Lemkenland

Lemkenland on the ethnographic map of the Austrian monarchy by Karl von Czoernig-Czernhausen (1855) - west of the dashed line; 1 - Ruś von Szlachtowa , 2 - Zamieszańcy , 3 - Wenhrini , 4 - transition area to the Bojken , 5 - Osturňa westernmost Ruthenian place

Location of the Lemkenland (Łemkowie)

and the settlement areas of other Beskid ethnic groups

The Lemkivshchyna ( lemkisch / Rusyn Лемковина Lemkowyna ; polish Łemkowszczyzna ; Ukrainian Лемківщина Lemkiwschtschyna ) is a ethnographic region of Lemken in eastern Central Europe on both sides of the northern Carpathian arc and extends along the south Ondauer highlands and Waldkarpaten , historical predominantly north-eastern Slovakia , between the west Popper and the San .

Today, the area is largely located in the southern Polish subcarpathian and Lesser Poland voivodeships . The southern part of the historical Lemkivshchyna on the Popper or Poprad belongs to the Prešov district . The most important cities in today's Lemko area are Krynica , Gorlice , Komańcza , Svidník and Humenné .

Limits

Northern border of the Lemkenland in Poland, based on Roman Reinfuss

Polish place

Ruthenian place

The northern, western and southern borders were most clearly recognizable - but there were Lemk and Ruthenian linguistic islands, such as Ruś von Szlachtowa (1) on the Galician side, or Osturňa (5), the westernmost Ruthenian village in Upper Hungary .

From an ethnographic point of view, the Lemkenland in the north was delimited by the Polish-speaking group of the Oberlanders (with an impact on the German peasant culture ) in Poland and the Bojken culture, and in the south by the areas of the Carpathian Germans and the Spiš Saxons and the Slovak culture.

history

The ethnogenesis of the Lemken probably took place in the late Middle Ages (14th to 15th centuries) in the Lower Beskids between the rivers San and Poprad . However, the Carpathian ridge has represented a political border for centuries: The part of the Lemkenland south of it belonged - like all of today's Slovakia - to the Kingdom of Hungary until 1918 . The area was administered by the Hungarian counties of Sáros and Semplin . The north of the mountains, however, belonged to the Kingdom of Poland or the aristocratic republic of Poland-Lithuania . There the Lemkian areas were assigned to the Ruthenia and Krakow voivodeships .

As a result of the first Polish partition in 1772, this part came under Austrian rule and was added to the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria . Aurel Popovici's 1906 plan for a federalization of the Habsburg monarchy , with which the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand sympathized, envisaged a state called "Eastern Galicia" to which all areas with a " Ruthenian " majority should belong. This would also have included the Lemkenland - on both sides of the Carpathian ridge. However, the plan was not implemented.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century there were waves of emigration from Lemkenland to North America, especially to western Pennsylvania ( Pittsburgh region ). The best-known American with Lemkian roots is likely to be the pop art artist Andy Warhol .

Flag of the Lemko-Russian Republic 1918–1920

After the First World War, the southern part of the Lemkenland came to Czechoslovakia , the north to the re-established Republic of Poland . In the early 20th century there were around 80,000 Lemks on the Polish side of the border. In the 1930s, their number was estimated at 100,000 to 150,000. In the years 1918 to 1920, the Lemks unsuccessfully advocated establishing their own state with the capital in Florynka .

As a result of the Russophile movement in Galicia , individual villages changed their denominations from Greek Catholic to Orthodox from 1911/1912. The process accelerated in the 1920s. The schism of Tylawa in 1926 was regarded as the first and best-known complete conversion. In the interwar period , the schism comprised around 40 Lemk villages with around 20,000 inhabitants (15% of all Lemks in 1939), more than 50% in the Jasielski powiat , 45% in the Krośnieński powiat , 30% in the Gorlicki powiat , 20% in the Nowosądecki powiat . In order to prevent the transfer of more Lemkos from the Greek Catholic to the Orthodox Church, a separate Apostolic Administration Łemkowszczyzna was founded in 1934 with its seat in Wróblik Szlachecki. This was directly subordinate to the Vatican in order to end the undesirable influence of the Ukrainian clergy on the Lemkish Catholics.

Polish-Lemkish place-name sign in Bielanka (Poland)

Between 1944 and 1946 around 65% of the Lemkos moved to the Ukraine (partly voluntarily, partly under pressure). Most of those who remained in the People's Republic of Poland were deported to the north and west of Poland by the communist government in 1947 as part of the Operation Vistula (" areas regained by the German Reich "). Instead, ethnic Poles were settled in the former Lemkenland. The Lemks should be assimilated in this way and the population of Poland should be ethnically homogenized. The return of part of the Lemken began in 1956, e.g. B. in the former town of Uście Gorlickie , which today is the only place in the Lower Beskids with a Lemk majority.

