The Lemkos as a Micro Ethnic Group

For untold centuries the mountains of the southeast corner of present day Poland were inhabited by people who, all observers agree, spoke an East Slavic language, used a version of the Cyrillic Alphabet, and who belonged to the Eastern branch of Christianity and who used a version of the Byzantine Rite in church services. The territory these people inhabited forms a rough elongated triangle with its eastern base on the Oslawa River and its western apex at a point on the Dunajec River, southeast of Krakow. This land, on the north slope of the Carpathians, includes the Beskid Sadecki, the Beskid Niski and the western Edge of the Bieszczady mountain ranges and is variously known as Lemkowszczyzna (Polish), Lemkivshchyna (Ukrainian), Lemkovyna (local) or Prikarpatska Rus and people from the area are known as Lemkos.

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Lemky (Lemko)

The following taken from the forward to (Who are we, Lemkos… -wm) by Ivan Krasovskiy & Dmitro Solinko, Lviv 1991.

Thunderous events, which are taking place in Eastern Europe, Soviet Union, separately in Ukraine, gave birth to a new moment in rebirth of democracy, and reawakening of national conscience of entire nations, and of separate groups and entities. This process has also touched residents of former western Carpathian Mountains - Lemkos, scattered all over the world.

As a result of historical developments, ethnographic territory populated by Lemkos, also after World War II, found itself divided among three nations. The Galician part of Lemkivshchyna became part of Poland. This is a hilly swath of land of south-eastern Poland that starts at Salinka and San/Syan rivers in the east, to where river Solyanka meets Poprad in the west. Southern part of Lemkivshchyna became part of the Slovak Rep.
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Hutsul walking down the road between Ivano-Frankivsk and Yaremche

This is elderly gentleman walking down the road between Ivano-Frankivsk and Yaremche. He is a Hutsul, the name of the Carpathian Ukrainians living in that part of the mountains. He’s definitely the genuine article.

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