the lemko project oral histories: ivan krasovs’kii, doshno (dezhno)

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In Their Own Words: The Lemko Project Oral Histories IVAN KRASOVS’KII , Doshno (Dezhno) Sanok Powiat, Deported 1945 to Ternopil’ Oblast, Soviet Ukraine A celebrated historian, ethnographer, and cultural figure, Ivan Dmytrovych Krasovs’kii was the son of Dmytro and Maria Krasovs’kii, born in the Lemko village of Doshno (Deszno), near Rymaniv Zdroj on October 22, 1927. Along with his family, he was forcibly deported from his native village in the autumn of 1945 to the Ternopil oblast in western Ukraine. In our 2011 interview, he described his life experiences before and after resettlement, the challenges of being a persecuted intellectual in Soviet society, and his activism efforts to preserve Lemko spiritual and material culture. He also shared his thoughts on the ideological divisions among Lemkos in the past and present. Doshno Before World War II Doshno was a beautiful Lemko village located in a very picturesque locality. Beside the village flowed a little river called the Tabor, surrounded by forests and mountains such as the Dil, Kopa, Hubyn and Yalychnyk. I remember when my parents would go out into the fields to work, and how they wouldn't lock the door. They would just close it and my mother would put out some bread and a jug of milk out on the table for some wayfarer who might be traveling through and nobody would ever steal from us. We had a couple of Gypsy families (living in the village), but they would never steal anything from us. Sometimes there would be a gathering of theirs in Slovakia and various Gypsies would come through our area and our Gypsies would watch them like police to make sure that they didn't steal anything from us. There were some Jews and we lived with them very nicely. They used to help us. That's how life was for us.

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IVAN KRASOVS’KII, Doshno (Dezhno) Sanok Powiat, Deported 1945 to Ternopil’ Oblast, Soviet UkraineA celebrated historian, ethnographer, and cultural figure, Ivan Dmytrovych Krasovs’kii was the son of Dmytro and Maria Krasovs’kii, born in the Lemko village of Doshno (Deszno), near Rymaniv Zdroj on October 22, 1927. Along with his family, he was forcibly deported from his native village in the autumn of 1945 to the Ternopil oblast in western Ukraine. In our 2011 interview, he described his life experiences before and after resettlement, the challenges of being a persecuted intellectual in Sovietsociety, and his activism efforts to preserve Lemko spiritual and material culture. He also shared his thoughts on the ideological divisions among Lemkos in the past and present.

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In Their Own Words: The Lemko Project Oral Histories

IVAN KRASOVS’KII, Doshno (Dezhno) Sanok Powiat, Deported 1945 to Ternopil ’ Oblast, Soviet Ukraine A celebrated historian, ethnographer, and cultural figure, Ivan Dmytrovych Krasovs’kii was the son of Dmytro and Maria Krasovs’kii, born in the Lemko village of Doshno (Deszno), near Rymaniv Zdroj on October 22, 1927. Along with his family, he was forcibly deported from his native village in the autumn of 1945 to the Ternopil oblast in western Ukraine. In our 2011 interview, he described his life experiences before and after resettlement, the challenges of being a persecuted intellectual in Soviet society, and his activism efforts to preserve Lemko spiritual and material culture. He also shared his thoughts on the ideological divisions among Lemkos in the past and present. Doshno Before World War II Doshno was a beautiful Lemko village located in a very picturesque locality. Beside the village flowed a little river called the Tabor, surrounded by forests and mountains such as the Dil, Kopa, Hubyn and Yalychnyk. I remember when my parents would go out into the fields to work, and how they wouldn't lock the door. They would just close it and my mother would put out some bread and a jug of milk out on the table for some wayfarer who might be traveling through and nobody would ever steal from us. We had a couple of Gypsy families (living in the village), but they would never steal anything from us. Sometimes there would be a gathering of theirs in Slovakia and various Gypsies would come through our area and our Gypsies would watch them like police to make sure that they didn't steal anything from us. There were some Jews and we lived with them very nicely. They used to help us. That's how life was for us.

