Budapest, Hungary--May 29, 1997
Paul Robert Magocsi

"Rutennek sohasem vallottam magam, de azt tagadtam, hogy a karpataljai orosz nepbol szarmazom.... Magyar vagyok a test orszagaban, gorogkatolikus a lelek birodalmaban." / "I never identified myself as a Rusyn, even though I never denied that I was a descendant of the Carpatho-Rusyn people.... I am a Magyar in body and a Greek Catholic in soul." These words were spoken nearly a century ago by a young Rusyn journalist living in Budapest, Ivan Prodan, or as he preferred to be called--Janos Prodan.

But why did our Janos use such words and also act in a way that many of us would criticize as an act betrayal of one's own Rusyn people. The reasons are related partly to the general social and political environment within Hungary at the time, and partly they reflect what might be called the shortcomings of the Rusyn national character.

It was in 1905 that Prodan made the above statement, when he was editor of the Budapest Greek Catholic newspaper Gorogkatolikus hirlap. But the origins of such an attitude go back to the late 1890s, when Prodan was a student at the University of Budapest and president of a Rusyn student group called the Ung County Circle. While a university student, Prodan experienced first hand the period of intense Magyar nationalism that was sweeping the entire old Hungarian Kingdom, from Transylvania, Subcarpathian Rus', and Slovakia, to the Burgerland, Croatia, the Vojvodina and everywhere in between. The nationalistic fervor culminated in 1896 at the millennial celebrations which commemorated the crossing of the Magyar tribes in the year 896 through the Verets'kyi pass in the Carpathians, their capture of the fortified town of Ungvar (Uzhhorod), their settlement in the Danubian basin, and their eventual establishment of the Hungarian state.

I believe such a visit would remind us of two things. First, we would see how the statues and around the square instill a powerful sense of national pride that allows Magyars to be proud of themselves and the state of Hungary that has existed for over a thousand years. Rusyns, who have traditionally had a strong sense of national inferiority, might do well to learn something of Magyar pride and self-confidence.

On the other hand, national pride can sometimes lead to arrogance and intolerance toward others. This was certainly a characteristic of Magyar nationalism at the end of the nineteenth century, which in turn encouraged and reinforced a sense of inferiority among non-Magyars. This was the environment that lead to people like our Ivan/Janos Prodan to want to give up his identity and more than anything else to be a Magyar. We should also remember that in the late nineteenth century some of the leading assimilationists--teachers , priests, and journalists--were not Magyars, but the Rusyns themselves.

But that was nearly a century ago, and much has transpired since then. In this same Budapest which one hundred years ago was celebrating the glories of Hungarian culture and the desirability of being Magyar, we find ourselves today meeting at the Fourth World Congress of Rusyns to proclaim the glories of Rusyn culture and the desirability of being Rusyn. The very congress and the Organization of Rusyns that is our host has in large part been made possible by the positive attitude of the present post-Communist Hungarian government. That government has come to realize that like the vast majority of countries throughout the world, Hungary is a multicultural country. Aside from Magyars, its citizens represent several other nationalities, including Rusyns, and all of them are equal citizens of the Hungarian state. Respect for all peoples, even this country's few thousand Rusyns, reveals the degree to which present-day democratic Hungary accepts and abides by the highest political and social standards that are considered the norm for Europe on the eve of the twenty-first century. It is very gratifying to be in a country which recognizes the fact that Rusyns are a distinct people.

The Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center is primarily a publishing house for scholarly books and other popular material about Rusyns. We also provide limited support to researchers and writers worldwide. For instance, in the past two years, we published: (1) a large-scale map of all villages where Rusyns lived between 1806 and 1921; (2) a collection of essays on the codification of the Rusyn literary language in Slovakia with an introduction by the renowned Slavist, Nikita Tolstoj; and (3) popular brochures about Carpatho-Rusyns in English, Polish, Slovak, and Ukrainian, which were reproduced by other Rusyn organizations in Hungarian, Serbian, and Vojvodinian Rusyn. At present our most important projects are to publish English translations of three outstanding monographs about Rusyn history and culture by Petr Bogatyrev, Maria Mayer, and Aleksei L. Petrov; the second volume of the "national bibliography" of Carpatho-Rusyn studies for the years 1985-1994; and to complete the Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture under the editorship of Professor Ivan Pop and myself. With regard to assistance to Rusyn scholars and writers, our center continues to send hundreds of books, brochures, and maps gratis to individuals and Rusyn organizations in Europe, and we have helped to establish the annual Dukhovych Prize for the best work in Rusyn literature, the first one of which will be awarded at this congress.

