TRADÍCIA AUTONÓMIE NA KARPATSKEJ RUSI

As the Soviet Union disintegrated and eventually dissolved in 1991 many of its peoples, both so-called titular nationalities and national minorities, put forth demands for independence or, at the very least, self-rule for territories that were said to be the national homeland of a given people. Among the many peoples who put forward such demands were Carpatho-Rusyns, who, together with fellow citizens of other national backgrounds, demanded autonomy, or self-rule for the region of Trans-Carpathian in far western Ukraine. This essay examines from a historical perspective the question of autonomy or self-rule for Carpatho-Rusyns not only in present-day Ukraine’s Trans-Carpathian but in all the regions of historic Carpathian Ruthenia. The autonomy question in Carpathian Ruthenia is hardly new, but one that goes back to as long ago as 1848.