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There's an interesting history behind the territory that spanned the trail of the Carpathian Mountains!
I became interested in the country of Ruthenia and the history behind it's territory when I began my genealogical research into my Eastern European heritage. You see, all of my ancestors were of Eastern European descent. On my father's side, his ancestors traced from Ruthenia and Ukraine.
Ruthenia is a geographic and culturo-ethnic name applied to the parts of Eastern Europe populated by Eastern Slavic peoples, as well as to the past various states that existed in these territories. Today, the historical territory of Rus, in the broadest sense, is formed with parta of the lands of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, a small part of northeastern Slovakia and a narrow strip of eastern Poland.
Have you heard of Ruthenia and know where it is located?
Ruthenia at a glance
Ruthenia is a geographic and culturo-ethnic name applied to the parts of Eastern Europe populated by Eastern Slavic peoples, as well as to the past various states that existed in these territories. Essentially, the word is a Latin rendering of the ancient place name Rus. Today, the historical territory of Rus, in the broadest sense, is formed with part(s) of the lands of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, a small part of northeastern Slovakia and a narrow strip of eastern Poland.
Ruthenia factoids
- The term was applied to Ukraine in the Middle Ages when the princes of Halych briefly assumed the title kings of Ruthenia.
- Later, in Austria-Hungary, the term Ruthenians was used to designate the Ukrainian population of W. Ukraine, which included Galicia, Bukovina, and Carpathian Ukraine.
- After 1918 the term Ruthenia was applied only to the easternmost province of Czechoslovakia, which was also known as Carpathian Ukraine, or by its Czech name, Podkarpatská Rus [Sub-Carpathian Russia]; for the history of this area from 1918, see Transcarpathian Region.
- Culturally, however, the Ruthenians were distinct from the Ukrainians, especially after 1596, when the Orthodox Church of the Western Ukraine entered into union with the Roman Catholic Church, and after 1649, when a similar union was effected in Hungary.
- The Ruthenian Uniate Church of the Byzantine (see Roman Catholic Church) thus included the majority of the Ruthenians in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, while the Greek Orthodox Church was fully restored (17th cent.) in the Russian part of the Ukraine.
- When all Ruthenians were united (1945) in Soviet Ukraine, government pressure resulted in the secession of the Ruthenian Uniate Church from Rome and its reunion with the Russian Orthodox Church.
- In 1989 the Uniate Church broke with the Russian Orthodox Church and reestablished its ties with Rome.
Ruthenian woman
Ruthenian woman from the former Kingdom of Ruthenia. By Augustus F. Sherman.
Throughout his tenure as a registry clerk with the Immigration Division of Ellis Island, Augustus F. Sherman systematically photographed more than 200 families, groups, and individuals while they were being held by customs for special investigations. This image was chosen in collaboration with Ellis Island and is from the book Ellis Island Portraits 1905-1920. It is one of Sherman's many striking portraits, which predate August Sander's cataloging efforts by several years.
Ruthenian wedding
A large loaf, "wedding loaf," is prepared and baked by relations and friends invited for the purpose, who sing certain customary songs while the baking is in progress. Besides this "korowaj," smaller loaves of the same shape are made.
From "Customs of the World" by Walter Hutchinson 1931.
Ruthenian spring festival
In spring, before sowing, the peasants say prayers on the field. Tapers are burnt in a three-branched candlestick between which and the dorn are placed two loaves of bread, the symbol of their hopes.
From "Customs of the World" by Walter Hutchinson 1931.
Ruthenia info
- Ruthenia on Answers.com
- A variety of information about Ruthenia from Answers.com.
- Maps of Eastern Slovakia
- An informative website of Eastern Slovakia Genealogy Research Strategies including many maps.
- Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn Genealogy Research Pages
- The Eastern Slovakia, Slovak and Carpatho-Rusyn Genealogical Research Page offers tools, resources, and information to help you search your Slovak or Carpatho-Rusyn family history and ancestry. You will also find links to a wealth of information on the area now known as Slovakia.
- Carpatho-Rusyn Society
- The Carpatho-Rusyn Society is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to manifesting Carpatho-Rusyn culture in the United States and supporting Rusyn culture in the Homeland in east central Europe. It works to educate Rusyns and non-Rusyns about Rusyn culture and history, and to support the development of Rusyn culture on both sides of the Atlantic.
Ruthenia books
The Carpathian Diaspora: The Jews of Subcarpathian Rus' and Mukachevo (East European Monograph)
Amazon Price: $60.00 (as of 12/02/2009) 
List Price: $60.00
Litauen und Ruthenien; Lithuania and Ruthenia
Amazon Price: (as of 12/02/2009)
List Price:
Our People: Carpatho-Rusyns and Their Descendants in North America
Amazon Price: (as of 12/02/2009)
List Price: $41.00
Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture
Amazon Price: $74.70 (as of 12/02/2009)
List Price: $111.00
The Rusyn Name in History
Amazon Price: $29.95 (as of 12/02/2009)
List Price: $29.95
Ruthenia in the news
- Из-за незаконного бездействия судьи ОГИ (Ruthenia) может не успеть обжаловать ...
