A Ruthenian and Ruthene are of Latin language origin, formerly used in Eastern and Central Europe as common Ethnonym for East Slavs, particularly during the late medieval and early modern periods. The Latin term Rutheni was used in medieval sources to describe all Eastern Slavs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as an exonym for people of the former Kievan Rus, thus including ancestors of the modern Belarusians, Rusyns and Ukrainians.
In medieval sources, the Latin term Rutheni was commonly applied to East Slavs in general, thus encompassing all and their various forms (; ). By opting for the use of exonymic terms, authors who wrote in Latin were relieved from the need to be specific in their applications of those terms, and the same quality of Ruthenian exonyms is often recognized in modern, mainly Western authors, particularly those who prefer to use exonyms (foreign in origin) over endonyms.
During the early modern period, the exonym Ruthenian was most frequently applied to the East Slavic population of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, an area encompassing territories of modern Belarus and Ukraine from the 15th up to the 18th centuries.[Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1529), Part. 1., Art. 1.: "На первей преречоным прелатом, княжатом, паном, хоруговым, шляхтам и местом преречоных земель Великого князства Литовского, Руского, Жомойтского и иных дали есмо: ..."; According to.: Pervyi ili Staryi Litovskii Statut // Vremennik Obschestva istorii i drevnostei Rossiiskih. 1854. Book 18, p. 2.] In the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the same term () was employed up to 1918 as an official exonym for the entire Ukrainian population within the borders of the Monarchy.
History
Ruteni, a misnomer that was also the name of an Ruteni in Ancient Gaul,[Sigismund von Herberstein Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii] to professor John-Paul Himka from the University of Alberta the word Rutheni did not include the modern Russians, who were known as Moscovitae throughout Western Europe.[Лобин А. Н. Послание государя Василия III Ивановича императору Карлу V от 26 июня 1522 г.: Опыт реконструкции текста // Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana, № 1. Санкт-Петербург, 2013. C. 131.] Jacques Margeret in his book "Estat de l'empire de Russie, et grande duché de Moscovie" of 1607 said that the name "Muscovites" for the population of Tsardom (Empire) of Russia is an error.[Fabio Renato Villela. Os Lusíadas, Canto III, 11. Adaptação De Os LusÍadas Ao Português Atual.][ Luís de Camões «Os Lusíadas. Canto Terceiro» . www.tania-soleil.com.] clearly writes "...Entre este mar e o Tánais vive estranha Gente: Rutenos, Moscos e Livónios, Sármatas outro tempo..." English differentiating between Ruthenians and Muscovites.
After the partition of Poland, the term Ruthenian referred exclusively to people of the Rusyn- and Ukrainian-speaking areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Bukovina, and Transcarpathia.[Panayir, D. (16 February 2011). "Москвофільство. Як галичани вчили росіян любити Росію" Moscowphilia. Istorychna Pravda ( Ukrayinska Pravda); ] By 1900, more and more Ruthenians began to call themselves with the self-designated name Ukrainians.
Following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, new states emerged and dissolved; borders changed frequently. After the extremely violent years 1917-23 including the ongoing Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War, Lithuanian-Soviet War and Polish-Lithuanian War, the Rusyn and "prosto hovor" (simple speech) speaking people in eastern Austria-Hungary found themselves divided between Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania. The labelling of the Ruthenian "simple speech" of the peasants as "Ukrainian" had already begun in Russia and USSR, and was initially associated with the Soviets, who actively sought to spread peasant terms in cities (see Ukrainization) thus evolving the hybrid language Surzhyk.
When commenting on the partition of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany in March 1939, US diplomat George Kennan noted, "To those who inquire whether these Carpatho-Rusyns are Russians or Ukrainians, there is only one answer. They are Neither. They are simply Carpatho-Rusyns."[Report on Conditions in Ruthenia March 1939, From Prague After Munich: Diplomatic Papers 1938-1940, (Princeton University Press, 1968)] Dr. Paul R. Magocsi emphasizes that modern Ruthenians have "the sense of a nationality distinct from Ukrainians" and often associate Ukrainians with Soviet Union or Communists.
After the expansion of Soviet Ukraine following World War II, several groups who had not previously considered themselves Ukrainians were merged into the Ukrainian identity, and not entirely by choice.
Ruthenian terminology in Poland
In the interbellum period of the 20th century, the term rusyn ( Ruthenian) was also applied to people from the Kresy Wschodnie (the eastern borderlands) in the Second Polish Republic, and included Ukrainians, Rusyns, and Lemkos, or alternatively, members of the Uniate Church or Greek Catholic Churches. In Galicia, the Polish government actively replaced all references to "Ukrainians" with the old word rusini ("Ruthenians").
