rusyns. Children go to their neighbours' houses to sing and play carols. After singing, the scene is repeated when the owner of the house asks the children "Chijo ka sce?", which literally means "Who are you?". The children answer in unison "kumovo", which means "from your godfather", because the godfather's children get the best handouts. The children are then given oranges, apples, money and even some sweets. In the village of Ruski Krstur, it is said that the boys go to the girls' houses and when it snows, they throw snowballs at their doors. This is a custom in the village of Ruski Krstur. In the village of Kucura, not many people go caroling nowadays, more children. The interviewee's family and their relatives still get together in the evening, drink mulled wine and play various games. At eleven o'clock in the evening, people go to the temple for the midnight mass. It is said that there are not many people in the temple today, no more than thirty at the most. The next morning there will be more, and the next day even more for the anointing. In these days of Christmas, all the relatives visit each other and the ........................................... 334

KOVÁŘ, Jakub. Rusíni v Srbsku. Pestrá Evropa [online]. Praha, 2017 [cit. 19. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_v_srbsku/

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children recite Christmas poems to receive presents. The church is decorated for Christmas and carols are sung at every mass. They greet each other with "Christos raždaetsja" and others respond with "Slavite jeho". Other interviewees described celebrating Christmas by decorating the Christmas tree, having a dinner of fish and rice on the sixth of January, followed by nuts and honey and dried fruit. They used to go caroling, but now they stay at home and wait for the carolers. They go to church, sing carols and spend their days with their families.335 Easter As with Christmas, a six-week fast is observed at Easter. Traditionally, eggs are dyed (called pysanky), or paska bread or a dish called sirets is prepared, which is cheese with eggs, horseradish sauce and butter. Ham and sausages are cooked. In the week before Easter, people often go to church, especially on Wednesday and Thursday, when the priests wear vestments in the liturgical colour green, and on Friday, when a service commemorating the death of Jesus Christ is held. Everyone wears black for this service. The temple is also visited on Saturdays for the midnight mass. Other Easter visits are on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. The Rusyns gather at the temple on Sundays. They are all dressed in their most festive clothes and stand in a circle in the temple with a basket of food in front of them. The priest then goes around the people and blesses the food in the baskets.336

........................................... 335 336

KOVÁŘ, Jakub, Michael ŘEHÁK, Michal KŘÍŽ, Jan HOŘENÍN and Marek BRZÁK. c. d. KOVÁŘ, Jakub, Michael ŘEHÁK, Michal KŘÍŽ, Jan HOŘENÍN and Marek BRZÁK. c. d.

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Figure 55. Blessing of food in 1943 in the village of Kucura. Source: HODAK, Tanita. Blessing of food. In: Hospodářská a kulturní studia [online] 2017 [cited 21 November 2019]. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/lib/exe/detail.php?id=ls2017%3Arusini_v_srbsku&media=ls2017:zoz_st arih_fotkoh-1-paska_1943.jpg

Later, people go to their homes where an Easter lunch is prepared. After lunch, the children visit their relatives to see what the Easter Bunny has brought them. On Monday, the boys visit the girls' houses and pour water over them three times. The girls pretend to run away, but they always end up being politicians. The boys are then rewarded with sweets and Easter eggs. The older boys usually get homemade moonshine, which the Rusyns simply call "palinka". On Tuesday the roles are reversed and the girls go to pour water over the boys. On Tuesdays they go to the temple for the anointing. On this occasion the greeting is "Christos voskres" (Christ is risen) and the response is "Voistinu voskres" (He is truly risen). Although Easter is a holiday, it is also a time to remember deceased family members. The other interviewees described Easter traditions in identical terms, indicating that the traditions of the Rusyns in Vojvodina are conscientiously observed.337

........................................... 337

KOVÁŘ, Jakub, Michael ŘEHÁK, Michal KŘÍŽ, Jan HOŘENÍN and Marek BRZÁK. c. d.

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4.5.2. Language Rusyn is classified in the Indo-European language family as a subgroup of the East Slavic languages. Looking at Rusyn from a geographical point of view, it is divided into Vojvodinian, also called Yugoslav Rusyn or Bačvan Rusyn, typical of the Bačka region in northern Vojvodina, and Carpatho-Rusyn, used in Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland and Romania. It is also possible to find the term Pannonian Rusyn for the Lower Hungarian Land, which is also geographically defined in relation to the Upper Hungarian Land (Hornice, NE Slovakia), from where the Rusyns migrated to Vojvodina.338 From a chronological point of view, the Vojvodina Rusyn language can be divided into pre-written and written periods, each of which goes through different phases. The pre-written period consists of the East-Slovak phase (until the middle of the 18th century) and the migration phase, i.e. the move to the territory of Vojvodina (until the end of the 19th century). The written period consists of the founding phase (Carpathian orientation until the First World War), the stabilisation phase (Ukrainian orientation from the end of the First World War until the Second World War) and the modern phase (Yugoslav and then Serbian orientation from the Second World War until the present).339 The Rusyn national consciousness began to grow during the 19th century, just like that of the other peoples living in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The opening of schools and an active religious life were the anchor not only for the needs of the Rusyn language but also for Rusyn consciousness. The first schools in which textbooks published in Subcarpathian Rus were used were opened in Ruski Krstur (1753) and Shid (1818). The first parish was opened in Rusky Krstur in 1751. It was possible to preserve ecclesiastical Slavic manuscripts, which contain features of the Rusyn language. The written cultural heritage and interest in Rusyn folklore was triggered by the publication of the anthology Russkij Solovej (1890), in which the Rusyn poet Petro Kuzmjak published songs of the Vojvodina Rusyns. The collection contained 188 songs, half of which were from Vojvodina. On the basis of this corpus, the ethnographer Volodimir Hnatiuk (Vladimir Hnatiuk) travelled to Vojvodina and spent the summer of 1897 collecting folk songs, legends, fairy tales and religious manuscripts. He published the collections of Rusyn folklore "Pisni Bač-Badrohs'koho komitatu", "Kazky z Bačky" and "Bajky, legendy, istorični perekazy, novely, anekdoty z Bačky".340 ........................................... 338

GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d. GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d. 340 GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d. 339

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The key figure for Vojvodina Rusyns and the Rusyn language was Havrijil Kosteľnyk341, who paved the way for the stabilisation of the Rusyn language and the establishment of norms and rules. Kosteľnyk is the author of the first book written in Rusyn - Z mojoho valala (1904).342 He is also the author of the first Rusyn grammar, Gramatika bačvansko-ruskej bešedi (1923), which laid down the rules for the hitherto chaotic and confusing spelling of Rusyn343. His involvement was significant at the Rusyn Congress in Novi Sad (1919), which aimed to set the direction of the Rusyn language and determine the starting point (basis) of written Rusyn. There were several influences on the basis of written Rusyn, such as the standardisation of Rusyn with a basis in Ukrainian or Russian, or the newly created Vojvodina Rusyn itself. The latter direction of Vojvodina Rusyn, especially spoken in Bačka and Srem, was promoted, and religious and literary texts were already written in this language. The basis for the standardisation of the language was to be the Rusyn spoken in Ruski Krstur.344 In 1919, the Rusyns acquired the status of a national minority, which opened the way for their national and cultural development. In the same year, their first steps led to the establishment of an educational organisation, the "Ruske narodne prosvitne društvo", called "Prosvita", in Novi Sad. The aim was to strengthen the Rusyn language by creating a formalised grammatical form, introducing Rusyn education in schools and using Rusyn in local periodicals. This was soon achieved. Branches of the organisation were opened in every Rusyn village, funded by voluntary contributions from the Rusyns themselves and the Church. Prosvita strengthened Rusyn culture through the publication of the periodical "Ruski Kalendar" (11 issues were published from 1921 to 1941), the weekly "Ruski Novini" (Rusyn Newspaper, published from 1924) and the children's magazine "Naša Zahradka" (Our Garden, published from 1937). In addition, a Bačvan-Rusyn grammar, "Hramatika Bačvansko-Ruskej Bešedi", was published by the aforementioned Kosteľnyk (1923). Rusyn culture was supported by the establishment of singing (e.g. 1. "Krstursko špivačke društvo"), dance and theatre groups. In 1929 the play "Jephthah's Song" was performed345, also by the ........................................... 341

Born in 1886 in the village of Ruski Krstur, he was killed in 1948 in Lviv, where he was bishop at the time. Although he lived in Lviv, he contributed to the development of the Rusyn language, setting grammatical and spelling norms, publishing regularly in Rusyn newspapers and writing Rusyn poetry. Source: The Rusyns in Serbia. Ruski Krstur: National Council of the Rusyn National Minority Institute for Culture of the Vojvodinian Rusyns NPI Rusku slovo, 2009. ISBN 978-86-7105-210-8. 342 From my village; it is a collection of poems in five parts. 343 It is said that until then it was common to find Rusyn inscriptions in Latin and Cyrillic in cemeteries. Source: GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d. 344 GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d.; FEJSA, Mihajlo. Development of the Ruthenian Language and its Orthography Standards in Serbia. American Journal of Linguistics [online]. 2013, 2(1), 4 [cit. 2019-11-20]. DOI: 10.5923/j.linguistics.20130201.01. Available from: http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.linguistics.20130201.01.html 345 Jephthah's Daughter: the play was published in 1924.

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aforementioned H. Kosteľnyk, and a few years later the troupe was already drawing on the repertoire of world authors such as Gogol and Molière.346 Singing groups were inspired by the collection of folk songs "Narodni pisni" by Kosteľnyk and Bindas (1928). Poetry was an important part of the literary mainstream. Among the authors were Kosteľnyk, Fejsa347 and Salamoun348. In 1936, a collection of important Rusyn poets and writers was published, the "Ruskoukrajinski almanach bačvansko-srimskich pisateľoch".349 In 1933, a rival cultural organisation to Prosvita, 'Zaria' or 'Kulturno-prosvitni sojuz južnoslavjanskich Rusinoch', was founded in Vrbas. Zaria advocated a panSlavic orientation, identifying Rusyns with Velkorus and promoting the idea that Vojvodina Rusyns, like all Rusyns, were rooted in Russian nationality. In this way, it defined itself against the strong influence of the Greek Catholic clergy (Ukrainian orientation) in Prosvita and leaned more towards the Russian Orthodox clergy (Russian language orientation). In addition to the weekly Zaria (published from 1934), it also published the "Russkii narodnyi calendar" (19351941).350 The most important publication of the "Zaria" organisation is considered to be "Istoriya Russkoho Naroda" by Nikolai D. Oleyarov (History of the Russian Nation, 1935), the first book on the history of the Rusyn people. During the Second World War, the organisation was hardly active, so it was taken over by the "Organizacija grekokatolickej mladeži" based in Uzhhorod, where the publishing activity was transferred from Ruski Krstur.351 The aim of the organisation was to return the Rusyn language to its original Hungarian form, as it was threatened by strong Hungarisation, especially in schools.352 After the Second World War, the cultural development of the Rusyns was protected by a new organisation called "Ruska Matka". It was officially founded at the Rusyn Congress in Shid / Šid in October 1945. Ruska Matka worked on a similar organisational principle as its predecessor Prosvita, i.e. it consisted of branches in individual villages of the Rusyn settlement.353 The "Ruska Matka" published the titles "Ruske Slovo" (Rusyn Word, 1945), "Ruski Kalendar" (Rusyn Calendar, 1946), "Zahradka" (Garden, 1947) and ........................................... 346

GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d. He wrote the poetry collection Pupče (1929), intended for children. 348 He collected poems for children Našim dzecom (1936), which was published in Zagreb. 349 GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d.; FEJSA, Mihajlo. Development of the Ruthenian Language and its Orthography Standards in Serbia. American Journal of Linguistics [online]. 2013, 2(1), 4 [cit. 2019-11-20]. DOI: 10.5923/j.linguistics.20130201.01. Available from: http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.linguistics.20130201.01.html 350 In this sense it means Russian, not Rusyn. 351 Prosvita established its own publishing house in Ruski Krstur. 352 GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d.; FEJSA, Mihajlo. Development of the Ruthenian Language and its Orthography Standards in Serbia. American Journal of Linguistics [online]. 2013, 2(1), 4 [cit. 2019-11-20]. DOI: 10.5923/j.linguistics.20130201.01. Available from: http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.linguistics.20130201.01.html 353 GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d. 347

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"Švetlosc" (Light, 1952). From 1948 the publishing activities were supplemented by radio broadcasts.354 His fiction began to make a name for itself in the 1960s with the prose collection "Odhuk z rovnina" (1961), the poetry collection "Antolohija dzecinskej poeziji" (1963) and the anthology "Slunečki roki" (1969). After Kosteľnyk's "Z mojoho valala" (From My Village), Nikola Košiš's "Kročaji" was his fiction, followed by other literary works by authors born after 1930. Between 1945 and 1972, no fewer than 36 titles in Rusyn were published. Literary critics judged the quantity rather than the quality of Rusyn works; everything that was written was published.355 After the Second World War, the Rusyn language had good conditions for development due to the political support of minorities. The autonomous territory of Vojvodina, with a strong minority representation, allowed for a fully managed language policy. Thus, Rusyn, together with Hungarian, Romanian and Slovak, was placed on an equal footing with the previously privileged Serbo-Croatian. Although the development of Rusyn culture was already strong in the 1960s, significant changes were brought about by the new constitution of 1974. It provided for equality before the law regardless of nationality, race, sex, language, religion, level of education or social status, and guaranteed all citizens the right to express their own national culture and to use their own language and script freely, including in public bodies and institutions. Translation and interpretation services were established to fulfil this condition. In practice, however, this did not mean fluent communication in all minority languages, as there was no sanction if translation or interpretation could not be provided.356 The elevation of Rusyn to the status of an official language meant a change in the language itself. It was necessary to equip the language to function from the educational system (from primary schools to universities), through the media (newspapers, radio and television), to the legislative and negotiating levels. The fulfilment of this need was based not only on the creation of language standards ("Pravopis Ruskoho jazyka" (Spelling of the Rusyn Language, 1971) or "Gramatika Ruskoho jazyka" by Mikayla Koçis (Grammar of the Rusyn Language, 1977), but also on the emergence of an intellectual stratum of the

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FEJSA, Mihajlo. Development of the Ruthenian Language and its Orthography Standards in Serbia. American Journal of Linguistics [online]. 2013, 2(1), 4 [cit. 2019-11-20]. DOI: 10.5923/j.linguistics.20130201.01. Available from: http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.linguistics.20130201.01.html 355 GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d. 356 SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics and language rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and the today's Serbia/Vojvodina [online]. HAS Institute for Minority Studies, 2015/12 [cit. 20. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://real.mtak.hu/31794/1/Vajdasag_nyelviJogok_SzHGy_EN_2_u.pdf

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population that used the standardised language in higher positions (the shift from rural agrarian environments to cities, offices, schools, etc.).357 A turnaround in the approach to minority rights took place after 1990, during the break-up of Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav or Vojvodina constitution was not respected. When wars broke out throughout Yugoslavia after 1991, many minorities, especially Hungarians and Croats, fled across the border. The SerboCroatian language only replaced the Serbian language in legal texts; minority rights in all areas, including language, were difficult to enforce.358 At present, the rights and obligations of minorities living in Serbia are enshrined in Serbia's participation in international organisations such as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Participation in an international organisation is linked to the acceptance of obligations relating, inter alia, to ensuring the rights and protection of national minorities. Serbia has ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (2001)359 (2001) and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (2006), the main Council of Europe instruments aimed at ensuring minority rights.360 At the Serbian level, the Law on Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities (2002) was adopted, building on the above-mentioned commitments of international organisations. Although the Serbian Constitution of 2006 was not drafted in a minority-friendly political environment, Article 14 affirms the protection of national minorities as one of the constitutional principles of the Serbian state, and Article 79361 defines the scope of minority rights in a manner consistent with the 1974 Constitution. Linguistically, minority rights have been strengthened by the adoption of the aforementioned European Charter for ........................................... 357

GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d..; FEJSA, Mihajlo. Improving the Situation… c. d.; FEJSA, Mihajlo. Development of the Ruthenian Language and its Orthography Standards in Serbia. American Journal of Linguistics [online]. 2013, 2(1), 4 [cit. 2019-11-20]. DOI: 10.5923/j.linguistics.20130201.01. Available from: http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.linguistics.20130201.01.html 358 SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics... c. d. 359 The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was adopted by the Council of Europe in 1994 and entered into force four years later, in 1998. The Convention was created in response to historical events in Europe. Its role is preventive, with the aim of protecting the rights of minorities and thus preventing ethnic conflicts. 360 PEJČIĆ, Mirella. Minority Rights in Serbia: Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in a Post-Conflict Serbia[online]. Uppsala, 2007 [cit. 13. 10. 2019]. Available from: www.pcr.uu.se/digitalAssets/67/67531_1mfs_pejcic.pdf. Magisterská práce. Uppsala Universitet. Vedoucí práce Tomislav Dulić. 361 Article 79 states that "Members of national minorities shall have the right to: to express, preserve, develop and publicly manifest their national, ethnic, cultural and religious characteristics; to use their own symbols in public places; to use and express themselves in their own language and script; to act in their own language before State bodies, State administration and local self-government in areas where the minority constitutes a significant part of the population; Education in minority languages in public institutions; first names and surnames in their own language; traditional local, street, place and topographical names in their own language in areas where they constitute a significant majority of the population; complete and objective information in their own language; establishment of their own mass media".

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Regional or Minority Languages (2005).362 The right to education in the mother tongue of minorities and the official use of the minority language are based on the Law on the Official Use of Language and Writing of 1991, the Law on Administrative Procedure of 2001, the Law on the Foundations of Education of 2002, etc. 363 The 2010 Serbian Language Law established Serbian and Cyrillic as the official language and script, while Latin is regulated by law364. For minorities, the law sets a minimum threshold above which minority languages can be used at the level of the official language, i.e. Serbian, in local government. The minimum threshold is currently set at 15% of the minority population, based on the results of the census in the region - the same applies in Slovakia, where the threshold is set at 20%. For members of minorities, this means that they can deal with official and legal matters in their own language. An important addition to the use of minority languages at the official level is that if the minority rate is reduced after the last census, the language rights of the minority will not be taken away. Article 24365 of the 2014 Law of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina states that in addition to the official national language, Serbian, and Cyrillic, the following languages (including their scripts) shall be used Hungarian, Slovak, Croatian, Romanian and Rusyn. Vojvodina has been friendly to minority languages since 2003, when it introduced an obligation for officially recognised minority languages to issue bills in minority languages from public utility companies (post, electricity, etc.). In practice, this obligation is not fully respected, e.g. electricity bills were issued only in Serbian with Cyrillic letters, telephone bills in Serbian with Latin letters. The local self-government, represented mainly by Hungarians, worked with documents issued only in Serbian. This means that the law is not properly applied even where there are employees who speak the minority language.366 Since 2002, the National Councils of National Minorities have been active in the public administration367, with the power to formulate proposals to municipalities on the official status of minority languages and to promote the ........................................... 362

SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics... c. d. Ethnic Minorities in Serbia [online]. Belgrade: OSCE, 2008 [cited 2019-11-20]. Available from: https://www.osce.org/serbia/30908 364 For example, road signs on international roads, including geographical names, are written in both Latin and Cyrillic script. 365 Statut Autonomne pokrajine Vojvodine / Statute of Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Novi Sad, 2014. Further availability: http://www.puma.vojvodina.gov.rs/dokumenti/zakoni/statut_2014.pdf 366 SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics... c. d. 367 National Councils exist for the following 20 recognised minorities: Bunjevci, Bulgarians, Bosnians, Hungarians, Roma, Romanians, Rusyns, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Croats, Albanians, Ashkali, Vlachs, Greeks, (Balkan) Egyptians, Germans, Slovenes, Czechs, Macedonians and Montenegrins. Source: National Councils of National Minorities. Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government [online]. Beograd [cited 2019-11-20]. Available from: http://mduls.gov.rs/en/human-and-minorityrights/national-councils-of-national-minorities/ 363

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strengthening of minority languages in everyday use. The importance of the National Councils was strengthened after 2009, when their representatives were directly elected by members of minorities. The number of National Council members depends on the size of the minority in the region368and varies between 15-35 members. 369 The National Council of the Rusyn National Minority (Nacyonalny sovyt ruskej nacyonalnej menšyny / Национални совит рускей националней меншини, Serbian: Nacionalni Savet Rusinske Nacionalne manjine) intervenes in the fields of culture (redistribution of funds to cultural organisations), education and the official use of the Rusyn language, including writing (from the use of Rusyn in public institutions to topographical markers in Rusyn)370. At present, the National Council of the Rusyn National Minority is responsible for a total of 7 municipalities (Shid / Šid, Novi Sad, Kula, Vrbas, Žaval, Bačka Topoľa, Sremska Mitrovica). The statistics for the 45 municipalities or self-governing territories in Vojvodina371 show that in addition to Serbian, Hungarian is used in 33 areas, Slovak in 15, Romanian in 10, Rusyn in 7, Croatian in 7, Macedonian in 2, Bulgarian, Montenegrin and Czech in 1 each.372 Saša Paljenkaš, Russian Krstur . The autonomy of the Rusyns in Vojvodina is that we have the opportunity to cultivate our own culture, religion and education. We can take part in shaping our Rusyn history and our Rusyn future.

4.5.3. Education Rusyns in Vojvodina have the right to education in the Rusyn language. The education system for pre-school children has been in place since 1902 in Ruski Krstur and since 1905 in Kucur. According to the Rusyn respondent, there are Rusyn-language kindergartens in the municipalities of Kucur , Ruski Krstur and Đurđevo / Ďurďovo. In other cities and municipalities (Novi Sad , Kula and Vrbas ) there are Rusyn preschool groups which have been opened within Serbian preschool institutions. Efforts are being made to establish such groups in the towns of Bačinci, Berkasovo, Bikič Do and Shid / Šid. ........................................... 368

The main data is based on the last census (2011). SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics... c. d. 370 FEJSA, Mihajlo. The Influence of International Relations… c. d. 371 It is a basic territorial unit in which the local government both independently exercises all the rights and duties falling within its official jurisdiction and is populated by at least 10,000 inhabitants. 372 Jezici i pisma u službenoj upotrebi u statutima gradova i opština na teritoriji AP Vojvodine. Republika Srbija Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina / Република Србија Аутономна Покрајина Војводина [online]. 2019 [cit. 21. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://www.puma.vojvodina.gov.rs/mapa.php 369

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The first Rusyn primary school was founded in 1753 in the village of Ruski Krstur. The Rusyn settlement in Vojvodina was followed by the opening of other schools: in Kucur in 1765, in Shid / Šid in 1818, in Novi Sad in 1823, in Bačinec in 1847 and in Đurđevo in 1880.373 By the 1970s, Rusyns could boast four fully Rusyn primary schools and 35 schools with Rusyn classes. Teaching was based on Rusyn textbooks, which were published in small editions and had to be subsidised by public funds.374 To date, 1,000 titles have been published for primary and secondary schools.375 Currently, it is possible to attend primary schools with the possibility of teaching in Rusyn in the municipalities of Ruski Krstur (primary school "Petro Kuzmjak" Ruski Krstur), Kucura (primary school "Bratrstvo Jedinstvo" Kucura) and Đurđevo (primary school "Jovan Jovanović Zmaj" Đurđevo). A minimum of 15 pupils is required to form a class, but with the approval of the Serbian Ministry of Education, it is possible to make an exception and form a class with a smaller number of pupils.376 If the required number of pupils is not available, classes are opened in other schools where the Rusyn language, history and cultural customs and traditions are taught. This form of education is available in the towns and villages of Bačka Topoľa, Gospođinci / Gospodinci, Kula, Novi Sad , Novo Orahovo, Petrovaradin, Savino Selo, Sremska Kamenica, Sremska Mitrovica, Subotica, Veternik and Shid / Šid. More than 300 students are studying in one of the above mentioned forms in a total of 35 schools.377 The first grammar school was opened after the Second World War in the village of Ruski Krstur. This school is the only one that still exists today (under the name OŠiG Petro Kuzmjak).378 Between 1993 and 2001, 10-15% of all Rusyn secondary school students attended this school.379 At the secondary school level, it is possible to take optional courses in Novi Sad and Shid / Šid focusing on Rusyn language and culture.

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Education. Rusini [online]. Nacionalni sovit / Национални совит, 2019 [cit. 17. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://rusini.rs/education/ 374 GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. and Hana VAŇKOVÁ. South Slavic Rusyns, their culture and language. c. d. 375 FEJSA, Mihajlo. Development of the Rusyn Language and its Orthography Standards in Serbia. American Journal of Linguistics [online]. 2013, 2(1), 4 [cited 20 November 2019]. DOI: 10.5923/j.linguistics.20130201.01. Available from: http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.linguistics.20130201.01.html 376 FEJSA, Mihajlo. Improving the Situation... c. d. 377 Education. Rusini [online]. Национални совит, 2019 [cit. 17. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://rusini.rs/education/ 378 The abbreviation OŠiG (osnovna škola i gimnazium) loosely translates as Petro Kuzmjak Primary and Secondary School Ruski Krstur. 379 LALIĆ, Milan, Gordana JOVANOVIĆ, Milka BUBALO-ŽIVKOVIĆ. Demographic Processes... c. d.

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Since 1972 it has been possible to study Rusyn at university level in Novi Sad. Within the Faculty of Philosophy, a special course in Rusyn language and literature was established. It can be studied at the bachelor's and master's level.380 According to 2011 statistics, more than 50% of the Rusyn population have completed secondary education, 15% have reached university level and only 0.4% are illiterate.381 In the 1970s, Rusyns preferred schools where Serbo-Croatian was the main language of study and Rusyn was supplemented by additional language courses. For parents, it was important that their children could easily find a job in the real world, i.e. speak the more necessary language, which at that time was SerboCroatian. The statistics below (Table 6) show that the Rusyn minority had the least complete (i.e. Rusyn) education compared to other minorities in Vojvodina. Table 6. Percentage of pupils receiving full instruction in their own language (1971/1972). Percentage of pupils who received complete education in their own language (1971/1972) Elementary school Gymnasium Hungarians 78,5 61,9 Slovaks 75,2 11,5 Romanians 72,7 19,2 Rusyns 40,7 8,8 Source: GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. 4. Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, 2006. ISBN 80-7308-137-7.

Interest in education in fully Rusyn schools increased after the adoption of the new constitution in 1974, as it enshrined expanded rights and opportunities to use Rusyn in everyday life. 382 In the 2012/2013 school year, 101 pupils entered the first class of primary school, of whom 33 pupils (32.7%) received full Rusyn education. Compared to the previous school year, this is a decrease of almost 10%.383 Among the Rusyns who do not attend Rusyn schools (608 pupils in 2000/2001), 50% (298 pupils) have benefited from courses in Rusyn language, history and traditions. This proportion is comparable to that of other minorities (Hungarians 52.3%, Slovaks 56.6%).384

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Study Programmes by Institutions. University of Novi Sad [online]. Novi Sad, 2019 [cited 2019-11-20]. Available from: https://www.uns.ac.rs/index.php/en/studies/study-programs/by-institutions 381 LALIĆ, Milan, Gordana JOVANOVIĆ, Milka BUBALO-ŽIVKOVIĆ. Demographic Processes... c. d. 382 GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d. 383 In 2011/2012, 41.4% of pupils enrolled in Rusyn language classes. 384 LALIĆ, Milan, Gordana JOVANOVIĆ, Milka BUBALO-ŽIVKOVIĆ. Demographic Processes... c. d.

