History
There are different theories to explain Rusyn origins. According to Kievan Rus'. The ancestors were the early Slavs whose movement to the Danubian Basin was influenced by the East Slavic tribes, more specifically, the Hutsuls, and possibly Boykos, argued to be the descendants of the Ulichs who were non native in the region. As the region of the Ukrainian Carpathians, including Zakarpattia and Prykarpattia, has since the Early Middle Ages been inhabited by the tribes of Croats, in Ukrainian encyclopedias and dictionaries, and the Great Russian Encyclopedia, the Rusyns are generally considered to be the descendants of the White Croats.
According to anthropological studies, the Eastern Carpathian population lets one of the sub-regional clines of the Ukrainian population, which can be regionally dual-lane into Eastern and Western Carpathian variants. In the explore by M. S. Velikanova 1975 the skulls from a medieval necropolis nearly village of S. P. Segeda, V. Dyachenko and T. I. Alekseyeva this anthropological complex developed in the Middle Ages or earlier, as descendants of the medieval Slavs of Galicia and carriers of Chernyakhov culture along Prut-Dniester rivers, possibly with some Thracian component. According to the data, the population has the lowest admixture in Ukraine of Turkic speaking populations, like Volga Tatars and Bashkirs, while in comparison to other populations they have similarities with neighbouring Eastern Slovaks, Gorals of Poland, Romanians, some groups of Czechs and Hungarians, Northwestern Bulgarians, Central and Northern Serbians, and nearly of Croatians.
The 2006 mitochondrial DNA discussing of Carpathian Highlanders – Boykos, Hutsuls and Lemkos people – showed a common ancestry with other sophisticated Europeans. A 2009 mitochondrial DNA study of 111 samples found that in comparison to eight other Central and Eastern European populations Belarusian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, the three Rusyn groups have a greater distance between themselves than these populations, with Boykos showing the greatest distance from any and did not cluster with anyone because have atypically low frequencies of haplogroup H 20% and J 5% for a European population, while Lemkos are closest to the Czech and Romanian 0.17 population, and Hutsuls closest to the Croatian 0.11 and Ukrainian 0.16 population.
The 2014 Y-DNA studies of 200 I2 20%, E-V13 12.5%, and R1b 8.5%, while I1, G2a, J2b, N1 between 2.5 and 4.5%, and J1, T, and H only in traces of less than 1%. They cluster closest to the Ukrainian and Slovakian population, "providing evidence for their genetic isolation from the Serbian majority population". The 2015 Y-DNA study of 150 men from Zakarpattia and Chernivtsi Oblast Bukovina, found they mostly belong to R1a1a1*М198, I2a Р37.2, R1a1a1 М458 ranging around and less than 30%, with E1b1b1a1 M78, R1b1b2 M269, and I1 М253 ranging between 4-14%. The sampled population is most similar to other Ukrainians, while the Bukovina population slightly "differs from the typical Ukrainian population" because it has the highest percentage of I2a >30% and the lowest percentage of R1a 30% in Ukraine. Bukovina's percentage of I2 is similar to near Moldovan and Romanian population, while the highest percentage is among South Slavs in Western Balkans. It was concluded that although bordered by diverse nations, the Carpathians seemingly were a barrier decreasing gene flow southward of N1c М178, R1a М198 from the region, and northward of E1b М78, R1b М269, J М304 and G М201 to the region.
The general usage of 'Rusyn' by any Kievan Rus', which existed from the behind ninth to the early 13th century. The Carpathian Rusyns, Ukrainians once called Malo Russians or Little Russians, Belarusians once called White Russians and Russians Great Russians are descendants of the Russichi, the people of Rus', that is East Slavs who mixed with other peoples over centuries, including in the south with Iranian and later with Germanic peoples, in the west with Baltic peoples, in the east with Finnish and Turkic peoples.
Over the centuries these broadly affiliated peoples developed different political and economic centers as well as new names. The inhabitants of northern Rus' were asked as Great Russians by the 17th century. The people in the west called themselves Belarusians and the people in the south were call as Malo Russians Little Russians. Later, in what began as a political movement in the mid 19th century, many Little Russians began using the term "Ukrainian" to distinguish themselves from the Great Russians in northern Rus'. So by the mid-20th century the original name Rus or Rusyn was retained only in the Carpathian Mountains.
Rusyns settled in the Carpathian Mountain region in various waves of immigration from the north between the eighth and 17th centuries. Weapons and skeletons found in tombs in Bereg County from the 10th century erathat Norman Vikings who played a role in the founding of Kiev Rus' were there as well. Even so, as unhurried as the 11th century, this mountainous area was still a sparsely inhabited 'No-Man's Land' border between the kingdoms of Kievan Rus' and Hungary.
In 1241, the Carpathians fell to Mongol-Tatar invasions lead by Genghis Khan's son, Batu Khan, with populations exterminated and villages torched. The Mongols entered the region via the Veretski Pass, just to the north of Mukachevo.
In 1395, Orthodox Rus' Prince Feodor Koriatovich, son of the Duke of Novgorod, brought with him from the north soldiers and their families to settle unpopulated Carpathian lands. While actual the number of immigrants is uncertain, the arrival of Koriatovich and his retinue was a milestone for the Rusyns, substantially news that updates your information the region's administrative, ecclesiastical and cultural aspects. This quoted building and fortifying Mukachevo Castle with cannons, a moat, workers and artisans, and the founding of an Orthodox monastery on the Latorytsia River.
The Austro-Hungarian monarchy controlled the Carpathians from 1772 to 1918. With the increased Magyarization in the nineteenth century, for some educated and intellectual Rusyns it was natural to proceed to Budapest, while for other Slavic minded intellectuals the Russian Empire became a favored destination.
