Posted on 08/08/2005 3:39:35 PM PDT by jb6
PASSAIC - There are few Lemkos left, and even fewer who speak their original Slavic dialect.
Most of those who do remember have gray hair. But over dill chicken soup in the meeting room of Saints Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Cathedral on Sunday morning, the dozen or so members of the Lemko Association agreed on one thing:
They were proud to be Lemkos, even if they always have to explain themselves.
"We're a people without a country," said Maryann Bacsik, 53, of Little Falls, whose grandfather came here from Eastern Europe in 1907. "Many people my age have no idea what their nationality is."
The Lemkos are a Russian Orthodox minority who lived in the Carpathian Mountains, which run through what is now Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Their people were persecuted during World War I by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and again in 1947, when they were displaced after the Soviet Communists took over Poland. Although estimates on the number of Lemkos remaining differ, about 60,000 are said to live in Poland today.
On Sunday, the members came together in Passaic to commemorate relatives who died during World War I. At the Divine Liturgy service, candles burned and the Rev. Andrey Kovalev said a blessing in honor of these victims of years ago.
Afterward, over a hearty lunch, a few members spoke about the cruel ways their relatives were treated.
Alex Heranchak's grandmother was shot because the Roman Catholic Hapsburg dynasty ruling the Austro-Hungarian Empire suppressed the Russian Orthodox. Mary Dubowchik said her grandfather was interned for months in a camp in Graz, now a part of Austria.
At one time, there were more than 10,000 Lemko Association members throughout the United States who would attend such commemorations. Now, only a few hundred are left.
Still, the remaining members of the American diaspora continue to celebrate their heritage. Some grew up thinking they were Russian or Czech. They later traced their roots to the mountains and learned about the dialect and the culture. Some, like Larry Garrahan, 69, made trips to the home villages of their Lemko forebears.
"I wanted the sense of knowing about my ancestors," he said. "I walked on the dirt streets my grandparents walked on."
Victoria Windish, 76, the Lemko Association's treasurer, was told as a girl that the Lemkos' dialect was "low Russian."
Now she calls it po naszomu - "our language." When she said the words, even the non-Lemko speakers in the room laughed. Everyone understood.
E-mail: kremenm@northjersey.com
My Uncle (born in Passaic, raised in Clifton) had a German father and Lemko mother. He said that people would stare at him when he tried to explain who his maternal ancestors were, although there was a sizeable concentration in Passaic at one point.
What's the connection, if any, between Lemkos and Ruthenians?
The Lemko are sometimes referred to as "mountain Ruthenians" although my Uncle told me that, while Slavic, they are ethnically and culturally distinct from the Ruthenians.
translation
Carpatho-Rusyns (sometimes mislabelled Carpatho-Russians) lived in the mountain areas bordering Poland, Slovakia and the Ukraine. Only those from the northern slopes (in present day Poland) called themselves Lemkos.
There's a large Lemko community in Yonkers NY where I grew up.
You mean that there are white folks in Yonkers who's names DON'T end in a vowel? ;-)
Wasn't Niemen a Lemko?
"The Lemkos are a Russian Orthodox minority who lived in the Carpathian Mountains, which run through what is now Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Slovakia"
This sounds like a long ways from the Kremlin - why do they keep calling them "Russian" and not Ukrainian which is most similar to their language and culture.
"What's the connection, if any, between Lemkos and Ruthenians"
Notwithstanding all the smoke and mirrors, they are one in the same - both a subset of Ukrainian.
"Only those from the northern slopes (in present day Poland) called themselves Lemkos"
Not true - there were/are lots of lemko villages in slovkia.
"At one time, there were more than 10,000 Lemko Association members throughout the United States who would attend such commemorations. Now, only a few hundred are left."
There are still thousands that now frequent places like SUM. These festivals are growing every year thanks to the support of several Ukrainian orgainzations - this one is three days and draws people from all over the world.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:_cSCbUDvRGUJ:www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2004/300430.shtml+SUM+lemko+vatra&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:J5xl6h6zy7kJ:www.lemko.org/lemko/vatra/2005VatraUS.pdf+SUM+lemko+vatra&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Name "Ruthenians" is derived from the name Rus/Russian. Rus consists of Little Rus (Rus proper around Kiev ie Ukraine) Greater Rus (Russia), White Rus ( Byelo-rus), Red Rus (south eatern Poland and Western Ukraine etc ...
I think that people in the film Deer Hunter are Lemkos.
Because separatist Ukrainian identity/ideology is a recent invention (by the Austrian ruling Lvov area in XIX c). Lemkos were too far to the west and too stubborn to submit to this political manipulation.
"Lemkos were too far to the west and too stubborn to submit to this political manipulation."
Then why did they wind up in Muscovy churches? And why is Lemko most similar to Ukrainian?
And what is so recent about Ukraine - a culture that goes back to the very significant 10 century BC Tryptillian cities.
Ukraine in this sense certainly predates Poland.
"Lemkos were too far to the west and too stubborn to submit to this political manipulation."
This article documents the success of the Russian church in dissolving the cultural identity of a significant segment of Ukrainians. The Russian Orthodox church has successfully inflicted these people with cutural amnesia so that they have no idea of their backgroud.
Fortunately, Ukrainian groups are successfully resurecting the collective memory of a near extinct European culture .
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:J5xl6h6zy7kJ:www.lemko.org/lemko/vatra/2005VatraUS.pdf+SUM+lemko+vatra&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Not true.
Carpatho-Rusyns from Slovakia (like my paternal grandparents) never use the term "Lemko" to refer to themselves. They use it to refer to Carpatho Rusyns across the border in Poland (i.e. my maternal grandparents).
It's really just semantic, they are ethnically nearly identical, but the terminology was not.
My Slovak-American father is a former Yonkers councilman, but fortunately our surname ends in a vowel which definitely was a factor in his election !
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