thank you so much for this video. you might not get the best reaction to it, but it;s an important message that needs to be out there regardless. i resonate with a lot of the things described in the video. i'm a ukrainian/rusyn american who didn't know what a rusyn was until last year, i was always just told i was a quarter ukrainian, and then i looked more into it when i got a dna test and got a rusyn region instead of any ukrainian dna. i learned my grandpa's ancestry was actually primarily from poland, not ukraine, and then my uncle told me we were rusyn. having learned about rusyn history and the ukrainophile movement, it makes sense why my ancestors claimed to be ukrainian when they came to america. when i said maybe i didn't know if i should call myself ukrainian and wanted to learn more about rusyn-ness, my ukrainian friends who had always accepted me as one of them got really mad at me and told me rusyns are all just ukrainians and that i'm probably a genocide supporter lol. in my experience, ukrainians simultaneously want nothing to do with rusyns/dislike rusyn-ness, and take it as an act of betrayal when we identify as rusyn rather than (or in addition to) being ukrainian. i obviously feel horrible about what ukrainian people are going through, and i still think of myself as being ukrainian in a way because i always thought that and it's hard to shake an identity i've had my entire life. but if i choose to identify with my rusyn-ness instead of a ukrainian identity, ukrainians would want nothing to do with me. so it's a tricky situation to be in. they deserve their sovereignty from russia, but we deserve to be recognized as our own people too. wow this got long sorry haha

@grundgesetzart.1463

11 ай бұрын

they dislike everybody, who is not like them and the worst part is, are ready to lash out violently as well. Remember the events of 2014? I do. After that, they abolished the education in minority languages and went full ret*rd vs their own people. The Rusyns and all other minorities deserve a chance for self-determination. p.s. Don't let the term "genocide" fool you. They (Ukrainian nationalists, Bandera-lovers etc) themselves dream of conducting one and looking at Ukrainian comments and social media groups, chats etc it is like reading some old nazis frothing at the mouth about what they will do to their "enemies".

@jakef.7126

5 ай бұрын

I am so sorry for you. You didn't deserve that treatment at all. I have met many Ukrainians who were interested and excited to learn about Rusyn people. From my experience, many Ukrainians don't know much about Rusyn culture rather than being actively hostile. Sadly, Ukrainians who do know about Rusyn people online are hardcore nationalists who are geared towards being hostile.

@alexbroshome

3 ай бұрын

yeah i also feel horrible about ukranians and my grandpa was also rusyn but idk i strugle to deny the ukranian part beacause i was in zakarpatia a lot of times and idk man

@jakef.7126

3 ай бұрын

@@alexbroshome Well you don't have to know. Some people are mixed Rusyn and Ukrainian. Some Rusyn feel Ukrainian. But being Rusyn doesn't automatically make you Ukrainian. Maybe Rusyn have never been to Ukraine and don't speak Ukrainian. You don't have to hate Ukrainians or anything. I know many Ukrainians who are interested in Rusyn culture and who respect Rusyn people.

While I understand that most of the historic Rusyn homeland is in modern day Ukraine, I also know that my Rusyn (Lemko) grandfather's family came from modern day Poland. Others trace back to modern day Slovakia, Romania and Hungary. Is there an opportunity in any of those other countries to make more progress and build some momentum?

@lemkowithhistory

11 ай бұрын

There are definitely opportunities to do something as Poland and Slovakia are fairly allowing of Rusynness. LWH and SRE will be covering more about political growth and Nova Lemkovyna in the near future.

@lemkowithhistory

11 ай бұрын

@@ByeByeBS Pathetic.

@lemkowithhistory

11 ай бұрын

X XYZ It's not that there is no argument, it's that there are so many of you brain dead idiots who take some offhand remark from a guy who never cared about being Rusyn as the center of your Rusyn identity. It is people like you who have been the downfall of any future we have, and anybody who has anything different in mind from your listless incompetence will get attacked. I've been around the likes of you for long enough to know what you are.

Hi, how do I connect with my Rusyn heritage? My people are from southeastern Poland and northeastern Slovakia. I only found out about my heritage through research and genetics. My mother’s people were Greek Catholic and Russian Orthodox when they came to America. Unfortunately most of them has passed away so I can’t find much information.

I don't agree with your pessimism, but I do agree you bring up difficult, yet important points. Ukraine is still an inheritor of Kyivan Rus. Even without Rusyns, Ukraine has Cossacks, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, the black earth of the Donbas, Kyiv, Kharkiv as a heart of early Ukrainian modernism. France lost Algeria and remained France, Portugal lost its empire and remained Portugal. Ukraine can reappraise Rusyn heritage and remain Ukrainian. I love Rusyn and Ukrainian culture, but I am disappointed that Ukrainians have not managed to accept Rusyn identity. Rusyn heritage is a treasure to all of Europe and suppressing it is a tragedy for Rusyn and all Europeans. edit: I have replaced "Ruthenian" with "Rusyn" to avoid ambiguity and confusion.