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Figure 56. Primary school in the village of Ruski Krstur. The rooms of the castle in the village of Ruski Krstur are used as a primary school, with classes in both Serbian and Rusyn. Photo: Jakub Kovář.

Respondent from the village of Ruski Krstur. There are fewer of us here (in Vojvodina) than members of other national minorities, but we are as well off as they are. Thanks to the efforts of our ancestors, we have the opportunity to be educated in our own language from kindergarten through primary and secondary school to university.

During the research it was found that half of the respondents (9 out of 18 respondents) attended at least one level of education (primary, secondary, university) in the Rusyn language. Statistics (2011) show that the average age of Rusyns who declare Rusyn as their mother tongue is 47 years. Rusyns who declare a mother tongue other than Rusyn are on average 36.9 years old, which is a difference of almost 10 years. The reason for the use of schools where the mother tongue is Serbian is the same as in the 1970s. Many students do not speak Serbian after graduating from minority language schools, which is a major obstacle to their integration and active participation in social, cultural and political life in Serbia.385 On the other hand, the language of the minorities in Vojvodina is an advantage in finding a job abroad (Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic). ........................................... 385

STOJŠIN, Snežana. Ethnic Diversity of Population in Vojvodina... c. d.

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4.5.4. Media At present, the publishing house Ruske Slovo386 publishes the magazines Ruske Slovo, Mak, Zahradka, Švetlosc and Ruski Hristijanski Kalendar. Ruske Slovo is a weekly magazine with a circulation of about 2,000. Švetlosc is a quarterly magazine on literature, culture and art with a circulation of 400. Mak, a cultural and political magazine for young people, is published every two months with a circulation of 1,200 copies. The children's magazine Zahradka is published 10 times a year with a circulation of 1,200. The Christian magazine Ruski Hristijanski Kalendar is published once a year with a circulation of 1,300 copies, while the Christian monthly Dzvoni has a circulation of 900 copies. Ruska Matka publishes the magazine Rusnak 3-4 times a year with a circulation of 500. These periodicals of Ruske Slovo Publishing House are available both in printed form and online in electronic form.387 In 1975, Rusyn television followed Rusyn magazines and radio.388 At present, Radio Television Vojvodina 2 (RTV2) devotes space to members of Vojvodina's minorities. The airtime is divided in such a way that, for example, the news is broadcast in Rusyn at 18:00, in Slovak at 18:15, in Hungarian at 18:30 and so on. Residents of Vojvodina also have the option of tuning in to RTV1, which broadcasts only in the majority language, Serbian. Rusyns can also tune into local radio stations, which vary in the number of hours they broadcast in the Rusyn language. Most Rusyn can be heard on Radio Novi Sad, which broadcasts more than 6 hours a day in Rusyn. Radio Kula broadcasts Rusyn for 1.5 hours a day and Radio Vrbas for 1 hour a day. Radio Region and Radio Shid broadcast about 1 hour a week in Rusyn.389 4.5.5. Social activities Social activities have a strong tradition among the Rusyns in Vojvodina. After their arrival in Vojvodina, local cultural associations (singing, theatre, etc.) were founded. In the pre-war period, social activities began to be systematised, resulting in the central organisations Prosvita and later Zarja, with local branches in individual municipalities. After the Second World War, "Ruska Matka" was founded, which is still active today. In 2002, the National Council of the Rusyn

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Supported by the National Council of the Rusyn National Minority. Ruske Slovo [online]. Novi Sad: Ruske Slovo, 2016 [cited 20 November 2019]. Available from: http://www.ruskeslovo.com/ 388 FEJSA, Mihajlo. Improving the Situation… c. d.; GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d. 389 Media. Rusini [online]. Nacionalni sovit / Национални совит, 2019 [cit. 17. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://rusini.rs/media 387

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National Minority was established390. Through this central organisation, the state redistributes financial support for the cultural development of national minorities. State support is first allocated to the National Councils of specific national minorities, which then redistribute it to minority associations, publishing houses, cultural events (festivals), etc. Only those associations and organisations that are included in the network of organisations administered by the National Councils receive financial support. The National Council of the Rusyn National Minority operates in Vojvodina through local branches in towns and villages inhabited by Rusyns. Ruska Matka does not fall under the umbrella of the National Council of the Rusyn National Minority and therefore does not have access to public funds intended to support minority organisations. Financial support is provided by donations from private or corporate donors. Like its peers, Ruska Matka also manages a network of local branches that support cultural, educational and informational activities, liaise with other Rusyn organisations around the world, organise seminars and conferences, support publications and participate in many projects related to the preservation of the national identity of Rusynsin Serbia. Ruska Matka publishes the magazine Rusnak and supports poetry by young Rusyn authors.391

Figure 57. Members of the “Ruska Matka”. Djura Papuga, the president of the association, seated at the back. Photo: Jakub Kovář

........................................... 390

The National Council of the Rusyn National Minority (Nacionalni Savet Rusinske Nacionalne manjine) intervenes in the fields of culture (redistribution of funds to cultural organisations), education and the official use of the Rusyn language, including writing (from the use of Rusyn in public institutions to topographical markers in Rusyn). 391 Cultural Institutions. Rusini [online]. Nacionalni sovit / Национални совит, 2019 [cit. 17. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://rusini.rs/cultural-institution

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During the fieldwork in Vojvodina, tensions were evident between the two organisations mentioned above. This is probably a very delicate situation. One of the interviewees stated that when reading the magazine Rusnak it is possible to come across some texts directed against the National Council, and conversely in Ruski Slovo (published by the National Council) it is possible to notice a certain antipathy towards the Ruska Matka organisation. Apart from the two umbrella organisations mentioned above, there are many local Rusyn organisations, associations and societies.392 An example of the work of a local organisation is the Ethnoclub in the village of Kucura, which houses a museum of traditional Vojvodina Rusyn clothing, period paintings, and historical tools. Among the activities organised by the Ethnoclub are concerts of Rusyn music and folklore, theatre and literary performances. The organisation is not funded by the National Council and relies on donations from members or the Kucur church/parish. The leaders of the Ethnoclub work on a voluntary basis. Another example of a local organisation is the KPD Karpati organisation in Vrbas, which provides activities related to Rusyn culture and traditions. The research found that this organisation has around 350 members and consists of the following sections: folklore, choir, jridlova grupa, dramska grupa, recitatorska grupa, sportka grupa, tamburova orchestra and literarna sekcia. There is also a tradition of Rusyn theatre groups. The Rusyn National Theatre Ďaďa (Đađa) was founded in 1971. This amateur theatre had two stages, in Ruski Krstur and Novi Sad. After 1991, the theatre changed its name and is now called Petro Riznič Ďaďa. The theatre has been professionalised since 2003. The repertoire of the theatre includes both local and international classics.393 Not to be forgotten are the various cultural events of the Vojvodina Rusyn, such as the "Red Rose" cultural festival, the "Rusyn Film Festival", the first year of which took place in 2016, or the "Kocurska žatva" (Kocura Harvest), where traditional dances and folk costumes are presented.394 At cultural events you can ........................................... 392

Cultural and Artistic Society (KUD) "Taras Shevchenko" Đurđevo, KUD "Žatva" Kucura, KUD "Dura Kiš" Šid, KUD "Petro Kuzmjak", Nove Orahovo, KUD "Karpati" Vrbas, House of Culture Russki Krstur, Sojuz Rusnacoch Ukraincoch u Serbii, Society for Russian Language, Literature and Culture, Institute for Culture of Vojvodanskie Rusnacoch, Rusyn National Theatre,,Petro Riznic Đađa", Society of Rusyns in Sremska Mitrovica, Society of Rusyns in Subotica, Home – Society of Rusyns of Novi Sad in Vojvodina, Non-governmental non-profit organization of young Rusyns, Rusyn Cultural and Educational Society, RCAS "Dr. Havrijil Kosteljnik, CES,,DOC" – Kucurа, CAS,,Harvest", Forum of Young Russians, NGO Ruski Forum GEA, Kultruno-Prosvitne Družtsvo DOK – Kocura, Umetjnicka Kolonia Njaradi; Source. Improving the Situation... c. d.; Field research; Cultural Institutions. Rusini [online]. Nacionalni sovit / Национални совит, 2019 [cited 17 November 2019]. Available from: http://rusini.rs/cultural-institution 393 The Rusyn National Theatre "Petro Riznic Ðaða" – Russian Krstur. Vojvodina Travel [online]. Novi Sad, 2019 [cited 19 November 2019]. Available from: https://vojvodina.travel/en/the-rusyn-nationaltheatre-petro-riznic-dada-ruski-krstur/ 394 Rusyn folk dances were successful during cultural festivals during the Yugoslav era, and groups even performed abroad – in the former Czechoslovakia and Italy. Source: GUSTAVSSON, Sven R. a Hana VAŇKOVÁ. Jihoslovanští Rusíni, jejich kultura a jazyk. c. d.

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taste traditional Rusyn cuisine with dishes such as kapushniky, bobalky, sirets or see pysanki (Easter eggs).

Figure 58. Dance ensemble in the House of Culture. The House of Culture hosts theatre, folklore, concerts and dance performances. This picture shows a rehearsal for a dance performance. Photo: Jakub Kovář.

Spaces are important for cultural activities. The municipalities of Ruski Krstur, Kucura and Vrbas have buildings that serve as cultural facilities for the local population. These are spaces for many events, including meeting places for residents. In the village of Kucura, a theatre group for children, who are not only Rusyn but also Serbian and Hungarian, meets in the premises of the so-called cultural hall. According to the head of the drama club, the children meet once a week to rehearse plays, which they then perform in front of a large audience. The texts are in Rusyn, although the group is multinational.

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Figure 59. Children in the village of Kucura rehearsing a theatre performance. The participants are Serbs, Rusyns and Hungarians. Photo: Jakub Kovář395

In addition to cultural events focusing on Rusyn traditions, there are also commemorative events. In the village of Ruski Krstur, a wreath-laying ceremony is held in memory of the Rusyns who died fighting Nazism and Fascism.

Figure 60. Wreath-laying ceremony in the village of Ruski Krstur at the memorial to Rusyns killed during World War II. Photo: Jakub Kovář

........................................... 395

KOVÁŘ, Jakub. Dramatický kroužek. In: Pestrá Evropa [online]. 2017 [cit. 21. 11. 2019]. Available from: http://pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_v_srbsku/

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There are also sports clubs and associations. In the village of Kucura there is the "ISKRA Kucura" club, and in Ruski Krstur there is the "Rusyn" sports team. You can play football, volleyball, athletics, table tennis, horse riding and karate. The offer of cultural and sports clubs and organisations is rich, but the question is whether there is interest in the events and activities organised. The research found that the Vojvodina Rusyns are aware of the possibilities of membership in various organisations, associations and societies, but not all of them are active in this respect, although the right to have their own cultural organisations is an important part of the autonomy of this minority.

4.6. CONCLUSION Throughout the time they have lived in Vojvodina, the Rusyns have made many efforts to assert themselves not only against the majority but also against other minorities. The space for autonomy that has been secured in different historical periods has been made possible both by the multi-ethnic composition of Vojvodina, which has made it easier for minorities to acquire their own identity rights, and by the economic development of the region. Religion has been an important element of identity since the beginning of Rusyn settlement in Vojvodina. The Greek Catholic religion distinguished the Rusyns from the surrounding minorities and has kept the community together to this day. The Rusyns have also kept their community intact by exercising their right to build their own identity, which has manifested itself in particular in the possibility of founding associations, rich publishing activities, etc. The recognition of the right to develop and maintain the uniqueness of the minority also includes legal protection at the state and international levels. The language has become a bridge between religion and state support. The recognition of Rusyn as an official language alongside the majority language has encouraged its strengthening to a fully developed level. One of the effects of the recognition of Rusyn as an official language is the great interest in full-fledged education in Rusyn. Thus, Rusyn began to be considered not only as a cultural (historical) attribute, but also as a knowledge that is useful in everyday life in coexistence with the majority. However, the Vojvodina Rusyns and other members of the minority (with the exception of the Roma) are currently affected by negative factors that are reducing the number of members of the minority. These include the ageing of the population, migration to the cities or across the borders, with prevailing processes of assimilation into majority societies. If we accept these negative processes causing the decline of minorities, it turns out that the cultural infrastructure for preserving the Rusyn identity is very well developed and interconnected (education, language, social activities and religion). The unanswered question for the future will be the interest in using this balanced 178

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cultural structure, which has developed since the middle of the 18th century and has kept the Rusyn identity strong and stable until today.

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5.1. INTRODUCTION Lemkos are a specific group of Rusyns for whom it is not easy to define their ethnic identity. Some see them as Ukrainians, others as a group of Polish Rusyns who keep a strict distance from the Ukrainians. The origin of this situation is a consequence of the situation in the 19th century, when there was a rivalry between Lemkos of the so-called Old Russian tradition (loyal to Austria and referring to the traditions of Kiev and Halych Rus), Lemkos of the Ukrainian trend (with the recognition of Rusyn-Ukrainians as a separate nation) and Lemkos of the so-called Russophile trend (with the tradition of PanSlavism and emphasising the ties with Russia). Disputes between the Lemko leaders were particularly intense in the inter-war period, but were interrupted by the Second World War. After 1989, with the liberalisation of Poland's minority policy, there was a certain revival of the disputes. Today there are three main groups of Polish Lemkos: the pro-Ukrainian (which continues the 1956 association), the pro-Lemkos (formed after 1989) and the least numerous group, the pro-Polish. The origin of the minority in question is unclear and still the subject of much academic and popular debate. The most common view is that the minority dates back to the 14th century, when a group of Rusyns and Wallachians settled in the Lower Beskids and gradually mixed with the Polish population. The Lemkos began to form their own identity, which was distinguished from the majority society by a specific language, a different religion and traditions that changed their form as a result of various historical events. The situation of the Lemkos was not easy from the beginning. The Lemkos were oppressed by successive rulers (Russia, Poland, Ukraine), with the Lemkos experiencing the hardest times during the Second World War. Even after the Second World War, the situation of the minority did not improve significantly. As a result of the so-called Operation Vistula/Akcja Wisła, many were forcibly resettled. Only in 2005, after many centuries, was the minority officially recognised. Although many Lemkos have been dispersed around the world as a result of historical events, some continue to try to preserve their cultural heritage through various organisations. This chapter focuses on the historical development, cultural customs and, most importantly, the current situation of the ethnic minority in Poland.

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5.2. LITERARY RESEARCH The communist regime did not like the Polish Rusyns very much and did not even recognise them as a separate minority. For this reason there was a minimum of literature about the Lemkos. The change came only with the relaxation of the political situation and a kind of effort to revive the minority. The Lemkos and their culture became the subject of much research and academic work. The most prominent of these is Professor Paul Robert Magocsi of the University of Toronto, who is himself of part Rusyn descent and has devoted most of his research to the Rusyn minority. The historical development of the Lemkos of Magocsi's article The Lemko Rusyns: Their Past and Present 396, where he describes the Lemkos as a non-homogeneous group that the dominant groups have repeatedly tried (often violently) to assimilate into the majority society. As a result, the Lemkos are now a highly fragmented ethnic group. Some have emigrated to the USA, others have been involuntarily resettled in western and northern Poland, and only a fraction of the original number live in their original Carpathian homeland (the so-called Lemkos397). Magocsi further develops this article in his 2015 publication With their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpathian Rus and Carpatho Rusyns398, in which he adds to the history of the Rusyns (and thus the Lemkos) up to the present day. In addition to Magocsi, the history of the Lemkos is also covered by Barwiński and Leśniewska in their 2011 article Lemko Region, historical region in the Polish-Slovakian borderland399. The authors define the changing borders of the Lemko region, which used to lie on the Polish-Slovak border. Although the term "Lemkos" is used only for the Polish part of the minority (in Slovakia the term "Rusyn" is used), the authors argue that they are the same ethnic, cultural and religious group. However, the history from an ethnographic point of view is explored by Patrycja Trzeszczyńska in her article Bridges to the past: a Lemko family history explored through letters: an ethnographic case study.400 The author analyses 80 letters sent from the Soviet Union between 1945 and 1975 to the Lemko family, ........................................... 396

MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. The Lemko Rusyns: Their Past and Their Present. Carpatho-Rusyn American 10(1)/1987. Available from: http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/lemkos/lemkos.htm 397 The term Lemkowyna or Lemko is often used to refer to the original territory of the Lemkos (southeastern Poland). Although most of the Lemkos were displaced from Lemkowyna, they still cling to it as their homeland – it is a rural mountain area where the Lemkos lived in harmony with nature after they became Lemkos. 398 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. New York: Central European University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-615-5053-46-7. 399 BARWIŃSKI, Marek and Katarzyna LESNIEWSKA. Lemko region – historical region in the PolishSlovakian borderland. Region and Regionalism. 2011, (10), 131-154 400 TRZESZCZYŃSKA, Patrycja. Bridges to the past: a Lemko family history explored through letters. An ethnographic case study. Canadian Slavonic Papers. 2018, 60(1-2), 44-69. DOI: 10.1080/00085006.2018.1442958. ISSN 0008-5006.

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who managed to emigrate to Canada. The author uses excerpts from these letters to show the impact of historical events on the everyday life of the Lemko family. An analysis of the Polish media in the 1980s in relation to the Lemkos is provided by Susyn Mihalasky in her article A Select Bibliography of Polish Press Writing on the Lemko Question401, according to which a gradual increase in media interest in the minority can be observed in parallel with the easing of political conditions. This is the subject of Michael Hornsby's article Constructing a Lemko identity: tactics of belongings.402 As is to be expected given the historical development, the identity of Lemkos in Poland is, according to the author, highly inconsistent and difficult to identify, not only by Poles, but often by members of the minority itself. The sample of the population studied considers itself to be Ukrainian Lemkos, or simply Lemkos, but strictly rejects the connection with their origin in Poland. The question of religion is the subject of the article Lemkos and Their Religious Culture in Western Areas of Poland.403 It explains why the issue of religion is not uniform among the Lemkos and why we can find members of both the Greek Catholic and Orthodox churches among them today. The demographic development, language and position of the Lemkos in contemporary Poland is the subject of the article Contested by Whom?: Lemko Rusyns in the Post-Communist World.404 Horbal argues here that the relaxation of the political situation after 1989 has brought undeniable benefits to Lemkos, but on the other hand there is an observable division within the minority itself, which disputes its origins and true identity. The Lemkos' view of the Polish majority and the Poles' view of the Lemkos are described in the dissertation Lemkos' View of Poland and Poles405 by Susyn Y. Mihalasky. The author was mainly concerned with the identity of the Lemkos and their relationship with the majority population. Lemkos complained about the unresolved issue of restitution and mentioned a persistent feeling of discrimination on the part of the Poles. They were not very optimistic about the future of the ethnic group.

........................................... 401

MIHALASKY, Susyn Y. A Select Bibliography of Polish Press Writing on the Lemko Question. East European Quarterly. 1997, 31(1), 43-53. 402 HORNSBY, Michael. Constructing a Lemko identity: tactics of belonging. International Journal of Multilingualism. 2014, 12(1), 1-12. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2014.944185. ISSN 1479-0718. 403 BATTEK, Marek J. and Joanna SZCZEPANKIEWICZ-BATTEK. Lemkos and Their Religious Culture in Western Areas of Poland. Folia Geographica. 2010, 40(15), pp. 4-14. 404 HORBAL, Bogdan. Contested by Whom?: Lemko Rusyns in the Post-Communist World. Europa Ethnica [online]. 2008, 65(1/2), 45-58 [cited 13 March 2018]. Available from: https://www.academia.edu/5231794/_Contested_by_Whom_Lemko_Rusyns_in_the_PostCommunist_World_Europa_Ethnica_65_no._1_2_Vienna_2008_45-58 405 MIHALASKY, Susyn. Lemkos view Poland and Poles. Nationalities Papers. 1997, 25(4). Further availability: http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/susyn/susyn3.htm

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5.3. RESEARCH CONDUCTED The chapter is mainly based on research carried out in 2014-2017. The conclusions are the result of qualitative research using statistical data from censuses and other official statistics. In the case of qualitative research, several research methods were used. These were mainly semi-structured interviews, which have the advantage of obtaining a relatively large amount of information, while the disadvantage tends to be time consuming, either in finding respondents or in conducting the interview itself. The interviews were conducted in person or electronically via social networks. The interviewees were Lemkos from several generations, as well as Poles and Rusyns from Slovakia. Another method was a questionnaire survey, which was evaluated qualitatively. Field research was also carried out in Poland in 2014 and 2017. The main objective of the research is to describe the current situation of the Lemko minority in Poland, what preceded this situation, i.e. the historical development of the minority and the definition of its current identity. Emphasis is also put on revealing the relationship between the majority population and the said minority and the variables that determine this relationship.

5.4. BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW According to Magocsi406, the history of the Lemkos begins in the 14th century. At that time, the Polish rulers planned to settle the barren mountainous areas by using the Lemkos (Rusyns) living in the territory of today's Ukraine. In return for their resettlement, they were to be exempted from paying taxes for 10-20 years. According to Battek and Szczepankiewicz-Battek407, there are two views on the origin of these immigrants. One stream (these are mainly Ukrainian scholars) claims that the Lemkos are Carpathian Rusyns. Magocsi408 mentions that some trace a continuity in the case of the Lemkos from the 7th century, when part of the Carpathians was already partly inhabited by Rusyns. Others claim that they were Poles who mixed with Wallachian settlers who came to Poland between the 14th and 16th centuries. Their culture combines elements of Polish, Slovak, Rusyn and Walachian. Although Romanians and Jews also migrated to these areas, the Lemko culture was not affected by these influences. According to Battek and Szczepankiewicz-Battek,409 there is an opinion that Lemkos are ........................................... 406

MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. New York: Central European University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-615-5053-46-7. 407 BATTEK, Marek J. and Joanna Szczepankiewicz BATTEK. Lemkos and Their Religious Culture in Western Areas of Poland. Folia geographica. Prešov, 2010, 15, pp. 4-5. 408 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountain.... c. d., p. 69. 409 BATTEK, Marek J. and Joanna Szczepankiewicz BATTEK. Lemkos and Their Religious Culture in Western Areas of Poland. Folia geographica. Prešov, 2010, 15, pp. 8-9.

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Ukrainians with a different dialect. The origins of the Lemkos are still debated today, and these confusions have led to associations defending their point of view. Mihalasky410mentions the pro-Russian Lemko Association founded in 1989, and the pro-Ukrainian Lemko Union founded in 1990. According to Magocsi411, in the 16th century the Lemko region was divided into smaller estates, 85% of which belonged to the Polish nobility. The Roman Catholic Church owned only 5% of the so-called 'Lemkovina'412, the most important of these was the Muszyna estate, owned by a Roman Catholic bishop and situated on the border with Hungary. In the 17th century the estate included two towns and 35 villages, 90% of whose inhabitants were Lemkos. Another Roman Catholic estate in the Lemko region was the so-called Jaśliska, located at the Dukla Pass. This manor had the function of protecting not only the borders, but also the purity of the Greek-Catholic faith from schismatic orthodoxy. The Lemkos (i.e. Wallachian immigrants) were also exempted from paying taxes (for 10-20 years) and partly from forced labour. After some time, the rulers tried in vain to deprive the Lemkos of these rights. Due to the inaccessibility of Lemkovina and the formation of fighting groups led by Andriy Savka, among others, they were unsuccessful for a long time.413 When trying to understand the development and identity of the Lemkos, it is necessary to mention the Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries as one of the main influences. Although it primarily affected the Christian West, it also had some impact on the shape of Orthodoxy. A new Catholic offshoot, the Jesuits, known for their intellectual and educational skills, emerged as a counterpart to Protestantism. The Jesuits arrived in Poland in 1554. By the end of the century, they were also active in the Carpathians, where most of the population was now Orthodox. It was also thanks to these Jesuit activities that the so-called Ecclesiastical Union was established in 1569, when the Greek Catholic Church (Uniate) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth broke away from Orthodoxy in 1596 and submitted to Rome, still practising the Byzantine rite.414 This fact also affected the Polish Lemkos. After the first partition of Poland in 1772, a large part of the so-called Halych/Galicia, inhabited by Lemkos, fell to the Habsburg monarchy. The Lemkos were forbidden to use forest resources freely and had to pay taxes, which had a negative impact on their economic situation. At the end of the 19th century, ........................................... 410

MIHALASKY, Susyn Y. A Select Bibliography of Polish Press Writing on the Lemko Question. East European Quarterly. 1997, 31(1), p. 44. 411 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountain.... c. d., pp. 69-71. 412 Lemkovyna is a pass (saddle) in the northern part of the Laborecka Upland, between the Kýčera peak (579.0 m above sea level) and the Porubský saddle. The Slovak-Polish state border runs through the saddle. 413 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. The Lemko Rusyns: Their Past and Their Present. Carpatho-Rusyn American [online]. 1987, 10(1) [cited 2019 Jun 28]. Available from: http://www.carpathorusyn.org/lemkos/lemkos.htm. 414 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountain.... c. d., pp. 80-86.

