Page:The Bohemian Review, vol2, 1918.djvu/222



At the time of this writing the Austrian half of the former Dual Monarchy has been all broken up into a number of national states; but Hungary outside of Croatia, was still holding together. People in America know something of the problem of Slovakia or Upper Hungary, which will form an important part of the new Czechoslovak Republic; and they are aware of the fact that four million Roumanians in Transylvania and the Banat must be joined to independent Roumania. But only a few men in this country realize that between the Slovaks in the north and the Roumanians in the West of Hungary there lie eight counties which are inhabited by a distinctive Slav race. It is the people known as Uhro-Rusins.

If we take language as the special mark of nationality, then the Uhro-Rusins are most closely related to the Ukrainians, who number about four million in Galicia and Bukovina, across the Carpathania Mountains from the Uhro-Rusins, and upward of thirty million in what was the Russian Empire before the war. However, the Ukrainians speak a large number of dialects which on one side blend gradually with the Great Russian language, and on the other side, in the west, pass over into the Slovak tongue; even scholars are in doubt, as to whether dialects spoken in certain Carpathian villages in Hungary should be classed with the Slovak or the Uhro-Rusinian groups. At any rate, the people on the southern slope of the Carpathian Mountains have been separated from their kinsmen on the other side of the great range for more than a thousand years, and they feel that they are a distinct people with their own individuality, their own history and even their own special name. The name by which they distinguish themselves from other Slavs, especially from the Ukrainians or Ruthenians, is Uhro-Rusins.

Of all the races settled in Hungary for ages the Uhro-Rusins are the smallest and most completely cut off from contact with their kinsmen. As a result they have been more exploited than the other nationalities of Hungary and exposed to artificial Magyarization. The official Hungarian census of 1910 gives their number as 472,587. There is no doubt that their real number is considerably larger; how large, will only be shown by the next census which will presumably be carried out in 1920 under far different conditions than the former censuses.

One reason why the number of Uhro-Rusins in Hungary is so small may be found in the fact that the national and economic oppresion has driven hundreds of thou sands of them to the United States. It is no exaggeration to say that fully one half of this small people is to be found in America. The United States census of 1910 unforunately offers no reliable guide, because it knows no such mother tongue as the Uhro-Rusinian. But the real number of this interesting nationality in the United States may be estimated on the basis of figures which show membership in their principal fraternal societies. They are extremely well organized in this country. Most of their men are either coal miners or steel workers; being exposed to the many hazards of their calling they have established two fraternal organizations which pay death and sick benefits. Their principal organization is known as the “Greek Catholic Union of Rusin Brotherhoods of the United States of America;” it numbers over 90,000 paying members. In addition to that they have a smaller society called “The United Societies of the Greek Catholic Religion of the United States of America” with some 9,000 members. It is note worthy that these Rusin immigrants from Hungary never mix with the Ruthenians or Ukrainians of Galicia in this country, a fact which confirms the claim of Uhro-Rusins to be a separate nationality.

The nationalist movement which played such a great part in the life of other oppressed races of Austria-Hungary was not felt to any great extent among the Uhro-Rusins. Their small number and the utter hopelessness of their position under the heel of ten million Magyars made the work of Magyar chauvinists easy. But their im migrants in America, under the influenceeinfluence [sic] of the spirit of freedom prevailing here, have long desired to do something to make their brothers across the sea free, and many years ago a fund of some thousands of dollars was collected which was to be used in case of an opportunity presented