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In our village there was no (ideological) conflict (between Rusyns and Ukrainians). There was no reading room, neither Kachkovsky nor Prosvita.1 In other villages there were reading rooms of each organization. In the next village there were both. On one Sunday one group would meet, the next Sunday, the other and they discussed their own affairs. There was no conflict. Because among the Lemkos there wasn't really an intelligentsia to a very high degree, there were no politicians, and no one was afraid if one called himself a Ukrainian or a Rusyn, they were absolutely perceived to be one and the same. During the war they went more in the direction of the understanding that there was no perception of questioning if some called himself a Rusyn because we were all Rusyns, there was nothing antagonistic in it. As a small boy, I attended school in my native village, and after the 5th grade, began attending school in Rymaniv. I attended school in Doshno for four years. In the first grade we studied in Polish, but starting in the second grade we studied in Polish and in Rusyn. In Rymaniv, I studied only in Polish. My education was interrupted in 1939 when World War II began. World War II and German Occupation The Germans occupied our area from 1939 until 1944. We were on the west side of the San River where there were no Russians.2 At the beginning of the war, they treated us well. Towards the end of the war, however, they (the Germans) became crueler. They took things such as grain and farm animals, and they made us dig ditches. At the beginning, though, they didn't treat us badly. During the war I went to the town of Krynica in the western part of Lemkivshchyna, where I studied at the teacher’s institute, where I started to study in Ukrainian. They were training students there to become teachers. I finished the third class of work in 1943. When the front went through in 1944, the institute was disbanded, and I returned home to Doshno. It wasn’t long, however, until the Germans drafted me to into digging trenches,3 but after about a month, I deserted my responsibilities. 1 The Kachkovsky Society was a cultural and educational organization that advanced pro-Rusyn views (some components with Muscophile views), and the Prosvita Society was a pro-Ukrainian organization. Both organizations established reading rooms in some villages. 2 In 1939, the San River became the demarcation line between the German-occupied territory (“Generalgouvernement”) and the Soviet Union per the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. 3 In 1944, Germans conscripted local men to dig World War I-style trenches in anticipation of the Red Army’s arrival.

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Russian Arrival and Occupation The Russians, as people, got along with us very well. But the Russian Army was in a very needy condition. The Germans, when they wanted things like butter, etcetera, they always gave us something in return, such as some tobacco or cigarettes. The Russians, by contrast, were a very poverty stricken army. They would try to sell their boots for a bottle of moonshine or a pipe. But as people they got along well with us. They identified with us because they were Russians and we called ourselves Rusyny and a closeness developed between us. It was good. But later when they were establishing full authority, things got worse with the work of secret police, arrests, people being taken away, shootings, and destruction. The Jews had been destroyed, the Gypsies had been destroyed, and now for the least infraction they began to destroy us Ukrainians and Poles. It was war. The Effect of War and Occupation on Polish-Lemko Relations You could say that not only did they (the Poles) tried to inflame tensions (between ethnic Poles and Lemkos.) From one side you had the Armia Krajowa (the Polish Home Army) fighting against the army of Bandera, from the other side you had the Germans fighting against them, it wasn't clear at all who was fighting against whom. At any rate, before the war we had lived very harmoniously with the Poles. We helped each other. They went to our church, we went to their church. The war turned everything upside down. There were attacks and battles between the Germans and underground forces. They began to arrest the intellectuals, the Germans from one side, the Poles from another side. For months I hid in the forests and in the cemeteries and spent nights there. And lots of my colleagues were destroyed. The Poles wanted to destroy the national intelligentsia. The Russians didn't do that at first in Lemkivshchyna, but they did so when we went to Ukraine. But what can you do? That was war. The Deportations In 1944, they started politicizing resettlement to Ukraine.4 There were battles with the Polish underground which intensified, they attacked us, beat us, killed a young priest and

4 The Soviets were spreading propaganda in Ukrainian villages in Poland, urging the locals to resettle in Soviet Ukraine where they described the living conditions as a “paradise.”

