by Ireneusz Krzysztof

Ireneusz Krzysztof's article was first published on February 7, 1992
in the Polish newspaper Ziemia Gorzowska*, prompted by a local
performance of the Society of Lemkos' Amateur Theater. Written as an
introduction to Lemko history, culture, and the contemporary Lemko
situation for a curious but largely uninformed Polish reading public,
it was reprinted in English translation in* Karpatska Rus' in 1994.
The translation is presented here as a reprint of that published
English text, not as a Good Works Translation prepared by this
library from the original Polish.

by Ireneusz Krzysztof as published in Karpatska Rus', May 27, 1994, Vol.
LXVII #11

in the Polish newspaper Ziemia Gorzowska. The article was inspired on
the occasion of a local performance of the Society of Lemkos' Amateur Theater.[1]
The article is essentially an introduction to Lemko history, culture and
contemporary situation written for a curious but largely uninformed Polish
reading public. Aside from providing basic information on recent developments
and activities among Lemkos living in Poland, the article provides insight into
how Poles view Lemkos. Explanatory notes appear at the end of the article or are
embedded within the text in [square brackets].

Lemkos live among us. Few people remember that before the [Second World] War
approximately 400,000 Lemkos lived within Poland's borders.[2] They
were a gentle, poverty-stricken people, but happy in their own way. They are one
of the east Slavic groups. In the 14th century they were already inhabiting the
southeast reaches of Polish territory.[3] Lemkos came from the east in
search of grazing land for their sheep and oxen. By the 19th century shepherding
was no longer profitable, so Lemkos took up farming and lumbering. The Brest
Union of the 16th century took the Orthodox Lemkos and made Uniates out of them
[sic]. During the First World War period, many Lemko communities switched their
allegiance back to the Orthodox church. In the interwar period, Lemkos became a
bone of contention between the Orthodox and Uniate churches. The conflict was so
intense that the pope separated Lemkovyna from metropolitan Andrei Septyc'kyj's
administration and created a distinct Lemko diocese with its own apostolic
administration.

Krynica was the Lemko capital in Poland. Lemko grazing lands and farms
covered the gentle hills of the Poprad valley and northern slopes of the
Carpathians.

The Lemkos' world disintegrated in 1945. According to the official
explanation Lemkos were resettled from the mountains because they, like
Ukrainians, supported the Ukrainian Partisan Army (UPA).[4] The
Lemkos' "Black Spring" came in 1947. During the "Vistula"
Operation, whole villages of Lemkos, Boikos, Dolinians and Ukrainians from
Terespol to Krynica were removed to the recovered territories.[5] The "Vistula"
Operation was efficiently carried out. People were notified [of their impending
resettlement] only one day ion advance or sometimes only within hours of
departure. They were allowed to take with them livestock and whatever they could
manage to carry. They were led on foot, often for many kilometers, to railroad
stations. The "Vistula" evacuees were then loaded onto freight cars
bound for destinations unknown by them.

The "Vistula" Operation affected 150,000 people. The former German
territories had earlier been crammed with Poles resettled from Ukrainian
territory which had been absorbed by the USSR. They did not welcome, and were
sometimes, even violently opposed to anything Rusyn. But the Lemkos, after all,
called themselves Rusnaks.[6] Some, like the legendary Nikifor tried
on their own to return [to the Lemko Region]. They were caught and most often
imprisoned in the Jaworzno prison camp set up for those who resisted
deportation.

After 1956 a portion of the population returned to Lemkovyna. There they
found that their [previously] abandoned farmsteads had now been destroyed. The
wheat had gone unharvested; the villages remained desolate. Lemkos frequently
had to buy back their own homes.[7]

Lemkos presently number 70,000 in Poland. They have established the Society
of Lemkos [in Lemko: Stovaryshynja Lemkiv], which is headquartered in Legnica;
the "Lemkovyna" folk song and dance group, which is based in the
village of Bielanka; and a small instrumental band "Chwylyna" based in
Lugach and fronted by the prolific and talented singer/songwriter Luba Krynicka
(Nikifor had also adopted this same pseudonym). Lastly, Lemkos have the Legnica
based Amateur Theatre Group. The Group is remarkable. It takes the form and
performs the same function as did Polish folk theatrical groups under the Period
of Partitions. The Amateur Theatre [like the Polish folk theatrical groups,
functions not simply as entertainment, but] works to preserve the Lemko language
and culture.