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the traditional Lemko pastures were taken over by Polish farmers and the Lemkos gradually lost their livelihood. From the 1870s, some Lemkos began to emigrate to the United States in search of work. Those who returned bought land, the price of which rose steadily, and the rest of the population became increasingly impoverished. The largest number of emigrants from Austria-Hungary to America came from Galicia. In addition to Poles, Ukrainians, Slovaks and Hungarians, Rusyns also emigrated. The Austro-Hungarian Empire tried unsuccessfully to suppress the emigration, as some Rusyn villages (e.g. Šariš, Zemplín, Ung) remained almost uninhabited.415 Most of these emigrants went to Pennsylvania, where the mining industry was growing. This trend continued until the First World War. A large number of these migrants in America converted from the Greek Catholic Church back to Orthodoxy. Lemkos also migrated seasonally to Hungary (Prešov and surrounding area) where they helped with the harvest and where wage conditions were much better. This fact contributed to cultural exchange and at the same time to frequent intercultural marriages between Polish and Hungarian Rusyns.416 Although the Lemkos did not prosper economically, the development of the late 19th century was conducive to cultural development. The Lemkos were not discriminated against during this period and were allowed to run schools in the Rusyn language and to form organisations.417 They were also influenced by socalled Pan-Slavism and the associated desire to define themselves and find their place among the Slavic/Eastern Slavic peoples.418 In 1848, the first Carpatho-Rusyn programme was drawn up, defining the demands of the minority. These demands included, above all, the official recognition of the Rusyn nationality, the unification of salary conditions (in the case of civil servants, teachers or priests), support for the press in the Rusyn language, support for education, etc. An important author of this period was Aleksander Duchnovich, who wrote a grammar of the Rusyn language (Сокращенная грамматика письменнаго русскаго языке / Sokraščennaja grammatika pis'mennago russkago jazyka). Dukhnovich also wrote plays (e.g. Dobrodѣтель превышает богатство / Dobrodětěl' prevŷšajet bohatstvo / Ctnost je svarbnost niż bogatství) and the first Carpatho-Rusyn anthology Pozdravlenie Rusynov (Greetings to Rusyns, 1850, 1851, 1852). From this anthology also comes the Rusyn anthem "Ja Rusyn bŷl"419. A. Duchnovich, together with Adolf Dobryansky, was an admirer of Russia, convinced that the Polish Rusyns had their cultural roots there. In 1911 the first ........................................... 415

MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountain... c. d., p. 156 BARWIŃSKI, Marek and Katarzyna LESNIEWSKA. Lemko region – historical region in the PolishSlovakian borderland. Region and Regionalism. 2011 (10), p. 136. 417 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. The Lemko Rusyns: Their Past and Their Present. c. d. 418 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountain.... c. d., p. 105. 419 Alexander Dukhnovich. I was Rusyn. Carpatho Rusyn Society [online]. [cited 29 June 2019]. Available from: https://carpathorusynsociety.wildapricot.org/page-1719336 416

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Rusyn newspaper called "Lemko" was published. The first suggestions for the name were Rusnak / Rusyn, but the desire to distinguish themselves from the wider group of Rusyns led the minority to this name.420 At that time, however, the Lemkos began to split into two currents: the proUkrainian one, represented by the "Prosvita" Society, and the Rusyn (including the pro-Russian) one, represented by the Mikhail Kaczkowski Society.421 This division and disagreement over the question of origin has not been resolved to this day. From the time of the First World War we have an account of the situation of the Rusyns in the villages of Halych/Galicia by a Czech officer who was shocked by the misery and poor standard of living of the Rusyn population:422 As the army's food buyer, I then wandered through the village to get something for the kitchen. I don't have more than twenty eggs and some milk. The Rusyn woman I bought it from was old and dirty to the point of horror. Perhaps it is a local custom that the older a woman is, the dirtier she must be, and the dirtier she is, the more insects she must have. The chamber! A damp, dirty hole with no floor, no furniture except a rickety table. Instead of a stove, just a three-legged stove with a smoke hole above it. In one corner, a plank bed with straw in it and a fur coat on it instead of blankets. In the corner by the door, a goat and a pig with piglets, and near the ceiling a pole on which the chickens sat. Opposite the door was a primitive flour mill. The churches in Halych are beautiful and tidy, with cleanliness everywhere. What a contrast to the houses, which are appallingly dirty! I have been to many churches, both Catholic and Greek Catholic, and have enjoyed them all very much.

........................................... 420

MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountain.... c. d., p. 125. HORNSBY, Michael. Constructing a Lemko identity: tactics of belonging. International Journal of Multilingualism, 2015, 12.1: 1-12. 422 HALIČSKÝ, Jan. Ve válce v Rusku a v Haliči. Úryvky ze světové války. Napsal dle svého deníku kněz Jan Haličský. Praha: Cyrillo-Methodějská knihtiskárna a nakladatelství V. Kotrba, 1915. 421

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Figure 61. Country house near Stryje (today's Lviv region). Halych/Galicia, early 20th century. The Great Retreat: photographs taken by Austro-Hungarian officers during the retreat of the Russian troops Retrieved from: https://kulturologia.ru/blogs/130516 /29395/

Like other minorities of the time, the Lemkos dreamed of autonomy or even the creation of their own state. These aspirations culminated on 5 December 1918, when Lemko activists in the village of Florynka proclaimed the so-called Russian National Republic of Lemkos (Ruska Narodowa Republika Łemków). On 21 December, the so-called Carpatho-Rusyn National Congress was formed, which demanded that President Masaryk merge the so-called "Halich Lemko Region" with Czechoslovakia. Poland, of course, did not take kindly to this national activity, imprisoned the activists, and in 1920 the Lemko Republic was abolished. The same fate befell similar efforts in the eastern (pro-Ukrainian) part of the Lemko Region, whose so-called Republic of Komanczańska (Eastern Lemko Republic) was also dissolved.

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Figure 62. Territory of the Lemko Republic (1918-1920).

In 1921 the border regime between Czechoslovakia and Poland was tightened, preventing the free movement of Rusyns between the two countries and dividing many families. The aforementioned lively intercultural contacts between the Lemkos (by this time they were officially called Lemkos) and the Rusyns from the neighbouring country came to an end, and this situation lasted until 1990.423 In 1939, an agreement was signed between Nazi Germany and the USSR to exchange the population of the occupied territories in Poland (the territory of the so-called General Government occupied by Germany and the territory annexed by the Soviet Union - the territory occupied by the USSR became part of the Belarusian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR), while the Belarusian and Ukrainian populations (including Lemkos) were to be evacuated to the Soviet Union. In 1940-41, some 25,000 Lemkos voluntarily agreed to be resettled (after successful agitation by the USSR), but only 5,000 actually did so after being told of the Soviet reality by Ukrainian refugees.424 During the Second World War, the Lemko area was occupied by the Nazis. This was followed by several waves of migration, which completely disrupted the cultural, religious and geographical continuity of the minority. However, the greatest demographic exodus occurred in the post-war years. Between 1944 and 1946 there was a population exchange between Poland and the Soviet Union. 480,000 Polish citizens of Ukrainian nationality, including 70100,000 Lemkos (i.e. 70% of the Lemko population), had to move to the Soviet Union, and about 2 million ethnic Poles came from the USSR (from former Polish ........................................... 423

BARWIŃSKI, Marek and Katarzyna LESNIEWSKA. Lemko region – historical region in the PolishSlovakian borderland. Region and Regionalism. 2011, (10), pp. 131-154. 424 BARWIŃSKI, Marek and Katarzyna LESNIEWSKA. c. d., p. 8.

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territories) to western and northern Poland. Of the 110,000 Lemkos before the war, only 30,000 remained in the northern Carpathians by the end of 1946.425 This resettlement was officially described as voluntary, but it was a forced deportation assisted by the Polish armed forces. It was therefore not without violence and can be described as a form of ethnic cleansing aimed at destroying the integrity of the East Slavic ethnic groups. Among other things, the migrants were forbidden to settle in the new territory in their vicinity.426 The last wave of expulsions followed in 1947, known as Operation Vistula/Akcja Wisła. The Polish state wanted to deal with the Ukrainian nationalists operating on its territory. As part of Operation Vistula/Akcja Wisła in 1947, it forcibly expelled the Ukrainian population to the Soviet Union, but also to territories that Poland had acquired at the expense of Germany. The Lemkos were expelled together with the Ukrainians, and these are the provinces where most Lemkos still live today. During the expulsion, the distinction was not made on the basis of ethnicity, but mainly on the basis of religion, which was declared in the baptismal certificate. No one asked who was a Rusnak and who was a Ukrainian during the settlement process. The main thing was the certificate of baptism. If you were baptised by a Greek Catholic, you had to go; if you were baptised by a Roman Catholic, you could stay.427 Helena Kuziak, guide at the open-air museum. We were taken to the Ukraine in our forty-seventh year, and then to the West in the same year. I lived near Szczecin. Do you know Szczecin? Many families at that time despised Poland and preferred to emigrate to America, mostly to Pennsylvania and the surrounding area.428

In practice, the whole event, which lasted no more than four months, usually worked like this: People woke up one morning in a village surrounded by the army and militia and were told that they had a day or two to pack their belongings and prepare to leave. Their identities were then checked and they were escorted to the nearest railway station, where they were loaded onto cattle trucks (often with their own livestock), usually for Auschwitz, where there was a railway junction near the former concentration camp. From there, the inhabitants of each village were transported, family by family, to different parts of Poland. The population ........................................... 425

TRZESZCZYŃSKA, Patrycja. Bridges to the past… c. d. HANN, Chris. Ethnic cleansing in Eastern Europe: Poles and Ukrainians beside the Curzon Line. Nations and Nationalism. 1996, 2(3), 389-406. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8219.1996.tb00005.x., p. 396. 427 KOKAISL, Petr a Václav VLNA. Rusíni v Polsku – Lemkové. [online]. Pestrá Evropa, 2017 [cit. 29. 6. 2019]. Available from: http://www.pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_lemkove_v_polsku/ 428 HLINÁK, Jan, Matěj JANSA, Tomáš KARFILÁT, Barbora SOCHROVÁ a Daniela DRNCOVÁ. Lemkové v Polsku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2014. Further availability: http://www.hks.re/wiki/rusini_v_polsku_2014. 426

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of the populous town of Florinka, for example, was dispersed to 30 different villages. Throughout the harrowing journey, the desperate Lemkos were encouraged that they were on their way to a better place, or even that they were only temporarily evacuated from the UPA's rampage. But if they were directly suspected of collaborating with the Banderovtsy (perhaps simply because they owned Ukrainian books), were overly defensive of their property, or were Greek Catholic clergymen, the train took them not to prosperous farms but to a labour camp at Jaworzno. Some 4,000 people were held there until June 1949. In the west - and less often in the north - the Lemkos usually found the ruins of German houses and farms, the better preserved of which had often been taken over by Polish settlers. To this day, old Lemkos remember the initial suspicion, even fear, that their Polish neighbours had of them, the Ukrainian terrorists. The Lemkos were cured of their belief in the temporary nature of the whole process by the declaration of 5 September 1947 on the nationalisation of the property of those who had been expelled to the USSR, and finally by the decree of 27 July 1949 on the assumption of ownership of property not actually in the possession of the original owners. In other words, a large part of the Lemko farms passed into the hands of the new settlers.429 The Lemko population was not "only" expelled, but many Lemkos were also cruelly tortured for their alleged collaboration with the Ukrainians. From the memoirs of 82 year old Sztefan Pylyp in the USA (in 1996). I remember my whole life since childhood. Similar things happened to my contemporaries in Lemko and in my home village of Zyndranowa. When I write about all this, when I remember all the tragedies, how we suffered after the war, then how we were expelled - I always have tears in my eyes when I recall these memories. I don't know how I endured and survived, how I and others were tortured and some even murdered. Only Christ was so abused by the pagans, but he had the power of God, while we are ordinary people. We were beaten in many ways. At first I screamed, but then I didn't feel the pain, just that I was being beaten. Everyone went to beat us, to kick the "banderos", whom I had never seen with my own eyes. I was beaten to confess where my gun was and where our gang was hiding. How many of them were in Miejsce Piastowy, and each one, when they beat us, took revenge, one for his brother, another for his father, a third for his family, which they burned somewhere. According to the documents I was caught in the forest, but I was arrested at home in Zawadka Rymanowska on 7 January 1947. They put me in the cellar, where there were no windows. It was terribly cold, but I was still "hot". After a few days I could hardly see, and I didn't even know

........................................... 429

KNOLL, Vladislav. ''Lem v Karpatach''. Navýchod 4/2005.

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who was beating and torturing me. Two weeks later an officer came and read out a verdict saying that on behalf of the government he had the right to execute me for my crimes if I did not confess. I said that I was not in league with any criminals and that I did not know any gang. The officer ordered them to take me back and beat the "bastard" to death. They tied my hands and hung me up like a pig in a slaughterhouse and started beating me. I didn't scream because I couldn't feel the pain anymore. One of them took a piece of iron and put it in the hot oven. I groaned when he put it back. I don't remember how they continued to beat me, but in the morning they dragged me up the stairs by my legs. On the third step I hit my head hard and screamed. One of them said, 'Fuck, he's still alive. I was rescued by my wife, who came with a Polish guy who showed the officer some kind of legitimacy, and the officer also saluted in front of the Polish guy. I thank God that I survived and was able to go to the world where I live now.430

Figure 63. Action "Wisła" Retrieved from: https://gazetagazeta.com/2018/04/akcja-wisla/

Although Polish officials acknowledged the mistakes made in removing the Ukrainian population in the late 1950s, in most cases the Lemkos were unable to reestablish their broken ties with their homeland. Although the ban on migration was lifted in 1957, most Lemkos remained in western Poland.

........................................... 430

GOCZ, Teodor. Życie Łemka. Zyndranowa – Krosno, 2011. ISBN 978-83-62967-01-8.

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Figure 64: Distribution of Polish Lemkos by province (2012).

Map / Figure 64: Distribution of Polish Lemkos by province (2012). shows the current distribution of Lemkos (2011 census). The percentages indicate the proportion of the total number of Lemkos living in Poland. Today, only about one fifth of all Polish Lemkos live in the area of the original Lemko language. The aim of the Visla Action was to resettle Ukrainians in the regained Polish territories in the north and west, with the aim of repopulating these areas with the Ukrainian (and Rusyn) minority, who were to be 'Polonised' by being uprooted from their homeland and territorially fragmented. Poland wanted to become an ethnically united state and wanted to get rid of its minorities, especially the Ukrainian minority, to which the Lemkos were considered to belong. A picture of the situation after the so-called Operation Vistula/Akcja Wisła can be gleaned from the following extract from a letter sent by Polish Rusyns to relatives living in Canada in 1947.431 Dear Sister, we have been driven out of our home in Wisłok, now we are in the west near the sea, but what sea I do not know. You can find it by looking at the map. Dear sister, it takes four hours from here to our original home, we had to leave our fields and seeds, but we took a cow and a horse with us. Now we are in exile and it looks like we are going to die here.

Another letter describes the poverty in which the Lemkos found themselves.

........................................... 431

TRZESZCZYŃSKA, Patrycja. Bridges to the past... c. d.

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I know you're not rich yourself, but as they say, a naked man grasps at straws, we're all so poor here, you're the only ones who've managed to escape. I know it's difficult for you to help us, but the smallest thing would make a difference, who knows, maybe there's still happiness ahead, maybe God hasn't forgotten us. People are getting help from Canada, so I beg you, who else but my sisters and brothers-in-law?

The resettlement disrupted the ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural continuity of the Lemko minority. The Lemkos hoped that the eviction would be declared illegal and their land returned to them. But this did not happen. Paradoxically, according to interviewees in 2015, some Lemkos now see the eviction in a positive light, as it has raised the standard of living for some in Western countries. A larger proportion, of course, criticise the displacement because they were forced to leave their homes behind, often permanently. Some Lemkos managed to return, but they had to buy their land and property from the Poles who had moved into some of the 'Lemkovyna' after the expulsion. The communist government also banned Lemkos from joining organisations, using the name 'Lemko' and declared them Ukrainians. The situation began to ease slightly in the 1970s. Many Lemkos moved to larger cities (e.g. Wroclaw) and their children began to attend universities.

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 65, 66. Binczarova - the original cemetery with a monument commemorating the Visla Action. 6. 9. 2017.

In the 1980s and 1990s, some decided to return home and resume their original livelihood of farming. Often it was so-called eco-farming combined with agrotourism. Thanks to this, Lemkovyna is now considered one of the most attractive regions in Poland. However, many of these farms are owned by Poles and the return of the land to its original owners has not been very successful. There is resentment on the part of both the current owners and the local authorities. This situation is also reflected in the political representation in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, which for many years has been dominated by strongly right-wing parties with a very negative attitude towards ethnic or religious minorities. An example of this is the opposition to the use of bilingual territorial names, despite the fact that the law on ethnic minorities guarantees this right.432 ........................................... 432

BATTEK, Marek J. and Joanna Szczepankiewicz BATTEK. Lemkos and Their Religious Culture in Western Areas of Poland. Folia geographica. Prešov, 2010, 15, 4-13, pp. 11-12.

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After the easing of the political situation, the Vatra Festival was organised in 1983 to unite Lemkos from all parts of Poland with Lemkos living abroad. The festival included a series of lectures on Lemko culture and status, traditional music, Rusyn dishes, etc. However, the situation did not really improve until after 1989, when the Lemko language began to spread in schools, and in 2002 the Lemko language was taught in 15 primary schools and 5 secondary schools.433 After the collapse of the communist regime, the infrastructure between Poland and Slovakia was rebuilt, the borders reopened, transport between the cities resumed and trade was allowed to flow freely. In 2007, under the Schengen Agreement, border controls were completely abolished. Lemkos and Rusyns from both sides of the Carpathians are now free to associate, but their numbers are much smaller than before the war. 5.4.1. Population development It has already been mentioned that in the case of the Lemkos the question of their identity is not clear. Some consider themselves Lemkos, some Rusyns, some Rusyn-Ukrainians, etc. The ruling groups had a similarly unclear relationship with the Lemkos, and for a long time did not use the word Lemko at all, replacing it with Rusyn. However, the majority did not only include Lemkos under the word Rusyn, but also Boykos, Hutsuls or Ukrainians. The unclear identity makes it difficult to determine the exact number of Lemkos. According to the first census in 1921, there were a total of 3,898,428 Ukrainians in Poland, including Rusyns/Lemkos. In the next census, ten years later, when nationality was determined on the basis of mother tongue and religion, 1,219,647 people claimed to be Rusyns, two-thirds fewer434. However, even from this figure it is not possible to determine the exact number of Lemkos, as Rusyn was also spoken by the Hutsuls or the Boykos. As mentioned in the historical part of the thesis, there were three waves of expulsions during and after the Second World War. Of the 120,000 pre-war Lemkos, less than half remained in the northern Carpathians of post-war Poland. The gradual exodus of the population during the twentieth century also affected the population of the low Beskids, which is now lower than it was 150 years ago. In 1869 there were 51 people per

........................................... 433

PETRŮVOVÁ, Denisa; LAUFER, Tadeáš; TULEJ, Jiří. Lemkové – Rusíni v Polsku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2018, 12 (1). Further availability: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2018:rusini_v_polsku_lemkove 434 Drugi Powszechny Spis Ludności z dnia 9 grudnia 1931 r. (Druhé obecné sčítání lidu z 9. 12. 1931) [online]. Główny Urząd Statystyczny Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. [cit. 17. 9. 2019] Available from:https://web.archive.org/web/20140317212240/http://statlibr.stat.gov.pl/exlibris/aleph/a18_1/apach e_media/VUNVGMLANSCQQFGYHCN3VDLK12A9U5.pdf

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km², in 2009 only 46. Some of the previously cultivated land has been swallowed by the forest.435 The above-mentioned expulsion to other countries or resettlement within Polish territory led to their partial assimilation into the majority population. A large part of the descendants of the next generation no longer consider themselves "Lemkos" but Poles. However, the question remains whether they really consider themselves to be Polish or whether, for some reason, they do not want to claim the Lemko identity. This was revealed in the 2002 census, which for the first time since the Second World War asked the population about their national identity and mother tongue - in previous censuses it was not possible to declare Lemko nationality, only Polish or Ukrainian. The 2002 census showed that the Lemko population had dropped to one tenth (5,863 people). At the same time, however, there was a certain revival of Lemko nationality, and in the next census in 2011, 9640 people claimed Lemko nationality. As it was possible to declare more than one nationality in the 2011 Polish census, the total number of the population expressing Lemko nationality in some way is higher: 3,600 people declared dual Polish-Lemko nationality (of which the respondents did not prefer one), 2,600 people declared Polish nationality first and Lemko nationality second. 7,100 people gave Lemko nationality first. Of these, 5,600 mentioned only Lemko nationality. Thus, on the territory of Poland we can count about 10,500 persons who declared Lemko nationality to some extent.436According to Battek and Szczepankiewicz-Battek437, over 90% of Lemkos currently live 'in czużynia' (in exile). It is difficult to determine how many Lemkos actually live in Poland because, despite the political transformation, not all members of the minority are willing to openly declare their identity. The main reason for this is undoubtedly negative historical experience. Although fewer than 10,000 people currently claim a Lemko identity, the number could theoretically be much higher. As we already know from historical events, some 35,000 were resettled in western Poland. It is even more difficult to determine how many Lemkos know their language and how many use it on a daily basis. Although Lemko organisations and schools are currently supported by the state and international organisations, and Lemko places of origin tend to be of interest to the tourist industry, it is questionable whether they will not sooner or later be fully assimilated into Polish society. Many experts believe they will. ........................................... 435

SOJA, Maria. Demographic development and changes of land-use in the Beskid Niski Mountains, Poland, between 1869 and 2009. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series. 2012, 18(18), 109-115. DOI: 10.2478/v10089-012-0023-3. ISSN 1732-4254. 436 KOKAISL, Petr a Václav VLNA. Rusíni v Polsku – Lemkové. [online]. Pestrá Evropa, 2017 [cit. 29. 6. 2019]. Available from: http://www.pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_lemkove_v_polsku/ 437 BATTEK, Marek J. and Joanna Szczepankiewicz BATTEK. Lemkos and Their Religious Culture in Western Areas of Poland. Folia geographica. Prešov, 2010, 15, 4-13, pp. 11-12.

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5.5. IDENTITY OF THE INHABITANTS Although it is quite common in Poland to refer to the local Rusyns as Lemkos, they refer to themselves as Rusyns or Rusnaks. The ethnic name Lemko is said to have originated as a Polish mockery of the Rusyn language, in which the word "lem", meaning "only", is frequently used. The Rusyns did not remain indebted to their neighbours and called them "stupid Lyakhi" (Lekhs). Today, the term Lemko is no longer used as an insult, but the Polish Rusyns themselves accept it. Like the Rusyns in Slovakia, the Polish Rusyns did not have a strong national consciousness and were often regarded as a mere branch of the Belarusian (later Ukrainian) nation. The Lemko interviewees are also aware of the differences in some cultural elements with their neighbours (both the Boykos, who can also be classified as Rusyns, and the Poles): Natalia Małecka, architect. We have a different architecture and a different language. Traditional dress is similar but different. The main distinguishing elements are the language, hundreds of songs, clothes, food and customs and traditions that are now more associated with religious holidays.

Boykos The Boykos formed a specific subgroup of the Rusyn population - they lived mostly in the easternmost part of the territory inhabited by Rusyns, especially in the higher regions (they used to call themselves Verkhovins). In the west they were neighbours of the Lemkos, in the east of the Hutsuls. Today, few people in Poland consider themselves to be Boykos - the nationality is completely absent from the Polish census. The reason for the almost complete disappearance of this Rusyn group in Poland is also due to the events after the Second World War: a large part of the Boykos were deported to the USSR, and the rest were dispersed throughout Poland as part of Akcja Visla. There is a more compact settlement of Boykos in Ukraine - mainly in the regions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and the Subcarpathian region. As with the Lemkos, there has been a problem with a unified classification of the Boykos, and a number of opinions have emerged (from classifying the Boykos as a completely separate people to the opinion that they are an offshoot of the Rusyn or Ukrainian/Malo-Russian people). The names of the Boykos and Lemkos are nicknames given by their neighbours from the use of the words lem and fight; Vahylevyč also saw in the former remnants of the Celts.438 ........................................... 438

NIEDERLE, L. Slovanský svět. Praha: Jan Laichter, 1909 (Laichterův výbor nejlepších spisů poučných. Kniha XXXV) pp. 31-33.

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Of the existing ethnonyms, those of the Boykos, Lemkos and Hutsuls have caused much controversy. Porphyrogennetos, 913-959), I. Vagiljevic, on the other hand, derived the ethnonym from the Russian word boykiy (bold, strong), while other researchers connected it with the Romanian word bou (bull), etc. Since the end of the last century (i.e. the 19th century), the opinion of I. Verchratsky has been accepted in the scientific literature: the neighbours called them because of the word boye (yes, so) that they use, similarly as the Lemkos are called because of the frequent use of the word lem (only, but). But Verchratsky's hypothesis lacks evidence, and the Boykos themselves emphatically reject it (A. A. Bodnik), claiming that the word boye does not exist.439 Even in the area of the Polish "Boykovshchina", the local Rusyns consider themselves to be Lemkos. Moreover, this province (Podkarpackie) is home to just over 2% of all Polish Lemkos. There is a museum in Myczków (Lesko district in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship) which tries to show the specific life of the local people in the past. The following photos are from this museum (8 September 2017).

........................................... 439

NIKONOV, V. A. Etnografija i onomastika. Sovetskaja etnografija, 1971 (5), pp. 25-36.

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 67, 68. Boyko houses in the 19th century; Boyko children in front of the school (World War II) Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 69. School certificate from 1939 (besides Polish, Russian was also taught). Figure 70. Certificate of good character from 1925.

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Identity of the inhabitants

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 71. Boyko House (museum).

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 72, 73. Boyko costumes. Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 74. Boyko costumes.

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 75. Tools of the trade.

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Figure 76. Distribution of Rusyn groups on the territory of Poland Source: Museum of Boyko Culture, Myczków

5.5.1. Lemko traditions and holidays Wasyl Madzelan, the son of Lemko emigrants, born in the USA in 1917, depicted in his paintings Lemko traditions, festivals and everyday life from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1937 he visited the land of his ancestors - Lemko, and after further studies of painting in America he created a series of prints with the symbolic title Lemko Iconostasis. Just as a real iconostasis in Greek Catholic and Orthodox churches is made up of many different images united by a common idea, in the case of the Lemko Iconostasis there are several cycles that refer to both Lemko history and everyday Lemko life.

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Figure 77, 78, 79, 80. The four seasons in Lemko .

Figure 81, 82, 83. Occupation: cream churn, tinker, hand flour mill.

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Figure 84, 85, 86. Occupations: stonemasons, shepherd, laundress.

Figure 87, 88. Everyday life: the Lemko farm, our daily bread.

Figure 89, 90, 91. Celebrations: Sts. Cyril and Methodius, sobitka, vatra.

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Figure 92, 93, 94. Celebrations: Easter, Christmas – carolers, processions.

Figure 95, 96. Celebrations: wedding, christening.

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Figure 97, 98, 99. From history: cross in thanksgiving for the abolition of serfdom (1781), for the Great Basin – mass emigration of Lemkos to America, Thalerhof . Thalerhof - Austro-Hungarian internment camp during the First World War, where several representatives of the Lemko movement were executed, including clergymen.

Figure 100, 101. From history: Jaworzno – a branch of the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, Akcja Wisla . Akcja Wisla (1947) - expulsion of Lemkos (and Ukrainians) from their homes.

Religion Due to historical developments, members of the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Orthodox churches can be found among the Lemkos today. The Lemkos could only worship Greek Catholic in secret within the so-called underground church. This has changed the religious structure of the Lemkos - today there is a balanced proportion of Greek Catholics and Orthodox, and a relatively large proportion of Lemkos are Roman Catholic Christians.

