Posted by The mad Rusyn on October 20, 1999 at 10:06:08:
Lets face it, when you get brainwashed for years by socialism (RUKH movement), I guess that the logical answer to this question is that Rusyns are Ukrainians.
Well, you're worng, Rusyns exist and are stronger than ever with our own DISTINCT, DIVERSE culture, religion, and codified language!!
That of corse does not play well with the "hard line" nationalistic (& socilaistic) Ukrainian movement. Well, let's get over it!!
Let us remember how pesecuted the Ukrainians were over the past. Now let's remember how great it was to create your great national uprising telling everyone that Ukrainians are different. Why can't his happen to the Rusyns?
I think it was Thomas Jefferson that said that everyone has three basic rights. Those rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Why is this concept so hard to understand. We Rusyns want our own life (because there ARE distinct historical differences between the two), liberty (to be who WE want to be, not who someone else wants us to be. That concept died with the fall of communism), and the pursuit of happiness (being degrated for being different certainly does not make me happy, does it make you?)
Let us take a case in point, shall we? In present day Slovakia, lives 30,000 registered Rusyns. Before the start of WW1, that number was estimated at about 100-300 thousand. Funny that there were no records of a Ukrainian minority in the territory of Slovakia then. Why is there such a Ukrainian population now (can you say forced ukrainianization and slovakization after the communists came to power).
Plus, can you really tell me that the language and culture (dance, customs) of those people from Porac (in present day Slovakia) is the same as those from Lviv or Kiev? If you actually study it (like I have for years), you can see the differences, unless your mind is so clouded that you cannot see outside the trident.
I'll start there, and I'm sure we'll debate from here.
The mad Rusyn