Rusyns

The term Rusyn (, plural ) originates from the archaic ethnonym "Rus". The respective endonymic adjective has traditionally been ( m., f., n.), though () has also been used; even more so after 1989. In interwar Czechoslovakia, Ruthenia was called in Czech; sometimes rendered Rusinia or Rusynia in American-Rusyn publications. Regional Identifiers Carpatho-Rusyn or Carpatho-Ruthenian () is the main regional designation for Rusyns, especially in North America. The term refers to Carpathian Ruthenia (), which is a historical cross-border region encompassing Subcarpathian Rus' (in northeastern Slovakia and Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast), Prešov Region (in eastern Slovakia), the Lemko Region (in southeastern Poland), and Maramureş (in north-central Romania). In the Lemko region, the endonym Lemko (pl. ) became more common in the twentieth century, along with Lemko-Rusyn since the 1990s. The variant Rusnak (; plural: or Pannonian-Rusyn, Rusnatsi) was also (and still is) used as an endonym; particularly by Rusyns outside the Carpathians in Vojvodina, Serbia and Slavonia, Croatia. However, they may also be referred to as Vojvodinian Rusyns (), Bachka-Srem Rusyns (), or formerly as Yugoslav Rusyns (). Other terms such as Ruthene, Rusniak, Lemak, Lyshak, and Lemko are considered by some scholars to be historic, local, or synonymic names for these inhabitants of Transcarpathia. Others hold that the terms Lemko and Rusnak are simply regional variations for Rusyns or Ruthenes. In the Kingdom of Hungary, Ruthene was used as the official term for the Rusyn people () of Transcarpathia until 1945. During the early twentieth century the term "became even more restricted: it was generally used to refer to the inhabitants of Transcarpathia and to Transcarpathian emigrants in the United States", for whom the terms Rusyn and Carpatho-Rusyn are more commonly used since the 1970s. == History ==

Origins There are different theories to explain Rusyn origins. According to Paul Robert Magocsi, the origin of the present-day Carpatho-Rusyns is complex and not exclusively related to the Kievan Rus'. The ancestors were the early Slavs whose movement to the Danubian Basin was influenced by the Huns and Pannonian Avars between the 5th and 6th centuries, the White Croats who lived on both slopes of the Carpathians and built many hill-forts in the region including Uzhhorod ruled by the mythical ruler Laborec, the Rusyns of Galicia and Podolia, and Vlach shepherds of Transylvania. It is thought that the Croats were part of the Antes tribal polity who migrated to Galicia in the 3rd-4th century, under pressure by invading Huns and Goths. George Shevelov also considered a connection with East Slavic tribes, more specifically, the Hutsuls, and possibly Boykos, argued to be the descendants of the Ulichs who were not 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. Anthropology According to anthropological studies, the Eastern Carpathian population makes one of the sub-regional clines of the Ukrainian population, which can be regionally divided into Eastern and Western Carpathian variants. In the study by M. S. Velikanova (1975), the skulls from a medieval necropolis near the village of Vasyliv in Zastavna Raion were very similar to the contemporary Carpathian population, and according to 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 most Croatians. Population genetics The 2006 mitochondrial DNA study of Carpathian Highlanders – Boykos, Hutsuls and Lemkos people 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 all 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 Pannonian Rusyns in the region of Vojvodina, Serbia, found they mostly belong to haplogroup R1a (43%), 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. Early history The general usage of 'Rusyn' by East Slavs dates back to over 11 centuries, its origin signifying the ethnic tie to the political entity of Kievan Rus', which existed from the late ninth to the early 13th century. The East Slavs 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 loosely affiliated peoples developed different political and economic centers as well as new names. By 18th century the official names used by Russian Empire were Great Russians (modern Russians), Little Russians (modern Ukrainians) and White Russians (modern Belarusians). 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 era suggest that Norman Vikings (who played a role in the founding of Kiev Rus') were there as well. Even so, as late 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 invasions led by Genghis Khan's grandson, Batu Khan, with populations exterminated and villages torched. The Mongols entered the region via the Veretski Pass, just to the north of Mukachevo. In 1396, exiled Prince Theodor Koriatovich, member of the Lithuanian House of Gediminas, purchased the city of Mukachevo, settling himself in the city's Palanok Castle. He might have facilitated the migration of up to 40,000 from Podolia but the number is disputed. The arrival of Koriatovich and his retinue was a milestone for the Rusyns, substantially improving the region's administrative, ecclesiastical and cultural aspects. This included building and fortifying Mukachevo Castle with cannons, a moat, workers and artisans, and the founding of an Orthodox monastery on the Latorytsia River. Modern history 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 move 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. 