Although we are not a political organization, the Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center does provide information about current problems in the Rusyn homeland, primarily through our quarterly publication, the Carpatho-Rusyn American. During the past two years, our public relations officer issued an inquiry to the Government of Slovakia regarding the status of Rusyns in that country, for which we reviewed detailed responses from two ministers (culture and education) as well as the vice- premier of Slovakia. At present our Center is making available information to the United States Congress, the American media, and international organizations regarding the recent government of Ukraine's "Plan for Resolving the Problem of Ukrainian-Rusyns."

I should stress that the Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center with its approximately 6,000 supporters, does not do all of the above alone. There are at least three other organizations in the United States-the Lemko Association in Yonkers, New York; the Rusin Association of Minnesota; the Carpatho-Rusyn Society in Pittsburgh--and in Canada the Rusyn Society of North America in Kitchener, Ontario, each of which functions as a social and cultural organization for Rusyns who came from a particular area in Europe or who represent a group living in a particular part of the New World. The Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center works especially closely with the Rusin Association and the newer, rapidly growing Carpatho-Rusyn Society based in western Pennsylvania

May I conclude with a few words about cooperation. I just noted the successes of the past two decades achieved by American and Canadian Rusyns. This has been possible because, even if Rusyns are separated from each other by thousands of kilometers throughout North America, each of our organizations tries to follow closely what each other is doing, to cooperate wherever possible, and to avoid duplication of efforts. Fortunately today, in all countries but one where Carpatho-Rusyns live, they are allowed to organize themselves and to carry out activities with some degree of state support. The result has been a burgeoning of new publishing houses and new scholarly organizations. Cultural work, in particular, has been able to transcend borders. Rusyn theaters and folk ensembles share their expertise and they travel to other countries where our people live; Rusyn publishing houses in different countries have produced joint publications; scholars have met for debate at conferences; and certainly the four world congresses serve as outstanding examples of interaction and cooperation among Rusyns.

More attention, however, needs to be given to cooperation among scholars. To be sure, the new Rusyn scholarly organizations in each country should remain independent and determine their own programs, but they should also try to avoid duplication, whether it be the production of several anthologies of poetry, or research projects on the very same topics but carried out in different places. And is it not time for another congress of the Rusyn language? I believe the time has come to assess what was achieved since the first language congress back in November 1992 and to determine what should be undertaken jointly or individually in the future.

In a real sense we as Rusyns have come a long way. For the first time we can all meet together periodically, regardless of what county we live in, and we can even plan and carry out joint projects. This was unheard of ten, even five years ago. Many Rusyns have justifiably acquired a new sense of self-confidence of the kind their predecessors never had before.

For this reason, it is so satisfying to be in Budapest. This is no longer the capital of a culture and state that suppresses Rusyns, but one which welcomes them and encourages them in their cultural endeavors. This is no longer the city which has a Janos Prodan, who like many Rusyns of the past--and also still some at present--had an ingrained sense of inferiority and therefore shame about their Rusyn origins. Instead, this is the city of Gabriel Hattinger and his young colleagues, all fully certain of both their Rusyn identity and their Hungarian citizenship.

Do Rusyns in Hungary still have problems? Probably so. But since the Revolution of 1989 and the rise of a new generation of young Rusyn activists we now know two things. Yes, there will always be problems, but solutions can always be found. In the past five years alone how many problems have each of you faced in Slovakia, in Poland, in Ukraine, in Hungary, in wartorn Yugoslavia, yes, even in America? And how many of those problems have been partially, if not fully resolved? Your success and your presence as Rusyns here today is the reality we must carry into the twenty-first century. There is no doubt that whether in the Carpathian homeland, in other cities and regions of Europe and North America, or in cyberspace Rusyns are and will be.