RUSYNS AS AN ETHNIC GROUP

Abstract

Nowadays we can face different historical and cultural aspects, considered to be rather disputable. The East Slavic people have become the point in the investigations of many foreign as well as native modern scientists. But there is still much space for deep and allside research in the given field. That is why a separate question, dealt with the problem was chosen for study and making up analysis. Thus, we believe it to be interesting to begin with such a remarkable fact. In 1875, geographers from the old Hungarian Kingdom erected a monument in a remote region of their country that carried the following inscription: “Precise instruments have confirmed this point where the latitude and longitude lines meet as the center of Europe.” Just over a century later, in 1977, there was erected a second monument to mark the center of the continent. The precise center where the monuments are located is near the village of Dilove in the foothills of the north-central Carpathian Mountains, that from time immemorial has been inhabited by an East Slavic people called Carpatho-Rusyns, or simply Rusyns. Thus, in geographic terms, the Rusyns are not a peripheral group, but rather one whose homeland – Carpathian Rus’ – is literally in the heart of Europe.