@jakef.7126

5 ай бұрын

@@Fafnirych Rusyn and Ruthenian are two different words. Carpathian-Ruthenian and Ruthenian are two different notions. Rusyn people include people who have never ever been to Ukraine in their entire lives. I used "Ruthenian" for "Rusyn" and this is partly my fault and my misuse of words. I see that Ruthenian is used for Rusyn AND all people descended from Rus.

@jakef.7126

5 ай бұрын

@@Fafnirych I hope your family is safe and well and happy new year! My friends have lost loved ones this winter, as such, my thoughts are with you.

@jakef.7126

5 ай бұрын

@@Fafnirych OK. So you are just delusional. Take care.

According to my mother, my Rusyn grandparents always insisted that we (Rusyns) were different than Ukrainians.

This is rather a pesemistic approach. People moved around a lot since then...

«Пан-рутенізм». Гм.. інтересный термін

Russia is absolutely a pretender. I can understand your argument here, but I don’t know what you expect to change while a genocide is literally taking place in their country. Yes yes yes, it’s been 30 years. But why haven’t the Rusyn people done more to be more vocal prior? No one will do this for us and so it’s admirable that you do these well thought out videos and work. But I feel like being passive is in our DNA or something (anecdotal experience with my own family). When my Rusyn family came to Glassport, as a child my grandma went to “Russian” school in the 1920’s. She told me this as one of her stories throughout her life, even my mom took it at face value, thus perpetuating the erasure of that identity until I did research. What were they so afraid of to let it be widely know they were Rusyns, not Slovaks, not Hungarians, etc. I guess my point is, it’s not just Ukraine to be blamed for this, our own people could have done better. I don’t blame them but I also know those were different times. There will be different times after Russia stops killing Ukie children, stealing them, murdering elderly, etc. I actually think that it will be a prime opportunity for Rusyns to stand up to the Ukrainian government and call them out for this erasure and their past transgressions. Ukraine is being looked at much more closely than ever before. We need to be loud but nothing can possibly be done while they are being invaded. I dunno, I also have Ukrainian family members so maybe I am biased but a little bit of empathy would be nice here. Great video as always, thank you for your work.

@diehardsmokerbuddy

7 ай бұрын

Fake and gay

@rmeyer4948

5 ай бұрын

@@Fafnirych I don't think you meant to put your comment as a response on mine. You may want to repost it.

@xerxen100

5 ай бұрын

I dont think thats so simple. Without allies, there is no way. On the other hand, Rusyns were always called by other hungarussians :)

@diehardsmokerbuddy

5 ай бұрын

There is no genocide happening in Ukraine, thats a Nazi narrative, and what is Russia a pretender of?

@ionbrad6753

3 ай бұрын

This is why a decision on the identity and the policy behind it is very importat now, during the Russian unprovoked invasion in Ukraine: If Rusyns decide they are Ukrainians, they should fight for Ukraine, even until the supreme sacrifice. If Rusyns decide they are a different people, oppressed by Ukraine, they should (a) fight for their rights; then (b) help Ukraine with material goods against the aggressor - like the rest of the civilized world, but not allowing themselves being drafted into the armies in the conflict zone (one do not want to die for his oppressor).

It just seems like maybe it's not the right time to be doing this when they are literally getting genocided. I absolutely feel like you deserve to be recognized and respected as a distinct and unique people though. But can this be talked about another time? I hope this did not come off as rude.

@lemkowithhistory

11 ай бұрын

We've been waiting 30 years.

@monkeivyisacat

11 ай бұрын

Not really, this was always and issue and indeed it is quite rude to be frank.

@cat-zt3cb

11 ай бұрын

in the most respectful way, if we can't talk about it now, when will it be appropriate to? ukrainians are victims of russian aggression, which is horrible and they don't deserve that. but they can understand what it is like to be denied their right to exist as a sovereign people, so why the double standard when they justify doing it to us?

@user-dc3nf7rr7t

11 ай бұрын

I came here to say the same. Poor timing regarding this issue.

@slyapbg

11 ай бұрын

@@ByeByeBS American doesn't mean anything. Having "heritage" or "ancestry" is just a meme among New Worlders in general, not just Americans, but Canadians, Brazilians, Argentinians, etc;

All these folks who are destroying lemko for speaking are part of the problem..All you do is complain and not doing something.

I am trying to understand Rusyn history. Did the Rusyn's live under the protection of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or am I saying non-sense here?

@lemkowithhistory

11 ай бұрын

Rusyns in this context refer to modern Carpatho-Rusyns. Rusyn or Ruthenian in a historical context refers to Carpatho-Rusyns, Belarusians, and Ukrainians. Rusyns under Lithuania became Belarusians.