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other people; they killed 34 young people, young men and women, in the neighboring village of Sieniawa, and created such conditions that we had to hide in the forests and in the fields. Such a situation arose that young people took to hiding. Russian officials told us simply, "Look, go because they're going to kill you here all the same." Conditions became so bad that some people left voluntarily.

They started the deportations in earnest in 19455, deporting all the inhabitants of my village by railroad in boxcars. We had to sign a declaration saying that we were leaving voluntarily but who would leave their land voluntarily? The Lemkos loved their land very much and we knew very well that things would be very difficult in the Soviet Union. The people didn't want to leave the mountains and so they used the army to force them out. Finally in 1947, the remaining people were deported to the west as part of Akcja Wisla. It is a tragic history.

They deported the people from my village and the surrounding villages to Soviet Ukraine. First they took us to Zboriv and from there, they transported us by wagons to the local collective farms at Plavucha and Budyliv in the Kozivsky raion (Kozova township) of the Ternopil oblast.

A young Ivan Krasovs’kii (right) with his family in Doshno, before the 1945 deportation.

5 In the fall of 1945, the Polish communist army assigned three divisions to the task of resettling Ukrainians in specified districts.

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Life After Resettlement In Ternopil, we had a very difficult life. The Poles who had lived there had gone. There were no potatoes, but we managed to buy some and survived somehow. The first year was the most difficult, but since the Poles had been deported in the spring, all of the crops were still in the fields and so we harvested them. The Halychany6 accepted us cautiously at first because our customs and language were different, but in a very short time they became convinced that we were good people, maybe even better than themselves. We started to live together in a very friendly way. They would help us. They would bring us potatoes, milk. They themselves were poor after the war but they helped us anyway. If the doors or windows were broken, they helped us to fix them. Eventually, our lives got a little better. But things became worse when they (the Soviets) began to establish collective farms in 1947 and 1948. But somehow we became accustomed to it.

For my contemporaries, some a little older, some a little younger, they had no friends. They weren't used to living in the steppe lands and living there was not conducive to their health. There was hunger there.7 It was better for them to live in the mountains, with fresh air, fresh water, eating oat bread. But could we do? We couldn’t help it. The Poles didn’t allow us to have a life in Poland, and we had to go to Ukraine. But I was a student and wasn't so connected to the village life anymore. After the resettlement, I stayed in the village for a while, but then went to Terebovlya and entered the third (and final) course year at the technical institute for cultural and educational workers. I had a German diploma, and so I finished the technical school here (in Ukraine) and got an official Soviet diploma. Eventually, I graduated from the technical school and was assigned by the curator of the county library to work there because I studied in the department of library sciences. In 1950 I went to L’viv to attend law school,8 which I completed successfully, but then decided that I didn't want to practice law and went to study history instead. At that time, people were being given 5 or 10 year sentences for stealing grain and it was difficult to accept such laws and so I didn't want to be a prosecutor. So I

6 Halychyna is the historic Ukrainian name for Galician territories now in southwestern Ukraine. The name is originally based on Halych-Volhynia, the westernmost principality of Kyivan Rus’ which had the capital of Halych. (Galych in Church Slavonic.) During the first partition of Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire resuscitated the old name as a basis for the historic Hungarian claim to the territory. Thus, the term “Halychany” refers to Ukrainians from western Ukraine, areas that were part of historic Galicia. 7 A severe draught combined with the Soviet government’s high grain export quotas created a famine in the steppe that peaked in 1947. 8 Prof. Krasovs’kii attended the School of Jurisprudence in L’viv, and graduated in 1952.

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entered into the history department of the university and finally graduated in 1957. Printed Works and Academic Career I began my literary work in the village school. I wrote little verses and short stories and sent them to the magazine Dzvinochok (“Little Bell”), and to Svit Dytyny (“Child's World”), but everything that I had written, about 15 notebooks full, was lost when the front passed through during the war. It was later, when I became a student at the university, that I began to write about Lemkivshchyna.