- ... ??????????????? ??????????? ????????? ???????? ???????????????? ??????? Ruthenia, ? ?????? ?? ?????????? ??????? ?????????? ?????? ? ?????? ??????? ...
Ruthenia collectibles
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
Drop me a note -- Ruthenia enthusiast or not.
Are you researching your family's ancestry with Ruthenian origins? Had you heard of Ruthenia before?
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Reply
- dc64 dc64 Jul 8, 2009 @ 10:56 am
- These lenses of yours are really going to come in handy since I'm researching people from that part of the world for my new castle lenses.
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Reply
- lilkon lilkon Jun 14, 2009 @ 4:46 pm
- So wonderful to have a heritage to refer back to. I hope our ancestors never let their story die. I think about other countries whose peoples don't have this history....Pacific island, Africa to name a couple.
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Reply
- Patrick Patrick Mar 16, 2009 @ 12:16 pm
- My father's family was Ukrainian Greek Catholic. I looked at my grandparents naturalization records and found that non of them had came from Ukraine but from Poland, Hunagary, and Slovakia on today's map. Surnames include: Sawchynsky, Schevchenko, Colowitch(Kulavich), Fechina(Fetchina) and Nagurney(Nagorny). The Nagurney's immigrated to Northeast Pennsylvania Coal Country, that was my great grandfather and five of his brothers. My father always said his family was Ukrainian or more precisely Ukrainian Catholic, but Ruthenian fits the bill of all Greek Catholics who live or descend from the Carpathian Region I have recently learned. My mother's family is Irish and Roman Catholic. My parents were married in the Latin Rite and my sisters and I were baptized in the Latin Rite. So my sisters and I always remained more Irish than Ruthenian, but we still eat perogies and kilbasa from time to time and eat haska and pyzansky on Easter. Also Christmas Eve is a Ruthenian food affair at our house
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Carpathian Ruthenia at a glance
Carpathian Ruthenia, aka Transcarpathian Ruthenia, Transcarpathian Ukraine, Zakarpattia, Rusinko, Subcarpathian Rus, Subcarpathia is a small region in Central Europe, now mostly in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast, easternmost Slovakia, Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramures. It is inhabited by Ukrainian, Rusyn, Lemko, Hungarian, Romanian, and Russian populations.
Rus, the people, at a glance
The Rus' were the historic population of the medieval Rus' Khaganate and Kievan Rus'.
One of the earliest written sources mentioning the people called Rus in the form of Rhos dates back to year 839 AD in a Royal Frankish chronicle Annales Bertiniani, identified as a Germanic tribe called Swedes by the Frankish authorities. According to the Kievan Rus' Primary Chronicle compiled in about 1113 the Rus were a group of Varangians, Norsemen, who had relocated from Scandinavia first to Northeastern Europe, then to south where they had created the medieval Kievan state.
Their name survives in the designation Rospigg, a person from Roslagen, and the cognates Russians, Rusyns, and Ruthenians, and who are viewed by the modern Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrainians as the predecessors of their own peoples. In Sweden, today Rospiggar are males living in the coastal region of the province of Uppland.
Rus, the country, at a glance
Originally, the name Rus referred to the people, the region and the medieval states (9th to 12th centuries): Rus' Khaganate and Kievan Rus' polities. The territories of the latter are today distributed among Belarus, Ukraine and a part of the European section of the Russian Federation. The name of Russia that came into use in the 17th century is derived from Rus.
To distinguish the medieval "Rus" state from other states that derived from it, modern historiography calls it "Kievan Rus'." Its predecessor, the 9th-century "Rus' Khaganate" is a somewhat hypothetical state whose existence is inferred from a handful of early medieval Byzantine and Persian/Arabic sources that mention that the Rus people were governed by a khagan.
"Rus'" as a state had no proper name; by its inhabitants it was called "ruska zemlya" (with ruska alternatively spelled rouska, ruska, rus'ka, and russka), which might be translated as "Land of the Rus".
Slavic peoples at a glance
The Slavic Peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in eastern and central Europe. From the early 6th century they spread from their original homeland (most commonly thought to be in Eastern Europe) to inhabit most of eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Many settled later in Siberia and Central Asia or emigrated to other parts of the world. Over half of Europe is, territorially speaking, inhabited by Slavic-speaking communities.
Modern nations and ethnic groups called by the ethnonym "Slavs" are considerably genetically and culturally diverse and relations between them are varied, ranging from a sense of connection to feelings of mutual resentment.
Slavic peoples are classified geographically and linguistically into West Slavic (including Czechs, Kashubians, Moravians, Poles, Silesians, Slovaks and Sorbs), East Slavic (including Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns and Ukrainians), and South Slavic (including Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes). For a more comprehensive list, see Ethno-cultural subdivisions.
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