On the Carpathian rus' terminology

Abstract

The term Carpathian Rus' appeared in the 19th century to designate the territory inhabited by the Russian (Rusin) population of Austria-Hungary. For many centuries, the boundaries of this territory constantly narrowed due to the assimilation of the Eastern Slavic population by neighboring peoples. In the Middle Ages, the Marchia Ruthenorum existed in the Kingdom of Hungary. According to the numerous Rusin toponymy, Rusins also lived in Transylvania. In the 19th - early 20th centuries, Carpathian Rus' meant the regions of dense settlement of Rusins in Austria-Hungary (the so-called Foreign Russia, Enslaved Rus Marchia Ruthenorum): Galicia, Bukovina, Ugric Russia). Galicia today is the territory of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and most of Ternopil and southern part of Rivne Regions of Ukraine, southern and eastern parts of Subcarpathian Voivodeship of Poland. Northern Bukovina became Chernivtsi Region of Ukraine, Southern Bukovina became Suceava District of Romania. Subcarpathian (Ugrian) Rus', after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, became part of Czechoslovakia, and part of it was part of Romania (Maramureș county). A part of the territory called Subcarpathian Rus' (the current Transcarpathian region of Ukraine) became an autonomous part of the state. The western part - Prešov became a part of Slovakia. Rusins also lived in the Russian Empire. In Bessarabian province, they densely populated its northern counties. The corner of Khotyn uezd, which was in contact with Austrian Bukovina, was called Russian Bukovina. Rusins lived in Chelm Land and Podlasie as part of the Polish territories of the Russian Empire. There were territories populated by ethnic groups of Rusins: Boykos, Hutsul, Lemkos. Boykovschina occupies the territory of the mountainous regions of the Ukrainian Carpathians and Transcarpathia (a number of districts of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Transcarpathian regions of Ukraine). The Hutsul region occupies the south-eastern part of the Ukrainian Carpathians (part of Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Transcarpathian regions of Ukraine), as well as part of the Romanian Maramureș. Lemkovschina is located in the Beskid Mountains. Now it is the Lesser Poland and Subcarpathian Voivodeship of Poland, Pryashchevshchina (Slovakia), Velikobereznyansky district of the Transcarpathian Region of Ukraine. Because of the post-war exchange of the USSR population with Poland and Czechoslovakia (1944-1947), the Polish Vistula campaign (1947) and the continuing assimilation, the national composition of a number of territories of the historical Carpathian Rus' significantly changed.