My first publication about Lemkivshchyna was a thesis about the peasant movement in the 17th century.9 My dissertation as a candidate10 was about the material culture of Lemkos.11 My doctorate dissertation was about Lemko surnames from the 18th century,12 but they prevented me from getting it. Nevertheless, I graduated from L’viv University and became a senior researcher there. That was my official title. I didn't have the official standing but I had done very well, a lot of work, and so was able to teach history.13 There was no full program regarding Lemkos at the university. I began lecturing, publishing and writing prolifically. It's true that I was handicapped because I had lost the use of my left eye during the war, when a grenade exploded near me, but my other eye functioned very well. I worked in the archives. I worked a lot, including at night. I have to this day authored more than 1,000 printed works, including 40 books. In the end, I did not want to complete my doctorate anymore, even after they finally proposed that I do it.

9 “Визвольний селянський рух на Лемківщині в XVII ст.”//Наше Слово (Варшава), 14 квіт. 1957. (“The Liberation of the Peasant Movement in the Lemko Region in the 17th Century.”//Nashe Slovo, 14 April, 1957.) 10 In Ukraine, a candidate degree is an advanced university degree, roughly equivalent to a master’s degree. 11 “У співавторстві Зібрати і видати матеріали з побуту та народної твор чості лемків” // Народна творчість та етнографія (далі НТЕ) (Київ) No. 3, С. 147. (“Materials from Lemko Life and Folk Art: Folk Art and Ethnography.” Published in NTE in Kyiv, 1957, No. 3, C. 147.) 12 “Прізвища галицьких лемків за Йосифінською метрикою y XVIII ct.: За матеріалами Йосифінського поземельного кадастру 1787-1788 pp., Центральний державний історичний архів у Львові, фонд. No. 19. (“Surnames of Galician Lemkos of the 18th Century: Based on Emperor Joseph’s Cadastral Records 1787-1788.” Central State Historical Archive in L’viv, No. 19.) 13 Prof. Krasovs’kii’s academic specialization was the history of Galicia. He was a senior researcher at L’viv Historical Museum (1957-1969) and afterward directed the museum’s research department for traditional architecture and cultural life.

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On Constructing a Lemko Church and Museum Section at L’viv’s Museum of National Architecture in the Early 1990s Later, when I graduated from university, I was offered a position as a senior researcher at the historical museum, where I worked for 12 years. They began a project to build a skansen (outdoor/open-air museum) at the Museum of Architecture14 and I began work as the manager of the museum. I worked there until 1982 when I retired. My task there was to recreate a Lemko section, a Lemko village, which I did accomplish. A few years later, in 1988, we established the Lemko Association, a foundation for research of the Lemko region, and encountered the problem of how to build a Lemko church. In Ukraine there were no churches like that which could be relocated. There were a few from Zakarpattia, but one of them had already been moved to Kyiv and the other was in a skansen in Uzhhorod. To move a Lemko church from Poland, transporting materials by railroad car, was going to be prohibitively expensive so that we had to reject the idea. As it turned out, we got very lucky because our director (Boryslaw) Rybak arrived, went to Kyiv, and appealed to the Ministry of Culture where it was decided that we were permitted to build a brand new Lemko church. There was the stipulation that it should be an exact copy of a church that still stands in a Lemko village today. In 1990, we went to Poland and we found such a church in the Lemko village of Kotan' in Jaslo county.15 The Poles helped us to put the documentation together. Fedir Gocz, the director of the museum in Zyndranowa, also helped us. We put together the documentation. We decided from the beginning that whoever would give us the money, that's the

14 The Andrey Sheptytsky Outdoor Museum in L’viv was established in the 1930s. During the Soviet era, it was officially renamed “The Museum of National Architecture.” This link provides additional information: http://lemko.org/religion/w_o.html 15 The Lemko replica church in L’viv was modeled after St. Kosmas and Damian Greek Catholic Church in the village of Kotan’ in the Jaslo region. According to O. Iwanusiw’s book, “Church in Ruins,” the original church was consecrated in 1841 and as of the publication of the book in 1987, was still standing and marked as an architectural monument.

