Posted by Mirko on October 20, 1999 at 23:22:55:
In case you missed my point I am not forcing Rusyns to call themselves Ukrainian, quite the opposite, I am suggesting that Ukrainians remember their historic name Rusy/Rusyny. Not being a socialist, I guess that makes me even more a Rusyn in your eyes. Politically I'm a Libertarian more than anything else. Presumably Rusyny trace their ethnic roots to the Rus state of the 9th to 12th century or so. They no doubt feel that after the Mongol onslaught their cultural center, if was pushed west, becoming the Halycko-Volyns'ke kniazivstvo, and that you are the descendants of these people. That leaves you with the problem of the ethno-genesis of us nasty Ukrainians. Since the term Ukrainian as an ethnic designation did not exist prior to, say, the 17th century, and then by the 19th it is well-established, then I guess this nation must have parachuted into Ukraine from the heavens. If, on the other hand the designation Ukrainian was being applied to and by the Rus descendants, then the miracle of the virgin birth of the "Ukrainian" nation is explained.
I am not impressed by the political/economic stupidity in today's Ukraine any more than you, but that has nothing to do with ethnicity. That form of argument adds nothing to this discussion.