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Religious beliefs of the Lemkos (2011) Other and non-religious 11,60% Orthodox 36,30%

Roman Catholics 15,90%

Greek Catholics 36,20%

Figure 102. Religious beliefs of Lemkos. Adapted from: KOKAISL, Petr a kol. Pestrá Evropa: Italové v Chorvatsku, Poláci v Rumunsku, Rusíni na Ukrajině, Rusíni (Lemkové) v Polsku, Rusíni v Srbsku, Ukrajinci v Rumunsku, Turci v Makedonii, Turci v Rumunsku, Krymští Tataři. Praha: Nostalgie, 2017. ISBN 978-80-906207-6-6, p. 40.

Oksana, student. After the Second World War, the Greek Catholic Church was banned. Some took over the Roman Catholic Church, others converted to Orthodoxy to have similar rites.440

In addition to the Christian beliefs handed down by the Church, the Lemkos also had their traditional beliefs. Very important was the belief in the supernatural power of fire and water. For example, fire was always to be treated with respect, the hearth was to be kept clean and it was forbidden to spit or throw dirty things into it. According to traditional Lemko beliefs, fire had protective, cleansing and healing powers. Water was also believed to have healing powers. Spring water was considered a cure for various illnesses. The wind also had supernatural powers. It was an element that brought fear and dangerous lightning.441 In terms of holidays, the Lemkos cite Easter and Christmas as the most important, followed by family celebrations, with weddings being the most important, often involving several hundred guests. ........................................... 440 441

HLINÁK, Jan, Matěj JANSA, Tomáš KARFILÁT, Barbora SOCHROVÁ, DRNCOVÁ, Daniela c. d. HUZARSKA, Agnieszka. c. d., p. 37.

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Christmas A number of previously common Christmas customs have disappeared or changed significantly. Christmas "Rizdwo" (Różdżestwo Izusa Chrysta) was preceded by a four-week Advent period full of entertainment. Various performances and games were organised, the main purpose of which was to introduce girls to boys. According to the Polish calendar, Christmas Eve was celebrated 13 days later. It was believed to have mysterious powers, which were used for various magical rituals. Before the festive dinner, when everything was ready in the house, the whole family went to the brook where everyone was thoroughly washed with ice water, which was believed to ensure good health for the following year. On Christmas Eve, the boys would go around the villages singing carols.442 In the area of Lemkovshchina (as well as in some areas around Lviv), so-called "spiders" were made, symbolising the spider's web that, according to the legend, covered the entrance to the cave and thus saved Christ's family from Herod's soldiers. The "spiders" were made of straw or thin wooden sticks or wire, and flowers, candles or glass ornaments were glued to the joints of Christmas trees. Spiders were hung above doors or icons. Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 103. Christmas "spiders" made of straw. Retrieved from: http://honchar.org.ua

At Christmas Eve dinner there were supposed to be 12 dishes on the table, the most common of which was probably a dish of barley porridge (pancak). Later, ........................................... 442

HUZARSKA, Agnieszka. c. d., pp. 38-39.

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in the villages of the foothills, kutia was also made from wheat - a custom brought here by priests and teachers from Halych/Galicia, but this tradition did not take root in all villages. In the villages of Lemkovshchina where kutia was made from wheat, it was served only with honey. In Lemkovshchina (and in Halych/Galicia) a struclya - a braided roll sprinkled with poppy seeds, also called a "doll" - was placed in the middle of the table at Christmas. Dinner began as soon as the first star appeared in the sky. Apart from kuti, which was mainly prepared in mountainous areas, the most common dish was bobalky - balls of dough baked, stewed and sprinkled with poppy seeds or nuts. Some of the dishes that were once an essential part of the Christmas table are now almost unknown - for example, kyselica / kysełycia, a dish with a simple recipe but which took about three days to prepare because the soup, made Figure 104. Kyselica from yeast, oatmeal, flour, fried onions and garlic, had https://aif.ua/food/recipes/1492718 to ferment well. If it became too sour, sugar was added. Easter Lemkos call Easter Velykdeň. Before Easter a fast is observed, during which no meat is eaten. Before Lent began, there was the tradition of "puszczanya", when the women of the village danced and drank vodka. This was to ensure a good harvest. On Palm Sunday, young twigs were plucked for their healing and protective properties.443 The twigs were tied together with flax twine and taken to the church for blessing. If necessary, they were given to the cows to feed them for healing, and the twigs also protected them from lightning and brought them good luck. On Maundy Thursday, the church held a service called Strast, during which the priest read 12 passages from the Gospels. The shepherds came to the service with whips made from the strings used to tie the branches on Palm Sunday. They would then tie a knot at each Gospel reading. In some Lemko villages, fires were lit in the evening to symbolise Judas' betrayal of the Lord Jesus. The custom is still kept in some villages in Poland where Lemkos do not live. This day marked the beginning of a strict fast that lasted until Sunday. On Good Friday, a fire was lit in the church, which the boys guarded until Sunday. On Saturday evening or Sunday morning, baskets of food were prepared and blessed in church - sausages, bread, eggs, salt and horseradish. The most ........................................... 443

HUZARSKA, Agnieszka. c. d., pp. 38-39.

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important part was the round wheat bread called paska, after which the whole basket of food was sometimes named. Before the start of Easter - from Maundy Thursday - women also painted traditional Easter eggs using beeswax and natural dyes, as they do in other countries. Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 105. Lemko decorated Easter eggs. Zyndranowa – Lemko Museum, 7 September 2017, photo Petr Kokaisl.

The Easter table, after the celebration of the Resurrection and the end of Lent, included boiled eggs, ham, horseradish, cheese, salad and various sweet and savoury pastries. The feast opened with an Easter prayer and the distribution of the blessed food (pasky) by the elders of the household.444 Weddings Weddings, which usually took place on a Saturday or Sunday, were preceded by a series of negotiations. The groom and other men (the saints) came to the bride's parents - these negotiations were called zaloty / garantiny. If the parents offered the guests vodka, they agreed to the wedding. If they didn't, they were against it. The day before the wedding, the bride's bridesmaids visited the groom and sang songs. Seven rituals followed, with music and singing - for example: Ydeme, ydeme, prez bukove lys'cja, Ydeme hljadaty Van'ovy neviscja. Ydeme, ydeme, stežky ne znajeme, Dobry ljude znajut, to nam povidajut…

Let's go, let's go, through the beech forest, we'll find Vanya's bride. Let's go, let's go, we don't know the way, The good people do, they'll tell us...

One of the partial wedding ceremonies was the so-called "poczepyny", the preparation of the bride for the life of a married woman. It was characterised by a cap that covered the bride's hair, thus distinguishing her from unmarried girls.445 ........................................... 444

LATANYSHYN, Sarah. "From Uzhorod There is a Road" to Lemkowyna: Music and Indentity Among the Lemkos. 2011. Master's Thesis. New York University, p. 36. 445 Narodne lemkivskje vesilja. [online] Lemkivskiy Kalendar, 1987. ©1998 LVProductions [cit. 19. 9. 2019] Available from: http://www.lemko.org/art/weddingr.html

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After the actual ceremony in the church, money was thrown at the newlyweds by the guests. According to tradition, whoever collects the most money will be in charge of the family's finances. During the wedding feast, the groom throws his tie among the male guests and the one who catches it is the next to get married. The bride throws her veil among the unmarried women for the same purpose.446 An important element (from the Ukraine) is the wedding bread korovai. The bread symbolises the bride and is therefore always round. When the bread is offered, it is advisable to hold it with a napkin, as it is considered sacred. The bread is decorated with symbols of love and fidelity (doves) and fertility (pine cones).

Figure 106. Korovai. Retrieved from: https://www.ukrainemarriageguide.com/en/ukraine-culture-traditions/weddingtraditions/korovai-wedding-bread

Vatra Festival As mentioned above, the first Vatra, a festival celebrating Lemko culture and raising awareness of the minority in Polish society, was organised in 1983. In addition to the oldest and most important Vatra in Zdina, two other festivals are held in Michałów and Ługi. Vatras are held not only in Poland, but also in Canada and Ukraine, wherever there is an active Lemko diaspora. They are attended not only by Lemkos themselves, but also by Poles or Ukrainians attracted by the knowledge of this long-suppressed culture. Vatra has its origins in the Lemko pastoral culture. Several traditions are directly linked to pastoralism. For example, the celebration of the beginning of the herding season, which usually took place in March and included a ceremonial ........................................... 446

KREISLOVÁ, Jana; PROCHÁZKOVÁ, Kristýna; VYSKOČILOVÁ, Petra; BURIAN, Petr. Rusíni v Polsku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2015, 9 (1). Further availability: http://www.hks.re/wiki/2015:rusini_v_polsku

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march to the mountains and the so-called poloniny, which ended with the opening of the shepherd's hut (salaše) and the first lighting of the campfire (vatra).447 Vatra in Zdynia is one of the biggest and most visited. It is a three-day cultural festival that attracts hundreds of musicians, theatre groups and producers of traditional handicrafts from the Lemko cultural tradition, not only from Poland, but also from Slovakia, Ukraine, Austria, Canada and the United States. Natalie, who lives in New Jersey, describes her experience at Vatra as follows: Natalie, 2018. I enjoyed every moment, it's an experience I'll never forget. I feel that I don't quite belong to the Ukrainians, but at the same time I don't feel Polish, even though my parents were born here. The festival makes me finally feel at one with my surroundings. I enjoy the food, the dances, the songs and the use of my mother tongue.

The dispute over the true identity of the Lemkos also comes to the fore during these festivals. Some vatras are purely pro-Ukrainian (the current one in Zdynia), others pro-Rusynian (the one in the village of Michałów). Depending on the orientation, political leaders, certain artists, etc. are invited to the festivals.448 5.5.2. Architecture One of the dominant features of Lemko culture is the specific form of dwellings and church buildings. Architecture is one of the cultural elements that distinguish Lemkos from the Polish majority. Nowadays, this specific style can often only be seen in artificial open-air museums. In the case of churches, a large part of them was destroyed or demolished by the previous regime, and some churches were used as warehouses or shops. Lemko dwellings Traditional Lemko wooden dwellings were spacious inside with high ceilings. A large stove dominated the dwelling. The roof was wooden and the floor was mostly mud. The houses had a living area and an outbuilding (barn, stable). Rooms usually had two windows.449

........................................... 447

MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. c. d., p. 190. 448 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. c. d., p. 389. 449 HUZARSKA, Agnieszka. From Lemko cultural past in Dukla region. Journal of Health Promotion and Recreation. 2011, (3), 35-40, p. 38.

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 107. Original Lemko architecture of village houses. Krempna, 7. 9. 2017, photo Petr Kokaisl

The Lemko house consisted of an unheated hallway, the 'priklet', which served only as a corridor with doors to other living and utility rooms. The main living room ('chyža') contained a stove with a sleeping area and an open fireplace. This room was often occupied by up to 30 members of the family. The house also included a storeroom and the outbuildings mentioned above, such as the boisko (barn), shopa (shed) or sypanec (granary). Most of the house was insulated with a "pleven", which was a passageway bolted to the house and filled with chaff, hay or straw to insulate the house.

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Figure 108. Olchowiec, July 3, 2014, photo Daniela Drncová.

Fieldwork in 2014 included a visit to the Lemko Open Air Museum in Zyndranowa450, from which a sketch of the layout of a Lemko dwelling was made (see below). In the main room, next to the stove and the bed, there was often a chest for storing things, a dining table, a sideboard, a wheelbarrow or a milking vessel. The dwelling visited belonged to a former local official who also had a study. There was also a stable and a room for processing agricultural products, tools such as a flail, a machine for grinding and cleaning grain and others.

........................................... 450

HLINÁK, Jan, Matěj JANSA, Tomáš KARFILÁT, Barbora SOCHROVÁ and Daniela DRNCOVÁ. Lemkos in Poland. Economic and Cultural Studies, 2014. Further availability: http://www.hks.re/wiki/rusini_v_polsku_2014.

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Figure 109. House in Zyndranowa. The 150-year-old Chyža in Zyndranowa (Lemko Open-Air Museum) consists of a dwelling house, which also housed a cattle shed and barn, and several detached outbuildings. Today it serves only to illustrate the Lemko way of life. Zyndranowa, 3 July 2014, photo by Barbora Sochrová.

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 110, 111, 112, 113. Clerk K. Theodor's office, living quarters, cattle shed and barn. Lemko Open Air Museum in Zyndranowa, 7 September 2017, photo Petr Kokaisl

Lemko temples The Lemko churches, called cerkve, also have a specific architectural character. A Lemko church consists of three main parts: a rectangular/pentagonal presbytery, a square nave and an entrance hall, over which a characteristic tower rises. It is this tower that has become the main distinguishing feature of Lemko temples.451 Rusyn churches are divided into three groups according to the ethnic groups that built them - the Hutsul, Boyko and Lemko types. The Lemko and Boyko types are found almost exclusively in Poland, while the Hutsul style is mainly found in Ukraine. These types of wooden churches and their construction differ according to the degree of influence of western and eastern elements. The Hutsul type (see below) is the most easterly and is characterised by a Greek cross plan with domed roofs and often onion-shaped towers. The Boyko type is already more westerly, it is longitudinally oriented (it no longer has the typical eastern plan, it ........................................... 451

HUZARSKA, Agnieszka. c. d., p. 38.

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is covered by two lateral arms), it is divided into three parts and is more often finished with a gabled roof, sometimes stepped. The most prominent dome is gradually transformed into a tower that houses the bell tower. The Lemko style of temple construction was eastern in the early period, but it was the most westerly in terms of territory and therefore very quickly changed to a longitudinal plan. From the eastern type of construction, some churches have preserved the central nave with a dome on top (three-aisled building), while others no longer have a central nave at all, becoming a two-aisled building. The main landmark is the tall tower built into the western side of the building, which was already based on the pure Gothic western style. Unlike the lower and less prominent Boyko Tower, which was attached to the ceiling of Babinec (see below), this landmark was built from the ground up and tapered upwards. It was usually crowned by a poppy-shaped dome with an Orthodox cross. The internal layout was also in the Eastern style, divided into three rooms. The first room (mostly under the tower) is called the Babinec and is basically the entrance area where the women stayed during the services. Next is the main room with the iconostasis and pews - a place for men, and the last and smallest room is the choir, where only the priests had access - it is located after the iconostasis. Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 114, 115. Czarna . Originally the Orthodox Church of St Dimitri. A three-part wooden church from 1764 in the West Alemannic style (the so-called North-West type). The building is oriented (W - E), threepart with a long presbytery, a wider nave and a women's gallery (babinec) on a square ground plan. The sacristy is on the east side, a part of the presbytery was added. The columns of the tower are part of the babinec. Today the church belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of Brunary.

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 116, 117. Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Brunary . The church in Brunary is a three-nave Lemko building. Inside there is a baroque iconostasis from the 18th century. The first church in Brunary was built after 1616, when a Uniate (Greek Catholic) parish was established in the village. A new church was built in 1653 and the present church dates from the 18th century. In 1831 it was rebuilt and enlarged - the original presbytery was joined to the nave. After the "Wisła Action" the church was taken over by the Latin (Roman Catholic) Church. Today the church is used by the Roman Catholic parish of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Brunary.

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 118. Kwiatoń – the Church of St. Paraskieva. The church was built in the second half of the 17th century and is an example of classical Lemko architecture. The proportions of its parts make it one of the most beautiful churches in Poland.

From a later period comes the church in which the babinec is replaced by an entrance hall. These churches then imitate the Gothic style of dividing churches into a presbytery and a nave.

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 119. Gładyszów – the Church of the Ascension. The Greek Catholic church was built by Hutsul carpenters in 1938-39. The church has a very unusual shape, based on the plan of a Greek cross.

The buildings are richly decorated, and the carved and painted iconostases depicting scenes from the life of Jesus are of great artistic value. Like the exterior, the interior of the churches is made entirely of wood and is often the same work of art as the above-mentioned iconostasis.452 The oldest churches can be found in the villages of Radruż, Gorajec and Chotyniec. They were all built in the 16th century. These churches are Orthodox, but after the Operation Vistula/Akcja Wisła and the expulsion of the Lemkos from their homeland, the churches were used by the Roman Catholic Church or dismantled for timber.453 Although many of the wooden Lemko temples have been repaired, the Lemkos have mostly not returned to them. As a result, most are now Roman Catholic or Orthodox. Only a few parishes have remained Greek Catholic, such as Komancza, ........................................... 452 453

HLINÁK, Jan; JANSA, Matěj; KARFILÁT, Tomáš; SOCHROVÁ, Barbora; DRNCOVÁ Daniela. c. d. PETRŮVOVÁ, Denisa, Tadeáš LAUFER a Jiří TULEJ. Lemkové – Rusíni v Polsku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2018. Further availability: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2018:rusini_v_polsku_lemkove

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the only Greek Catholic parish in Poland with an uninterrupted history from its foundation in 1805 to the present day. Even here, however, the local Rusyns/Lemkos suffered at the hands of the regime when they were forced to hand over their church to the Orthodox Church in the 1960s - their current church is a new building.

Figure 120. Komancza – Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the only Greek-Catholic parish in Poland that has been in continuous existence. Komancza, 7 September 2017, photo Petr Kokaisl

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Figure 121. Komancza – the original Greek Catholic church from 1802. The temple was forcibly handed over to the Orthodox Church, burned down in 2006 and rebuilt (see picture below). Source : http://www.twojebieszczady.net/kom_cerk.ph p Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 122. Komańcza – the new Orthodox Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Komańcza, 7. 9. 2017

5.5.3. Language The Lemko language belongs to the East Slavic languages, but it also contains many elements of West and South Slavic languages. For a long time it was considered a dialect of Ukrainian, but since its official codification it has been 223

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considered one of its regional variants. In Poland, the codification dates back to 2000, when a grammar of the Lemko language was published. It is also influenced by Hungarian and Romanian. According to Knoll454, the basic phonetic difference between Rusyn and Ukrainian is the preservation of the soft r' and especially the y/ï distinction, while due to the presence of Ukrainian ikavism (the e or o vowels have been changed to i in closed syllables) it can be said that Carpathian Rusyn distinguishes three i's (vyl - vyl, vïl - vil věnec, vil - vedl; vůl). The vowel y also appears in most dialects after the consonants š/ž or č, in some endings and prefixes (dobryj, vyšol), but also in other cases (słyza or syłza). The past tense is also formed differently. Differences can also be found in the different dialects of Lemko (western and eastern). The approximate border between the two dialects is the Laborec River and the Dukla Pass. The first attempts to separate Lemko from Rusyn date back to 1871. Over time, the first magazines and books were published and Lemko was taught in schools. After the Second World War, however, it disappeared from schools and has only gradually returned since 1991. In 1991-92, the first three schools were established in the original Lemkovshchina, although the government did not provide any financial support. The author of the first Lemko textbooks in the 1990s was Miroslav Chomjak, who also became the first Lemko teacher in post-war Poland.455 In 1999, the Ministry of Education granted accreditation to primary and secondary schools in the Rusyn language, and thus support in the form of state subsidies. In 2001, a course in Lemko-Rusyn philology was established at the Pedagogical University in Krakow. Although the number of schools has increased, the number of students remains low, at around 250.456 The basic legal act for the revival of the Lemko language is the Law on National and Ethnic Minorities and Regional Languages of 6 January 2005, which defines national and ethnic minorities and sets out their rights and obligations. Lemkos, as an ethnic minority, have the right to their own cultural and linguistic identity and cannot be discriminated against. It also defines the right to a dual nomenclature (Polish and Lemko) if more than 20% of the minority live in a given administrative unit and if it is also approved by the local population (usually in a referendum). According to the minorities, the bilingual use of names is an important element expressing the historical affiliation of the minority to the place and preserving cultural identity. In 2007, the Lemko youth organisation "Czuha" proposed the first fourteen villages of the indigenous Lemko region to request bilingual names. ........................................... 454

KNOLL, Vladislav. ''Lem v Karpatach''. Navýchod 4/2005. FONTANSKY, Henryk. Lemkovyna. In: MAGOCSI, Paul R. (ed.) Rusynʹskyĭ ͡iazyk. Opole: University of Opole, Institute of Polish Philology, 2004. ISBN 83-86881-38-0, p. 211. 456 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. c. d., p. 389. 455

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The beginnings were not without protest and disapproval from local officials, but most villages now use the dual names and more are being added.457 A form of Romanisation (i.e. converting the text into Latin) was also officially approved in 2014.458 The Lemko language is taught at all levels, there is an internet radio station Figure 123. Municipality markings in Lem.FM with the support of the Polish Polish and Lemko. Ministry of the Interior and the local Adapted from: administration, there are two religious www.shutterstock.com/cs/search/lemko?st circles - Orthodox and a restored Greek udio=1 Catholic one, periodicals are published (Besida, Hołos Watry, Ričnyk Ruska Bursa), festivals are organised (Lemkivska vatra na chužyni, Biennale lemkivskoj kultury, Kermesz) and poetry readings (Lemkivska tvorča osin).459 Oksana Graban, 25 years old. It is our mother tongue, but some linguists think it is just a dialect of Ukrainian. I think it's a mixture of Polish, Ukrainian and Slovak, mainly those three, but we also have words from Czech like bunda (jacket) or tady (here).460 Julia Doszna, the Lemko singer. Singing has been my daily bread, my prayer and my conversation with people since I was very young. I try to preserve and emphasise all the specific features of the Lemko melody: the chardonnay rhythms, the stretching of the notes and the lamentations. It seems to me that every language is an essential element in identifying self-awareness. For the Lemkos, language means belonging to the mythical Lemko. We use language to express ourselves, and in doing so we show our otherness. By using language we protect it, we make sure that it evolves, that it does not die. It is our duty to pass it on to the next generation. That it continues to exist as a fundamental value that we

........................................... 457

BARWIŃSKI, Marek and Katarzyna LESNIEWSKA. Lemko region – historical region in the PolishSlovakian borderland. Region and Regionalism. 2011, (10), 131-154, pp. 149-151. 458 ZYCH, Maciej. Romanization rules for the Lemko (Rusyn or Rusyn) language in Poland. In: The 17th Meeting of the Baltic Division of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. Warsaw, 29 June – 01 July 2015. Warsaw, 2015 459 ZAHRADNÍKOVÁ, Kristýna; REJZKOVÁ, Michaela, HABA, Miloslav. Rusíni v Polsku. [online] Hospodářská a kulturní studia (HKS), 2016. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2016:rusini_v_polsku 460 KREISLOVÁ, Jana; PROCHÁZKOVÁ, Kristýna; VYSKOČILOVÁ, Petra; BURIAN, Petr. c. d.

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should NOT be ashamed of. It is through language that we can create poetry, sing songs or tell stories to the next generation.461

5.5.4. Traditional costumes When we talk about traditional culture, we must not forget the Lemko costumes. The Lemko people are very proud of them. Because of their differences from Polish costumes, they are often highlighted as an important part of Lemko identity. Each Lemko region had its own version. The main materials used were sheep's wool and leather, fur, linen, hemp, canvas or cloth. Women's costumes were more elaborate. They featured embroidery, lace and a variety of materials.462 Women often wore lace necklaces and red beads made of either real coral or imitation glass.463 The women's shirt, called oplicza, was made of white linen. The decoration varied according to the region; in the West it was worn with puffed sleeves and a collar at the neck, in the East it was embroidered with crosses, and in the so-called Szlachtowska Rus it was completed with a red woven insert with white stripes sewn on the shoulders. Another typical garment was a knee-length skirt with a gathering at the waist, accompanied by a coat. Young women wore a lace jacket (called lajblik), Figure 70. Oplicza while older women wore woollen jackets (jubki, http://www.hks.re/wiki/ kaftanyki). A headscarf rusini_in_poland_2014 was used as a head covering, and unmarried girls wore a garland of coloured ribbons on their heads during festivities.464 The characteristic element of the male costume was the czucha, a long brown coat reaching to the middle of the calves. The coat had sewn-on sleeves that could be used as pockets and a large collar that also served as protection in bad weather. Each Lemko region had its own version Figure 124. Czucha of this coat. http://www.hks.re/wiki/ Men also wore a short linen shirt. Another rusini_in_poland_2014 feature was a short waistcoat, often decorated with ........................................... 461

ZAHRADNÍKOVÁ, Kristýna; REJZKOVÁ, Michaela, HABA, Miloslav. c. d. PETRŮVOVÁ, Denisa; LAUFER, Tadeáš; TULEJ, Jiří. c. d. 463 KRASNOVSKY, Ivan. Traditional Lemko Women's Clothing. Carpatho-Rusyn American 10 (3), 1987. Further availability: http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/lemkos/ivan.htm 464 KREISLOVÁ, Jana; PROCHÁZKOVÁ, Kristýna; VYSKOČILOVÁ, Petra; BURIAN, Petr. c. d. 462

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red embroidery. In winter, men wore a woollen jacket called a hunya. The head was often protected by a straw hat.465 The Lemkos wore several types of trousers, the simplest being gaczi, made of linen or hemp, with seams on the legs and a flap on the right side, used for work. In winter they wore kholośnie made of sheep's wool. They had the characteristic cut of highland embroidered trousers, tapered legs and one or two flaps on the right side. They used to be made of white cloth, later brown or black.466 Nowadays, traditional costumes are only used on the occasion of folklore festivals, etc. In everyday life, some Lemkos still wear them on important days, as one respondent confirmed: Oksana Graban, 25 years old. I really like wearing costumes, it's a sign of our culture. I have three dresses at home and I wear them for weddings and various holidays. I really like them and I plan to make some dresses myself.

But another view is more common: Julia Peregrym, 24 years old. I don't wear many costumes, I don't even have a full costume at home, I just have my grandmother's skirt and that's enough for me, I don't worry too much about it.467

........................................... 465

HUZARSKA, Agnieszka. c. d., pp. 37-38. KREISLOVÁ, Jana; PROCHÁZKOVÁ, Kristýna; VYSKOČILOVÁ, Petra; BURIAN, Petr. c. d. 467 KREISLOVÁ, Jana; PROCHÁZKOVÁ, Kristýna; VYSKOČILOVÁ, Petra; BURIAN, Petr. c. d. 466

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Figure 125. Traditional Lemko costumes in the collections of the National Museum in Prague. Source: Lemko folk costumes [online] National Museum, © 2006 [cit. 30 May 2018] Available from: http://www.nm.cz/Historicke-muzeum/Vystavy-HM/Lemkovske-lidove-kroje.html

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Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 126: Traditional Lemko costumes in the collections of the Lemko Museum in Zyndranowa. Zyndranowa, 7 September 2017, photo Petr Kokaisl.

5.5.5. Organisation Although the cultural life of the minority did not officially begin to recover until after 1989, the Lemkos gradually began to organise themselves during the communist era. These were weekend summer gatherings where lectures or concerts were held to promote Lemko culture. Although these gatherings were organised by the Lemkos without any support from the government, this lack of interest also meant that there was minimal opposition to such events. These gatherings gradually evolved into a festival called Vatra (bonfire), which was organised in 1983 by young Lemkos and sympathisers of Lemko culture in the original mountain "Lemkovshchina".468 Organising meetings and strengthening the Lemko culture after 1989 was problematic mainly from a geographical point of view. The Lemkos were ........................................... 468

MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. c. d., p. 342.