Personalities

Prominent personalities of the region:

• Emil Czyrniański (1824–1888), chemist from Florynka
• Maksym Sandowicz (1888–1914), "Maxim von Gorlice", martyr and saint of the Orthodox Church
• Nikifor (1895–1968), painter from Krynica-Zdrój
• Volodymyr Kubijowytsch (1900–1985), historian and geographer from Nowy Sącz
• Bohdan-Ihor Antonytsch (1909–1937), writer from Nowica near Uście Gorlickie
• Andy Warhol's parents were Lemken from the village of Miková

tourism

Model of a rural settlement with log houses

Furnace in the hut (from 1885)

The Lemkenland is on the European long-distance hiking trail E8 . The hiking trail leads from Bardejov over the Dukla , Iwonitz-Bad , the Bukowica hill and the Wołosate to the Ukraine .

Folk culture

In Poland:

• the Museum of Folk Architecture in Sanok
• the wooden churches of the Carpathian region , Poland

In Ukraine:

• the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in the Carpathian Mountains
• the wooden churches of the Carpathian region, Ukraine

In Slovakia:

• Stará Ľubovňa open-air museum
• Open-Air Museum of Ukrainian and Ruthenian Culture, Svidník

See also

• Lemkish cuisine

Individual evidence

1. ↑ “We can only talk about the Lemken and Lemkenland in the second half of the 19th century. It used to be so-called. Rusnacy, Rusini (that is, Ruthenians ) who have inhabited the Low Beskids (on the Polish and Slovak sides) for a few centuries. ”In: Jerzy Czajkowski: Studies on the Lemkenland. Summary. 1999, p. 221
2. ↑ Your settlement area - the Lemkowszczyzna (Lemkenland) - separates as a deep wedge on both sides of the Carpathian Ridge the areas inhabited by Poles from the parts inhabited by Slovaks. In: Livestock farming and pastoral culture: ethnographic studies by László Földes, 1969 p. 302
3. ↑ On the northern side of the Carpathian Mountains, the Lemken area extends from the Wielki Dział mountain range, which closes off the Osława valley to the east, to the Poprad River . In: Livestock farming and pastoral culture: ethnographic studies by László Földes, 1969 p. 302
4. ↑ Numerous villages, such as Muszynka (1356), Binczarowa (1365) and Florynka (1391), were first settled on German law, but were re-established in the 14th century [the process was accelerated, especially in the 15th and 16th centuries], this time on Wallachian law . This was connected with the shepherd profile, which adapted better to the often wooded mountainous lands. As already mentioned, this area was difficult to settle. The Polish and German [the proportion of German settlers is unknown, but clearly smaller than the Polish settlers] settlers only with great resistance settled in the mountains. In: Magdalena Palka: The forgotten people of the Lemken. An ethnic minority in search of their identity. Vienna, 2012
5. ↑ At the same time, this line is also broadly followed by the linguistic border, admittedly not very sharp, between Slovaks and Poles on the one hand, Ruthenians or Ukrainians on the other, who are replaced by the Romanians on the eastern border of this central section, at the sources of the Tisza . In a certain sense, however, the Dukla line also serves as a secondary cultural border. In: Regional studies of the Sudeten and Western Carpathian countries by Fritz Machatschek 1927.
6. ↑ Torsten Lorenz: The Lemken in the southeast of Poland and the problem of their ethnic identity. European University Viadrina.
7. ↑ Danylo Husar Struk (ed.): Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Volume IV, p. 32, entry Pittsburgh .
8. ↑ Stephen P. Haluszczak: Ukrainians of Western Pennsylvania. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston (SC) et al. a. 2009.
9. ↑ Stefan Troebst : The Carpathians - between the subregional search for identity and the eastward expansion of the EU. An excursion by the professorship for cultural studies in East Central Europe to Andy Warhol's homeland. In: Berliner Osteuropa Info , No. 16/2001, pp. 63–65.
10. ↑ R. Brykowski. Krzyże Łemków . “Tygodnik Powszechny”. 1984 nr 41. p. 7.
11. ↑ Małgorzata Misiak: Łemkowie. W kręgu badań nad mniejszościami etnolingwistycznymi w Europie . Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2006, ISBN 83-229-2743-6 , p. 75 (Polish).
12. ↑ Witold Grzesik Tomasz Traczyk, Bartłomiej Wada: Beskid Niski od Komańczy do Wysowej . Sklep Podróżniczy, Warszawa 2012, ISBN 978-83-7136-087-9 , p. 474-475 (Polish).
13. ↑ 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.
14. ^ Andrzej A. Zięba: Professor Emilian Czyrniański. In: Zięba: Łemkowie i łemkoznawstwo w Polsce. Nakładem Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, Krakau 1997, pp. 15-27.
15. ↑ Raymond M. Herbenick: Andy Warhol's Religious and Ethnic Roots. The Carpatho-Rusyn Influence on His Art. Edwin Mellen Press, 1997, pp. 1-2.