The Polish census of 1921 considered Ukrainians no other than Ruthenians, meanwhile Belarusians have already become a separate nation, which in Polish is literally translated as "White Ruthenians" ().[Główny Urząd Statystyczny Central (1932). "Ludnosc: Ludnosc wedlug wyznania religijnego i narodowosci" Population:. Polish Census 1931 p. 56, table 11. ] However the Polish census of 1931 counted Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Rusyn as separate language categories, and the census results were substantially different from before.[Główny Urząd Statystyczny Central "Ludnosc. Ludnosc wedlug wyznania i plci oraz jezyka ojczystego" Population:. Polish Census 1931 p. 15; table 10. ] According to Rusyns-American historian Paul Robert Magocsi, Polish government policy in the 1930s pursued a strategy of tribalization, regarding various ethnographic groups—i.e., Lemkos, Boykos, and Hutsuls, as well as Old Ruthenians and Russophiles—as different from other Ukrainians and offered instructions in Lemko vernacular in state schools set up in the westernmost Lemkivshchyna.
The Polish census of 1931 listed "Belarusian", "Rusyn" and "Ukrainian" (, respectively) as separate languages.[Henryk Zieliński, Historia Polski 1914-1939, (1983) Wrocław: Ossolineum]
Carpatho-Ruthenian ethnonyms
By the end of the 19th century, another set of terms came into use in several western languages, combining regional Carpathian with Ruthenian designations, and thus producing composite terms such as: Carpatho-Ruthenes or Carpatho-Ruthenians. Those terms also acquired several meanings, depending on the shifting geographical scopes of the term Carpathian Ruthenia. Those meanings were also spanning from wider uses as designations for all East Slavs of the Carpathian region, to narrower uses, focusing on those local groups of East Slavs who did not accept a modern Ukrainian identity, but rather opted to keep their traditional Rusyns identity.
The designations Rusyn and Carpatho-Rusyn were banned in the Soviet Union by the end of World War II in June 1945.[ Ruthenians who identified under the Rusyn ethnonym and considered themselves to be a national and linguistic group separate from Ukrainians and Belarusians were relegated to the Carpathian diaspora and formally functioned among the large immigrant communities in the United States.][ A cross-European revival took place only with the collapse of communist rule in 1989.][ This has resulted in political conflict and accusations of intrigue against Rusyn activists, including criminal charges. The Rusyn minority is well represented in Slovakia. The single category of people who listed their ethnicity as Rusyn was created in the 1920s; however, no generally accepted standardised Rusyn language existed.]
The government of Slovakia has proclaimed Rusyns ( Rusíni) to be a distinct national minority (1991) and recognised Rusyn language as a distinct language (1995).
Speculative theories
Since the 19th century, several speculative theories emerged regarding the origin and nature of medieval and early modern uses of Ruthenian terms as designations for East Slavs. Some of those theories were focused on a very specific source, a memorial plate from 1521, that was placed in the catacombe Chapel of St Maximus in Petersfriedhof, the burial site of St Peter's Abbey in Salzburg (modern Austria). The plate contains Latin inscription that mentions Italian ruler Odoacer (476–493) as king of "Rhutenes" or "Rhutenians" (), and narrates a story about the martyrdom of St Maximus during an invasion of several peoples into Noricum in 477. Due to the very late date (1521) and several anachronistic elements, the content of that plate is considered as legendary.[ Friedhof und Katakomben im Stift St. Peter]
In spite of that, some authors (mainly non-scholars) employed that plate as a "source" for several theories that were trying to connect Odoacer with ancient Celtic Ruthenes from Gaul, thus also providing an apparent bridge towards later medieval authors who labeled East Slavs as Ruthenes or Ruthenians. On those bases, an entire strain of speculative theories was created, regarding the alleged connection between ancient Gallic Ruthenes and later East Slavic "Ruthenians". As noted by professor Paul R. Magocsi, those theories should be regarded as "inventive tales" of "creative" writers.
Geography
From the 9th century, Kievan Rus' – now part of the modern states of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia – was known in Western Europe by a variety of names derived from Rus'. The latinised terms such as Ruthenia or Ruthenorum were applied to Kievan Rus' and its rulers from 11th century.