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kind of church it would be (Orthodox or Greek Catholic) and ultimately the Greek Catholics deserved it (they raised the money.) The Orthodox diocese refused us because times were difficult and there was no money, but an engineer from Canada named Oleh Iwanusiw had his own company and money and helped us. He also donated 1,800 copies of his book “Church in Ruins,” which had enjoyed great popularity.16 We used the proceeds to buy wood, but the costs were very high. In September of 1991, Mr. Iwanusiw invited me to Canada to collect money, but the funds raised were still not sufficient. In 1992, Dr. Ivan Hvozda, head of the World Federation of Lemkos invited me to the United States, where I collected about $8000 dollars. At that point, we had sufficient money and were able to move ahead with construction. I had been able to estimate the costs and pay for everything in order to have high quality work done and in August of 1992 the church was completed. On April 7, 1991, Patriarch Myroslav Lubachivsky, along with Metropolitan Volodymyr, had solemnly consecrated the spot on April 7, 1991.17 So the church became Greek Catholic, but it is very ecumenical. More than half of the people who attend liturgy are Orthodox. Even the priest says that he doesn't see any differences. We don't make any distinctions between Orthodox and Greek Catholics.

Next to the church we built a Museum of Lemko Culture. Right now it is being renovated. A storm damaged the Lemko cottage there and we did a complete renovation of it and in the autumn we will reopen the exhibit. It's also good that besides the church we established a publishing association and within 18 years we had published 55 works. Mostly having to do with the history of the Lemko region. Then when I started receiving my pension I remained on the board of the foundation. I, along with 2 other people, (Dmytro) Solynko18 and Petro Kohut,19 established the Lemko Association and the (Lemko Research) Foundation. Solynko passed away.

16 Iwanusiw, Oleh. Church in ruins: the demise of Ukrainian churches in the Eparchy of Peremyshl. St. Catharines, Ont.: St. Sophia Religious Association of Ukrainian Catholics in Canada, 1987. 17 The church was consecrated as Saints Volodymyr and Olha (1991). More information about the construction process can be found at this link: http://lemko.org/religion/w_o.html 18 Dmytro was a Lemko artist and cultural activist. Many of his paintings are on display at the outdoor museum in Zyndranowa. Krasovs’kii and Solynko co-authored “Khto My Lemky” (“Who are we, Lemkos?”), a polemical work about national identity issues among Lemkos. 19 Petro Kohut’ was a civic and cultural activist among Lemkos in Ukraine, and also co-founded the Lemkovyna Choir. He passed away in 2012, after the interview with Prof. Krasovs’kii.

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On Being an Intel lectual in the Soviet Union It was difficult for me as a writer. I liked to write and sent my works to Warsaw, to Presov, and even to Lemkivshchyna magazine in New York. For that reason, the KGB regarded me unfavorably. They treated me as a Ukrainian nationalist. I was temporarily arrested several times. They searched my home, and they prevented me from taking the job of Director of the Museum because I was not in the Communist Party. It was difficult, very difficult. Even today sometimes I recall how difficult it was. They prevented me from getting my doctorate. Professor Hoshko, my director, told me, a month before he passed away, "Don't be surprised, that they summoned me and made me sign a declaration that I wouldn't allow you to get your doctorate." They kept telling me to do things over and to correct things and did it all to discourage me from getting my doctorate. But I have no regrets. I have accomplished a lot. Somehow I survived everything. I was very happy that we were able to form the Lemkovyna ensemble in 1969. Now it has declined a little, but in its time it performed at a very high level. Then in 1988, we formed the Lemko society in L’viv.20 It expanded to other oblasts and became the all-Ukrainian Lemko society. In 1991, we formed the Foundation for Lemko Research, which built the church and established the publishing house and the museum. I'm satisfied that my troubles were not in vain. They are currently publishing a book about the development of Lemko culture in the L’viv region. In 2 or 3 weeks it will come off the printing press. It describes how we formed a choir, established the society, established the publishing house, built the church, all the beginnings. The people who were very enthusiastic started it all but then were joined by other Lemkos. Myself, Petro Kohut’ and Dmytro Solynko. People joked that we were the Lemko trinity. There was a Rusyn trinity, but we were the Lemko trinity.21 It’s a shame that such a situation arose - that initiatives were halted. But we are working little by little, and now we have the Lemko church, and there are services held there twice a month. Doshno in the Present Day The village still exists, but it has been incorporated into a part of Rymanow, part of the spa town of Rymanow, and it's considered a district of the town of Rymanow, so you

