ABSTRACT
A stateless people, Carpatho-Rusyns are known by a variety of names: Ruthenians, CarpathaRuthenians, Carpatha-Russians, CarpathaUkrainians, Lemko immigrants, or simply the po-nasˇomu people (that is, “our people”). In the United States and Canada, they are sometimes referred to as “Slavish” or “Byzantine.” In contemporary usage, the terms “Ruthenian” and “Carpatho-Ruthenian” are considered by most Americans of Rusyn descent to be either antiquated, religiously biased, or both. They prefer to be called Rusyn (or Rusin)—a name frequently mistaken for “Russian.” In the past, various governments have tried to convince the Rusyn masses that they were not part of a distinct nationality, but that they were Russians or Ukrainians or Hungarians, or perhaps even Slovaks of the Greek Catholic faith. Paul Robert Magosci, a leading scholar in the modern Rusyn revival, refers to these Slavic people as “Carpatho-Rusyns.”
When Rusyns began emigrating to the United States in the late 1890s and early 1900s, many were misidentified because immigration officials were not familiar with the existence of the Rusyn people. They were often labeled Austrian, Hungarian, or Slovak because of their place of origin within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Others were identified as Russian because they were members of the Russian Orthodox Church.
