Re: Rusyn (was: General)

Jan van Steenbergen wrote:
>National consciousness
>Various. Some consider themselves Ukrainians, others Rusinians. There is a
>minority current among Lemkos to consider themselves Lemkos (i.e. having
>nothing in common particularly with other Rusinians). And many consider
>themselves "tutejszy" (locals); they identify themselves rather with the
>place
>where they live than with their language or religion.
>A difference between the Lemkos and the other Ukrainians in Poland is that
>the
>Lemkos are in majority Orthodoxe, while the Ukrainians are Greek Catholic.
>
I read somewhere that in late Habsburg times, there were no less than three
nationalistic movements among the Rusinians/Ruthenians: one Rusinophile that
considered the Rusinians a people of their own and demanding an autonomous
Rusinia, one Ukrainophile that thought Rusinians to be a kind of Ukrainians
and demanding unification with Russia's Ukrainians in a independent Ukraine,
and a Russophile one which considered all East Slavs to be one Russian
people, and thought that separating labels like "Ruthenian", "Ukrainian",
"Belorussian" etc where introduced by Germans, Poles and other evil
westerners to split asunder Russia; they naturally demanded unification with
the Tsarist Russian state.

                                                    Andreas

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