20 Tovarystvo “Lemkivshchyna” v Ukraini (Lemko Region Society in Ukraine.) 21 The Ruthenian Trinity (Rus’ka Triitsia). This is the name given to a trio of Romantic poets in the 19th century: Markiian Shashkevych (1811-1843), Ivan Vahylevych (1811-1866) and Jacob Holovatsky (1814-1888).

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won't find Doshno on a map any longer. The village was half Polish and half Lemko. On History and National Identity Divisions Among Lemkos Okay, I will tell you, but will say it so that it will be absolutely exact. When we speak about Lemkos in the Carpathians and where their roots are from, we have absolutely exact data that as a result of the attacks on Kievan Rus’ from various nomads, Mongols, Tatars, etc., that a lot of people from the region of the Dniestr river fled to the Carpathian mountains. In the 4th century, and in the 6th century, there were already so many of them there that they were the primary inhabitants. They called themselves Rusyny just as the inhabitants of the Dniestr river region, those who are today Ukrainians, called themselves Rusyns. Archbishop Petro Uhorsky (the Hungarian) wrote about this. He wrote under the pseudonym “Anonym.” He wrote that the Carpathians were settled by people who called themselves Rusyns, who helped their armies cross the Carpathian mountains.22

Personally, I have nothing against Professor Magocsi.23 I know that he did a lot of work, and wrote a history of Ukraine. He has a lot of positive traits. But I disagree with his view of Rusyns. One thing is clear - when I spoke with him, we talked for a long time, and he admitted that up until 1340 all the inhabitants of the Carpathians and of Rus’ were of the same nation, they were actually all (people) of the same nation. They had served together, they fought together, and borders like we have today didn't exist. Moreover, in 992, the Kyivan Prince Volodymyr annexed the present day Lemko region in the western Carpathians to Kyivan Rus’ and the borders of the Kyivan Rus’ extended close to Krakow. As the result of Polish and German colonization, the Rusyns were squeezed into the Carpathian mountains. All of the people who inhabited Rus’ and the Carpathian mountains were of the same nation. Gradually from the east, especially under the influence of the great classical writers such as Kotlyarevsky, Hrebinka, Shevchenko, and others, a new national awakening was created and thus people began to speak of themselves as Ukrainians.

Until World War I, no one in Eastern Galicia, L’viv, Ternopil called themselves Ukrainians. They called themselves Rusyns. There was even the Ruthenian trinity, as well 22 He is referring to the “Gesta Hungarorum of Anonymus,” the anonymous notary of King Bela who wrote “…the oldest extant chronicle of the history of the Hungarians.” We accessed an English translation of the Chronicle at this link on 02/27/2014: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/18975/1/18975.pdf 23 He is referring to Prof. Paul Robert Magocsi, the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto.