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). 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 World War I: the Lemko-Rusyn Republic and Komancza Republic. Prior to this time, some of the founders of the Lemko-Rusyn Republic were sentenced to death or imprisoned in Talerhof by the prosecuting attorney Kost Levytsky (), future president of the West Ukrainian People's Republic. In the interwar period, the Rusyn diaspora in Czechoslovakia enjoyed liberal conditions to develop their culture (in comparison with Ukrainians in Poland or Romania). Hutsul Stepan Klochurak was a prime minister of Hutsul Republic centered in Yasinia that was seeking union with the West Ukrainian People's Republic, but was overrun by the Hungarian troops, later Klochurak became a Defense Minister of Carpatho-Ukraine. various parts of Rusyn people were faced with different political challenges. Those who lived in northeastern counties of the Hungarian part 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. 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 portion became part of the Soviet Union and was officially named Transcarpathia. After World War II, Transcarpathia was declared as a part of Ukraine. In former Yugoslavia, Rusyns were officially recognized as a distinct national minority, and their legal status was regulated in Yugoslav federal units of Serbia and Croatia. In the Constitution of Serbia, that was adopted in 1963, Rusyns were designated as one of seven (explicitly named) national minorities (Article 82), and the same provision was implemented in the Statute of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina 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). Recent history After the fall of communism, 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 able to vote in December 1991 for self-rule. With an 89% voter turnout, 78% voted Yes to autonomy. But with the Russian majority in the Odesa region casting a similar vote, the Ukrainian government, fearing secession, has refused to honor this referendum. In terms of minority rights, the question of Rusyn self-identification and recognition in Ukraine has been a subject of interest for European institutions, as well as the United Nations. Nationally, Rusyns are considered (by both state and cultural authorities) only a sub-group of the Ukrainian people. In spite of this, Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast has recognized Rusyns as a "distinct nationality" within the oblast since a 2007 proclamation by its regional assembly. By the end of the 20th century many societies and organizations considering Rusyns to be a distinct people separate from Ukrainians appeared. By the early 21st century they had representatives in parliaments of Serbia, Hungary, and Romania, published their own press, and in 2007 the Museum of Ruthenian Culture was opened in Prešov, Slovakia. Today there are estimated to be approximately 1.5 million Rusyns in Europe and a healthy pro-Rusyn movement exists in the Carpathians. == Autonomist and separatist movements ==

According to Mrs Jozsefne Csepanyi-Bardos, the president of the Ruthenian Ethnic Minority Council in Budapest, the "flag of the Ruthenians of the World" is a tricolour in a 2:1:1 ratio. May Panchuk, a Ukrainian academic, historian, and head of the department of National Minorities of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine's Institute of Political and Ethno-national research, explained that soon after dissolution of the Soviet Union and during the 1991 Ukrainian referendum, there was provided additional question for Zakarpattia residents only whether they wish to obtain a self-governed territory within Ukraine. Russia has, as of the result of the Russian census of 2002, recognized the Rusyns as a separate ethnic group in 2004, and has been accused by Ukrainian researcher Ivan Hvat of fueling ethnic tensions and separatism among Rusyns in Ukraine. A criminal case under Part 2, Art. 110 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code was initiated after the 1st European Congress of Rusyns took place in Mukachevo on June 7, 2008. At that particular congress the reinstatement of the Zakarpattia's status as special "territory of Rusyns to the south of the Carpathians" with self-government under the constitutional name Subcarpathian Rus was recognized. On October 29, at the 2nd congress in Mukachevo, a memorandum was signed calling for the authorities to recognize the Subcarpathian Rus autonomy (by December 1). That same day, according to the Kommersant-Ukraine (Ukrainian edition) agents of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) questioned Dmytro Sydor and Yevgeniy Zhupan. They were summoned to SBU as witnesses in a criminal case "on the infringement on territorial integrity of Ukraine" initiated