File:001 Kievan Rus' Kyivan Rus' Ukraine map 1220 1240.jpg|Kievan Rus', also known as Ruthenia, 1230
File:Linguistic and political map of Eastern Europe, Casimir Delamarre, 1868.jpg|1868 linguistic, ethnographic, and political map of Eastern Europe by Casimir Delamarre
File:Народонаселеніе и языки ЕВРОПЫ 1907 С-П. РИ..jpg|1907 linguistic and ethnographic map that indicates Ukrainians as " or Ruthenians"
File:Austria hungary 1911.jpg|1911 map depicting the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with Ruthenians in light green
File:Польська карта народо-населення Центральної Європи 1927 року..jpg|1927 Polish map that indicates Ukrainians as "Ruthenians" ("Rusini"), and Belarusians as "White Ruthenians" ("Białorusini")
File:Seat of Ukraine Republic.jpg|1918 map of Ukraine. Caption says following: "In the ruled area Ukrainian (Ruthenian) speech predominates…"
File:Ruskie grupy etniczne.jpg|Ethnographic groups of Ruthenians, from "Rusini, zarys etnografii na Rusi" (1928)
Ruthenian culture
Language
The Ruthenian language (Ruthenian: , русинська мова) was an exonymic linguonym for a closely related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly those spoken from the 15th to 18th centuries in the East Slavs regions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. By the end of the 18th century, they gradually diverged into regional variants, which subsequently developed into the modern Belarusian ( White Ruthenian), Ukrainian ( Ruthenian), and Rusyn language ( Carpathian Ruthenian) languages.
Religions
With the conversion of Vladimir the Great began a long history of the dominance of Eastern Orthodoxy in Ruthenia. The Rus' accepted Christianity in its Byzantine Rite at the same time as the Poles accepted it in its Latin Church, Lithuanians largely remained pagan to the late Middle Ages before their nobility embraced the Latin form upon the political union with the Poles. The eastward expansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had been facilitated by amicable treaties and inter-marriages of the nobility when faced with the external threat of the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'.
By the end of the 12th century, Europe was generally divided into two large areas: Western Europe with dominance of Catholicism, and Eastern Europe with Orthodox and Byzantine influences. The border between them was roughly marked by the Bug River. This placed the area now known as Belarus in a unique position where these two influences mixed and interfered.
The first Latin Church diocese in White Ruthenia was established in Turaŭ between 1008 and 1013. Catholicism was a traditionally dominant religion of Belarusian nobility (the szlachta) and of a large part of the population of western and northwestern parts of Belarus. Before the 14th century, the Eastern Orthodox Church was dominant in White Ruthenia. The Union of Krewo in 1385 broke this monopoly and made Catholicism the religion of the ruling class.
Jogaila, then ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, ordered the whole population of Lithuania to convert to Catholicism. One and a half years after the Union of Krewo, the Wilno (Vilnius) episcopate was created which received a lot of land from the Lithuanian dukes. By the mid-16th century Catholicism became strong in Lithuania and bordering with it north-west parts of White Ruthenia, but the Orthodox church was still dominant.
In the 14th century, Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos sanctioned the creation of two additional metropolitan sees: the Metropolis of Halych (1303) and the Metropolis of Lithuania (1317).
Metropolitan Roman (1355–1362) of Lithuania and Metropolitan Alexius of Kiev both claimed the see. Both metropolitans travelled to Constantinople to make their appeals in person. In 1356, their cases were heard by a Patriarchal Synod. The Holy Synod confirmed that Alexis was the Metropolitan of Kiev while Roman was also confirmed in his see at Novogorodek. In 1361, the two sees were formally divided. Shortly afterwards, in the winter of 1361/62, Roman died. From 1362 to 1371, the vacant see of Lithuania–Halych was administered by Alexius. By that point, the Lithuanian metropolis was effectively dissolved.
Following the signing of the Council of Florence, Metropolitan Isidore of Kiev returned to Moscow in 1441 as a Ruthenian cardinal. He was arrested by the Grand Duke of Moscow and accused of apostasy. The Grand Duke deposed Isidore and in 1448 installed own candidate as Metropolitan of Kyiv — Jonah. This was carried out without the approval of Patriarch Gregory III of Constantinople. When Isidore died in 1458, he was succeeded as metropolitan in the Patriarchate of Constantinople by Gregory the Bulgarian. Gregory's canonical territory was the western part of the traditional Kievan Rus' lands — the states of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. The Cathedral was in the city of Navahrudak which is today located in Belarus. It was later moved to Vilnius — the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. A parallel succession to the title ensued between Moscow and Vilnius. The Metropolitans of Kiev are the predecessors of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' that was formed in the 16th century.
