Ruthenes

Ruthenes (also called Rusyns, Rusins, Rysin, Carpatho-Rusin, Russniaks) are a small Slavonic ethnic group with language related to the Ukrainian and Slovak. They inhabit the Ruthenia region of western Ukraine and parts of Slovakia and Poland. Main groups in the former Galicia are called Lemka, Bojka, Hucul.

During the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (XVIII and XIX century), some Ruthenians moved to what are now the northern regions of Serbia (Voivodina) and Croatia (Slavonia). There they are called by the name Rusins.

A note on History

Throughout history they were regularly assimilated by neighbouring larger Slavic peoples (Russian, Polish and Ukrainian) whose national states encompassed the Ruthenian regions. With the onset of the Internet, some of the Ruthenian emigrees to the west acquired a vehicle to voice their concerns and try to preserve their separate ethnic and cultural identity.

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

Sources

• Carpatho-Rusin American Collection http://www1.umn.edu/ihrc/carpatho.htm
• The Rusin Association Home Page http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/rusin.htm
• Carpatho-Rusyn, Rusin, Ruthenia: Cross-Index http://feefhs.org/rusyn/indexcru.html
• Who Are We: Rusin, Russian, Ruthenian, Slovak ...? by John Slivka http://www.lemko.org/lih/slivka.html
• Rusin Association of Minneapolis Minnesota Homepage http://www.geocities.com/rusinmn/