Ruthenes

Ruthenes (also called Rusyns, Rusins, Rysin, Carpatho-Rusin, Russniaks) are a small Slavonic ethnical group with language related to the Ukrainian and Slovak. They inhabit the Ruthenia region of western Ukraine and parts of Slovakia and Poland.

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

A note on History

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

Warning: While reading these sources, as well as sources of Ukrainian and Polish origin, one has to be carefull to recognize the underlying interest of each of these groups supporting their own national mythology by selective presentation of information and the inter- and extra-polations 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/