I was perusing the Searching in Slovakia lists (as I do almost every day)
and I have to say that I'm continually amazed by the number of individuals
who are researching Rusyn ancestors.
From time to time Greg Gressa and I have contacted some of these people
through e-mail to mention that they are researching Rusyn villages, etc.,
and inviting them to look at the Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base and post
their surnames to it as well. I don't know how many people have actually
looked at C-RKB, but the number who have put their surnames up is EXTREMELY
low.
This leads me to believe that these people do not consider
themselves/their ancestors from these places to be Rusyns (there are many
reasons why that may be, including that in some villages nobody speaks Rusyn
there anymore, and if these folks have visited, there may have been nothing
out of the ordinary why their relatives wouldn't be "Slovaks" except perhaps
that there is a Greek Catholic or Orthodox church in the village). Having
spent a great deal of effort in the last 7-8 years of my admittedly short
life trying to educate fellow Rusyn-Americans about their heritage, I find
this situation to be quite distressing.
I would like to increase awareness that in eastern Slovakia live
tens of thousands of people whose language and culture are Rusyn, which is
not just "some kind of Slovak."
In considering the Slovak-World postings and the postings on your
"Searching" list, I was starting to believe that most Americans of Rusyn
descent must consider themselves Slovak. But then I had another thought.
You know, most of these people are doing genealogy. In the course of their
research, they discover that some of their ancestors came from a village
which is now in Slovakia. These people probably have no contact whatsoever
with a Rusyn church, nor with anyone in their family who might have any
recollection of being called/speaking "Russian" or "Rusnak" or "Ruthenian"
and certainly not "Rusyn." Thus, these folks would naturally assume that
since their ancestors were from Slovakia, they were Slovaks! (About the
ones whose villages are in Ukraine or Poland, I can't imagine what leads
them to first assume Slovak heritage...)
I'll admit that I would like very much if we could get new Carpatho-Rusyn
Society members once these folks understand what Rusyns are... our
membership in western Pennsylvania has peaked; we aren't gaining new members
around here at all. That's fine, but if C-RS stops growing, our future
activities will have to be more or less limited. I'm rather worried about
the upcoming membership renewals; it'll be interesting to see how many
people drop out at this point. Some people are absolutely delighted with
their memberships & the newsletter; other people seem to be lukewarm or just
content to have a "subscription" to a newsletter. We don't get enough
feedback about what people want -- aside from last year's survey -- so we're
trying a bunch of different things to see what works. The language
instruction seems to be the top thing, but right now we really don't have a
qualified teacher. I am familiar enough with the language (& Slovak &
Ukrainian) that I intend to start an elementary Rusyn language teaching
series in the newsletter as soon as I can, but I don't know if that will be
enough for some people.
I'll close by saying that the above concerns about American Rusyns knowing
that they're Rusyn stems largely from the fact that (in Slovakia especially)
our numbers are dropping fast. Of course, there are still at least 100,000
people in Slovakia of Rusyn descent, but the number who still identify as
Rusyn in some way is absolutely less than 50,000. Unless something turns
around soon, in 10 years there will be almost nothing left in Slovakia.
Every Rusyn American who becomes a Slovak American contributes to that
destruction. Our Rusyn American activities are surely an inspiration for
Rusyns in Slovakia, but is that enough? How many Rusyn Americans who visit
their relatives in Slovakia bother to say anything at all about "Rusyn"?
Probably less than 5% in my estimation. Have you been to Porac or
Koterbach? Does anyone there still consider themselves Rusyn? I'm sure
they still speak it (at least the older folks) but what happens when they
pass? If even 1 in 10 Rusyn Americans who visited Rusyn relatives in
Slovakia were to make "a big deal" about Rusyn this, Rusyn that, I'm sure
the cumulative effect of that would not be insignificant.
I have a really moving poem written in Rusyn (Porac dialect) by a Jan
Vrabel' from Porac which I'm going to run in _NRT_ as soon as I can. It
touches on some of the above things... I'm sure you'll love it.
Z Bohom,
Rich Custer, email: custer@psuhmed.rcf.hmc.psu.edu