Rusins, Rusyns, Ruthenians?

[V. Boitchenko]

It is not that simple. What may be a local case in Poland is not necessarily 
the case everywhere else. I would also add that it is a matter of cultural 
awareness. Many Lemko people is the US identify as Russians or 
Carpatho-Russians. I am not convinced that Rusyns stand as a separate ethnic 
group (from Lemko) in scholarly sources. One may argue that Rusyns (actually 
it is latinized Ruteni or Ruthenians) is a general term used in the West for 
all Byzantine Rite East Slavs in Poland and Slovakia before WWI but that is 
about as far as you can go. vb


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Iryna Prykarpatska" <iradzeva at GMAIL.COM>
To: <SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 11:48 AM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Rusins, Rusyns, Ruthenians?


> Not all Lemko people will agree if they are referred to as Rusyny. The 
> name
> Rusyn was used by Polish people to identify all those who attended Greek-
> Catholic or Orthodox church (церкву) but not Roman-Catholic church 
> (костьол)
> as Polish do. But there is a strict division between Rusyny and Lemky 
> along
> the language criteria.
> It should be kept in mind that Rusyns do not identify themselves as Lemky 
> as
> well Lemky do not identify themselves as Rusyny. These are two separate
> ethnic groups that have very strong affinity with each other due to East
> church tradition (practice of religion along Greek tradition) as opposite 
> to
> West church tradition (practice of religion along Roman tradition), but 
> they
> are still different.
>
> 2007/12/14, V. Boitchenko <tompkins440 at verizon.net>:
>>
>> The situation in the US is very similar. Many old towns on the East Cost
>> have two churches (often across the street from each other), a Uniate and
>> a
>> Russian Orthodox, with parishioners usually coming from the same
>> background
>> (Poland and Slovakia), often cousins. Uniates identify themselves as
>> Ukrainians, and Orthodox identify as Lemko (Rusyns). vb
>>
> 

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