in June 2008. According to the internet publisher "Newsru", earlier in 2008 the Zakarpattia Rusyns appealed to Russia to recognize independence of Subcarpathian Ruthenia from Ukraine. In 2014, at the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War, an activist of the Subcarpathian Ruthenia movement named Petro Hetsko, who claims to be prime minister of the Subcarpathian Ruthenia, asked the President of Russia to intervene and help "neutralize Galician Nazism in Zakarpattia". Research conducted by the University of Cambridge during the height of political Rusynism in the mid-1990s that focused on five specific regions within the Zakarpattia Oblast having the strongest pro-Rusyn cultural and political activism, found that only nine percent of the population of these areas claimed Rusyn ethnicity. In the present day, according to the Ukrainian census, most – over 99% – of the local inhabitants consider themselves to be Ukrainians. (Ukrainian census numbers inflated since 1991 refer to local ones for accuracy). ==Religion ==

Early history Religion and Rusyn history are deeply intertwined, often resulting in controversy. Many believe that when Rusyns first came to Christianity it was through the Orthodox faith, although this has been challenged by many others who assert the initial Christian influence actually came from Catholic Moravia. One of the earliest saints of the (Orthodox) Monastery of the Caves at Kiev was the Rusyn Moses Uhrin (died 1043), who prior to becoming a monk served Boris, the prince of Ancient Rus'. Moses and his brothers Efrem and Georgii stories are recorded in the noted Primary Chronicle. Also originating from this time is the unique Carpathian church Prostopinije (Plain Chant), which is closely related to the ancient chant of Kievan Rus' and has even preserved elements of it. For over 600 years, the Orthodox Church was the only Rusyn church in the Carpathians. But under the growing influence of the then ruling Austro-Hungarian Empire, Orthodox clergy were reduced over time to the legal status of peasant-serfs, and even the bishop of Mukachevo was at the mercy of the Hungarian lords. To improve their condition, some Orthodox priests attempted to form a new church under the Catholics. In 1614, 50 priests convened at the Krasni Brid Monastery with this intent, but a crowd of Orthodox protested and dispersed the group. A second attempt in the 1630s under Bishop Vasyl Tarasovych also failed. Finally in April 1646, Bishop Parfenii Petrovich was able to convene a meeting of 63 (out of a few hundred) priests who pledged their allegiance to the Pope of Rome. Their signed document became known as the Union of Uzhhorod, resulting in the formation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. This new Church was given greater material assistance from the Austro-Hungarian Empire while being allowed to maintain their Eastern Rite traditions, including married priests. From that time, the Rusyns had two bishops, one Greek Catholic and one Orthodox, until 1721 when the last remaining Orthodox priests in the western counties accepted the Union. Some priests in the eastern counties of Bereg and Maramaros remained Orthodox until 1745. Recent history In the 1890s, 145 years after Orthodoxy had ceased to exist in the Carpathians, a so-called 'return to Orthodoxy' movement began, reaching a high point in the 1920s. Many Greek Catholics who became Orthodox were arrested for treason and a few were even executed by the government, with the Thalerhof internment camp and martyrdom (by firing squad) of the Orthodox priest Maxim Sandovich in 1914 being the best known incidents. Meanwhile, the Russian Bolshevik Revolution was forcing Russians of the nobility and middle class to flee, and many settled in the US. These Russians arrived and began joining the American Russian Orthodox Church (then called the Metropolia) at precisely the same time Carpatho-Russians in America were also 'returning' to the Orthodox faith. This mixing furthered Russophile leanings among many Rusyns. Leading the charge was Fr. Alexis Toth, a former Greek Catholic priest who led as many as 20,000 Rusyn Americans to Orthodoxy, for which he was canonized by the Orthodox Church (due to his efforts, perhaps 1/3rd of American Rusyns are Orthodox today). This American mixing further influenced events and persecutions back in the Carpathian homeland, where thousands of fleeing Orthodox Russians also settled, including monks who founded the Ladomirova Monastery. Indeed, Laurus Škurla who was born in Ladomirova (now in Slovakia) rose to become Metropolitan Laurus, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Conversely, it was Greek Catholics of the Carpathians who suffered in the 1940s. By force, the Soviet government annulled the Union of Uzhhorod in 1946, and the Greek Catholic Church was liquidated exactly 300 years after its formation. The Greek Catholic Cathedral, Uzhhorod was transferred to the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church in 1948, and priests who refused to convert to Orthodoxy were sent to the Siberian and Arctic labor camps, where many died. Others were