Lemken (ethnic group)

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The Lemkish folklore dance group "Oslawiany" from Mokre ( Powiat Sanocki )
Thanksgiving decoration from Morochów ( Powiat Sanocki )

The Lemken are a Rusyn ethnic group, traditionally in Lemkivshchyna ( Lemkowyna or Łemkowszczyzna ) in what is now southeastern Poland and northeastern Slovakia was located. They lived in the Eastern Carpathian region between the sources of the San and the Poprad, and mainly practiced cattle breeding and trading. Since the Vistula action in 1947, when the majority of the Lemkos were expelled from this region, many of them have resided in other regions of Poland, especially in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship .

Lemks speak a dialect of Carpathian-Russian , which is one of the East Slavic languages . The majority of them belong to the Eastern Catholic Churches of the Byzantine Rite ( Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church or Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia ); a minority is committed to Orthodox Churches (namely the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church ). In the period between the two world wars, Lemkowszczyzna (AAŁ) had its own Apostolic Administration , which was directly subordinate to the Vatican. Most of their old rural settlements were established under Wallachian law in the 14th century .

The term "Lemken" ( Polish Łemko , plural Łemkowie ; Slovak Lemkovia ; Ukrainian Лемки Lemky ) is a foreign name with an originally derisive to derogatory character. It is derived from the word lem , which is characteristic of the Lemk dialect (it does not appear in other Slavic languages) and means "only". This nickname, which the boyk used to refer to their neighbors, entered the ethnological and ethnographic literature since the 19th century . It was not until after the First World War that the term became widely used.

The Lemken themselves predominantly call themselves Rusnáci (singular Rusnak ), d. H. as Russians . Their Polish neighbors used to call them Ruśniaki or Rusiny . A substantial part of the Lemks - both in Ukraine and in Poland - see themselves as (a subgroup of) Ukrainians .

Ethnogenesis

The beginning of the colonization of the north-eastern Carpathian region by Slavs is assumed in the 6th century. An important element in the identity of the Lemks (and generally of the Russians) is the mission by the "Slav apostles" Cyril and Method in the 9th century. It is doubtful, however, whether these actually brought Christianity to the Eastern Carpathians themselves.

The Lemken ethnogenesis probably did not take place until the late Middle Ages (14th and 15th centuries). After the annexation of the Rus principality of Halych-Volodymyr (Galicia-Volhynia) by the Kingdom of Poland in the middle of the 14th century, a settlement and colonization movement began in the West Carpathian low mountain range. The leading role was played by the Polish noble families. The shepherds who settled in the forested mountainous areas were, however, of East Slavic ("Ruthenian") and Romanian ("Wallachian") origins. Settlements such as Muszynka , Binczarowa and Florynka initially had a German legal statute , but were re-established in the second half of the 14th century under " Wallachian law ". This legal system was better suited to the way of life of the pastoral population. Ruthenians and Wallachians linked because of their common Orthodox religion. While the population in the valleys mostly assimilated to the Polish culture and language, the inaccessible high areas maintained their own Wallachian-Ruthenian culture.

However, there are also alternative explanations for the origin of the Lemks: Many members of the group themselves, as well as those in favor of belonging to the Ukrainians, believe that their ancestors came from the Kievan Rus , from where they fled " Tatar invasions ". Other Lemks claim to be descended from the " white Croatians ".

Traditional settlement area

The ancestral settlement area in the Lower Beskids (a sub-mountain range of the Carpathian Mountains ) between the rivers San and Poprad is decisive for the identity of the Lemken and the differentiation from other groups . This has historically Lemkivshchyna ( Rusyn Лемковина Lemkowyna ; polish Łemkowszczyzna ; Ukrainian Лемківщина Lemkiwschtschyna ), respectively.

The part of the Lemk settlement area south of the main ridge of the Beskids belonged to Hungary until 1918 ; the northern part initially belonged to the Kingdom of Poland , then to the Polish-Lithuanian "aristocratic republic". The orthodox eparchy Peremysl , in which a large part of the Lemkenland was located, was subordinated to the Greek Catholic Church and thus to the Pope in Rome in 1691 according to the church union of Brest ("Greek" refers to the Byzantine rite , not to the language or nationality) . Belonging first to the Orthodox, then to the Greek Catholic Church - in contrast to the Roman Catholic Poles and Slovaks who celebrate worship according to the Latin liturgy - was an essential distinguishing and identity feature of the Lemks.

