Colonization During the 18th century, state authorities of the
Habsburg monarchy initiated several programs of re-population and colonization of various regions that were recently liberated from the
Ottoman rule. Since 1745, groups of
Rusyns from north-eastern
Carpathian regions of the
Kingdom of Hungary (eastern parts of modern
Slovakia and Carpathian regions of modern
Ukraine) started to migrate towards southern regions, including
Bačka,
Srem and
Slavonia. The first group settled in the village of
Kula in
Bačka (modern
Serbia), as attested by the 1746 census. , seat of the
Greek Catholic Eparchy of Ruski Krstur, whose adherents are mainly ethnic Rusyns During the following years, process of Rusyn colonization was intensified, and on 17 January 1751, regional administrator of Bačka, Franz Joseph von Redl signed an agreement with Mihajlo Munkači from the village of Červenovo, in the county of
Bereg, allowing the arrival of 200 Rusyn families from the north-eastern Hungarian region known as the "Upper-Land" () to the village of
Krstur () in Bačka. In the same year, Munkači managed to settle many Rusyns from the Hungarian counties of Munkačka, Ungvar, Saltmars and Ogačka in Krstur. Ruski Krstur had 2,000 inhabitants by the end of the 18th century. The same administrator signed another agreement on 15 May 1763 with Peter Kiš from Kerestur, allowing the arrival of 150 Rusyn families from the "Upper-Land" to the village of
Kucura () in Bačka. Kiš, however, failed to bring 150 Ruthenian families to Kucura. In 1763, 41 Rusyn families came to Kucura, and in 1767, another 47 Rusyn families came. Both agreements, from 1751 and 1763, contained special clauses, requiring that Rusyn colonists in terms of their religious affiliation have to be
Eastern Catholics. The State Chamber wanted Kucura to be a purely
Catholic settlement, and in 1777 they ordered the
Serbs, who were almost half of the population of Kucura, to move to
Obrovac. In 1792, 258 Rusyn families already lived in Kucura.
Yugoslavia , Serbia After the
dissolution of the Austria-Hungary in 1918, southern Pannonian regions became part of the newly formed
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, known since 1929 as the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Since it was a
South Slavic country, position of various Slavic minorities (including local Rusyns) was improved significantly, particularly in the fields of their cultural development and elementary education. During the interwar period, several Rusyn cultural organizations and periodical publications were established. After the
World War II, in the socialist
Yugoslavia, Rusyns were officially recognized as a distinct ethnic minority, and their legal status was regulated in Yugoslav constituent republics of
Serbia and
Croatia. In the 1963 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Serbia, Rusyns were designated as one of seven (explicitly named) ethnic minorities, and the same provision was implemented in the Statute of
Vojvodina (an autonomous province of Serbia) that was adopted in the same year. Further on, the 1969 Constitutional Law regulated the status of
Rusyn language as one of five official languages in Vojvodina. During the same period, Rusyn ethnic minority was also recognized in the Socialist Republic of Croatia, by the Constitutional Amendment IV, that was adopted in 1972. That provision was confirmed by the new 1974 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, that recognized not only local Rusyns but also local
Ukrainians, thus designating them as separate and distinct ethnic minorities. In terms of their cultural development in socialist Yugoslavia, Rusyns had several institutions and organizations. As early as in 1945, а publishing house, called the
Rusyn Word () was founded in
Novi Sad. It became the main center for publication of Rusyn newspapers, literary works, and school textbooks. In the same year, Rusyn
high school was opened in
Ruski Krstur. In 1970, the
Society for Rusyn Language and Literature () was established in Novi Sad. Since 1972, Rusyn studies were initiated at the Faculty of Philosophy of the
University of Novi Sad, and the
lectureship for Rusyn Language and Literature () was established in 1983.
Contemporary period After the
breakup of Yugoslavia (1991–1992), its successor states continued to recognize Rusyns as a distinct ethnic minority. In Croatia, Rusyns are officially recognized as an autochthonous ethnic minority and as such, they elect a special representative to the
Croatian Parliament, shared with members of eleven other ethnic minorities. In Serbia, recognition of Rusyn ethnic minority and its language was confirmed by the provincial statutes of Vojvodina. Since 2002, Rusyns in Serbia have their autonomously elected representative body, the National Council of the Rusyn Ethnic Minority (), headquartered in
Ruski Krstur. The Department of Rusynistics () was established at the Faculty of Philosophy University of Novi Sad in 2002. In 2008, the Institute for Culture of Rusyns in Vojvodina () was founded in
Novi Sad. ==Demographics==