simply murdered in their home villages. A horrific example of this was the martyrdom (by assassination) of Greek Catholic Bishop Theodore Romzha. To add salt to the wound, in 1971 the Russian Orthodox Synod of Zagorsk, U.S.S.R. indirectly justified this violence by officially ratifying the annulment. And while no longer the case, from the early and even until the mid-1900s in America, religious and nationalist causes went together. Aside from Russian Orthodox/Greek Catholic struggle, the dislike of Ukrainians by Rusyn religious leaders was strong and expressed often, as Ukrainian nationalism was deemed a destructive force to Rusyn culture. The influential newspaper of the American Greek Catholic Church, the 'GCU Messenger', wrote in 1954: "To us Carpatho-Russian people here and in our native country under the green Carpathians, there can be no greater insult and offense then when someone calls us Ukrainians. We know not such people on the world's map." Europe Today In Europe today, some tensions still exist. As an example, the aforementioned Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross in Uzhhorod belonged to the Greek Catholics but after WWII had been given to the Russian Orthodox Church by the Communist government. With the pending fall of communism, a well-meaning visit to this cathedral in February 1990 by American Byzantine Catholic (Greek Catholic) Archbishop Stephen Kocisko, whose own Rusyn parents were born in the Carpathians, led to confrontation from Rusyn Orthodox protestors. Later in 1991, there were major protests, including physical attacks and hunger strikes when it was decided to transfer the cathedral back to the Greek Catholics. The Orthodox immediately set about to build a new Uzhhorod Orthodox Cathedral, under the guidance of the Rusyn Fr. Dimitry Sydor, a Moscow Patriarchate priest, who is perhaps the most controversial cleric in today's Carpathians. In a nod to Moscow, the architecture of the new cathedral is based on the design of the famous and newly rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, which is the largest church in all of Russia. At the parish level, numerous churches which had been forcibly Orthodox for decades switched back to the Greek Catholic jurisdiction, and new ones were also constructed. As well, in spite of continued pressure, the region's Greek Catholic Church steadfastly refuses to be included under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian oriented Lviv Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy. Notably and in another example of Rusyns going against the tide and seen as a pushback against Ukrainianism, an estimated 542 of the existing 550 Transcarpathian Orthodox churches chose to remain under the (Russian) Moscow Patriarchate rather than join the (Ukrainian) Kiev/Kyiv Patriarchate. And as of 2021 according to the Ukrainian government itself, Transcarpathia had one of the highest adherence levels in Ukraine to the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate rather than the Kyiv Orthodox Patriarchate. Greek Catholics Many Rusyns are Eastern Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, who since the Union of Uzhhorod in 1646 have been in communion with the See of Rome. This church, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, is distinct from the Latin Catholic Church. It has retained the Byzantine Rite liturgy, sometimes including the Church Slavonic language, the liturgical forms of Byzantine or Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and married priests. The Pannonian Rusyns of Croatia are organized under the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Križevci, and those in the region of Vojvodina (northern Serbia), are organized under the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Ruski Krstur, headed by bishop Đura Džudžar, who is an ethnic Rusyn. Those in the diaspora in the United States established the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh. Eastern Orthodox Although originally associated with the Eastern Orthodox Eparchy of Mukachevo, that diocese was suppressed after the Union of Uzhhorod. New Eastern Orthodox Eparchy of Mukachevo and Prešov was created in 1931 under the auspices of the Serbian Orthodox Church. That eparchy was divided in 1945, eastern part joining Russian Orthodox Church as the Eparchy of Mukachevo and Uzhhorod, while western part was reorganized as Eastern Orthodox Eparchy of Prešov of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church. Many Rusyn Americans left Catholicism for Eastern Orthodoxy in the 19th century due to disputes with the Latin Church bishops, who viewed different practices in the Byzantine Rite (such as married clergy) with suspicion. Another large segment of Rusyn Americans belong to the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, which is headquartered in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. From its early days, this group was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a self-governing diocese. The affiliation of Eastern Orthodox Rusyns was adversely affected by the Communist revolution in the Russian Empire and the subsequent