With Their Backs to the Mountains

A History of Carpathian Rus' and Carpatho-Rusyns

Paul Robert Magocsi

• Publisher: Central European University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9789633861073
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Eastern European History
• Index: History

This is a history of a stateless people, the Carpatho-Rusyns, and their historic homeland, Carpathian Rus', located in the heart of central Europe. A little over 100, 000 Carpatho-Rusyns are registered in official censuses but their population is estimated at around 1, 000, 000, the greater part in Ukraine and Slovakia. The majority of the diaspora—nearly 600, 000—lives in the US.

At the present, when it is fashionable to speak of nationalities as "imagined communities" created by intellectuals or elites who may live in the historic homeland, Carpatho-Rusyns provide an ideal example of a people made—or some would say still being made—before our very eyes. The book traces the evolution of Carpathian Rus' from earliest prehistoric times to the present, and the complex manner in which a distinct Carpatho-Rusyn people, since the mid-nineteenth century, came into being, disappeared, and then re-appeared in the wake of the revolutions of 1989 and the collapse of communist rule in central and eastern Europe.

To help guide the reader further there are 34 detailed maps plus an annotated discussion of relevant books, chapters, and journal articles.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Maps
• List of Tables
• Introduction
• 1. Carpatho-Rusyns and the land of Carpathian Rus’
• 2. Carpathian Rus’ in prehistoric times
• 3. The Slavs and their arrival in the Carpathians
• 4. State formation in central Europe
• 5. Carpathian Rus’ until the early 16th century
• 6. The Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and Carpathian Rus’
• 7. The Habsburg restoration in Carpathian Rus'
• 8. Habsburg reforms and their impact on Carpatho-Rusyns
• 9. The Revolution of 1848 and the Carpatho-Rusyn national awakening
• 10. Carpathian Rus’ in Austria-Hungary, 1868–1914
• 11. Carpatho-Rusyn diasporas before World War I
• 12. Carpathian Rus’ during World War I, 1914–1918
• 13. The end of the old and the birth of a new order, 1918–1919
• 14. Subcarpathian Rus’ in interwar Czechoslovakia, 1919–1938
• 15. The Prešov Region in interwar Slovakia, 1919–1938
• 16. The Lemko Region in interwar Poland, 1919–1938
• 17. Carpatho-Rusyn diasporas during the interwar years, 1919–1938
• 18. Other peoples in Subcarpathian Rus’
• 19. Autonomous Subcarpathian Rus’ and Carpatho-Ukraine, 1938–1939
• 20. Carpathian Rus’ during World War II, 1939–1944
• 21. Carpathian Rus’ in transition, 1944–1945
• 22. Subcarpathian Rus’/Transcarpathia in the Soviet Union, 1945–1991
• 23. The Prešov Region in postwar and Communist Czechoslovakia, 1945–1989
• 24. The Lemko Region and Lemko Rusyns in Communist Poland, 1945–1989
• 25. Carpatho-Rusyn diasporas old and new, 1945–1989
• 26. The revolutions of 1989
• 27. Post-Communist Transcarpathia—Ukraine
• 28. The post-Communist Prešov Region and the Lemko Region—Slovakia and Poland
• 29. Other Carpatho-Rusyn communities in the wake of the revolutions of 1989
• 30. Carpathian Rus’—real or imagined?
• Notes
• For further reading
• Illustration Sources and Credits
• Index
• Illustrations