Constructed identity

The process of shaping the Lemkos’ ethnocultural identity varied depending on the area and dominating cultures in opposition to whomthe Lemkos defined their origin. The Lemkos developed a very strong ethnic awareness, which allowed them to maintain some sort of cultural consistency. They were surrounded by West Slavic nations which could lead to quick assimilation, but the remoteness of the mountainous Lemkovina region fostered the development of the group’s isolationism (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 18Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
) and shaping of strong sense of individuality, especially in opposition to the neighbours (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 19Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
). As it is confirmed by the analysis of Lemko literary creations from the 19th century (Duć-Fajfer 1998: 137-157Duć-Fajfer 1998 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 1998. “Mniejszościowa wizja miejsca swej grupy w społeczeństwie polskim na podstawie twórczości literackiej Łemków”, Przegląd Polonijny III: 137-157.
), the Rusyns perceived their ethnocultural features as very distinct as opposed to the Polish culture and the Poles. The Lemkos’ sense of identity was founded especially in their Rusyn faith, the Lemko language, the name Rusnak (Rusyn) and attachment to ther fatherland (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 19Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
). The elements of Rusyn culture were respected, and the heritage and tradition were treated very seriously, which contributed to forming of the proverbial Lemko conservatism, love for their homeland, great sense of solidarity and collective identity, and idealisation of the nation’s history.
The creation of the Lemkos’ identity in relation to the East Slavic nations was a different matter. They did, indeed, use some wide and ambiguous notion of “Rusynism” but it was mostly used to underline their distinction from “Polishness” as well as belonging to a particular cultural area identified by Eastern Christianity, rather than in association with any particular state structure, political fraction or nation (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 19Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
). The general sense of “Rusynism” was a sufficient determinant of their own ethnic and religious identity until the Spring of Nations, when various national groups living in Habsburg Empire laid their political claims. When the wave of changes brought the redefining of the notion of Rusynism in Eastern Galicia, the Lemkos, too, had to define themselves nationally.
In Eastern Galicia, the second half of the 19th century was a time of fighting for influence between three national orientations that comprised the core of the Rusyns: the Old-Russian, Russophile and Ukrainophile. The oldest, Old-Russian orientation highlighted their distinctiveness against other Rus' nations, but did not clarify who exactly could be described as Rusyn: „We are Rusyns on God’s Earth – and as Rusyns we have our own family, our rites, language and faith” (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 20Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
). The term Rusyn, when used by the Old-Russian camp, changed its meaning and was later on mostly associated with the Greek Catholic faith, belonging to the Habsburg Empire, and with a distinct literary language, different from Russian and Ukrainian. The second national orientation of the Lemkos – Russophile – underlined the importance of existence of one, uniform Ruthenian nationality which comprised of three groups: the Great Russians, the Belarusians and the Ukrainians. Despite acknowledging the differences between the particular groups, Russophiles advocated the usage of Russian as the common literary language, as well as the popularisation of Russian national identity (Kedryn 1937: 155-156Kedryn 1937 / komentarz/comment/r /
Kedryn, Iwan 1937. „Triumf i katastrofa marzeń oraz zmartwychwstanie nadziei moskalofilów galicyjskich”, w: Włodzimierz Bączkowski (red.) Biuletyn Polsko-Ukraiński XIV. Warszawa: Stowarzyszenie Polsko-Ukraińskie, s. 155-156.
). They perceived Ukrainian sympathies as treachery and Polish or Austrian scheme. The Ukrainophile orientation stood in opposition to the former two and saw the Russians, the Belarusians and the Ukrainians as three completely separate nations. Ukrainophiles propageted the use of folk language and the concept of Ukrainian identity, as a set of features characteristic for the inhabitants of Bukovina, Carpathian Ruthenia, Eastern Galicia and the peoples that lived in the south-west part of the Russian empire. Eventually, the Rusyn population inhabiting Eastern Galicia passed under the influence of the Ukrainophile orientation (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 21Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
).
The process of forming of the ethnic identity was different in Lemkovina. Until World War I, the Old-Russian orientation prevailed over other concepts in this area. Later on, because of the actions of the Ukrainian nationalists (including opening of reading rooms by the pro-Ukrainian “Prosvita” society) and the Greek Catholic Church and clergymen that were gradually becoming Ukrainized, the pro-Ukrainian orientation also gained popularity there. This process, however, often met with lack of support, and even active resistance, of the pro-Russian Rusyn population. During World War I, because of mass persecutions, murders and tortures of the Russophiles by the Austrians in Talerhof concentration camp, the pro-Russian orientation became associated with martyrdom for a great part of the population (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 23Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
). These events led to an even fiercer conflict with the Ukrainian activists who were accused of collaboration with the Austrians, and even of denunciation (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 24Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
). The interwar period brought further clashes and fierce competition between the Rusyn and Ukrainian national currents. In the 1930s, both pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian structures were created, in order to propagate the Ukrainian or Russian national orientation among the Lemkos more efficiently and effectively. In 1932, the pro-Ukrainian society „Prosvita” established the Lemko Commission in Lemberg (Moklak 1997a: 4Moklak 1997a / komentarz/comment/r /
Moklak, Jarosław 1997a. „Ukraiński ruch narodowy na Łemkowszczyźnie w II Rzeczypospolitej: Organizacje kulturalno-oświatowe i gospodarcze”, Ватра 3: 4-6.