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as Ivan Franko, who wrote as Rusyns and absolutely used this word. So it's clear that this national renaissance started in the east and moved westward. The Lemko region and Carpathians could not be subjected to this national awakening because they were subject to the rule of Austria-Hungary and Poland where they were even prohibited to use the term “Ukrainian.” So there the concept of Rusyns remained stubbornly for a long time and remains to this day. There is nothing bad in this…I react very positively to this. Because it is our old national name and this old name belonged to all Ukrainians. The one thing that I can't support and don't like is when people from your field, researchers, for some reason now say that in the Carpathians there are Lemkos, Hutsuls, Boykos, and Rusyns, as if they are each a separate nation. That doesn't make sense, and it isn't true. Lemkos, Boykos and Hutsuls are Rusyns. When you write Lemkos, Boykos, Hutsuls and Rusyns of the Carpathians that is a big historical mistake. I write that Lemkos, Hutsuls and Boykos are the Rusyns of the Carpathians. It is nothing surprising that the Lemkos, Hutsuls, Boykos and Transcarpathians call themselves Rusyns. There is nothing in this that should be understood as having anything to do with Russian. The Russians themselves, until the time of Peter the First, did not call themselves Russians but Muscovites, and they stole the name Rus’ from us, so let that be on their conscience. The fact that Rusyns in the Carpathians call themselves Rusyns - I am not against that. For example, I would be very happy if they would unite in one research institute - those who call themselves Ukrainians, and those who want to call themselves Rusyns, and if they would work mutually together to publish works. Those who want to write in Rusyn, let them, and those who want to write in Ukrainian, let them. They are the same. That would make sense. But what's happening now, this discord, you know that this is not necessary! Nowadays as a historian, I find it comical that they want to create a separate nation out of the Rusyns. We know very well that before the war, people like my father never used the word Ukrainian. But he visited Ukraine and Russia and he confirmed that it's all the same. They are Rusyns, just like we are. And now, in general, after everything has been upset…now that we are scattered all over the world, I am surprised at such contradictions. For instance, very few Lemkos are left in Poland. For what reason is there the Ob'yednannya Lemkiv, a Ukrainian-oriented organization and the Stovaryshynnya Lemkiv, a Rusyn-oriented organization, mutually positioned? They should sit down together, drink a shot of cognac, and start working together for the Lemko region. The Lemko region is worthy of showing the world its culture, traditions, customs, their value of hard work, etc.

As a historian, I find it disturbing and I think it's a shame that in 1918, when Austria-Hungary was disintegrating, two different republics were created simultaneously in the

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Lemko region, the Komancza Republic with a Ukrainian orientation and in Florynka the Rusyn National Republic was formed. In general, I have nothing against either one. But, why did that have to happen? Why couldn't the Lemkos sit down at a round table and create one republic? They would not have attained their own separate country, but they would have attained cultural autonomy. So, the Poles crushed the Komancza Republic because they feared that the Ukrainians would fight against them. The Florynka Republic was not really destroyed because it was disregarded. At first it was allied with Russia, but Russia was far away, and the delegation never even showed up there, and then they sought union with Slovakia, but Czechoslovakia did not want conflict with Poland and rebuffed them and so it was, that after a year and a half, it fell apart. In the end, they put the organizers on trial, but no one benefitted from this. And today this battle in Poland between the Stovaryshynnia Lemkiv and the Ob'yednannya Lemkiv24 won't benefit anyone. The Poles know that the history of the Lemkos is not eternal and will come to an end. Excuse me, but in Slovakia, up until the war, they counted about 150,000 Rusyns (Ukrainians and Rusyns.) And today there are about 15,000. Now, in Ukraine, their culture is given a chance to develop. You see, in almost town there are Lemkos living, they have various festivals, concerts, they sing on the radio and they are assisted in this development because the Lemko culture is really beautiful. But they are losing their originality after 50 years of living in a Ukrainian society. In conjunction with this, I find it a shame that instead of working for common benefits, better understanding, to work on more research, to create more historical works, etc., they are fighting with each other. And who knows why?*

24 These are two Lemko organizations in the Gorlice region of Poland. They have opposing ideologies. Stovaryshynnia is the pro-Rusyn organization and Ob’yednannya is the pro-Ukrainian organization.

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Editors’ Notes This narrative is based on the transcript of an interview with Prof. Krasovs’kii conducted by Corinna Caudill in L’viv, Ukraine in October, 2011. Acknowledgements/Special Thanks We would like to thank Maryann Sivak for her fieldwork assistance in Ukraine and for also assisting with English language translation and transcription; Stephen Rapawy for advice and editing assistance; and Arpad Verseghy for research assistance on identifying and locating an English language translation of the Gesta Hungarorum of Anonymus. In Memoriam + Professor Krasovs’kii passed away on February 24, 2014. He was 86 years old. Eternal Memory. + Copyright, 2014. Corinna Wengryn Caudill and Richard Garbera Trojanowski for The Lemko Project. www.lemkoproject.blogspot.com All Rights Reserved.