@PunktusContrapunktum

11 ай бұрын

We wouldn’t consider rule by Poles or Lithuanians or Austrians or Hungarians as “protection.”

@xerxen100

5 ай бұрын

@@PunktusContrapunktum Lets be honest, your last state was the Kingdom of Halich. But the Mongols destroyed, just like 80% of the population of Hungary. As their(Halich) allies, they settled you to Hungary. But its really not a "protection".

"Novorossiya" doesn't belong to either Ukraine or Russia. It belongs in one seperate Cossack State together with "southern Russia". Sadly this is not realistic. Same with a Sub- and Transcarpathian state together with Lemkovyna and eastern Slovakia.

@royramse7389

11 ай бұрын

Cossacks are evil and are jews

@ryanlieb3958

11 ай бұрын

No, it's Russian. There is no question.

@Rolando_Cueva

10 ай бұрын

​@@ryanlieb3958 it's Ukrainian.

@gamermapper

6 ай бұрын

​@@Rolando_Cueva it's crimean tatar

@alexbroshome

3 ай бұрын

this is right but sadly not possible

If rusyn is just a dialect of ukrainian than ukrainian is just a dialect of russian..

@PunktusContrapunktum

11 ай бұрын

I’ve been saying this for 25 years

@oneartftw

11 ай бұрын

Ukrainian and russian are similar only by 30% and almost all of the words are completely different, while so called "rusyn" are almost exactly the same as ukrainian, so it's a dialect. There is almost no one in Zakarpathia, who identifies themselves as "rusyns", well, yeah, there is 10k who do, but it's like 1-3% of it's population, and it slowly decreases every year, because people realize, that they are actually ukrainian.

@ameliakuntz1350

10 ай бұрын

​@@oneartftwthey do not "realize". They are forced to identify as Ukrainian on censuses. And if they speak out on Rusyn issues and even speak Rusyn in major public spaces or even at ethnic cultural festivals, they are threatened and even arrested for doing so. So no, we are not "realizing" that we are Ukrainian. We are forced to hide what we are in fear of further persecution from Kyiv. People forget that Ukrainian natinalists during the World Wars were also very much responsible with the ethnocide of Lemkos, aside from Polish government at that time and Austro-Hungary during earlier years and WW1. We are a silenced, assimilated, persecuted, and ethnocided people, by all countries around us- Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and ESPECIALLY Ukraine. Ukrainian Nazis were very involved with the assimilation and destruction of Lemkovyna. We speak of our origins, yet we are berated and threatened and forced to take the label of "Ukrainian" in fear of further violence and harm. That's how it's always been, and it needs to stop.

@81mandragora

6 ай бұрын

These are all eastern Slavic languages - these include Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian. Rusyn is thought to retain some of the more original old East Slavic elements. Rusyn is not a dialect (although some argue this), but can be considered a separate language. Russian is not Ukrainian etc. all have their roots in East Slavic and then evolved as separate languages. The commonalities have to do with the root language - East Slavic.

@81mandragora

6 ай бұрын

This statement is faulty thinking assuming Russian is original. It is not. There can also be found dialects within Russian between north and south, etc.

Read about the krevende rus😂vikings for scandinavia madeira that country

@ryanlieb3958

11 ай бұрын

Mybe accounting to azov

For many Rusyn Americans over the past century, it wasn’t always clear to themselves who they were; but it was clear who they weren’t: Ukrainians. Which is why, for example, the Greek Catholic Church always remained separate from the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and ditto for the Orthodox. And which is why, when the Soviets annexed the Transcarpathia region in 1947, the local leaders at the time voted to enter the Soviet Union either as its own Republic, or as part of Russia (their vote was ignored and they were made part of Ukraine). It’s ironic that the Ukrainian nationalists in control of modern Ukraine oppress Rusyns even as they accuse Russia of having oppressed them. Obviously, most Ukrainians are decent, normal people. But the ones in control are not. It started with the Ukraine government refusing to honor the legal 1991 referendum whereby 70% of Transcarpathians voted for autonomy (as did Crimea) within Ukraine. These same nationalists had no problem resorting to violence and bloodshed in the 2014 ‘Maidan Revolution’ coup to remove their democratically elected President (Yanukovich). What civilized society does that? Can you imagine this taking place in Western Europe? Can you imagine having a bloody coup to throw out by force (vs. vote out) Trudeau in Canada or Biden in the U.S., and then pretending the installed replacement is legitimate? It is these same people who pushed their vitriolic anti-Russian hatred and physically violent oppression against the ethnic Russian speaking Ukrainians, resulting in the current war they brought upon their own country. This is not to whitewash Putin’s response, but Putin didn’t start it. The point is there’s a certain element in Ukraine so blinded with their Ukrainian ideology that they can never accept Rusyns who simply want to remain Rusyn.