); in 1993, the Russophile Peasant Organisation created the Lemko Committee (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 24Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
).
At the same time, alongside the fight for influence between the two strong national currents, a local Rusyn-Lemko movement arose, based on the traditional Rusyn values and an opposition to the Ukrainophile concept. In 1933, the Lemko-Sojuz society was established. In 1934, as a result of the Lemko-Sojuz’ and pro-Russian Lemko Committee efforts, the Lemko language was introduced to schools. Also, the Lemko magazine, conducted in the Lemko language and published before the war, was re-launched. Additionally, the Lemko Greek Catholic diocese was established, independent from the diocese of Przemyśl.
During the German occupation, education, along with other key aspects of social life, was altogether passed under the Ukrainian control, which added to the further intensification of anti-Ukrainian attitudes. After the end of World War II, the process of resettlement begun, considered up to this day as the biggest turning point in the Lemko history, associated with the scattering of the group, driving it away from their fatherland and destroying the social structures. The first phase of resettlement included a significant majority of the population – around 65%, sent to Ukraine in the years 1944 – 1946; the rest of the Lemkos were resettled the following year to western and northern Polish territories as part of Operation Vistula (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 26Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
).
In the face of the new situation, new criteria of the Lemko identity were established, and their evolution was separate in the cases of the displaced Ukrainian population and the Lemkos sent to former German territories.
The Lemkos forced to resettle to the western and northern parts of Poland (Mazurowska 2009: 248Mazurowska 2009 / komentarz/comment/r /
Mazurowska, Agnieszka 2009. "Ślady przeszłości zachowane w imionach na epitafiach nagrobkowych cmentarza w Baniach Mazurskich", Linguistica Copernicana 2: 247-259. [http://www.linguistica.umk.pl/teksty/02_mazurowska.pdf]
) did not accept the new reality, living in a feeeling of sense of injustice, with hopes for a quick return to their homeland. There were attempts to integrate the group and to form structures that would represent the political interests of the Lemkos. The authorities of PRL (People’s Republic of Poland) impeded those effort to a singnificant extent, for instance by classifying the Lemkos as a part of a Ukrainian minority. In association to the officially recognised inclusion of the Lemkos to the Ukrainian group, the Lemkos activity was in fact restricted to the work of the Ukrainian Socio-Cultural Society (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 27Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
). After the year 1956, the authorities allowed the return of the Lemkos to their homeland, but required very complicated procedures, and as a result, only a small part of the population (about 10% of those resettled) decided to return. Due to allowing the resettled people to return, however, two Lemko centres in Poland were created, in the west and in the ethnic Lemkovina area.
The political thaw and democratization processes in the 1980s made it possible for the Lemkos to create independent societies and accociations, such as the Lemko Society, created in 1989, or the Lemko Union established in 1990. Freedom of speech and the right to one’s own opinion revealed a significant diversity of the Lemko environment in terms of the ethnic identity and cultural pursuits (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 28Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
).There were really two main currents, represented by two biggest Lemko organizations. The Lemko Union saw the Lemko culture as an integral part of the Ukrainian culture, and considered strive to achieve the Ukrainian national identity as the only way of maintaining their indigenous tradition (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 29Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
). According to the second option, represented by the Lemko Society, the Lemkos were to be seen as separate, independent of any other national culture. The distinction between these two orientations comprises the current state of the Lemkos’ national awareness. It is easy to notice the remnants of the divisions between the Lemko-Rusyns (divided into the Old Rusyns, the Russophile Rusyns, the Lemko Rusyns and the Ukrainian Rusyns) that existed even before the World War I. However, since the World War II, the pro-Russian sympathies and the traditional Old-Russian concept were to a great extent abandoned in favour of forming of the local, autonomical current, based on the term „Lemko” which replaced the formerly used term “Rusyn”.


Memorial tablet on the Jawor mountain in Lower Beskids. Photography by T. Wicherkiewicz.

Not all Lemkos that settled in Ukraine in years 1944-46 were sent there by force. Part of the Lemko population that agreed to resettle on the area of Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was driven by faith in the just Russia (associated with the USSR), economic motives (war devastation in Lemkovina), or lack of sense of security (the actions of the gorilla troops). Still, the majority of the Lemkos (over 80%) was forcefully resettled to the remote, steppe regions of Ukraine (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 29-30Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
), encountering a harsh environment there. As a result of the drought-induced famine in 1946 (Chomiak 1995: 30-31Chomiak 1995 / komentarz/comment/r /
Chomiak, Roman 1995. Nasz łemkowski los. Nowy Sącz: Sądecka Oficyna Wydawnicza Wojewódzkiego Ośrodka Kultury.
), the Lemkos ran from the areas to which they had been resettled to the western border settlements, quite often occupying homes left by Polish repatriates. A lot of the Lemkos settled near Lemberg/ Lviv (Львів), Ivano-Frankivsk (Stanisławów, Івано-Франківск), and in Tarnopol district, where one can still find large aggregations of theirsLemko communities.
The policy of the USSR concerning the national minorities restricted the cultivation of indigenous traditions of the Ukrainian region; the maintenance of their own identity was hindered by the attempts to unify the culture. The Lemkos in Ukraine, however, maintained some forms of cultural tradition and identity, such as the music folklore represented by, for instance, “Łemkowyna”, a music band. In 1988, the Socio-Cultural Society “Лемківщина” was established in Lviv (Duć-Fajfer 2001: 30Duć-Fajfer 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Duć-Fajfer, Helena 2001. Literatura łemkowska w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku. Kraków: Polska Akademia Umieje̜tności.
). The values still shared by the Lemkos that inhabit today’s Ukraine and Poland are the love for their fatherland, tradition and sense of responsibility for their culture’s survival. These features helped the Lemkos to maintain their identity and remain active in terms of culture, journalism and art.


Lemko Tower in Strzelce Krajeńskie (Lubuskie voivodeship) - a local centre of the Lemko culture and music. Photography by T. Wicherkiewicz.