The Ruthenian Uniate Church was created in 1595–1596 by those clergy of the Eastern Orthodox churches who subscribed to the Union of Brest. In the process, they switched their allegiances and jurisdiction from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Holy See. It had a single metropolitan territory — the Metropolis of Kiev, Galicia and all Ruthenia. The formation of the church led to a high degree of confrontation among Ruthenians, such as the murder of the hierarch Josaphat Kuntsevych in 1623. Opponents of the union called church members "", although Catholic documents no longer use the term due to its perceived negative overtones. In 1620, these dissenters erected their own metropolis — the "Metropolis of Kyev, Galicia and all Ruthenia".
In the 16th century, a crisis began in Christianity: the Protestant Reformation began in Catholicism and a period of heresy began in an Orthodox area. From the mid-16th century Protestant ideas began spreading in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The first Protestant Church in Belarus was created in Brest by Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł. Protestantism did not survive due to the Counter-Reformation in Poland.
Both the Catholic Church in the Commonwealth and the Ruthenian Church underwent a period of decay. The Ruthenian Church was the church of a people without statehood. The Poles considered the Ruthenians a conquered people. Over time, the Lithuanian military and political ascendancy did away with the Ruthenian autonomies. The disadvantageous political status of the Ruthenian people also affected the status of their church and undermined her capacity for reform and renewal. Furthermore, they could not expect support from the Mother Church in Constantinople or from their co-religionists in Moscow. Thus, the Ruthenian church was in a weaker position than the Catholic Church in the Commonwealth.
Until 1666, when Patriarch Nikon was deposed by Russian tsar, the Russian Orthodox Church had been independent of the State. In 1721, the first Russian Emperor, Peter I, abolished completely the patriarchate and effectively made the church a department of the government, ruled by the Most Holy Synod composed of senior bishops and lay bureaucrats appointed by the emperor himself. Over time, Imperial Russia would style itself a protector and patron of all Orthodox Christians, especially those within the Ottoman Empire.
Domination of Little Russia by the Great Russia (from 1721) eventually led to the decline of Uniate Catholicism (officially founded in 1596) in the Ukrainian lands under Tsarist control.
Music and Dance
Musical scores titled " Baletto Ruteno" or " Horea Rutenia", meaning Ruthenian Ballet can be found in European collections during the Lithuanian and Polish rule of Ruthenia, such as the Gdańsk lute tablature of 1640.
Symbols
White Eagle, the Lithuanian
Pahonia and the
Archangel Michael (19th century)]]
noble family]]
noble family]]
noble family]]
noble family]]
noble family]]
noble family]]
noble family]]
Notable Ruthenians
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Konstanty Ostrogski ( 1460–1530), a Ruthenian prince and magnate of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia, Samogitia and later a Grand Hetman of Lithuania
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Roxelana ( 1504–1558), also known as Haseki Hürrem Sultan, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent
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Meletius Smotrytsky ( 1577–1633), an archbishop of Polotsk, writer, religious and pedagogical activist of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ruthenian linguist
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Bohdan Khmelnytsky ( 1595–1657), a Ruthenian nobleman, military commander of Zaporozhian Cossacks, leader of the Khmelnytsky Uprising and founding father of the Cossack Hetmanate
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Petro Doroshenko ( 1627–1698), a Cossack political and military leader, Hetman of Right-bank Ukraine (1665–1672)
[ Petro Doroshenko at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine]
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Ivan Mazepa ( 1639–1709), the Hetman of the Cossack Hetmanate, patron of arts, under which rule Hetmanate was reunited and prospered, marking the end of its Ruin age
Notable People of Ruthenian origin
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Stanisław Orzechowski (1513-1566), Catholic Polish-Ruthenian political writer
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Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki (1640-1673), ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 29 September 1669 until his death in 1673
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Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746-1817), Polish military engineer, statesman, and military leader, veteran of the American war of independence, leader of the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising
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Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872), composer, conductor, organist and pedagogue, author of many popular polish language art songs and operas, referred to as the "father of Polish national opera"
See also
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American Carpatho-Ruthenian Orthodox Diocese
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Coat of arms of Carpathian Ruthenia
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Gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus
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Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia
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Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth
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Cossack Hetmanate
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Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church
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Ruthenian nobility
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Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
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Galician Russophilia
Notes and references
Sources
Further reading