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fragmented within three Polish regions: the original Lemko region in southeastern Poland, Lower Silesia in the south-west, and the west around the German border. Even within these three regions, the Lemkos lived fragmented in a few villages and towns. This geographical fragmentation also (historically) led to a lack of clarity about the Lemko identity, which was reflected in the formation of two organisations. The first Lemko-Rusyn organisation, the so-called Lemko Society (Stovaryšynja lemkiv / Стоваришиня лемків), was founded on the basis of the successive cultural activities of Lemkos from the south-east. This organisation is still active today and publishes, among other things, the magazine Besida. Another organisation that tied Lemko roots to Ukraine was the so-called Lemko Union (Ob'iednannja) - Zjednoczenie Łemków / Об'єднання Лемків. After the revolution, the Polish government initially did not support pro-Russian Lemko organisations, but only pro-Ukrainian ones, arguing that the Lemkos were a Ukrainian sub-ethnicity. However, thanks to the active lobbying of the Rusyn Lemkos, the government began to support them financially and subsequently recognised them as one of the 14 officially recognised Polish minorities. There was, and still is, a rivalry between the two main organisations mentioned above. They compete not only for ethnicity, but also for funding from government sources or international organisations. Each also claims the right to property confiscated from the minority in the past. However, they all share a common goal: to obtain an official apology from the Polish state for the wrongs done to the minority and, consequently, the return or compensation of the original property in the Carpathian villages. While Polish government officials have expressed regret for Operation Vistula/Akcja Wisła and described it as a violation of human rights, no material compensation has been forthcoming. In addition to the main Lemko organisations mentioned above, there were other local associations in Poland - Stowarzyszenie "Ruska Bursa" w Gorlicach / Стоваришыня "Pуска Бурса" в Горлицях, founded in 1991 and based on the association founded in 1908, or Towarzystwo na rzecz Rozwoju Muzeum Kultury Łemkowskiej w Zyndranowej / Towarzystwo na rzecz Rozwoju Muzeum Kultury Łemkowskiej w Zyndranowej / Товариство розвитку Музею лемківської культури в Зindrāновій was established in 1995 with the aim of developing the Lemko Museum. Union of Lemkos Since its foundation in 1990, the organisation has been active, organising around twenty cultural events a year focusing on Lemko culture. These include concerts and dance performances, as well as various workshops. In 2018, these included the production of traditional Lemko clothing or traditional Lemko natural

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cosmetics. It is the organiser of the aforementioned Festival of Lemko Culture Vatra469. Organisation for the Defence of Lemkovshchina "Until 1956, Lemkos, like other Ukrainians in Poland, had no rights to their ethnic designation"470. With this sentence, which is part of the description of the organisation's activities, the founders clearly indicate their opinion about the ethnic origin of the minority. Even in its official presentations, the Lemko Association stresses that it is part of the Ukrainian nation and that the Lemko language is merely a dialect of Ukrainian. It is an American organisation which, among other things, runs a museum of Lemko culture in Stamford. In addition to this activity, the organisation organises educational events or cultural gatherings, such as the 2017 gathering on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Operation Vistula/Akcja Wisła.

Figure 127. American Lemkos perform at a festival marking the 70th anniversary of Operation Hangman. Retrieved from: https://lemko-ool.com/?p=1706&lang=en

Other Lemko organisations founded after 1989 include the Rusyn Lemko Democratic Circle "Hospodar", the Foundation for the Support of the Lemko Minority "Rutenika", the Association for the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of the Lemko People "Terka", "Ruska Bursa", the Lemko Youth Association "Czucha" and a large number of musical groups performing traditional folk music.

........................................... 469 470

Lemko Union [online]. 2019 [cited 29 June 2019]. Available from: http://www.lemkounion.pl/ Organisation for the Defence of Lemko [online]. 2018 [cited 29 June 2019]. Available from: https://lemko-ool.com/?page_id=37&lang=en

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5.5.6. Unclear identity The unclear identity of the Lemkos (some speak of a dual identity) has been mentioned several times. Some Lemkos identify their origin as Lemko-Rusyn, others as Ukrainian. Historical events have also geographically divided the Lemkos in Poland into the three parts mentioned above. A significant part of the minority also lives abroad, mainly in the United States and Canada. However, the geographical distribution of Lemkos is not the only aspect that influences their identity. Hornsby471 points out that it is also difficult to estimate the exact number of Lemkos because of the undefined identity, i.e. the factors by which a person can be considered a Lemko. Those who follow the Ukrainian Greek Catholic rite often see themselves as part of the wider Ukrainian community. In contrast, members of the Orthodox branch see themselves as part of the Slavic/Carpathian-Rusyn group and therefore describe their identity as Rusyn or Lemko. In our community everything is mixed. This means that all of us, even within the same family (also depending on individual circumstances), feel more or less Ukrainian or Lemko. For example, I have a Ukrainian husband from Pidlashsha, a university degree in Ukrainian language, I know Ukrainian history, I feel connected to Ukraine. I also have a large part of my family in Ukraine. But I also feel like a Lemko ... but which one? I would say Ukrainian.

The interviewee mentions the important fact that many Lemkos do not have a single identity, even within their families, and that each family member may perceive them differently. Lemkos also very often enter into mixed marriages (not surprisingly given their numbers), which Hornsby cites as a major influence not only on the spouses themselves but also on other family members. Despite these contradictions, however, there are many common elements that are characteristic of all Lemkos. One of these elements, according to Trzeszczyńska472, is the shared memory of oppression passed down from generation to generation. This element can also be seen in the cultural events in Lemko, which are often organised to commemorate the expulsions, etc. The author draws this fact from the surviving diaries. She sees diary writing as another unifying element of the minority. The frequent writing of diaries can be explained as an attempt to fill a gap in the scientific field. The history of the Lemkos had long been neglected by historians, so the writing of diaries was intended to ........................................... 471

HORNSBY, Michael. Constructing a Lemko identity: tactics of belonging. International Journal of Multilingualism. 2014, 12(1), 1-12. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2014.944185. ISSN 1479-0718. 472 TRZESZCZYŃSKA, Patrycja. The Lemko Land Remembered: About the Research on the Memory of the Lemkos in Poland and Ukraine. Anthropology of East Europe Review. 2015, 33(2), 1-25, p. 5.

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provide a legacy and testimony for future generations. Hornsby473 refers to this as 'victimisation', which is more characteristic of the group than, for example, language proficiency. The Polish government has oppressed and exhausted the Lemko nation. Polonisation has begun. Our traditions, our rituals preserved for centuries have become history. Mixed marriages became common. Children learn about their cultural roots only as adults. Within a year, the Lemko nation ceased to exist.474 A significant number of Lemkos, especially those who survived the resettlement, have a stubborn anger against the Poles for not allowing them to live on their ancestral land, for taking away without reason everything they had been bound to for ages: the land, the forests, the houses, the temples... They broke the crosses and wounded their souls. Propojený obrázek nelze zobrazit. Příslušný soubor by l prav děpodobně přesunut, přejmenov án nebo odstraněn. Ov ěřte, zda propojení odk azuje na správ ný soubor a umístění.

Figure 128: Rescued Lemko crosses in the museum in Zyndranowa.

........................................... 473 474

HORNSBY, Michael. c. d. TRZESZCZYŃSKA, Patrycja. The Lemko Land Remembered... c. d.

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The collective memory of oppression affects not only the oldest generation who lived through the events in question, but also the following generations, to whom the events have only been told. Lemkos feel connected to the events of the expulsion, even if they did not experience them directly. On the contrary, sometimes their historical knowledge of the events is richer than the memories of the affected generation. Another connecting element is a kind of looking up to (and at the same time idealising) the so-called Lemkovshchina, the original homeland of the Lemkos. Trzeszczyńska speaks of a sacralisation of the territory. It is the perfect land where the Lemko's "golden age" took place and where they were happy. The memories from the diaries are often represented by the following symbols: homesickness and the associated memories of mountains, wooden houses, the smell of bread, the taste of milk, Orthodox or Greek Catholic churches with high towers, icons and monuments along the roads.475 In addition to these elements, i.e. the memory of oppression and the attachment to Lemko, there are other characteristics, but these are only associated with a part of the minority. These include the language, which is no longer spoken by the entire minority; traditions and holidays, which are often celebrated by the minority but also by the Polish population; and costumes, which are rarely worn by members of the minority at cultural events. 5.5.7. Relations with the majority society Due to the small number of minorities, it is often the case (especially among the younger generation of Poles) that they simply do not know about the existence of the Lemkos. Those who are aware of the minority often regard it as a Ukrainian minority, which is also due to the long-standing attitude of the Polish government. Some interviewees stated that they consider Lemkos to be Polish, as they do not consider linguistic or cultural differences to be a factor. As mentioned above, the very identity of the Lemkos is problematic and ambiguous, so it is really difficult to describe them as a homogeneous entity. The descendants of the Lemkos today are often from mixed marriages and often claim Polish identity as their first identity. According to the survey, the intolerance of Poles towards minorities is the result of their fear of losing their national sovereignty. Although the situation has improved in many respects, according to some respondents (Lemkos) it is still not ........................................... 475

TRZESZCZYŃSKA, Patrycja. The Lemko Land Remembered... c. d., p. 7.

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ideal. Polish respondents, however, did not share this opinion; they view minorities positively and see their culture as part of the Polish cultural heritage. Moreover, members of minorities, such as Lemkos, consider themselves Lemkos and Poles at the same time. However, the Polish majority often has no knowledge of Lemkos. This phenomenon may be due to the small representation of the Lemko nationality within the national structure of Poland as a whole.476 According to the Polish interviewees, the Polish ethnic group has always considered the Rusyns as part of their own ethnic group and therefore did not understand their efforts to revive their national traditions. Also because they are culturally very close, these ethnic groups can now live side by side without any problems.477 Although some Lemkos still feel wronged by Operation Vistula/Akcja Wisła, many are particularly grateful for the current conflict-free relationship.478 The relationship between the Lemkos and majority society is also the subject of Mihalasky's work479. She argues that there is a deep-rooted pessimism among Lemkos about their situation in Poland, mainly due to the past discriminatory attitude of the Polish government and the intolerance of the majority society towards the minority. Although the situation has changed significantly in recent years, the lack of compensation for Operation Vistula/Akcja Wisła has led to a persistent feeling of discrimination. According to Mihalasky, greater openness and tolerance is perceived by many as a political calculation demanded by the current international political situation. Lemkos of Ukrainian origin felt more connected to Poland, while Lemkos of Rusyn origin felt neglected by the Polish government. Many felt threatened by so-called Ukrainisation, either as a result of Polish indifference or as a result of efforts to strengthen Polish-Ukrainian relations. Irrespective of identity disputes, however, Lemkos (whether Ukrainian or Rusyn) agree that they feel discriminated against by the majority of Polish society. According to Mihalasky, 76% of respondents have experienced discrimination specifically related to their ethnicity. The first experience was most often in school, with respondents reporting negative stereotyping, ridicule or outright aggressive attacks. Many preferred to hide their identity as a result. The children often teased me on the way home from school, often making fun of Lemko's words. I heard many mocking stories about the cruel and primitive Lemkos. So I preferred to hide my true identity.

........................................... 476

ZAHRADNÍKOVÁ, Kristýna; REJZKOVÁ, Michaela, HABA, Miloslav. c. d. HLINÁK, Jan, Matěj JANSA, Tomáš KARFILÁT, Barbora SOCHROVÁ, Daniela DRNCOVÁ, c. d. 478 PETRŮVOVÁ, Denisa; LAUFER, Tadeáš; TULEJ, Jiří. c. d. 479 MIHALASKY, Susyn Y. c. d. 477

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On the other hand, according to Lozynski, mixed marriages are common, many Lemkos have Polish friends, and mutual hostility is diminishing. The president of the Lemko organisation adds: We Lemkos have suffered a lot because of Polish or Soviet actions after the Second World War. At the same time, we are peaceful people with Christian principles. So we found a way to survive and move on. We are proud of our cultural heritage... We are ready to defend the LemkoUkrainian position, but we prefer to defend it without hatred. The Lemko Vatra will burn forever.480

5.6. CONCLUSION The main aim of this chapter was to present the minority of Polish Rusyns (Lemkos) in contemporary Poland and to explain the historical connotations that preceded this situation. Unfortunately, the current situation is best characterised by gradual assimilation, which is probably irreversible. It is to be expected that the minority will gradually merge with the majority in view of its declining population. The most destructive influence was the Vistula/Akcja Wisła Operation, mentioned several times in the article, the consequences of which are still being felt by the minority today. The gradual improvement of the situation and the official recognition of the minority came only a few decades later, after the fall of communism. The minority set up organisations, was granted rights related to its status as an ethnic minority, revived its language, which was again taught in some schools and at the university, resumed regular gatherings such as the Vatra festival, and sought material compensation for the nationalisation of property related to the resettlement. However positive the above may sound, the decline in the number of inhabitants with a Lemko identity is undeniable. Over the last hundred years, it has dwindled to less than a tenth of its original number. Despite the above-mentioned efforts to create a community, the minority is fragmented not only geographically, but also in terms of opinion, especially as regards the derivation of its origins (Ukrainian, Rusyn, etc.). Despite efforts to revive the language, few Lemkos are really interested in learning it, and some no longer speak it. The situation is similar with regard to traditions, which in most cases replace those of the majority due to intermarriage. If we were to identify a unifying element of Lemko identity, it would be a kind of memory of oppression, evident across generations, and a look back to and idealisation of Lemkoland, the area from which the Lemkos were expelled. ........................................... 480

LOZYNSKYJ, Askold S. Ukrainian-Polish relations. [online]. The Ukrainian Weekly, 08/07/2016 [cited 3 July 2019]. Available from: http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/ukrainian-polish-relations/

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Although many Lemkos have experienced some form of discrimination in their lives, such outbursts are now rare. Although they feel more respected in recent years, what they miss most is the restoration of lost land and property or possible compensation. The fact that this has not yet happened is seen by them as a continuing form of discrimination. The Polish majority is mainly familiar with specific Lemko cultural elements (weddings, musical productions), but just as the minority itself is fragmented, so is the awareness of it. Poles sometimes ascribe Ukrainian, sometimes Rusyn origins to them, some no longer know them at all. In the current situation, there is no need for violence if the minority is to move gradually towards assimilation.

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Places with Lemko settlements in Poland

5.7. PLACES WITH LEMKO SETTLEMENTS IN POLAND Voivodeship

District

Małopolskie

gorlicki

Dolnośląskie

lubiński

Małopolskie

gorlicki

Dolnośląskie

polkowicki

Dolnośląskie Dolnośląskie

Municipality (commune)

w. Uście Gorlickie

Total population

% of Lemkos

Number of Lemkos

6,232

11,6%

725

w. Rudna

6,997

7,4%

516

w. Sękowa

4,674

5,6%

262

m-w. Przemków

8,967

4,9%

437

polkowicki

w. Radwanice

4,272

3,7%

157

legnicki

w. Ruja

2,686

3,3%

88

Dolnośląskie

bolesławiecki

w. Gromadka

5,635

2,4%

133

Małopolskie

gorlicki

w. Ropa

4,931

1,9%

93

Dolnośląskie

lubiński

w. Lubin

10,172

1,8%

185

Dolnośląskie

polkowicki

m-w. Chocianów

13,090

1,4%

181

Dolnośląskie

legnicki

w. Legnickie Pole

4,969

1,3%

67

Podkarpackie

jasielski

w. Krempna

2,055

1,3%

27

Małopolskie

gorlicki

w. Lipinki

6,793

1,2%

84

Dolnośląskie

jaworski

w. Wądroże Wielkie

4,053

1,0%

39

Małopolskie

nowosądecki

m-w. Krynica-Zdrój

17,161

0,9%

162

Dolnośląskie

legnicki

w. Chojnów

9,185

0,9%

84

Dolnośląskie

m-w. Prochowice

7,498

0,7%

53

17,614

0,7%

122

Lubuskie

legnicki strzeleckodrezdenecki świebodziński

w. Łagów

5,213

0,7%

36

Podkarpackie

sanocki

w. Komańcza

5,143

0,7%

35

Dolnośląskie

średzki

w. Malczyce

5,970

0,6%

38

Lubuskie

nowosolski

w. Nowa Sól

Małopolskie

gorlicki

w. Gorlice

Lubuskie

m-w. Strzelce Krajeńskie

6,427

0,5%

35

15,790

0,5%

76

Lubuskie

międzyrzecki

w. Bledzew

4,646

0,5%

22

Dolnośląskie

legnicki

w. Miłkowice

6,171

0,5%

29

Podkarpackie

jasielski

w. Osiek Jasielski

Małopolskie

gorlicki

m. Gorlice

Lubuskie

zielonogórski

w. Świdnica

5,310

0,4%

21

29,005

0,4%

114

5,344

0,4%

21

Lubuskie

żagański

m-w. Szprotawa

22,042

0,4%

82

Dolnośląskie

lubiński

m. Lubin

78,544

0,3%

273

Dolnośląskie

polkowicki strzeleckodrezdenecki polkowicki

w. Grębocice

5,249

0,3%

18

m-w. Dobiegniew

7,027

0,3%

24

m-w. Polkowice

25,779

0,3%

86

międzyrzecki strzelecko -drezdenecki

m-w. Skwierzyna

12,939

0,3%

43

w. Zwierzyn

4,413

0,3%

14

m-w. Nowogród Bobrzański

9,324

0,3%

29

Lubuskie Dolnośląskie Lubuskie Lubuskie Lubuskie

zielonogórski

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Places with Lemko settlements in Poland

Lubuskie

sulęciński

m-w. Torzym

6,926

0,3%

21

Lubuskie

międzyrzecki

Podkarpackie

krośnieński

w. Pszczew

4,105

0,3%

12

m-w. Dukla

16,733

0,3%

Dolnośląskie

M. Legnica

42

M. Legnica

107,100

0,2%

262

Dolnośląskie Lubuskie

wołowski

m-w. Wołów

22,667

0,2%

51

międzyrzecki

w. Przytoczna

5,793

0,2%

12

Lubuskie Zachodnio pomorskie Lubuskie

gorzowski

w. Kłodawa

5,412

0,2%

11

szczecinecki

w. Szczecinek

10,143

0,2%

18

międzyrzecki

m-w. Międzyrzecz

24,913

0,2%

42

Dolnośląskie Lubuskie

oleśnicki

w. Oleśnica

10,966

0,1%

15

w. Santok

7,319

0,1%

10

23,335

0,1%

28

Dolnośląskie

gorzowski czarnkowskotrzcianecki lubiński

m-w. Ścinawa

10,640

0,1%

12

Dolnośląskie

oławski

m. Oława

31,154

0,1%

29

Dolnośląskie

m. Głogów

70,490

0,1%

65

M. Zielona Góra

118,293

0,1%

99

Lubuskie

głogowski M. Zielona Góra nowosolski

m-w. Kożuchów

15,946

0,1%

11

Dolnośląskie

średzki

m-w. Środa Śląska

18,977

0,1%

12

Dolnośląskie

M. Wrocław

M. Wrocław

640,367

0,0%

101

Wielkopolskie

Lubuskie

m-w. Trzcianka

Source: Deklaracje narodowościowe w gminach w 2002 roku. [online] Główny Urząd Statystyczny © 1995-2019 [cit. 24. 9. 2019] Archived version: http://web.archive.org/web/20151206203522/http://stat.gov.pl/download/gfx/portalinformacyjny /pl/defaultstronaopisowa/5743/1/1/nsp2002_tabl4.xls

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6. HUNGARY

6.1. INTRODUCTION The Rusyns are one of the oldest minorities in present-day Hungary and could never be considered foreign to the Hungarians. Despite the fact that assimilation has washed away most manifestations of the Rusyns' ethnic identity, there are still places in Hungary where their specific identity has been preserved to some extent. In these places in particular, mapping field research was carried out to find out the state of the present Rusyn minority. The research focused on the manifestations of Rusyn identity in its most important aspects, such as language, education, religion, holidays, Rusyn organisations and media. Another aim was to find out what kind of relations exist between Rusyns and Hungarians, how the minority has developed over time and what its current tendencies are. The first official data on the Rusyns comes from the census ordered by Joseph II in 1784. The number of members of this minority was then estimated at 21,000. The greatest decline in their numbers occurred during the Second World War. In 1939, the Soviet Union arrested a large number of Rusyns from Subcarpathian Rus (and from the territory of Hungary) and sent them to labour camps in Siberia. About 8,000 Rusyns survived the Soviet purge. Although little is heard of the Rusyns in Hungary, their numbers have increased in recent years. According to the 2001 Hungarian census, 2,079 people identified themselves as Rusyns, while in the 2011 census the number was 3,882, an increase of 87%. Estimates by Rusyn organisations are even higher - in 2015 the number of Rusyns in Hungary was estimated at around 10,000 citizens.481 However, these high estimates are based on the number of inhabitants who can be assumed to have Rusyn ancestry and have little to do with the actual national consciousness of Rusyns. Hungary has provided financial support to the Rusyn community in recent years - Rusyns are one of the ethnic minorities (along with Bulgarians, Roma, Greeks, Croats, Poles, Germans, Armenians, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Ukrainians) that Hungary considers to be in need of special protection. Local Rusyns are keen to ensure that their Rusyn nationality does not disappear from the memory of younger generations. They publish a regular magazine, Rusyns'kyj svit (Русинськый світ) / Ruszin Világ, in both Rusyn and Hungarian. There are several dance clubs and the whole village comes together for church festivals. ........................................... 481

HLAVÁČKOVÁ, Šárka; OBERMAJER, Filip. Rusíni v Maďarsku. In: KOKAISL, Petr et al. Pestrá Evropa: Toskové a Gegové v Albánii, Albánci v Černé Hoře, Makedonii a Srbsku-Kosovu, Bretonci ve Francii, Gagauzové v Moldávii, Ladinové v Itálii, Rusíni na Slovensku, Ukrajině, v Maďarsku, Rumunsku a Moldávii, Huculové na Ukrajině, Rusové (staroobřadníci) v Lotyšsku, Walserové ve Švýcarsku. Praha: Nostalgie, 2015. ISBN 978-80-906207-0-4, pp. 54-57.

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6.2. LITERARY RESEARCH The Carpathian Rusyns, including the Hungarian Rusyns, are the subject of Paul Robert Magocsi's With their backs to the mountains: a history of Carpathian Rus' and Carpatho-Rusyns482, which follows his 2006 illustrated book The People from Nowhere, translated by Miloslav Kopecky from the Ukrainian original and, with the Slovak version, into Czech483. This small, pictorial book, intended to explain the history of the Rusyns to the layman, was translated from English into nine languages to make it accessible to the general public in the countries where the Rusyns are traditionally found. The rather limited content of the popularisation book required expansion, and so in 2015 the author published With their backs to the mountains: a history of Carpathian Rus' and Carpatho-Rusyns, which was also published in Slovak under the title Chrbtom k horám: dejiny Karpatskej Rusi a karpatských Rusínov.484 The subtitle already indicates that the book brings together two important themes: territory and people. Atypical is the order of the chapters, which correspond to transcribed university lectures. The original lectures were held at the Carpatho-Rusyn Summer University (Studium CarpatoRuthenorum) at the University of Prešov in Slovakia. Information on the current situation and administrative measures to preserve the Rusyn identity in Hungary can be found on the website of a governmental organisation dedicated to the defence of human rights. The Rusyns of Hungary485 summarises the life of the Rusyns in the Hungarian environment and then takes a closer look at the Rusyns' efforts to preserve and promote their cultural heritage. You can read about holidays, festivals, cultural events, associations, voluntary organisations and important awards. Another general summary with a similar title, The Rusyns of Hungary: end of the millennial struggle486, proceeds from the broad framework of Hungarian minorities through historical facts to the current status of the Rusyn minority in Hungary. The religious issue is the focus of Bertalan Puzstai's487 chapter Discoursing Boundaries: Hungarian Greek Catholic Identity Creation in the Inter-War Period ........................................... 482

MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. New York: Central European University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-615-5053-46-7. 483 MAGOCSI, Paul R. a PADJAK, Valerij Ivanovič. Národ odnikud: ilustrované dějiny karpatských Rusínů. Užhorod: Vydavatelství V. Paďaka, 2014. 116 p. ISBN 978-966-387-092-2. 484 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. Chrbtom k horám: dejiny Karpatskej Rusi a karpatských Rusínov. Prešov: Universum, 2016. 485 The Rusyns of Hungary. [online]. Igazságügyi Minisztérium (Ministry of Justice). Human rights, 2014. Available from: http://emberijogok.kormany.hu/the-rusyns-of-hungary [Accessed 25 September 2019]. 486 POŽUN, Brian. The Rusyns of Hungary: End of the millennial struggle. Central Europe Review. 2001, 3 (16). Available at: http://www.ce-review.org/01/16/pozun16_2.html 487 PUSZTAI, Bertalan. Discoursing Boundaries: Hungarian Greek Catholic Identity Creation in the InterWar Period. In LAMBERG, Marko. Shaping ethnic identities: ethnic minorities in Northern and East Central European states and communities, c. 1450-2000. Helsinki: East-West Books, 2007, 35-68. ISBN 978-952-99592-3-5.

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in Shaping ethnic identities: ethnic minorities in northern and east central European states and communities, which explains the processes and strategies employed in the formation of Greek Catholic identity and how a relatively small group of people attempted to influence a complex situation by publishing articles in order to build a strong and cohesive community. In their book The Rusyns of Hungary: political and social developments, 18601910488, Mária Mayer and Boris János describe in detail the influence of AustroHungarian policy on the assimilation of the Rusyns. They analyse texts related to the struggle for political autonomy in the 1860s and the Hungarian-language Rusyn newspaper. The main themes are the Rusyn nationalist intelligentsia, Rusyn intellectuals who supported Hungarianisation, and Rusyn immigrants in the United States.

6.3. RESEARCH CONDUCTED The information presented in the following chapters is drawn from the existing world literature on issues related to the identity of Rusyns in Hungary. The main source of primary data was field research in Hungarian villages with a high proportion of Rusyns. The research was carried out in two phases in 2016 and 2017. In both cases, the technique of semi-standardised interviews was used. Due to time constraints, some interviews were conducted online via Skype. The technique of indirect interviews through email communication and Facebook was also used as a source of information. The first of the two villages visited was Komlóska [komloshka], with a population of 233, 85% of whom are Rusyn (the remaining 10% claim Hungarian nationality and 5% Slovak). It is located in the middle of the hills of the Tokaj region and has a Greek Catholic church, a primary school, a town hall and a Rusyn house. The second village, Múcsony [mučoň], covers an area of 17.55 km². Its population was 3,000 in 2015 and it is home to four minorities: Roma, Poles, Romanians and Rusyns. Since 1998, there has been a Rusyn museum on its territory, which is unfortunately closed today. There is also a church and a primary school.

........................................... 488

MAYER, Mária, János BORIS and Paul R MAGOCSI. The Rusyns of Hungary: political and social developments, 1860-1910. New York: Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-88033-387-0.