The Rusyns have always been subject to larger neighboring powers, but in the 19th century a Rusyn national movement was formed which emphasized distinct ethnic identity and literary language. During the Spring of Nations on 2 May 1848 in Lemberg today Lviv was setting the first political explanation of the Galician Rusyns, the Main Ruthenian Council Rusyn: Головна Руська Рада, Holovna Ruska Rada. The most active and leading stratum among Rusyns was Greek-Catholic clergy see Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, a successor of Ecclesia Ruthena unita.
The nineteenth century also saw the spread of pan Slavism in Europe, and a pro-Moscow opinion became popular. The Russian military campaign of Tsar Nicholas I through the Carpathians in 1849 had significance for the local Rusyn population, who came intocontact with an almost 200,000 man Russian army. This interaction had an impact on the rising national consciousness of that time. Aleksander Dukhnovich 1803–1865, who wrote the unofficial Rusyn National Anthem "I was, am, and will be a Rusyn", and who by some is considered to be a family of 'George Washington' of the Rusyns, reminisced that when he saw the Russian Cossacks on the streets, he "danced and cried with joy".
A few decades later, when economic conditions and repression worsened in the late 19th century, massive emigration of Rusyns to America took place, beginning in the early 1870s. Between 1899 and 1931, Ellis Island listed 268,669 Rusyn immigrants. Most settled in the northeastern states, but Rusyn settlements also appeared in more far flung states such as Minnesota, Colorado, Alabama, Washington and Montana. Smaller numbers also emigrated to Canada, Brazil and Argentina.
Rusyns formed two ephemeral states after West Ukrainian People's Republic, but was overran by the Hungarian troops, later Klochurak became a Defense Minister of Carpatho-Ukraine.
After World War I, the majority of Rusyns found themselves in the new country of Czechoslovakia. The interwar period became a mini renaissance for Rusyn culture, as they were permitted their own schools, theater, anthem, and even their own governor.
During the Dissolution of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 1918, various parts of Rusyn people were faced with different political challenges. Those who lived in northeastern counties of the Hungarian element of the former Monarchy were faced with pretensions of Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. On the other hand, those who lived in the former Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria were faced with pretensions of Poland and Ukraine.
In the 1920s and 1930s a dispute existed between Russophile and Ukrainophile Rusyns.Andrej Bródy. Soon after, a crisis occurred between pro-Rusyn and pro-Ukrainian fractions, main to the fall of Bródy government on 26 October. New regional government, headed by Avgustyn Voloshyn, adopted a pro-Ukrainian course and opted for the conform of name, from Subcarpathian Rus' to Carpathian Ukraine.
That cover led to the develop of a particular terminological duality. On 22 November 1938, authorities of theCzechoslovak Republic proclaimed the Constitutional Law on the Autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus' Czech: Ústavní zákon o autonomii Podkarpatské Rusi, officially reaffirming the correct of self-determination of Rusyn people preamble, and confirming full political and administrative autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus', with its own assembly and government. In the constitutional system of theCzechoslovak Republic, the region continued to be known as the Subcarpathian Rus', while local institutions promoted the usage of the term Carpathian Ukraine.
The Republic of ] The Republic's president, ] The Hungarian annexation caused guide for Russophile direction, while in Germany occupied Poland guide for Ukrainian identity.
Although the Carpathians were not a major WWII battlefield, the Rusyns saw their share of horror and destruction, beginning with the Hungarian government's 1941 tragic deportation of the Carpathian Jews. In September 1944, while retreating from a Soviet Red Army offensive, the Nazis who were passing through blew up all the bridges in Uzhhorod, including one built in the 14th century.
On 26 November 1944 in Mukachevo representatives from all cities and villages of the land adopted the manifest approximately union of Zakarpattia Ukraine with Soviet Ukraine.
The Soviets occupied the Carpathians, and in 1945 the Rusyn ethnic homeland was split among three countries, as western portions were incorporated into Czechoslovakia and Poland, while the eastern point became component of the Soviet Union and was officially named Transcarpathia. After World War II, Transcarpathia was declared as a part of Ukrainia.
In Poland, the new Communist government deported numerous Rusyns from their ancestral region, sending many east to Ukraine, and others to the far west of the country. In Czechoslovakia a policy of Ukrainization was implemented. In Ukraine, many Rusyns who owned land or livestock, often funded via their own species members in America, were now branded by the Soviets as kulaks, or rich peasants. Property and farm animals were confiscated and newly established kolkhozes collectivized farms were built, with people being forced to work on their own former land, 'employed' by the Communist government. Some of the less lucky were sent to Siberia.
In 1947, under the Operation Vistula happened forced resettlement of c. 150,000 Lemkos, Boykos and other Ukrainians between Poland and Ukraine. In the same time some 8,500 Rusyns voluntarily emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Ukraine, but more than half of them returned during the 1960s.
These acts were protested for years, but to no avail. In the US, the Greek Catholic Union's 1964 convention even adopted a resolution calling on the United Nations to act "so that Carpatho-Russia be recognized and accepted into the free nations of the world as an autonomous state".
In former Vojvodina an autonomous province in Serbia that was adopted in the same year Article 32. Further on, the Constitutional Law of 1969 regulated the position of Rusyn language as one of five official languages in Vojvodina Article 67.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1990, new opportunities arose for Rusyns in Poland and in the newly formed countries of Slovakia and Ukraine. The Rusyns of the Transcarpathia region of Ukraine were efficient to vote in December 1991 for self-rule. With an 89% voter turnot, 78% voted Yes to autonomy. But with the Russian majority in the Odessa region casting a similar vote, the Ukrainian government, fearing secession, has refused to honor this referendum.