Iron Curtain which split the Orthodox diaspora from the Eastern Orthodox believers living in the ancestral homelands. A number of émigré communities have claimed to continue the Orthodox Tradition of the pre-revolution church while either denying or minimizing the validity of the church organization operating under Communist authority. For example, the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) was granted autocephalous (self-governing) status by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1970. Although approximately 25% of the OCA was Rusyn in the early 1980s, an influx of Eastern Orthodox émigrés from other nations and new converts wanting to connect with the Eastern Church have lessened the impact of a particular Rusyn emphasis in favor of a new American Orthodoxy. In 1994, the historian Paul Robert Magocsi stated that there were approximately 690,000 Carpatho-Rusyn church members in the United States, with 320,000 belonging to the largest Greek Catholic affiliations, 270,000 to the largest Eastern Orthodox affiliations, and 100,000 to various Protestant and other denominations. == Location ==

in Vojvodina, Serbia (2002 census) The traditional homeland of the Rusyn people, Carpathian Rus', lies at the heart of the Carpathian mountains, on the borders of modern-day Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia. Today, approximately three-quarters of Rusyns reside within Ukraine, specifically the geographic region known as Transcarpathia (historic Subcarpathian Rus'). There also exists a multitude of Rusyn diaspora communities throughout neighboring countries in Europe and North America. The oldest of these diaspora communities is located in the Pannonian Plain. Since the mid-18th century, the resettled communities of Pannonia have existed in parts of present-day Serbia (particularly, Vojvodina, known historically as Bachka) and Croatia (in Vukovar-Srijem County). The United States holds the largest population of Rusyns outside of Carpathian Rus', mostly within the former industrial centers of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. At the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, approximately 225,000 Rusyns emigrated here. Within Europe, Rusyns also migrated and settled in Prnjavor, a town in the northern region of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. The community in the Czech Republic is located in northern Moravia and the capital of Prague. Populations of Rusyns also migrated to Canada and Argentina in the 1920s and Canada, Australia, and Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. == Demography ==

Of the estimated 1.2 to 1.6 million people of Rusyn origins, The ethnic classification of Rusyns as a separate East Slavic ethnicity distinct from Russians, Ukrainians, or Belarusians is, consequently, politically controversial. The claim that Rusyns are a Ukrainian subgroup is disputed by some non-mainstream scholars, as well as other scholars from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Canada, and the United States. According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, thirty percent of Rusyns in Ukraine identified Ukrainian as their native language, while two thirds named the Rusyn language. However, about 10 thousand people, or 0.8%, of Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast (Province) identified themselves as Rusyns; by contrast, over 1 million considered themselves Ukrainians. The endonym Rusyn has frequently gone unrecognised by various governments, and has in other cases been prohibited. Today, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Croatia officially recognize contemporary Rusyns as an ethnic minority. In 2007, Carpatho-Rusyns were recognized as a separate ethnicity in Ukraine by the Zakarpattia Oblast Council on a regional level, and the latter speaking Pannonian Rusyn. Other more specific, regional subgroups (debatably) include Lemkos, Boykos, Hutsuls, and Dolinyans (). Furthermore, while Lemkos and Rusyns are recognized as distinct ethnic minorities in Poland and Slovakia (respectively), neither Boykos nor Hutsuls are formally recognized in any country; nor are any Rusyns for that matter recognized as such in Ukraine. Regarding these common ethnographic divisions, prominent Rusyn scholar, Paul Robert Magocsi, has said the following: ==Gallery==

Boykos of Maniava.jpg|Boyko family, late 19th century Бойки.jpg|Boyko family, early 20th century Ukrainian hutsuls 1.jpg|Hutsul family, 1925–1939 Hutsul music band.jpg|Hutsul music band, 1918–1935 Carpatho-Rusyn sub-groups - Sanok area Lemkos in original goral folk-costumes from Mokre (Poland) ..jpg|Lemkos from Sanok in stylized highland folk-costumes from Mokre (Poland) Carpatho-Rusyn sub-groups - Przemyśl area Ukrainians in original goral folk-costumes..jpg|Rusyns from Przemyśl Carpatho-Rusyn sub-groups - Presov area Lemkos (left side) and Przemyśl area Ukrainians in original goral folk-costumes..jpg|Boykos from Prešov (left side) and Lemkos from Przemyśl Narodna nosnja petrovci.jpg|Ruthenian costume from Petrovci, Croatia ==See also==

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