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Figure 129. Research carried out – Komlóska and Múcsony .

Overview of informants Name Gender Anna Matiaz woman László Popovič man Ján Kazmar man Tamás Hajdu man Maria Rakaczki Marcell Juhász Oleksandr Jonas Viktor Viszlai Lilla Kincses

woman man man man woman

employment Student Mayor farmer work in a nonprofit organisation teacher Singer history teacher Mayor Student

243

residence Komlóska Komlóska Komlóska Prague

ethnicity Rusyn Rusyn Slovak Hungarian

Múcsony Múcsony Múcsony Múcsony Múcsony

Rusyn Rusyn Rusyn Hungarian Hungarian

Hungary

Brief historical overview

6.4. BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 6.4.1. Hungary and national minorities The ethnic diversity and location of the Hungarian territory has been influenced by the Slavs, Celts, Gepids, Avars, Romans... The name Hungary is probably derived from the word Megyer - an important Hungarian tribe. Most Hungarians live in the area formerly known as the Kingdom of Hungary. Their origins are associated with migrants from the western Urals to the areas around the Don River between the fourth and sixth centuries AD. Significant changes in the Hungarian population occurred during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, which occupied much of Hungary, and the arrival of new European settlers, especially Germans.489 Between 1918 and 1920, the territory of historical Hungary was dissolved by the Treaty of Trianon, which was part of the Versailles system of peace treaties between the victors of the First World War and the so-called Central Powers. The original Hungarians cannot be fully associated with today's Hungary, even from an ethnic point of view - Hungarians made up less than half of the total population. The Treaty of Trianon created one of the largest national minorities in Europe, leaving hundreds of thousands of Hungarians (about a third) behind.490 On the other hand, a population of other ethnic origins remained on Hungarian territory, albeit in relatively small numbers compared with neighbouring countries, especially Czechoslovakia. According to the results of the census, Hungary had 833,000 inhabitants who declared a nationality other than Hungarian (nationality was determined by asking about the mother tongue), i.e. 10.4% of the total population. During the twentieth century, the number of Hungarians increased to 9.8 million today. However, the consequences of the Treaty of Trianon continue to have a negative impact on relations with neighbouring countries and on domestic politics.491 Certain national minorities are recognised on the basis of the definition in the 1993 Hungarian Minorities Act: Roma, German, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Polish, Bulgarian, Greek, Rusyn, Armenian and Slovenian. The 2011 census found that the number of people identifying themselves as ........................................... 489

SAWE, Benjamin Elisha. Ethnic Groups Of Hungary. [online]. Worldatlas, 2017 [cited 2018 Dec 4]. Available from: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/ethnic-groups-of-hungary.html 490 DEJMEK, Jindřich, LOUŽEK, Marek, ed. Trianonská smlouva: devadesát let poté: sborník textů. Praha: CEP – Centrum pro ekonomiku a politiku, 2010. Ekonomika, právo, politika. ISBN 978-8086547-92-3. 491 Souhrnná teritoriální informace Maďarsko [online] Zastupitelský úřad ČR v Budapešti. 2018 [cit. 4. 12. 2018]. Available from: http://publiccontent.sinpro.cz/PublicFiles/2018/05/17/Nahled%20STI%20(PDF)%20Madarsko%20%20Souhrnna%20teritorialni%20informace%20-%202018.1531

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belonging to one or more of these minorities had increased by one and a half times (146%) since 2001. The largest percentage increases were recorded for the Armenian and Bulgarian minorities. However, the number of members of these minorities is so small that it has had little impact on the overall increase. The greater impact was due to a two and a half fold increase in the number of ethnic Romanians and an increase in the number of people claiming to belong to the two largest ethnic groups in Hungary - Roma and Germans. The decline was more marked for the Slovak, Greek and Slovene minorities.492 The following table shows the exact numbers of increases or decreases in the Hungarian minorities, including the evolution of ethnic identity, mother tongue and language used in the family and immediate environment. Table 7. Overview of major ethnic minorities in Hungary in 2001 and 2011. Ethnicity language Total 493 Ethnicity Native language used in the family Nationality 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 Roma German Romanian Slovak Croatian Serbian Ukrainian Polish Bulgarian Greek Rusyn Armenian Slovenian

205,720 315,583 189,984 308,957 120,344 185,696 62,105 131,951 14,781 35,641 7,995 26,345 39,266 35,208 17,693 29,647 25,730 26,774 15,597 23,561 7,350 10,038 3,816, 7,210 7,393 7,396 5,070 5,633 5,144 7,001 2,962 5,730 2,316 6,272 1,358 3,556 6,619 4,642 2,509 3,916 2,079 3,882 1,098 3,323 1,165 3,571 620 3,293 4,832 2,820 3,025 2,385

48,438 33,774 8,482 11,817 14,326 3,388 4,885 2,580 1,299 1,921 1,113 294 3,180

54,339 38,248 13,886 9,888 13,716 3,708 3,384 3,049 2,899 1,872 999 444 1,723

53,075 52,912 8,215 18,057 14,779 4,186 4,519 2,659 1,118 1,974 1,068 300 3,108

61,143 95,661 17,983 16,266 16,053 5,713 3,245 3,815 2,756 2,346 1,131 496 1,745

Total 442,739 644,524 313,832 555,507 135,497 148,155 165,970 228,353 Source: TÓTH, Ágnes and János VÉKÁS. National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary in the Period 2001-2011 – Ethno-Demographic Trends as Reflected in the Census Data. Statisztikai Szemle. 2014, 92 (17), 95 – 112. ISSN 0039-0690.

In terms of ethnic identity, the Roma community is the largest, followed by the German, Romanian and Slovak communities. In terms of gender, the largest increase in the number of men was among Rusyns, Poles and Serbs, while the largest increase in the number of women was among Romanians and Armenians. ........................................... 492

TÓTH, Ágnes and János VÉKÁS. National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary in the Period 2001-2011 – Ethno-Demographic Trends as Reflected in the Census Data. STATISZTIKAI SZEMLE. 2014, 92 (17), 95-112. ISSN 0039-0690. 493 The number of persons who identify some connection to one of the thirteen recognized minorities.

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Further growth in the number of people claiming to belong to a Hungarian minority is uncertain for the future. This is due to the high rate of assimilation. About forty to sixty per cent of adult minority members live in ethnically mixed marriages. International researchers believe that the minority population (with the exception of the Roma) is fully integrated into Hungarian society, indicating a liberal minority policy and increasing assimilation rates.494 6.4.2. Rusyns in Hungary According to Magocsi, all groups of Rusyns living in several Central and Eastern European countries originated in the area of present-day Western Ukraine (formerly part of the Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Republic), in the territory of the so-called Podkarpatska Rus, which, after its annexation to the USSR, was renamed Zakarpatskaia oblast or Zakarpattya. With the exception of a few groups of Lemkos who lived north of the aforementioned territories (in present-day Poland), most of the migrating Rusyns moved south. In the 18th century they arrived in the north-east of present-day Hungary, where they settled in several villages. In addition to Miskolc, traces of the modern Rusyn migration can be found in Mukó, Görömböle and Múcsony. Some groups moved further south, so that the southernmost settlement of the Rusyns is still in Vojvodina. Some Rusyns also found a permanent home in Romania.495 The reason for moving south was probably the unfavourable living conditions: Maria Rakaczki, an English teacher at an elementary school in the village of Múcsony. Rusyns began arriving in what is now Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Serbia in the 18th century, mainly to improve their standard of living. They came down from the mountains because of hunger, better job opportunities and unfavourable natural conditions.

The original home of the Rusyns was at higher altitudes, hence their name the Upper Country. Historically, it was the most remote peripheral area of the Mediterranean agricultural cultures.496 In the inter-war period, i.e. after the forced conclusion of the Treaty of Trianon and the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary (Hungary was part of Austria........................................... 494

POŽUN, Brian. The Rusyns of Hungary: End of the millennial struggle. Central Europe Review [online]. 2001, 3 (16) [cited 2018-12-08]. Available from: http://www.cereview.org/01/16/pozun16_2.html 495 MAGOCSI, Paul R. With their backs to the mountains: a history of Carpathian Rus' and CarpathoRusyns. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-615-5053-46-7. MAYER, Mária, János BORIS and Paul R MAGOCSI. The Rusyns of Hungary: political and social developments, 1860-1910. New York: Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-88033-387-0. 496 POP, Ivan. Stručné dějiny Rusínů. Rusin [online]. 2018 [cit. 2018-12-05]. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/12627-sk/strucne-dejiny-rusinu-strucne-dejiny-rusinov/ MAGOCSI, Paul R. Národ odnikud: ilustrované dějiny karpatských Rusínů. Užhorod: Vydavatelství V. Paďaka, 2014. ISBN 978-966-387-092-2.

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Hungary until the end of the First World War), the Rusyn-speaking population of Greek-Catholic faith lived in several settlements scattered around the northeastern corner of the country. In the second half of the nineteenth century, these inhabitants were already heavily Hungarianised, but their religious beliefs were preserved. In the inter-war period there were no Rusyn cultural or civic institutions in Hungary and Romania, unlike in Serbian Vojvodina, Yugoslav Srem, North America and Canada.497 Rusyn communities after 1989 In the case of the present territory of Hungary, we can speak of two main Rusyn communities. The first community consists of the Rusyns living in the rural area of the north-eastern part of the country, in the counties of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén. Several villages were settled by Rusyns at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Their arrival coincided with the great wave of settlement in the Hungarian Great Plain, which was preceded by the exodus of the Ottoman Turks. As settlers with a tradition of almost two centuries, they can now be regarded as the original inhabitants of some villages in north-eastern Hungary. In the course of the 19th century, almost all the inhabitants of these villages (which numbered around 26,000 in the 1840s) were Hungarianised or Slovakised, while retaining their Greek-Catholic religion. As a result, in the second half of the twentieth century only two villages remained - Komlóska and Múcsony, whose inhabitants, especially the elderly, still speak a local dialect of Rusyn. Interestingly, during the communist era, these villages were considered Slovak and primary schools taught in Slovak.498

........................................... 497

PUSZTAI, Bertalan. Discoursing Boundaries: Hungarian Greek Catholic Identity Creation in the InterWar Period. In LAMBERG, Marko. Shaping ethnic identities: ethnic minorities in Northern and East Central European states and communities, c. 1450-2000. Helsinki: East-West Books, 2007, 35 – 68. ISBN 978-952-99592-3-5. VÉGHSEŐ, Tamás and Szilveszter TERDIK."--you have foreseen all of my paths--: Byzantine Rite Catholics in Hungary. Strasbourg: Éditions du Signe, 2012. ISBN 978-2-7468-2775-2. 498 TRIER, Tom, ed. Focus on the Rusyns: International Colloquium on the Rusyns of East Central Europe. Danish Cultural Institute, 1999. ISBN 978-87-74290-94-0.

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Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén

17

capital city

16

Pest

6

Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg

4

Heves

3

Komárom-Esztergom

2

Baranya

1

Fejér

1

Nógrád

1

Figure 130. Number and distribution of Rusyn minority municipalities in Hungary (2010). Data source: 2010 Gazetteer database [online] © Központi statisztikai hivatal (Hungarian Central Statistical Office), 2010 cit. [25. 3. 2013] Available from: . Map base: https://www.google.com/maps

The second largest Rusyn community today is found mainly in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It is represented by Rusyns who were attracted to the city in the second half of the nineteenth century by the opportunities for professional advancement and improved economic status. Most of the newcomers in the period before the First World War quickly assimilated and took Hungarian citizenship. The family of the informant Marcell also went to Budapest:499 ........................................... 499

MAGOCSI, Paul R. With their backs to the mountains: a history of Carpathian Rus' and CarpathoRusyns. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-615-5053-46-7.

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Marcell. When I was 10, we moved from Múcsony to Budapest. It was my parents' decision because they didn't like the isolated life in the village. They wanted me to be able to study at the Hungarian Conservatory of Music - for that a good education in other schools was important, and such opportunities were limited in Múcsony. My parents feel that they are Rusyns, but I am not, nor do I observe Rusyn traditions - Easter is celebrated normally in the Hungarian community.

It is ironic that the state's Hungarisation programme in the second half of the 19th century and the Hungarisation of the Greek Catholic eparchy of Hajdúdorog were initiated and implemented mainly by the Hungarised Rusyns in Budapest.500 A century later, in the 1990s, more young Rusyns from rural northeastern Hungary settled in Budapest. Compared to the Rusyns from post-communist Transcarpathia, they were only a fraction of the newcomers and did not stay long. They were mostly temporary workers who moved on to Prague. The next wave of newcomers from Transcarpathia has lasted for the last twenty years and consists mainly of doctors, engineers, musicians and artists. Many of them have a clear sense of national identity, whether Rusyn or Ukrainian.501 The position of the Rusyn community changed dramatically following the adoption of a law by the Hungarian Parliament in 1993. The new law guaranteed a system of self-government for the thirteen officially recognised national minorities, making it unique in Europe. Since the first self-government was established in Múcsony in 1994, the number of self-governments has grown to nine in 1998, thirty-two in 2003 and seventy-two ten years later. Almost half of the municipalities are located in the northeast of Hungary, and only fourteen of them are in traditional Rusyn villages, i.e. municipalities with a significant population of Rusyn origin in the nineteenth century. The majority of minority communities are located in Budapest and the Pest area. All the communities are represented by the national association Derzhavnoe samouriadovanja menshynŷ rusynov, based in Budapest, which has acted as their spokesperson and negotiated with the Hungarian authorities since 1998. The Rusyns also have a representative in the Hungarian Parliament - only in Hungary and Romania do national minorities have representatives in national parliaments. The entire administrative structure of the communities is funded by the Hungarian government, including grants for projects proposed by individual communities, such as publications (e.g. the monthly magazine Rusyns'kŷj svit /

........................................... 500

TRIER, Tom, ed. Focus on the Rusyns: International Colloquium on the Rusyns of East Central Europe. Danish Cultural Institute, 1999. ISBN 978-87-74290-94-0. VÉGHSEŐ, Tamás and Szilveszter TERDIK."--you have foreseen all of my paths--: Byzantine Rite Catholics in Hungary. Strasbourg: Éditions du Signe, 2012. ISBN 978-2-7468-2775-2. 501 TRIER, Tom, ed. Focus on the Rusyns... c. d.

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Русинськый світ / Ruszin Világ, 2003-present), public lectures, school conferences, exhibitions, concerts and primary schools with Rusyn classes.502 In the late 1990s, it became increasingly clear that there were concrete benefits to be gained from belonging to a national minority in Hungary. Because the criteria for self-identification were liberal, the system was open to abuse. As critics agree, it has become a target for people seeking personal gain and victims of the so-called ethno-business. While many people legitimately rediscovered their Rusyn roots, there were also those, including ethnic Hungarians, who suddenly became Rusyns for the purpose of enrichment. However, the increasing number of cultural and national support activities of the Rusyn communities had a significant impact. Statistics show that between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, the number of people in Hungary claiming Rusyn nationality tripled to 3,882. Some Rusyn organisations even estimate the actual number of Rusyns on the territory of Hungary at 6,000.503 Despite internal disputes over the language issue (see the chapter on language), some Rusyn communities (mainly from Budapest and Vác) were very successful in promoting Rusyn culture to the Hungarian public. The establishment of a Department of Ukrainian and Rusyn Philology at the University of Nyíregyháza was also of great importance. Under the leadership of its founder, the linguist István Udvari, research and publications on various Rusyn topics were promoted for more than ten years. Unfortunately, after his untimely death in 2005, the department ceased to function in August 2013. This experience in Nyíregyháza shows the fragility and immobility of the Rusyn movement in Hungary, which depends on the work of a few individuals. After their departure, it is very difficult to find a suitable successor.504 The Rusyn community in Hungary is small in number and has done little to attract the younger generation to its ranks, despite the operation of two Rusynlanguage school classes. Table 8. Age composition of Hungarian Rusyn population, 2011 0 – 14 15 – 39 40 – 59 60 and more Year 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 2001 2011 Number of 174 299 784 1,231 716 1,286 406 1,066 persons Source: TÓTH, Ágnes and János VÉKÁS. National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary in the Period 2001-2011 – Ethno-Demographic Trends as Reflected in the Census Data. Statisztikai Szemle. 2014, 92 (17), 95-112. ISSN 0039-0690.

........................................... 502

MAGOCSI, Paul R. With their backs to the mountains: a history of Carpathian Rus' and CarpathoRusyns. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-615-5053-46-7. 503 POŽUN, Brian. The Rusyns of Hungary: End of the millennial struggle. Central Europe Review [online]. 2001, 3(16) [cited 2018-12-08]. Available from: http://www.cereview.org/01/16/pozun16_2.html 504 MAGOCSI, Paul R. With their backs..., c. d.

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For the future of the Rusyn community in Hungary (as for other minority groups), the compactness of the settlement is important. This compactness depends, among other things, on the proportion of the population that was born and still lives in a particular village. In this respect, the situation of Hungarian Rusyns is notorious (and a similar situation applies to other ethnic minorities in Hungary). Only about 15% of Rusyns remain in the same place where they were born. Although this proportion is many times higher than that of the Romanians, for example (this is of course connected with the fact that the Romanian population is moving en masse from Romania to the border areas of eastern Hungary505), it is a very small number. For comparison, in the Czech Republic, in border areas and in places with high unemployment (Chomutov, Most), the share of native-born is around 25%. In places with the highest number of native-born people (Slovácko, Vysočina), the proportion is around 70%.506 Table 9. Percentage of persons of Hungarian ethnic minorities residing in the same place since birth, 2011. Ethnic group Percentage of people of a given ethnicity who have resided in the same place since birth Germans 17.8% Rusyns 15.1% Bulgarians 14.5% Armenians 13.7% Poles 11.8% Serbs 10.2% Romanians 5.8% Source: TÓTH, Ágnes; VÉKÁS, János. National and ethnic minorities in Hungary in the period 2001-2011. Ethno-demographic trends as reflected in the census data. Hungarian Statistical Review, 2014, 17: 95-112.

Despite their small numbers, which are negligible compared to the Rusyn communities in Ukraine or Slovakia, the Hungarian Rusyns enjoy significantly better living conditions. Brian Požun (2001) even describes the Rusyns in Hungary as the most satisfied Rusyn community in Europe. This is due to the historic turn of events with the introduction of the Law on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities. Evidence of this satisfaction is provided by László's assessment of the situation: We are happy to live in Hungary, our grandfather lived here, our grandmother lived here, and the state treats us well and gives us many benefits. Many of us have taken jobs in local government and the state provides a lot of money for the development of the Rusyn nation and its

........................................... 505

KOKAISL, Petr. Etnické minority v Evropě. V Praze: Česká zemědělská univerzita, Provozně ekonomická fakulta, 2014. ISBN 978-80-213-2524-1., p. 251. 506 CIBULKA, Jan; HOLINKOVÁ, Petra; PEŘESTÁ, Karolína. Velká mapa rodáků. [online] © 1997-2019 Český rozhlas. [cit. 10. 10. 2018] Available from: https://www.irozhlas.cz/zpravy-domov/velka-maparodaku-kde-jsou-lide-verni-sve-obci_1704190600_cib

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culture. It seems to me that relations are improving from year to year and I know from the stories of Slovaks, Romanians and Ukrainian Hutsuls that we are doing well and better than them. I dare to predict that in the future the Hungarian Rusyns will have one of the best living conditions in the whole of Europe compared to others.

Relations between Rusyns and Hungarians The satisfaction of the local Rusyns with their lives also stems from good relations with the Hungarian inhabitants. Although the Rusyns have lived in north-eastern Hungary for centuries and consider the local landscape to be their traditional homeland, it is the Hungarians who administer these territories. The Rusyns have no problem with the situation described above and greatly appreciate the Hungarian recognition of their identity. In the course of the testimonies, there was never any mention of the Rusyns' desire to secede from Hungary, to form their own state or to emigrate to another country. For the sake of illustration, two extracts from the interviews were selected, each with an informant of a different ethnic origin. Tamás (Rusyn). I think relations between the two nations are very good. There are relatively few Rusyns in our country, they have been living in scattered villages for centuries and nobody minds. It's just a peculiarity in northern Hungary. Maybe many Hungarians don't even know that Russians live here. They do make their presence felt in the media and at various cultural events, but it's more or less always on a regional level. They don't cause any problems, they live in peace and the Hungarians give them maximum freedom. Ján (Hungarian). In my opinion, relations between the two nations are good, I know many Hungarian Rusyns and I hear more praise for our national leadership from them than abuse. I think they are doing well, the state supports them a lot. And as far as Hungarians are concerned, we don't mind Russians at all. Their moonshine is the best drink around, and they're fun to be around. But my cousin has a daughter who said there was a Russian girl in her class and they used to laugh at her. They're not very rich and they're all from the village. They don't make a fuss, but you can tell they come from a lower class. Most of them are farmers or work in a factory. But from my point of view they behave well, so why not support them?

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6.5. IDENTITY OF THE INHABITANTS The identity of the Rusyn population in Hungary has been strengthening in recent years, albeit not very quickly. Hungarian Rusyns are increasingly claiming their Rusyn ethnicity, as the census data from the last 30 years shows quite convincingly. While in the 1970, 1980 and 1990 Hungarian censuses Rusyn ethnicity was not mentioned at all (the question remains whether declaring Rusyn ethnicity in the census in this period was even possible), in 2001 only 2,079 persons declared Rusyn ethnicity (only 162 persons considered Rusyn as their mother tongue in this census); Rusyn ethnicity reappears in Hungarian statistics after 71 years), and ten years later, during the census, there were already 3,882 persons declaring Rusyn nationality.507 Apart from the official census, Rusyns in Hungary can also declare their nationality in elections to local minority governments - in this case, more Rusyns registered to vote than identified themselves as Rusyns in the census - in 2010, 4,228 people were registered as Rusyn minority voters on 124 electoral lists.508 Although for a long time the Rusyns on the territory of Hungary did not declare their Rusyn ethnicity, in some respects it was still characterised by a distinct specificity, including (as with Rusyns living in other countries) a strong attachment to the Christian faith of the Eastern liturgical tradition. The celebration of festivals based on the ecclesiastical calendar was also closely linked to religion, while language (despite its undeniable importance in ethnic consciousness) was always at least a notch lower in importance. However, this is now beginning to change and Hungarian Rusyns are beginning to see the Rusyn language as an integral part of their identity. 6.5.1. Religion The Byzantine religious tradition so typical of the Rusyns has a very long history in what is now Hungary - several monasteries were founded in the 11th and 12th centuries, but were destroyed in the 13th century as a result of the Mongol-Tatar invasions. In the 15th and 16th centuries, a number of Orthodox Serbs, Rusyns, Slovaks and Greeks moved here as a result of the population exodus caused by the Turkish invasion. Many of them eventually became Catholics, but retained the Byzantine rites. In the 18th century, some Protestant Hungarians adopted Catholicism and the Byzantine rite, joining the ranks of the Byzantine Catholics (Greek Catholics) and thus falling under the jurisdiction of the non-Hungarian ........................................... 507

BOJER, Anasztázia. 2011. évi népszámlálás. Budapest: Központi Statisztikai Hivatal, 2012-. ISBN 978963-235-347-0. 508 Ruszinok ma Magyarországon. [online] Nemzetiségek.hu – Barátság – kulturális és közéleti folyóirat – online, 2013. [cited 27 September 2019] Available from: http://nemzetisegek.hu/repertorium/2013/02/belivek_16-17.pdf

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Byzantine bishops. As the Greek Catholics became more integrated into Hungarian society, demands began to be made for the use of the Hungarian language in the liturgy, although the Church authorities did not approve of such innovations.509 In the second half of the 19th century, the Hungarianisation programme and the programme for the Hungarianisation of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Hajdúdorog - these processes were initiated and implemented mainly by the Hungarianised Rusyns from Budapest. An important milestone in the history of the Church was in 1900, when a large group of Hungarian Greek Catholics made a pilgrimage to Rome as part of the Jubilee celebrations, where they presented a petition to Pope Leo XIII asking for his blessing to use the Hungarian language in the liturgy and to establish a separate diocese. This issue was discussed for a long time in Rome and Budapest, until finally, on 18 June 1912, the next Pope Pius X created the diocese of Hajdúdorog for 162 Hungarian-speaking Greek Catholic parishes. However, the use of Hungarian was only allowed outside the liturgy: the liturgy was to be celebrated in Greek, and the priests had three years to learn it. However, the First World War broke out and the requirements for the use of Greek ceased to apply. In the 1930s the necessary liturgical books were published in Hungarian. On 4 June 1924, an apostolic exarchate was established in Miskolc for 21 Rusyn parishes, which until then had belonged to the diocese of Prešov, but after the establishment of Czechoslovakia remained territorially in Hungary. This exarchate was exceptional in that it used the Slavic language of the Church in its liturgy. In the 1940s, however, the liturgy was changed to Hungarian, and since then the Apostolic Exarchate has been under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Hajdúdorog. The diocese of Hajdúdorog originally covered only eastern Hungary and Budapest (the areas with the largest Rusyn population). In the 1980s, however, all Greek Catholics in Hungary were brought under its jurisdiction.510 Today, the Greek Catholic Church of Hungary has the following hierarchy: the Greek Catholic Metropolitan is the head, under whom is the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Hajdúdorog, which includes the Eparchy of Miskolc and the Eparchy of Nyíregyháza. Despite the significant Hungarianization in the second half of the nineteenth century, the religious beliefs of the Rusyns were pres. They were governed by the Hungarian Eparchy511 of Hajdúdorog with its seat in Nyíregyháza, on whose territory the Basilian Monastery of the Order of St Basil the Great in Máriapócsu is located. This basilica was an important place of pilgrimage, especially for the ........................................... 509

ROBERTSON, Ronald. Vostočnye christianskie cerkvi. Cerkovno-istoričeskij spravočnik. Sankt Peterburg, 1999, p. 63. 510 ROBERTSON, Ronald. c. d. 511 A territorial-administrative unit of the Greek Catholic, Orthodox and Eastern Churches, headed by an eparch. An eparchy can be likened to a Roman Catholic diocese and an eparch to a bishop.

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Czechoslovak Rusyns (from Subcarpathian Rus and Prešov), despite the state borders. They gathered here every year on 15 August, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The overwhelming majority of Rusyns still belong to the Greek Catholic Church. Therefore, religious affiliation may well be an indicator of belonging to the Rusyn culture, even if many residents do not declare it in the census. An example of the different understanding of ethnicity in the past (which continues to exist for many Rusyns today) is the village of Múcsony: according to the 1910 census, it was almost exclusively Hungarian (1,401 Hungarians out of 1,405 inhabitants, or 99.7%). However, in 1910 there were differences in the statistics of religious affiliation: of the 1,405 inhabitants, 1,216 were Greek Catholics (86.4%), 116 were Roman Catholics (8.3%) and 47 were Jews (3.3%). Maria. In Múcsony there is a building over 100 years old which was originally a primary school, and about 7 years ago someone discovered a record from the 1920s where a pupil's name was not Hungarian but Rusyn, which is interesting to say the least.