@JayWolko

10 ай бұрын

@@IT-lz9qc(Jay Wolko) First, saying Yanukovych is Putin's puppet claim means little. People still voted for him, including a higher than average percentage from Transcarpathia, meaning many Rusyns. Second, even if he was a puppet, that doesn't give any civilized society the right to instigate a bloody coup, and then install a putsch regime controlled by foreign NATO powers. Doesn't sound very democratic to me!!! BTW, even when Yanukovych caved to the violent mobs and agreed to apply to the E.U. as demanded, the mob showed their true colors by still overthrowing the government. I'm not a Putin fan, but he does seem correct in labeling the current Ukrainian government as fascists. In his own way, Zelensky is as much of a dictator as Putin is accused of being - he banned opposition parties, jailed his opposition political rivals, shut down opposition TV and radio stations. And now, of course, he's going after Orthodox churches in a very heavy handed and questionably legal manner. Plus, he now wants to use martial law to cancel October elections in order to continue in power. Through all this, he has the gall to preach that he's working hard for "freedom and democracy". He did all of this after he ran on a platform of making peace with Russia, and now he refuses to even negotiate with Russia. So okay, he's a dictator too, but at least he's our (the West's) dictator!

@ameliakuntz1350

10 ай бұрын

Thank you for addressing realities in this. More people need to be informed of what really happened there in Donbas for the past near decade. I knew about Donbas back in 2019 when I was in university, and the corruption of Kyiv with the current US president and his family in Burisma in 2019 as well. People need to wake up to all this and scream it.

@D.S.handle

10 ай бұрын

How do you justify the legality of the 1991 referendum? What was the legal ground for the referendum?

@chloechloe8515

10 ай бұрын

@@D.S.handle In the well-known 1991 federal vote for independence from the USSR, voters were also given the choice of Yes or No for autonomy. And two regions voted Yes: Transcarpathia and Crimea. It is my understanding that while the vote was 100% legal and legitimate, Kiev/Kyiv refused to honor it, as the nationalists in charge were afraid it could lead to secession. Meaning from Day One, those in charge were not honoring what the citizens wanted. If you do a search for “1991 Transcarpathian general regional referendum” on Google you will find, among other results, a Wikipedia page that states: “The vast majority taking part in the referendum voted for the "Independence of Ukraine" (90.13%), and accession of Transcarpathia to Ukraine with the status of a "Special self-governing territory" (78%). The high turnout at the referendums (700 555 thousand).”

@chloechloe8515

10 ай бұрын

@@xyzgnomon Bad timing? Please! Facts are facts. Russian misdeeds in no way excuse the corrupt current Ukrainian government, where its own citizens are the biggest victims. If one truly wants to help the average Ukrainian, corrupt leaders in all quarters must be held to account.

Modern national identities of East Slavs occur after the distraction of Kievian Rus kingdom. East Slavs that went under Mongol rule became the Russians/Moscovites/Rossiyani. While East Slavs that went under European kingdoms' rule became the Ruthenians/Rusyni. These Ruthenians developed even more distinct national identities given the states they were governed by: Belarusians under Lithuania, Ukrainians under Poland, Rusyns under Hungary. Modern Ukraine tries to claim Rusyn identity the same way Russians tries to claim Ruthenian (Ukrainian) identity. That being said, historically south and east Ukraine wasn't part of a European empire/kingdom ever, which kind of means that Ukrainian identity there doesn't really has a historical background or it's artificial. I guess. Question: how Rusyns view their short incorporation to the Czechoslovak state?

@deliwuxx

7 ай бұрын

From what I know, the Ruthenians had the best life in Czechoslovakia

@xerxen100

5 ай бұрын

@@deliwuxx Its not true. They always harassed by ukranian nationalists, and the czech government doesnt care.

@user-hm6yf7or1t

2 ай бұрын

Тільки ось проблема: українців не існує. Це абсолютно штучне поняття, складене з абсолютно різник народів - поліщуків, галичан, козаків, русинів. Проте, як ми бачимо, сучасне «українство» - це не про націю чи мову. Тому в таких умовах русини ніде більше не відносяться, як до української держави.

Ukraine is russia😂😂😂

@grimnoob893

11 ай бұрын

Your mama is Russia

@PunktusContrapunktum

11 ай бұрын

Yes, but why do they insist on calling themselves by this artificial U-word?

@diehardsmokerbuddy

5 ай бұрын

​@@PunktusContrapunktumbecause in the past oligarchs from the region tried to separate themselves from Russia to abandon their social responsibilities from the Tzar and took their local populations with them. Fast forward hundreds of years and this has developed into the the 2nd biggest cope Europe has ever seen.

@i_ate_a_cat_

4 ай бұрын

Russia is Slovenia

@wizdmovie9957

22 күн бұрын

@@i_ate_a_cat_Real