Regular readers know of my Carpatho-Rusyn heritage and, through the years, I’ve been on a quest to learn more about the history and culture of the paternal side of my family tree.
Dr. Paul Robert Magocsi has been a beacon leading the way into Rusyn research and I came across this oldie but goodie.
The Shaping of a National Identity, Subcarpathian Rus’, 1848-1948, published in 1978 by Harvard University Press.
The book is lengthy with 358 pages of text and another 226 pages of notes plus a full index.
As expected, the book is very academically oriented, but extremely well researched and textbook-readable.
Table of Contents
Part 1. Background
- The Geographic, Ethnographic, and Socioeconomic Setting
- Cultural Activity Prior to 1848
- From Embryonic nationalism to National Assimilation
- The Incorporation of Subcarpathian Rus’ into Czechoslovakia
Part 2. The Cultural Setting
5. The Use of History
6. The Problems of Language
7. Literary and Cultural Developments
8. Educational Developments
9. The Religious Factor
Part 3. The Political Environment
10. Political Consolidation in Subcarpathian Rus’, 1919-1929
11. The Decline in Subcarpathia-Czechoslovak Relations, 1930-1937
12. The Period of International Crisis, 1938-1944
13. The Soviet Period
14. Conclusion
Appendix 1. The Problem of Nomenclature
Appendix 2. Comparative Biographies
Appendix 3. Varieties of Written Language
Appendix 4. Tables
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Maps
Hungarian Kingdom, Northeastern Counties, 1910
Subcarpathian Ethno-Geographical Features
Eastern Europe, c1550
Administrative Divisions in Subcarpathian Rus’, 1920-1938
Ethnographic Boundaries in East-Central Europe, 1930
Subcarpathian Border changes, 1938-1945
A commonality among Rusyns beginning family history research is the difficulty in understanding who we are and from whence we came.
Dr. Magocsi’s in-depth study makes it very easy to understand this confusion. The Rusyn people have historically lived in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, whose area extends into former empires and multiple modern day countries whose borders have changed even since the publication of this book.
Rusyns have never had one homeland to call their own and political and societal events have made the development of a cohesive national identity very difficult.
One sentence, found on page 1988, sums up the Rusyns’ difficulty with agreeing on a historical origin, language and political path forward through the centuries:
Furthermore, neither politics, cultural affairs, nor national identity were of great importance to the Rusyn peasants: rather, bread and land – in, short, physical survival.
Rusyns have struggled in day-to-day existence for so long that survival was all that mattered to the “man in the street,” so to speak.
NOTE: this is a very scholarly, textbook kind of book and is not easy, quick reading. However, I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Rusyn heritage or Eastern European history.
This book can be found on sites like Amazon and EBay for varying prices, perhaps as low as $32, but often priced in the $40 range.
In a few weeks, there will be another Rusyn book review pertaining to the development of a Rusyn literary voice. It parallels the cultural/political struggle of the Rusyn people.