Whereas at the beginning of the 20th century almost all the inhabitants of the village claimed Hungarian nationality (or were officially registered as such) and the differences between the various groups were mainly in the religious sphere, today a large part of the Greek-Catholic population identifies as Rusyns and is ethnically separate. However, this is not entirely true - not all Greek Catholics identify as Rusyns and vice versa. Múcsony has been the seat of the Apostolic Exarchate of Miskolc since 1972.

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Figure 131. Church in Múcsony . Retrieved from: http://mucsony.hu, http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2017:rusini_v_madarsku

Religious faith and the relationship with the Church are a strong element of their self-confidence and still belong to the lives of most of the inhabitants of Komlóska, as the testimony of the informant Anna confirms: My family and I go to church every Sunday. Usually the whole village gathers and everyone is excited about the service. It's also a social event, because after the service everyone gets together, either outside the church or in the pub, to discuss what happened during the week or what's coming up.

There is only one church in Múcsony, so Rusyns have to attend church with Hungarians or other minorities such as Poles, Romanians and Roma. Services are held in Hungarian, but on holidays such as Easter and Christmas they are also held in Rusyn. Even songs are sung in Rusyn (rorats and carols). In December 2011, a group of sixty-four Rusyn Catholics made a pilgrimage to Rome with the support of the local Rusyn self-government organisation.

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6.5.2. Celebrations and holidays An important and typically Rusyn holiday is the artificially created "Rusyn Day". It falls on the 1st of August, but the celebration lasts for two days. In Komlóska it is celebrated in the Rusyn House cultural centre, about two kilometres outside the village, where all guests can stay overnight. A dirt road leads from Komlóska through the forest. Over seven hundred people from all the countries where Rusyns live attend the event every year. Preparations have been underway since the beginning of July, when e-mail invitations and posters were sent to all known Rusyn associations. Paper invitations are sent only to the known ones and in thousands of copies.

Figure 132. President of the Rusyn Association with an invitation to the festival. Komlóska, 19 July 2015, photo: Šárka Hlaváčková.

Guests from abroad usually arrive the day before the event and spend the night in the Rusyn House. The following two days are spent dancing, singing and preparing goulash, pierogi and pigeon over an open fire. There is so much food that the whole event is like a showcase of Rusyn gastronomy. There is also a tasting of home-made spirits. If the Hutsuls from Ukraine accept the invitation, the greatest experience is their Cossack dance, which includes various acrobatic elements.

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Figure 133. Rusyn Cultural House. Komlóska, 19 July 2015, photo: Šárka Hlaváčková.

Other holidays celebrated by the Rusyns are linked to their strong ties with religion. As mentioned above, they belong to the Greek Catholic Church (some also belong to the Orthodox Church). The celebrations of Christmas, Easter or Carnival have little to do with their Rusyn origins. They are occasions for meetings and cultural events. They are also an opportunity for those who have traditional costumes to dust them off. The Rusyn origins are connected with the February celebrations in memory of Antal Hodinka512, the March series of events celebrating the birth of František (Ferenc) II Rákóczi in Sárospatak and Borsi, the Alexander Duchnovič Memorial Days in April and the celebrations at the Szentendre Open-air Museum on the first weekend in September to commemorate the birth of the Virgin Mary.513 Dressing Rusyn costumes vary according to the region from which they originate and still have their place in the ethnic consciousness of the Rusyns. The purchase of a costume is certainly not a cheap affair, and therefore it is not found in the ........................................... 512

Antal Hodinka (✵13.1.1864 Ladomirov, today Slovakia - ✟15.8.1946 Budapest) was a university professor of Rusyn origin who was interested in linguistics, archiving, librarianship and history. 513 The Rusyns of Hungary. [online]. Igazságügyi Minisztérium (Ministry of Justice). Human rights, 2014. Available from: http://emberijogok.kormany.hu/the-rusyns-of-hungary [Accessed 25 September 2019].

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wardrobes of all Rusyn households. They are only worn on festive occasions such as weddings, Easter, Shrovetide and Christmas. This preserves their uniqueness. In the village of Komlóska, the informant Lászlo talked about the wearing of costumes: The costumes have always helped us to distinguish ourselves from other nations and other Rusyn groups. They are very expensive and timeconsuming to make, as they often consist of several layers of fabric and are richly embroidered. If someone has a costume today, it is undoubtedly an original from a bygone era. In Komlóska the costumes are mostly worn during the Rusyn Day celebrations. The most beautiful costumes of the Hungarian Rusyns are exhibited in the Museum of Rusyn Culture in Budapest.

Figure 134. Rusyn National Day 2018. Source: SZÓNOCZKY, János Mihály. Rusyn National Meeting 2018. Ruszin Világ [online]. 2018, 16(131), 10 [cited 2018 Dec 8]. ISSN 1785-1149.

Figure 135, 136. Bryndza festival in Rachiv (2018). Source: SZNÓNOCZKI, Mária. XIX фестівал брынзы у Рахові. Ruszin Világ [online]. 2018, 16 (133), 10-11 [cited 2018 Aug 12]. Available from: http://www.rusyn.hu/files/2018/RV_szeptokt_2018.pdf

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6.5.3. Language The issue of introducing a Hungarian version of the Rusyn language has so far been bogged down by the different origins of the Rusyns in Hungary, which has contributed to the emergence of two rival camps: the first is made up of people who live in or come from villages in north-eastern Hungary, and the second is made up of recent immigrants from Transcarpathia. Their differences are mainly reflected in the so-called language issue. The dispute is about what form the Hungarian version of Rusyn should take, what it should be based on: whether it should be based on the spoken dialects of the main Hungarian villages with Rusyn populations (Komlóska or Múcsony) or on the dialects spoken by immigrants from Transcarpathia. However, the Komlós dialect also includes a number of Slovak borrowings and has many Eastern Slovak elements. As in all countries with a Rusyn community, the Rusyn language in Hungary has been strongly influenced by the majority language, in this case Hungarian. The rules of Rusyn orthography in Hungary are based on the phonetic and morphological system and the basis of the Komlóš dialect. Technical terms and expressions that do not exist in this language are replaced mainly by the Prešov variant of Rusyn. As the Komlóš dialect is spoken by the majority of local Rusyns in Hungary (although this dialect is not uniform), it has also become a means of expression for Rusyn poets (e.g. Gabriel Hattinger).514 An example of a poem in the Komlóš dialect515: Зоз болота…

Zoz bolota…

Зоз болота тя створили та од того терпнеш, краджений стілчок твоїм троном што на днеска не хцеш.

Zoz bolota tja stvoryly ta od toho terpneš, kradženyj stilčok tvojim tronom što na dneska ne chceš.

Пережыє і тебе книжка, годинка зоз злата, перо з котрим єс верши писал, чорна ночна лампа.

Perežyje i tebe knyžka, hodynka zoz zlata, pero z kotrym jes veršy pysal, čorna nočna lampa.

I зеїзница далей ходит, шитко тя забуде, бо зоз болота тя створили мозоґ од того терпне.

I zejiznyca dalej chodyt, šytko tja zabude, bo zoz bolota tja stvoryly mozog od toho terpne.

........................................... BENEDEK, Gergej. Madjarsko. In: MAGOCSI, Paul R. (ed.) Rusynʹskyĭ ͡iazyk. Opole: University of Opole, Institute of Polish Philology, 2004. ISBN 83-86881-38-0, pp. 263-266. 515 HATTINGER-KLEBAŠKO, Gabriel (Ґabriel GATTINGER-KLEBAŠKO). Zoz bolota... Rusín 3-4, 2003. Further availability: http://lemko.org/books/Rusyn/R2003_03-04.pdf 514

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It is clear from the above that there is no single dialect even in northeastern Hungary. According to informants, the Rusyn language of the inhabitants of Komlóska is less understandable to Rusyns from Múcsony, ninety kilometres away, than the language of Rusyns from Slovakia and Serbia. On the other hand, Rusyns from Múcsony get on well with Rusyns from Ukraine. Some linguists in the 1940s clearly associated the local population with the Slovaks, describing the language of the Rusyns of Múcsona as a "quite normal dialect of the East Slavic type" and writing about the inhabitants of Múcsona that they "came from Zemplín".516 The research conducted showed that the Rusyn language is one of the most important factors in defining oneself in relation to the majority. It could be said that Rusyn is currently experiencing a modest national revival. This can be judged by the fact that more books, magazines and newspapers are being produced than ever before. The Rusyn Bear literary prize was also established to promote the Rusyn literary language. It is the Alexander Dukhnovich Prize for Rusyn Literature (Rusyn Oscar - a statuette in the shape of a Carpathian bear). There is also the Cyril and Methodius Prize for the development of the Rusyn language and the Prize for significant contribution to the Rusyn nation. These are awards that apply to the entire Rusyn context, not just Hungary, and are presented on important occasions. The literary prize was awarded annually from 1998 to 2015 (inclusive). The spoken language has been handed down from generation to generation and is still spoken at home in some families. The situation is worse with the written form of Rusyn. Many people, especially young people, have no knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet and its use in Rusyn. Since it is a Slavic language, Hungarians often have difficulty distinguishing it from Slovak. Many Hungarians do not even know that there is a Rusyn minority in Hungary, let alone what its language is. This information was confirmed by the informant Marie, who also shared the memory of her grandparents from the socialist era, which was not very sympathetic to minorities: In the 90s we were called Tót, which means Slovak in Hungarian. The Hungarians thought we were Slovaks who only spoke a dialect. When my grandparents travelled to Czechoslovakia by train and spoke Rusyn to each other, the Hungarian passengers made fun of their language. My grandmother thinks that the Hungarians envied them because they spoke a language similar to other Slavic languages and could therefore communicate better.

........................................... 516

ŠTOLC, Jozef. Nárečie troch slovenských ostrovov v Maďarsku. Bratislava: SAVU, 1949, pp. 304, 429.

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6.5.4. Education If parents wish, they can send their children to one of the two primary schools where Rusyn is taught as an optional subject, with a subsidy of five hours a week.

Figure 137. The primary school in Múcsony (Kalász László Általános Iskola).

Unfortunately, children are taught only the spoken form of the language, although textbooks exist. Miriann Lyavinecz has published the books Rusyn Alphabet and Rusyn Conversation. In 2017, experts from the Rusyn community completed a Hungarian-Rusyn dictionary and a Rusyn orthographic dictionary (compiled by M. Kapraly) in order to protect their mother tongue.517 The teaching of the Rusyn language is authorised by Act LXXVII, which, in its thirteenth paragraph "b", grants Hungarian national minorities the right to participate in education and training in their mother tongue. There is also the possibility of attending voluntary courses for children and adults. Maria Rakaczki, an English teacher at the primary school in the village of Múcsony. There is a growing interest in voluntary Rusyn lessons. If you want to learn Rusyn, it means at least 5 extra lessons a week. 8% of pupils learn Rusyn and are encouraged to do so by their parents with Rusyn roots. I would say that the interest in Rusyn is helped by our strong connection with our faith and also by our traditions - we sing Rusyn songs. But not only that, thanks to our faith we visit Rusyns from other countries from time to time. About 3 years ago we visited Rusyns from Prešov.

........................................... 517

The Rusyns of Hungary. Human rights [online]. 2014 [cited 2018 Dec 9]. Available from: http://emberijogok.kormany.hu/the-rusyns-of-hungary

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Interestingly, despite the overall support for Rusyn, the statistics of its speakers have not changed much. The number of people using Rusyn in communication with family, friends and the immediate environment increased slightly from 2001 to 2011, from 1,068 to 1,131.518 6.5.5. Media and associations In 1991, young activists from Komlóska, led by the musician and poet Gabriel (Gábor) Hattinger, founded the Organisation of Rusyns in Hungary / Organizacija Rusynov v Maďarsku. Soon after its establishment, the organisation moved its headquarters to Budapest, where it received financial support from the Hungarian government's National Minorities Support Programme. The next steps were the publication of the first bilingual magazine Rusynskŷj žŷvot / Rusynskiy žyvoot and participation in the World Congress of Rusyns (1994). Gábor Hattinger became the director of the Rusyn-language programme Rondo within the State Radio for National Minorities.519 Over time, another magazine, Vsederžavnŷj Rusynskŷj Visnyk, was added, and in 2005 the bimonthly Rusyn magazine Rusyns'kŷj svit / Русинськый світ / Ruszin Világ (Rusyn World).

Figure 138. The Rusyn bimonthly Ruszin Világ (Rusyn World). Source : http://www.rusyn.hu/hu/galeria/ruszin-vilag

The first Rusyn television programme was broadcast in 1996. Initially, the Rusyn-language programme was broadcast once a month on the M1 television ........................................... 518

TÓTH, Ágnes and János VÉKÁS. National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary in the Period 2001-2011 – Ethno-Demographic Trends as Reflected in the Census Data. STATISZTIKAI SZEMLE. 2014, 92 (17), 95 – 112. ISSN 0039-0690. 519 MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. New York: Central European University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-615-5053-46-7.

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channel, but in October 1997 it was moved to the Duna TV-n channel as a weekly programme. Other Rusyn organisations include the Andy Warhol Art Association, founded in 1995, the Antal/Anthony Hodinka Rusyn Research Institute, founded in 1996, and the Rusyn Museum in Múcsony, opened in 1998. Since 2004, the Antal/Antonije Hodinka Prize has been awarded annually for achievements in the preservation and development of the Rusyn language, culture, traditions and religious values.520 There are a number of successful Rusyn associations that focus on preserving cultural values. Examples include the Bethlehem Group and the Rusyn Women's Choir in Komlóska, the ÁMK Young Folk and Dance Group in Múcsony and the Cservená Ruzsá Women's Choir. The children's choir and dance group are based in Budapest. The Hodinka String Quartet is also worth mentioning. 6.5.6. Kitchen Traditional Rusyn dishes are based on simple and readily available (local) foods that the Rusyns were able to grow themselves. Generally speaking, they were never a wealthy class of people. They usually worked in the villages as farmers and craftsmen, and this is reflected in the traditional dishes. Among the most famous Rusyn dishes are pierogi and borscht. It would be easy to confuse them with traditional Ukrainian cuisine, but if you look closely you can see (and taste) the differences. The way they are prepared depends on where you live. In Ukraine pierogi are usually made with bryndza, in Romania with mushrooms and meat, and in Hungary mainly with cabbage. It is prepared by making a dough from flour, potatoes and lard, which is then rolled out and shaped into a triangle. These are then usually stuffed with cabbage (in the case of Hungary), wrapped and cooked in salted water and oil. Borscht is also made from local ingredients - root vegetables, especially beetroot and cabbage, and beef. Other traditional dishes include kapustnica cabbage soup, zakručaniky - poppy seed strudel, mačanka - mushroom soup and cold plum soup. At Easter (and not only then) you should prepare Rusyns szirok. This is a lumpy yellow cheese with eggs. According to informants, every proper Rusyn household should also have its own brandy, produced in a home distillery. Such brandy is served with most meals and consumed in large quantities during festivals and celebrations.

........................................... 520

POŽUN, Brian. The Rusyns of Hungary: End of the millennial struggle. Central Europe Review [online]. 2001, 3(16) [cited 8 December 2018]. Available from: http://www.cereview.org/01/16/pozun16_2.html

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Figure 139. Preparation of pierogi. Photo Šárka Hlaváčková. Varied Europe, 2015.

6.6. CONCLUSION Although the Rusyn minority in Hungary is small in number, its members express great satisfaction with the current situation. This was not always the case. Pressure to assimilate has not always come only from Hungarians, but also from within their own ranks. From an estimated 26,000 Rusyns in the 1940s, their number had fallen to 2,079 in 2001. Assimilation has affected all aspects of Rusyn identity except religion. Hungarian Rusyns have developed a strong relationship with religion and are overwhelmingly members of the Greek Catholic Church. Only a few are Orthodox. An important milestone in the history of Rusyn was 1993, when the Law on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities came into force. As a result of the adoption of the law, minorities began to be supported in their self-government, which led to a great revival of most of them. The census statistics clearly prove this. For the Rusyn minority, this step was a helping hand in their efforts to preserve and develop their cultural heritage. The financial support and involvement of some Rusyns led to the revival of the declining Rusyn culture. Rusyn is currently taught in two primary schools and a number of voluntary courses. Interestingly, the schools only teach the spoken form of the language, not 265

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the written form. Textbooks have been published for study purposes, and a RusynHungarian dictionary is in preparation. At the same time, Rusyn is used in radio and television programmes and in two magazines. The celebration of Rusyn Day is also part of a contemporary initiative to strengthen ethnic awareness. This newly established holiday falls on 1 August and Rusyns from all over Europe are invited to attend. The celebrations include traditional dishes such as borscht, cabbage dumplings, kapustnica, zakručaniky, mushroom mačanka and szirok. Not to be missed is the famous homemade pálinka. The celebrations also include traditional singing, dancing and sometimes even costumes. However, not all Rusyns have them in their wardrobes, as they are very expensive. The most beautiful of the Rusyn costumes can be seen in the Rusyn Museum in Budapest. Mutual relations between Rusyns and Hungarians are more than good, probably because of the high level of assimilation. From the Hungarian point of view, the Rusyns are ordinary people of rather poorer economic conditions, who maintain their traditions and do not restrict anyone. For many Hungarians, the Rusyns are a kind of curiosity in the north-east of the country, if they have ever heard of them at all.

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7. SUMMARY English The aim of this monograph is to present the current situation of Rusyns in those European countries where their numbers are highest, according to official or estimated statistics, such as Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Serbia. In presenting the situation of the Rusyn population in these countries, an attempt has been made to highlight the number of Rusyns in the countries under study, while at the same time addressing the challenges of obtaining accurate data on Rusyns. Another aim of the research was to identify the main elements of Rusyn ethnic identity, with religious affiliation and Byzantine rite (Catholic or Orthodox) emerging as the most prominent factors, regardless of geographical differences. The research also focused on the use of the Rusyn language, changes in its status, opportunities for teaching the language and the level of interest in learning it among Rusyns themselves. In addition to these two main aspects of Rusyn identity, other key elements of Rusyn material and non-material culture were also explored. The research relied mainly on qualitative methods to complement the available quantitative data. Українська Метою цієї монографії є представлення сучасного становища русинів у тих європейських країнах, де їхня чисельність, згідно з офіційною або оціночною статистикою, є найвищою, а саме: в Україні, Словаччині, Польщі, Угорщині та Сербії. Представляючи ситуацію русинського населення в цих країнах, було зроблено спробу висвітлити чисельність русинів у досліджуваних країнах, водночас звертаючи увагу на проблеми з отриманням точних даних про русинів. Іншою метою дослідження було визначити основні елементи русинської етнічної ідентичності, причому релігійна приналежність і візантійський обряд (католицький чи православний) виявилися найбільш помітними факторами, незалежно від географічних відмінностей. Дослідження також зосередилося на використанні русинської мови, змінах у її статусі, можливостях викладання мови та рівні зацікавленості у її вивченні серед самих русинів. Крім цих двох основних аспектів русинської ідентичності, були також досліджені інші ключові елементи русинської матеріальної та нематеріальної культури. Дослідження спиралося переважно на якісні методи, які доповнювали наявні кількісні дані.

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Summary

Conclusion

Slovensky Cieľom tejto monografie je predstaviť súčasnú situáciu Rusínov v tých európskych krajinách, kde je ich počet podľa oficiálnych alebo odhadovaných štatistík najvyšší, ako sú Ukrajina, Slovensko, Poľsko, Maďarsko a Srbsko. Pri prezentácii situácie rusínskeho obyvateľstva v týchto krajinách bola snaha poukázať na počet Rusínov v skúmaných krajinách a zároveň sa venovať problémom pri získavaní presných údajov o Rusínoch. Ďalším cieľom výskumu bolo identifikovať hlavné prvky rusínskej etnickej identity, pričom ako najvýznamnejšie faktory sa ukázali náboženská príslušnosť a byzantský obrad (katolícky alebo pravoslávny), a to bez ohľadu na geografické rozdiely. Výskum sa zameral aj na používanie rusínskeho jazyka, zmeny v jeho postavení, možnosti výučby jazyka a úroveň záujmu o jeho štúdium medzi samotnými Rusínmi. Okrem týchto dvoch hlavných aspektov rusínskej identity sa skúmali aj ďalšie kľúčové prvky rusínskej materiálnej a nemateriálnej kultúry. Výskum sa opieral najmä o kvalitatívne metódy, ktoré dopĺňali dostupné kvantitatívne údaje. Polska Celem niniejszej monografii jest przedstawienie aktualnej sytuacji Rusinów w tych krajach europejskich, w których ich liczba, według oficjalnych lub szacunkowych danych statystycznych, jest największa, takich jak Ukraina, Słowacja, Polska, Węgry i Serbia. Przedstawiając sytuację ludności ruskiej w tych krajach, starano się podkreślić liczebność Rusinów w badanych krajach, a jednocześnie odnieść się do wyzwań związanych z uzyskaniem dokładnych danych na temat Rusinów. Kolejnym celem badań była identyfikacja głównych elementów tożsamości etnicznej Rusinów, przy czym na pierwszy plan wysuwa się przynależność religijna i obrządek bizantyjski (katolicki lub prawosławny), niezależnie od różnic geograficznych. Badania skupiły się również na używaniu języka ruskiego, zmianach w jego statusie, możliwościach nauczania języka oraz poziomie zainteresowania jego nauką wśród samych Rusinów. Oprócz tych dwóch głównych aspektów tożsamości rusinowskiej, zbadano również inne kluczowe elementy rusinowskiej kultury materialnej i niematerialnej. Badanie opierało się głównie na metodach jakościowych w celu uzupełnienia dostępnych danych ilościowych.

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Magyar E monográfia célja, hogy bemutassa a ruszinok jelenlegi helyzetét azokban az európai országokban, ahol a hivatalos vagy becsült statisztikák szerint a legnagyobb a számuk, így Ukrajnában, Szlovákiában, Lengyelországban, Magyarországon és Szerbiában. A ruszin népesség helyzetének bemutatásával ezekben az országokban arra tettünk kísérletet, hogy kiemeljük a ruszinok számát a vizsgált országokban, ugyanakkor foglalkozunk a ruszinokra vonatkozó pontos adatok megszerzésének kihívásaival. A kutatás másik célja az volt, hogy azonosítsa a ruszin etnikai identitás fő elemeit, amelyek közül - a földrajzi különbségektől függetlenül - a vallási hovatartozás és a bizánci rítus (katolikus vagy ortodox) a legjelentősebb tényezők. A kutatás a ruszin nyelv használatára, a nyelv státuszának változásaira, a nyelvtanítás lehetőségeire és a nyelvtanulás iránti érdeklődés szintjére is összpontosított maguk a ruszinok körében. A ruszin identitás e két fő szempontja mellett a ruszin anyagi és nem anyagi kultúra más kulcsfontosságú elemeit is vizsgálták. A kutatás elsősorban kvalitatív módszerekre támaszkodott, hogy kiegészítse a rendelkezésre álló kvantitatív adatokat.

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SZERHORVÁTH, György. Language politics and language rights in the territory of the former Yugoslavia and the today's Serbia/Vojvodina [online]. HAS Institute for Minority Studies, 2015/12 [cit. 2019-11-20]. Available from: http://real.mtak.hu/31794/1/Vajdasag_nyelviJogok_SzHGy_EN_2_u.pdf ŠESTÁK, Miroslav. Dějiny jihoslovanských zemí. Praha: Lidové noviny, 1998. ISBN 80-7106-266-9. The Ruthenian National Theatre “Petro Riznič Ðaða” – Ruski Krstur. Vojvodina Travel [online]. Novi Sad, 2019 [cit. 19. 11. 2019]. Available from: https://vojvodina.travel/en/the-ruthenian-national-theatrepetro-riznic-dada-ruski-krstur/ Vznik Československa, jeho ústavněprávní základy a reakce menšin. Politika československých vlád vůči národnostním menšinám 1918–1938 [online]. 1. Praha, 2010, p. 20 [cit. 16. 11. 2019]. Available from: https://www.mzv.cz/file/637455/NAR_MENS_MONOGR_20_stran.pdf WIKTOREK, Alexandra C. Rusyns of the Carpatians: Competing Agendas of Identity [online]. Washington, DC, 2010 [cit. 13. 10. 2019]. Available from: https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/552816/WiktorekAlexandraChristine. pdf?sequence=1 Magisterská práce. Georgetown University. Vedoucí práce Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer.

8.4. POLAND Aleksander Duchnovič. Ja Rusyn Byl. Carpatho Rusyn Society [online]. [cit. 29. 6. 2019]. Available from: https://carpathorusynsociety.wildapricot.org/page-1719336 BARWIŃSKI, Marek a Katarzyna LESNIEWSKA. Lemko region - historical region in the PolishSlovakian borderland. Region and Regionalism. 2011, (10), 131-154 BATTEK, Marek J. a Joanna Szczepankiewicz BATTEK. Lemkos and Their Religious Culture in Western Areas of Poland. Folia geographica. Prešov, 2010, 15. Deklaracje narodowościowe w gminach w 2002 roku. [online] Główny Urząd Statystyczny © 1995-2019 [cit. 24. 9. 2019] Archivovaná verze: http://web.archive.org/web/20151206203522/http://stat.gov.pl/download/gfx/portalinformacyjny/pl/defa ultstronaopisowa/5743/1/1/nsp2002_tabl4.xls Drugi Powszechny Spis Ludności z dnia 9 grudnia 1931 r. (Druhé obecné sčítání lidu z 9. 12. 1931) [online]. Główny Urząd Statystyczny Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. [cit. 17. 9. 2019] Available from:https://web.archive.org/web/20140317212240/http://statlibr.stat.gov.pl/exlibris/aleph/a18_1/apach e_media/VUNVGMLANSCQQFGYHCN3VDLK12A9U5.pdf FONTANSKIJ, Henryk. Lemkovyna. In: MAGOCSI, Paul R. (ed.) Rusynʹskyĭ ͡iazyk. Opole: Uniwersytet Opolski, Instytut Filologii Polskiej, 2004. ISBN 83-86881-38-0. GOCZ, Teodor. Życie Łemka. Zyndranowa – Krosno, 2011. ISBN 978-83-62967-01-8. HALIČSKÝ, Jan. Ve válce v Rusku a v Haliči. Úryvky ze světové války. Napsal dle svého deníku kněz Jan Haličský. Praha: Cyrillo-Methodějská knihtiskárna a nakladatelství V. Kotrba, 1915. HANN, Chris. Ethnic cleansing in Eastern Europe: Poles and Ukrainians beside the Curzon Line. Nations and Nationalism. 1996, 2(3), 389–406. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8219.1996.tb00005.x., p. 396.