With the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the northern Lemkenland came under Austrian rule ( Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria ). During the Habsburg rule, the Lemken - like all East Slavic peoples of the empire - were classified under the Ruthenian category . Lemken immigrated to North America at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Most settled in western Pennsylvania ( Pittsburgh region ). This also included the parents of Pop Art artist Andy Warhol .

History in the 20th century

Flag of the Lemko-Russian Republic 1918–1920

After the end of the First World War, the southern part of the Lemkian settlement area came to Czechoslovakia , the north to the re-established Republic of Poland . From December 1918 to March 1920 there was a Lemko-Russian Republic in the Galician town of Florynka , whose self-government first proclaimed unity with Russia and then sought annexation to Czechoslovakia. The leaders of the republic were arrested by Polish troops in February 1919, and the entire region was under Polish control in early 1920.

In the period between the two world wars, the Lemks were exposed to the influence and agitation of various political-national orientations. In particular, teachers and clergy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church campaigned for the Lemks to identify themselves as Ukrainians. On the other hand, there was a Russophile movement that saw the "Ruthenians" (and thus also the Lemks) as part of a total Russian people and sought a return to the Russian Orthodox Church. In the 1920s, entire Lemkendörfer converted from the Greek Catholic to the Orthodox denomination. To stop this development, the Catholic Church founded the Apostolic Administration Łemkowszczyzna in 1934 , which was detached from the Ukrainian Archeparchy Przemyśl and placed directly under the Holy See.

The Polish state also promoted the independence of the Lemks (as opposed to the Ukrainians): the Lemk dialect was taught in schools, school books were printed. In Krynica the weekly newspaper Łemko and the calendar Łemko appeared , in Lemberg Nasz Łemko ("our Lemke") as well as numerous popular scientific publications on this ethnic group.

After 1945 the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland put the Lemks under general suspicion of being accomplices of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) due to their ethnic kinship with the Ukrainians . After the Polish borders had been redrawn (so-called shifting to the west of Poland ), around 65% of the Lemken emigrated to the Soviet Ukraine voluntarily or under pressure in 1945-46 . The Lemken remaining in Poland were forcibly resettled in the “ Aktion Weichsel ” (Akcja Wisła) in 1947 in the areas “ regained ” by the German Reich - to Pomerania, Masuria and Lower Silesia. The aim of the action was to dissolve the independent ethnic identity of the Lemks - as well as the ethnically and linguistically closely related boyk as well as Polish Ukrainians - and to assimilate them into the Polish majority population. After the de-Stalinization , a small part of the Lemken returned to their original settlement area in 1956.

present

In the Third Polish Republic , the Lemks are recognized as an ethnic minority. In the 2002 census in Poland, 5800 Lemkos were counted, estimates assume significantly higher numbers, for 2003 about 60,000. The reason for the difference is that some Lemks call themselves Ukrainians. Every year in the Polish village of Zdynia Lemken meet for a folk festival, in which many descendants of Lemken who emigrated overseas also take part. This is the world's largest Lemken festival, which is called Watra (German: Shepherd's Fire).

See also

literature

  • Roman Drozd, Bohdan Halczak: Dzieje Ukraińców w Polsce w latach 1921–1989. Wydanie 2, poprawione. Tyrsa, Warszawa 2010, ISBN 83-89085-12-7 .
  • Bohdan Halczak: Łemkowskie miejsce we wszechświecie. Refleksje o położeniu Łemków na przełomie XX i XXI wieku. In: Stefan Dudra, Bohdan Halczak, Roman Drozd, Iryna Betko, Michal Šmigeľ (eds.): Łemkowie, Bojkowie, Rusini. Historia, współczesność, kultura materialna i duchowa. Volume 4, Part 1. Drukarnia Wydawnictwo "Druk-Ar" u. a., Głogów u. a. 2012, ISBN 978-83-60087-63-3 , pp. 119-133.
  • Bohdan Halczak: Problemy tożsamości narodowej Łemków. In: Stefan Dudra, Bohdan Halczak, Andrzej Ksenicz, Jerzy Starzyński (eds.): Łemkowie, Bojkowie, Rusini. Historia, współczesność, kultura materialna i duchowa. Volume 1. Łemkowski Zespół Pieśni i Tańca “Kyczera” u. a, Legnica 2007, ISBN 978-83-916673-1-6 , pp. 41-55.
  • Bohdan Halczak: Publicystyka narodowo-Demokratyczna. Wobec problemów narodowościowych i etnicznych II Rzeczypospolitej (= Historia. Vol. 2). Wydawnictwo Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna im. Tadeusza Kotarbińskiego w Zielonej Górze, Zielona Góra 2000, ISBN 83-7268-029-9 .
  • Christhardt Henschel: Between the Nations. On the development of the national self-image of the Lemk minority in Poland. In: Cassubia Slavica. Vol. 2, 2004, ISSN  1610-188X , pp. 37-46.
  • Patrycja Trzeszczyńska: Bridges to the past: a Lemko family history explored through letters. An ethnographic case study. In: Canadian Slavonic Papers , Volume 60 (2018), No. 1-2, pp. 44-69.

Web links

Commons : Lemkos  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Lemken  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Minorities in today's Poland. In: Ruth Leiserowitz (Ed.): The unknown neighbors. Minorities in Eastern Europe. Ch.links, Berlin 2008, p. 42
  2. ↑ In Slovakia in 2001, 219,831 people committed to the Greek Catholics (around 179,000 in 1991) and 50,363 people (around 34,000 in 1991) to the Orthodox Church. Meinolf Arens: The fourth East Slavic nation - the Russians. A “belated” nation-building process in Eastern Europe at the beginning of the 21st century. In: Flavius ​​Solomon, Alexander Rubel, Alexandru Zub: Southeast Europe in the 20th Century. Ethnic structures, identities, conflicts. Hartung-Gorre Verlag, Konstanz 2004, p. 251.
  3. ↑ Magdalena Palka: The forgotten people of the Lemken. An ethnic minority in search of their identity. Diploma thesis, Vienna 2012, chapter 6.5.5. AAŁ “Apostolska Administracja Łemkowszczyzna”, p. 80.
  4. ↑ “Dlatego też w XV w. zapoczątkowano w Karpatach masową zmianę lokacji wsi z prawa ruskiego na wołoskie , które z Punktu widzenia właścicieli, mogło najlepiej normować powinności mieszkańca wsi “In: Jerzy Czajkowski. Łemkowie w historii i cultures Carpathian. T. 1, p. 385
  5. ↑ Andrea Gawrich: Minorities in the transformation and consolidation process in Poland. Associations and political institutions. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2003, p. 155.
  6. ↑ a b c Magdalena Palka: The forgotten people of the Lemken. An ethnic minority in search of their identity. Diploma thesis, Vienna 2012, chapter 3.2. “The ethnogenesis of the Lemken”, pp. 16-18.
  7. ↑ Torsten Lorenz: The Lemken in the southeast of Poland and the problem of their ethnic identity. European University Viadrina.
  8. ↑ Magdalena Palka: The forgotten people of the Lemken. An ethnic minority in search of their identity. Diploma thesis, Vienna 2012, chapter 6.5. “Religion and Church”, pp. 74–75.
  9. ↑ Danylo Husar Struk (ed.): Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Volume IV, p. 32, entry Pittsburgh .
  10. ↑ Stephen P. Haluszczak: Ukrainians of Western Pennsylvania. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston (SC) et al. a. 2009.
  11. ↑ Raymond M. Herbenick: Andy Warhol's Religious and Ethnic Roots. The Carpatho-Rusyn Influence on His Art. Edwin Mellen Press, 1997, pp. 1-2.
  12. ↑ Marc Stegherr: The Russian. Cultural-historical and sociolinguistic aspects. Otto Sagner, Munich 2003, 472.
  13. ↑ Paul Robert Magocsi, Ivan Pop (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Rusyn history and culture. University of Toronto Press, Toronto u. a. 2002, ISBN 0-8020-3566-3 , pp. Vii and 290.
  14. ↑ a b Marc Stegherr: The Russian. Cultural-historical and sociolinguistic aspects. Otto Sagner, Munich 2003, p. 418
  15. ↑ Magdalena Palka: The forgotten people of the Lemken. An ethnic minority in search of their identity. Diploma thesis, Vienna 2012, chapter 5.5. “Influence of Foreign Powers”, p. 44.
  16. ↑ Marc Stegherr: The Russian. Cultural-historical and sociolinguistic aspects. Otto Sagner, Munich 2003, p. 77.
  17. ↑ Andrea Gawrich: Minorities in the transformation and consolidation process in Poland. Associations and political institutions. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2003, p. 23.
  18. ↑ Dieter Bringen, Krzysztof Ruchniewicz (Ed.): Country Report Poland. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2009, ISBN 978-3-593-38991-2 , pp. 362 and 369
  19. ↑ Der Standard , October 20, 2012, p. A 3.