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HLINÁK, Jan, Matěj JANSA, Tomáš KARFILÁT, Barbora SOCHROVÁ a Daniela DRNCOVÁ. Lemkové v Polsku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2014. Additional availability: http://www.hks.re/wiki/rusini_v_polsku_2014. HORBAL, Bogdan. Contested by Whom?: Lemko Rusyns in the Post-Communist World. Europa Ethnica [online]. 2008, 65(1/2), 45–58 [cit. 13. 3. 2018]. Available from: https://www.academia.edu/5231794/_Contested_by_Whom_Lemko_Rusyns_in_the_PostCommunist_World_Europa_Ethnica_65_no._1_2_Vienna_2008_45-58 HORNSBY, Michael. Constructing a Lemko identity: tactics of belonging. International Journal of Multilingualism. 2014, 12(1), 1-12. DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2014.944185. ISSN 1479-0718. HUZARSKA, Agnieszka. From Lemko cultural past in Dukla region. Journal of Health Promotion and Recreation. 2011, (3), 35-40, p. 38. KNOLL, Vladislav. ''Lem v Karpatach''. Navýchod 4/2005. KOCAN, Julija. Tradicii večera nakanuně Rožděstva Christova. [online] © Religiozno-informacionnaja služba Ukrainy, 2001-2019. RISU – projekt Instituta Religii i Obščestva Ukrainskogo Katoličeskogo Universitěta 2. 1. 2009. [cit. 19. 9. 2019] Available from: https://risu.org.ua/page.php?_lang=ru&path=exclusive/&name=Holidays_and_Customs&date=2010-0106&id=26777& KOKAISL, Petr a kol. Pestrá Evropa: Italové v Chorvatsku, Poláci v Rumunsku, Rusíni na Ukrajině, Rusíni (Lemkové) v Polsku, Rusíni v Srbsku, Ukrajinci v Rumunsku, Turci v Makedonii, Turci v Rumunsku, Krymští Tataři. Praha: Nostalgie, 2017. ISBN 978-80-906207-6-6. KOKAISL, Petr a Václav VLNA. Rusíni v Polsku – Lemkové. [online]. Pestrá Evropa, 2017 [cit. 29. 6. 2019]. Available from: http://www.pestraevropa.hks.re/2017/rusini_lemkove_v_polsku/ KREISLOVÁ, Jana; PROCHÁZKOVÁ, Kristýna; VYSKOČILOVÁ, Petra; BURIAN, Petr. Rusíni v Polsku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2015, 9 (1). Additional availability: http://www.hks.re/wiki/2015:rusini_v_polsku LATANYSHYN, Sarah. “From Uzhorod There is a Road” to Lemkowyna: Music and Indentity Among the Lemkos. 2011. Magisterská práce. New York University, p. 36. Lemkovská unie [online]. 2019 [cit. 29. 6. 2019]. Available from: http://www.lemkounion.pl/ LOZYNSKYJ, Askold S. Ukrainian-Polish relations. [online]. The Ukrainian Weekly, 8. 7. 2016 [cit. 3. 7. 2019]. Available from: http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/ukrainian-polish-relations/ MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. The Lemko Rusyns: their Past and Their Present. Carpatho-Rusyn American 10(1)/1987. Available from: http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/lemkos/lemkos.htm MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. New York: Central European University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-615-5053-46-7. MIHALASKY, Susyn Y. A Select Bibliography of Polish Press Writing on the Lemko Question. East European Quarterly. 1997, 31(1), 43-53. Narodne lemkivskje vesilja. [online] Lemkivskiy Kalendar, 1987. ©1998 LVProductions [cit. 19. 9. 2019] Available from: http://www.lemko.org/art/weddingr.html NIEDERLE, L. Slovanský svět. Praha: Jan Laichter, 1909 (Laichterův výbor nejlepších spisů poučných. Kniha XXXV) p. 31–33. NIKONOV, V. A. Etnografija i onomastika. Sovetskaja etnografija, 1971 (5), p. 25–36. Organizace na obranu Lemkoviny [online]. 2018 [cit. 29. 6. 2019]. Available from: https://lemkoool.com/?page_id=37&lang=en PETRŮVOVÁ, Denisa; LAUFER, Tadeáš; TULEJ, Jiří. Lemkové – Rusíni v Polsku. Hospodářská a kulturní studia, 2018, 12 (1). Additional availability: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2018:rusini_v_polsku_lemkove SOJA, Maria. Demographic development and changes of land-use in the Beskid Niski Mountains, Poland, between 1869 and 2009. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series. 2012, 18(18), 109–115. DOI: 10.2478/v10089-012-0023-3. ISSN 1732-4254. TRZESZCZYŃSKA, Patrycja. Bridges to the past: a Lemko family history explored through letters. An ethnographic case study. Canadian Slavonic Papers. 2018, 60(1-2), 44-69. DOI: 10.1080/00085006.2018.1442958. ISSN 0008-5006. TRZESZCZYŃSKA, Patrycja. The Lemko Land Remembered: About the Research on the Memory of the Lemkos in Poland and Ukraine. Anthropology of East Europe Review. 2015, 33(2), 1-25, p. 5. Wyniki Narodowego Spisu Powszechnego Ludności i Mieszkań 2011 - mniejszości narodowe i etniczne oraz język regionalny [online]. 2011 [cit. 2019-06-30]. Available from: http://bit.ly/17led2020 ZAHRADNÍKOVÁ, Kristýna; REJZKOVÁ, Michaela, HABA, Miloslav. Rusíni v Polsku. [online] Hospodářská a kulturní studia (HKS), 2016. Available from: http://www.hks.re/wiki/ls2016:rusini_v_polsku ZYCH, Maciej. Romanization rules for the Lemko (Ruthenian or Rusyn) language in Poland. In: The 17th Meeting of the Baltic Division of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. Warszawa, 29 June – 01 July 2015. Varšava, 2015

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8.5. HUNGARY BENEDEK, Gergej. Madjarsko. In: MAGOCSI, Paul R. (ed.) Rusynʹskyĭ ͡iazyk. Opole: Uniwersytet Opolski, Instytut Filologii Polskiej, 2004. ISBN 83-86881-38-0, p. 263–266. BOJER, Anasztázia. 2011. évi népszámlálás. Budapest: Központi Statisztikai Hivatal, 2012-. ISBN 978963-235-347-0. CIBULKA, Jan; HOLINKOVÁ, Petra; PEŘESTÁ, Karolína. Velká mapa rodáků. [online] © 1997-2019 Český rozhlas. [cit. 10. 10. 2018] Available from: https://www.irozhlas.cz/zpravy-domov/velka-maparodaku-kde-jsou-lide-verni-sve-obci_1704190600_cib DEJMEK, Jindřich, LOUŽEK, Marek, ed. Trianonská smlouva: devadesát let poté: sborník textů. Praha: CEP – Centrum pro ekonomiku a politiku, 2010. Ekonomika, právo, politika. ISBN 978-80-86547-92-3.

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HATTINGER-KLEBAŠKO, Gabriel (Ґабріел ГАТТІНҐЕР-КЛЕБАШКО). Zoz bolota… Rusín 3–4, 2003. Additional availability: http://lemko.org/books/Rusyn/R2003_03-04.pdf HLAVÁČKOVÁ, Šárka; OBERMAJER, Filip. Rusíni v Maďarsku. In: KOKAISL, Petr et al. Pestrá Evropa: Toskové a Gegové v Albánii, Albánci v Černé Hoře, Makedonii a Srbsku-Kosovu, Bretonci ve Francii, Gagauzové v Moldávii, Ladinové v Itálii, Rusíni na Slovensku, Ukrajině, v Maďarsku, Rumunsku a Moldávii, Huculové na Ukrajině, Rusové (staroobřadníci) v Lotyšsku, Walserové ve Švýcarsku. Praha: Nostalgie, 2015. ISBN 978-80-906207-0-4, p. 54–57. KOKAISL, Petr. Etnické minority v Evropě. V Praze: Česká zemědělská univerzita, Provozně ekonomická fakulta, 2014. ISBN 978-80-213-2524-1., p. 251. MAGOCSI, Paul R. a PADJAK, Valerij Ivanovič. Národ odnikud: ilustrované dějiny karpatských Rusínů. Užhorod: Vydavatelství V. Paďaka, 2014. 116 p. ISBN 978-966-387-092-2. MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. Chrbtom k horám: dejiny Karpatskej Rusi a karpatských Rusínov. Prešov: Universum, 2016. MAGOCSI, Paul Robert. With Their Back to the Mountains: A History of Carpatho Rus and Carpatho Rusyns. New York: Central European University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-615-5053-46-7. MAYER, Mária, János BORIS a Paul R MAGOCSI. The Rusyns of Hungary: political and social developments, 1860-1910. New York: Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-088033-387-0. POP, Ivan. Stručné dějiny Rusínů. Rusin [online]. 2018 [cit. 2018-12-05]. Available from: https://www.rusyn.sk/12627-sk/strucne-dejiny-rusinu-strucne-dejiny-rusinov/ POŽUN, Brian. The Rusyns of Hungary: End of the millennial struggle. Central Europe Review. 2001, 3 (16). Additional availability: http://www.ce-review.org/01/16/pozun16_2.html PUSZTAI, Bertalan. Discoursing Boundaries: Hungarian Greek Catholic Identity Creation in the Inter-War Period. In LAMBERG, Marko. Shaping ethnic identities: ethnic minorities in Northern and East Central European states and communities, c. 1450-2000. Helsinki: East-West Books, 2007, 35–68. ISBN 978-952-99592-3-5. ROBERTSON, Ronald. Vostočnye christianskie cerkvi. Cerkovno-istoričeskij spravočnik. Sankt Petěrburg, 1999. Ruszinok ma Magyarországon. [online] Nemzetiségek.hu • Barátság – kulturális és közéleti folyóirat – online, 2013. [cit. 27. 9. 2019] Available from: http://nemzetisegek.hu/repertorium/2013/02/belivek_1617.pdf SAWE, Benjamin Elisha. Ethnic Groups Of Hungary. [online]. Worldatlas, 2017 [cit. 4. 12. 2018]. Available from: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/ethnic-groups-of-hungary.html Souhrnná teritoriální informace Maďarsko [online] Zastupitelský úřad ČR v Budapešti. 2018 [cit. 4. 12. 2018]. Available from: http://publiccontent.sinpro.cz/PublicFiles/2018/05/17/Nahled%20STI%20(PDF)%20Madarsko%20%20Souhrnna%20teritorialni%20informace%20-%202018.1531 ŠTOLC, Jozef. Nárečie troch slovenských ostrovov v Maďarsku. Bratislava: SAVU, 1949. The Rusyns of Hungary. [online]. Igazságügyi Minisztérium (Ministerstvo spravedlnosti). Human rights, 2014. [cit. 25. 9. 2019] Available from: http://emberijogok.kormany.hu/the-rusyns-of-hungary The Rusyns of Hungary. Human rights [online]. 2014 [cit. 9. 12. 2018]. Available from: http://emberijogok.kormany.hu/the-rusyns-of-hungary

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TÓTH, Ágnes a János VÉKÁS. National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary in the Period 2001–2011 – Ethno-Demographic Trends as Reflected in the Census Data. Statisztikai Szemle. 2014, 92 (17), 95 112. ISSN 0039-0690. TRIER, Tom, ed. Focus on the Rusyns: International Colloquium on the Rusyns of East Central Europe. Danish Cultural Institute, 1999. ISBN 978-87-74290-94-0. VÉGHSEŐ, Tamás a Szilveszter TERDIK. "--you have foreseen all of my paths--: Byzantine Rite Catholics in Hungary. Strasbourg: Éditions du Signe, 2012. ISBN 978-2-7468-2775-2. WENINGER, Csilla a J. Patrick WILLIAMS. Cultural representations of minorities in Hungarian textbooks. Pedagogy, Culture & Society [online]. 2006, 13(2), 159–180. DOI: 10.1080/14681360500200222. ISSN 1468-1366. .

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9. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Rusyn women in Bukovina, early 20th century. ................................... 8 Figure 2. Number of Ukrainians in Romania (1930-2011). ............................... 15 Figure 3. Greek Catholic Ukrainian church in Vișeu de Sus. ........................... 15 Figure 4., 5. Sunday Orthodox Ukrainian service. ............................................. 16 Figure 6. Christmas Nativity plays in the village of Krasna (Crasna Vişeului). 17 Figure 7. Ruscova - a village with a 94 per cent Ukrainian population. ............ 17 Figure 8. The village of Răcăria, Rîșcani district, Moldova, with 80% Ukrainians. ......................................................................................................... 18 Figure 9. Ukrainians in Bessarabia and Moldova (1897-2004). ........................ 19 Figure 10. Moldovan municipalities with a share of Ukrainians above 80% (2004). ................................................................................................................ 20 Figure 11: Current compact Rusyn settlement in Europe. ................................. 21 Figure 12. Rusyn emigration – Rusyn newspaper from 1914 published in Brazil . ........................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 13. Olbracht's beer hall in Koločava. ...................................................... 49 Figure 14. Hutsuls in the Subcarpathian region around 1920. ........................... 54 Figure 15, 16. Demonstration of Ukrainian Rusyns for the recognition of the Rusyn nation....................................................................................................... 56 Figure 17. Religious situation in Subcarpathian Rus (1921). ............................ 65 Figure 18. Snup .................................................................................................. 68 Figure 19. Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Prague, detail of the roof. . 72 Figure 20, 21. Hutsuls. ....................................................................................... 73 Figure 22, 23. Hutsul woman. Winter in the village. ......................................... 73 Figure 24. The 18th century Church of St. Nicholas in Danilovo. .................... 74 Figure 25. Hutsul dwelling hražda (building). ................................................... 75 Figure 26. Cottage of the so-called Boyko type, early 19th century. ................. 76 Figure 27. Cottage from the vicinity of Svaljava, 17th-18th century. ............... 76 Figure 28. Hutsul dwelling in Uzhhorod open-air museum. .............................. 76 Figure 29: Transcarpathian National Ensemble ................................................. 77 Figure 30: Participants of the Hutsul festival with trembits, Ukraine. ............... 78 Figure 31. Mountain Hutsul and their typical trembits. ..................................... 78 Figure 32. Peasant women on a Sunday morning. Oporets, Halych/Galicia (today's Lviv region), early 20th century. .......................................................... 80 Figure 33. Russian women in interwar Czechoslovakia. ................................... 80 Figure 34. Traditional clothing of Rusyn men at the beginning of the 20th century. ............................................................................................................... 81 Figure 35. Hutsul family in Jaremche (possibility to borrow traditional clothes for photography). ................................................................................................ 83 Figure 36, 37. Hutsul embroidery. Vereta – woolen fabric (National Museum of 281

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Hutsul in Kolomyia). .......................................................................................... 84 Figure 38. Example of Rusyn traditions in the open-air museum in Uzhhorod . 87 Figure 39. The open-air museum in Uzhhorod. .................................................. 87 Figure 40. Bishop Andrei Bachinsky (1732-1809)............................................. 98 Figure 41. Greek Catholic church in the village of Hunkovce. ........................ 105 Figure 42. Religious situation in Slovakia (1921). ........................................... 111 Figure 43. Slovak municipalities according to the proportion of Rusyns – data from the census (2011) ..................................................................................... 114 Figure 44. Rusyns in Slovakia (1930-2011). .................................................... 115 Figure 45. Map of villages providing education in Rusyn. .............................. 120 Figure 46. Tatarčané pirohy. ............................................................................. 121 Figure 47. Bilingual signs in villages with Rusyn minority. ............................ 135 Figure 48. Rusyn emigrant in Toronto, Canada. .............................................. 140 Figure 49. Percentage change in the ethnic structure of the population of Vojvodina between 1991-2002. ........................................................................ 151 Figure 50. Numbers of Rusynsin Vojvodina (1948-2011). .............................. 152 Figure 51. Number of Rusyns in Vojvodina between 1900-2011. ................... 153 Figure 52. Ethnic distribution of the population of Vojvodina in 2011. .......... 154 Figure 53: Rusyns visiting the Greek Catholic Church, Kucura village. ......... 158 Figure 54. Kapushniky...................................................................................... 160 Figure 55. Blessing of food in 1943 in the village of Kucura. ......................... 162 Figure 56. Primary school in the village of Ruski Krstur. ................................ 172 Figure 57. Members of the “Ruska Matka”. ..................................................... 174 Figure 58. Dance ensemble in the House of Culture. ....................................... 176 Figure 59. Children in the village of Kucura rehearsing a theatre performance. .......................................................................................................................... 177 Figure 60. Wreath-laying ceremony in the village of Ruski Krstur at the memorial to Rusyns killed during World War II. ............................................. 177 Figure 61. Country house near Stryje (today's Lviv region). Halych/Galicia, early 20th century. ............................................................................................ 187 Figure 62. Territory of the Lemko Republic (1918-1920). .............................. 188 Figure 63. Action "Wisła" ................................................................................ 191 Figure 64: Distribution of Polish Lemkos by province (2012)......................... 192 Figure 65, 66. Binczarova - the original cemetery with a monument commemorating the Visla Action. .................................................................... 194 Figure 67, 68. Boyko houses in the 19th century; Boyko children in front of the school (World War II) ...................................................................................... 199 Figure 69. School certificate from 1939 (besides Polish, Russian was also taught). .............................................................................................................. 199 Figure 70. Certificate of good character from 1925. ........................................ 199 Figure 71. Boyko House (museum). ................................................................. 200 282

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Figure 72, 73. Boyko costumes. ....................................................................... 201 Figure 74. Boyko costumes. ............................................................................. 201 Figure 75. Tools of the trade. ........................................................................... 202 Figure 76. Distribution of Rusyn groups on the territory of Poland ................ 203 Figure 77, 78, 79, 80. The four seasons in Lemko . ......................................... 204 Figure 81, 82, 83. Occupation: cream churn, tinker, hand flour mill. .............. 204 Figure 84, 85, 86. Occupations: stonemasons, shepherd, laundress. ............... 205 Figure 87, 88. Everyday life: the Lemko farm, our daily bread. ...................... 205 Figure 89, 90, 91. Celebrations: Sts. Cyril and Methodius, sobitka, vatra....... 205 Figure 92, 93, 94. Celebrations: Easter, Christmas – carolers, processions..... 206 Figure 95, 96. Celebrations: wedding, christening........................................... 206 Figure 97, 98, 99. From history: cross in thanksgiving for the abolition of serfdom (1781), for the Great Basin – mass emigration of Lemkos to America, Thalerhof . ........................................................................................................ 207 Figure 100, 101. From history: Jaworzno – a branch of the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, Akcja Wisla . ................................ 207 Figure 102. Religious beliefs of Lemkos. ........................................................ 208 Figure 103. Christmas "spiders" made of straw. .............................................. 209 Figure 104. Kyselica ........................................................................................ 210 Figure 105. Lemko decorated Easter eggs. ...................................................... 211 Figure 106. Korovai. ........................................................................................ 212 Figure 107. Original Lemko architecture of village houses. ............................ 214 Figure 108. ....................................................................................................... 215 Figure 109. House in Zyndranowa. .................................................................. 216 Figure 110, 111, 112, 113. Clerk K. Theodor's office, living quarters, cattle shed and barn. ........................................................................................................... 217 Figure 114, 115. Czarna . ................................................................................. 218 Figure 116, 117. Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Brunary . ............... 219 Figure 118. Kwiatoń – the Church of St. Paraskieva. ...................................... 220 Figure 119. Gładyszów – the Church of the Ascension. .................................. 221 Figure 120. Komancza – Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the only Greek-Catholic parish in Poland that has been in continuous existence. ....................................................................................... 222 Figure 121. Komancza – the original Greek Catholic church from 1802. ...... 223 Figure 122. Komańcza – the new Orthodox Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ....................................................................................... 223 Figure 123. Municipality markings in Polish and Lemko................................ 225 Figure 124. Czucha ......................................................................................... 226 Figure 125. Traditional Lemko costumes in the collections of the National Museum in Prague. ........................................................................................... 228 Figure 126: Traditional Lemko costumes in the collections of the Lemko 283

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Museum in Zyndranowa. .................................................................................. 229 Figure 127. American Lemkos perform at a festival marking the 70th anniversary of Operation Hangman. ................................................................. 231 Figure 128: Rescued Lemko crosses in the museum in Zyndranowa. ............. 233 Figure 129. Research carried out – Komlóska and Múcsony . ......................... 243 Figure 130. Number and distribution of Rusyn minority municipalities in Hungary (2010). ................................................................................................ 248 Figure 131. Church in Múcsony . ..................................................................... 256 Figure 132. President of the Rusyn Association with an invitation to the festival. .......................................................................................................................... 257 Figure 133. Rusyn Cultural House. .................................................................. 258 Figure 134. Rusyn National Day 2018. ............................................................ 259 Figure 135, 136. Bryndza festival in Rachiv (2018). ....................................... 259 Figure 137. The primary school in Múcsony (Kalász László Általános Iskola). .......................................................................................................................... 262 Figure 138. The Rusyn bimonthly Ruszin Világ (Rusyn World). .................... 263 Figure 139. Preparation of pierogi. ................................................................... 265

9.1. TABLES Table 1: Numbers of Rusyns in European countries in 2019. ............................ 12 Table 2: Number of members of the Rusyn Byzantine Catholic Church in the USA .................................................................................................................... 24 Table 3. Number of Rusyns according to the 1921 and 1930 census of the Czechoslovak Republic. ................................................................................... 113 Table 4. National minorities in Slovakia from 1991 to 2011 ........................... 115 Table 5. Share of taxes collected by region in 1925 in Yugoslavia. ................ 142 Table 6. Percentage of pupils receiving full instruction in their own language (1971/1972)....................................................................................................... 171 Table 7. Overview of major ethnic minorities in Hungary in 2001 and 2011. . 245 Table 8. Age composition of Hungarian Rusyn population, 2011 ................... 250 Table 9. Percentage of persons of Hungarian ethnic minorities residing in the same place since birth, 2011. ............................................................................ 251

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10. TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword ______________________________________________________ 4 1. Introduction ________________________________________________ 5 1.1. Rusyns ________________________________________________ 5 1.1.1. The formation of the Rusyn nation ______________________ 5 1.1.2. Rusyn statehood _____________________________________ 9 1.1.3. Numbers of Rusyns _________________________________ 12 1.1.4. Rusyns in America __________________________________ 22 2. Ukraine ___________________________________________________ 26 2.1. Introduction ___________________________________________ 26 2.2. Literary research ________________________________________ 27 2.3. Research conducted _____________________________________ 30 2.4. Brief historical overview _________________________________ 31 2.4.1. The earliest history and origins of the Rusyn nation ________ 32 2.4.2. From the Turkish invasion to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire ____________________________________ 33 2.4.3. Subcarpathian Rus during the Czechoslovak Republic ______ 34 2.4.4. Transformation of Subcarpathian Rus into Transcarpathia ___ 49 History of Subcarpathian Rus on postage stamps __________________ 51 2.4.5. Geographical and conceptual definition from the 20th century to the present day _____________________________________________ 53 2.5. Identity of the inhabitants _________________________________ 55 2.5.1. Language _________________________________________ 57 2.5.2. Education _________________________________________ 62 2.5.3. Media ____________________________________________ 63 2.5.4. Religion and religious holidays ________________________ 64 2.5.5. Art and Architecture _________________________________ 71 2.5.6. Folklore traditions and costumes _______________________ 77 2.5.7. Revitalisation of cultural heritage ______________________ 84 2.6. Conclusion ____________________________________________ 88 3. Slovakia __________________________________________________ 93 3.1. Introduction ___________________________________________ 93 3.2. Literary research ________________________________________ 93 3.3. Research conducted _____________________________________ 96 3.4. History of Rusyns in Slovakia _____________________________ 97 3.4.1. World War II and the post-war period __________________ 100 3.5. The influence of the Greek Catholic Church on the Rusyn ethnic group 104 3.6. Identity in statistical surveys _____________________________ 112 3.7. The current situation of Rusyns ___________________________ 116 3.7.1. Language as an Element of the Ethnic Identity of Slovak Rusyns ________________________________________________ 116 285

Rusyn cuisine in Slovakia ____________________________ 3.7.2. 3.7.3. Celebrating the holidays _____________________________ 3.7.4. Cultural activities of the Rusyn population in Slovakia _____ 3.8. Conclusion ___________________________________________ 4. Serbia ___________________________________________________ 4.1. Introduction___________________________________________ 4.2. Literary research _______________________________________ 4.3. Research conducted ____________________________________ 4.4. Brief historical overview ________________________________ 4.4.1. Development of the number of Rusyns _________________ 4.5. Identity of the inhabitants ________________________________ 4.5.1. Religion__________________________________________ 4.5.2. Language_________________________________________ 4.5.3. Education ________________________________________ 4.5.4. Media ___________________________________________ 4.5.5. Social activities ____________________________________ 4.6. Conclusion ___________________________________________ 5. Poland ___________________________________________________ 5.1. Introduction___________________________________________ 5.2. Literary research _______________________________________ 5.3. Research conducted ____________________________________ 5.4. Brief historical overview ________________________________ 5.4.1. Population development _____________________________ 5.5. Identity of the inhabitants ________________________________ 5.5.1. Lemko traditions and holidays ________________________ 5.5.2. Architecture ______________________________________ 5.5.3. Language_________________________________________ 5.5.4. Traditional costumes ________________________________ 5.5.5. Organisation ______________________________________ 5.5.6. Unclear identity ___________________________________ 5.5.7. Relations with the majority society ____________________ 5.6. Conclusion ___________________________________________ 5.7. Places with Lemko settlements in Poland ___________________ 6. Hungary _________________________________________________ 6.1. Introduction___________________________________________ 6.2. Literary research _______________________________________ 6.3. Research conducted ____________________________________ 6.4. Brief historical overview ________________________________ 6.4.1. Hungary and national minorities ______________________ 6.4.2. Rusyns in Hungary _________________________________ 6.5. Identity of the inhabitants ________________________________ 6.5.1. Religion__________________________________________ 6.5.2. Celebrations and holidays ____________________________ 286

121 122 129 134 136 136 136 137 138 146 155 156 163 169 173 173 178 180 180 181 183 183 195 197 203 213 223 226 229 232 234 236 238 240 240 241 242 244 244 246 253 253 257

Language ________________________________________ 6.5.3. 6.5.4. Education ________________________________________ 6.5.5. Media and associations______________________________ 6.5.6. Kitchen __________________________________________ 6.6. Conclusion ___________________________________________ 7. Summary ________________________________________________ 8. Literature and sources ______________________________________ 8.1. Ukraine ______________________________________________ 8.2. Slovakia _____________________________________________ 8.3. Serbia _______________________________________________ 8.4. Poland _______________________________________________ 8.5. Hungary _____________________________________________ 9. List of illustrations _________________________________________ 9.1. Tables _______________________________________________ 10. Table of Contents ________________________________________

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In the footsteps of Rusyns in Europe: Ukraine, Slovakia, Serbia, Poland and Hungary Irena Cejpová, Pavla Fajfrlíková, Petr Kokaisl, Veronika Němcová, Andrea Štolfová, Jana Zychová et al.

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