Lemkos also have their own poets and painters. The above mentioned Nikifor
is the best known. His folk watercolors are on display in many of the world's
galleries and museums. Among living Lemko poets are Petro
Trochanovskij-Murianka, Stefania and Maria Trochanovskij, Vladyslav Hraban,
Michal Olesniewicz, Maria [Olena] Duc-Fajfer and Pavel Stefanovskij, who is also
a painter. The most important cultural figure, however, is the painter, poet and
teacher Ivan Rusenko. Rusenko was born 100 years ago in the village of Krosno in
the then Krosno district. After completing high school in Nowy Sacz, he returned
to Krosno and worked as a teacher. Rusenko loved music and outdoor excursions.
He roamed the Carpathians, charmed by their beauty. Nobody knew Lemkos and
Lemkovyna better than Rusenko. He understood their spirit, their thought, their
aspirations and their harsh reality. In Rusenko's works, in verse, satire, short
stories, songs and stage plays, the Lemko is good and sensitive; and yet, when
necessary, he can be steadfast. After World War II Rusenko was resettled to
[Soviet] Ukraine, where he settled in the village of Korolik and worked as a
teacher. He died in 1970 at the age of 70. Rusenko was at the height of his
creative powers in the interwar period. By that time he had already written his
play "Vertep w Karpatach"...

I wrote the above text on the occasion of the January 12th visit to Gorzow
of the Lemko Amateur Theater. It is not possible to judge [the quality of the
Amateur Theatre's performance of] Vertep w Karpatach in conventional aesthetic
or professional terms. Its main purpose for being goes beyond entertainment or
artistic expression. The performance provided a pretext for some reflections on
the fate in Poland of this quiet Lemko people, who do not aggressively fight for
Parliamentary representation as do other national minorities.

Many Lemkos live in Gorzow. No statistical records are kept, not even by the
Gorzow branch of the Lemko Association. The audience in the "Kolejarz"
theater, however, is 3/4 Lemko. As if listening to a Sunday sermon, they drank
up every word falling from the stage. At the conclusion of the performance, they
stood to honor the performers by singing the Lemko "Sto lat", [mnohaja
lita] which is slower in rhythm and more soulful than the Polish version.

And the performance itself? It resembles Schiller's Pastoralewhich
was recently performed at the Osterwa Theater. The play follows the adventures
of the main characters in song and dance, without dramatic, sequential plot
development. The main characters are a shepherd, richly fleshed out by Adam Barna;
a beggar (Stefan Kosowski); a tinker (Jan Dziadyk); the "wise
fool", Amroz, subtly portrayed by Andrzej Kopcza; the Jew Moska was
oplayed by Jan Kowalczyk. Completing the cast were a dignified old
peasant couple; gypsies; merry peasant girls; three kings and the Holy Family. A
charming folk simplicity characterizes this Lemko Christmas Play (for in fact
this is the meaning of "Vertep" which according to Kopalinski's
Dictionary of Myths and Cultural Traditionsis a representation of the
Nativity scene which wandering carolers carried along Carpathian trail).
However, the art and stage direction were hackneyed and unoriginal. The costumes
and songs incorporated into the play are interesting, especially the authentic
Lemko carols. Familiar melodies such as Wsrod nocnej ciszycould
frequently be heard. In the last act, however, there were too many carols.
Unfortunately Andrzej Kopcza, the founder and director of the theater, was not
inspired to dramatize this rather static act. But more about him later. The
stage area of the "Kolejarz" community center was a bit too small. It
might have been useful to have some of the actors leave the center stage area
and use the front of the stage opposite the manger. Still, it is difficult to
demand a fully matured understanding of stagecraft from an amateur theater group
which has been in existence hardly for more than one year and whose members
frequently have to travel great distances to rehearsals.

The theatrical group is made up of people who were strangers to one another
before coming together. Some, however, have family ties. Among those are Stefan
Kosowski, his wife Joanna, brother Piotr and Tomek, the son of his
broither Jan; Lukasz Wozniak and her daughter and son; Dymitr Rusenko
and his daughter Ewa.

The Amateur Theater was created in 1989 at the initiative of Andrzej Kopcza,
a graduate of the University of Wroclaw's Department of Cultural Studies. He is
also the chairman of the governing committee of the Society of Lemkos. The
Theater was established to stage Odciete korzenie ("Severed Roots")
the play written by the gifted Mr. Kopcza. It was staged last year in, among
other places, Gorzow. Odciete korzenieruns for 3 1/2 hours;
nevertheless, nobody left early. It tells the story of one Lemko family from
1914 to 1945, culminating with the powerful final scene in which they are
resettled from the mountains.[8] The melodic finale (Lemkowina,
Lemkowina) acquired among Lemkos the status of a hymn. It was added to the
repertoire of the [Lemkovyna] Song and Dance Company directed by Jaroslaw
Trochanowski, brother of poet Piotr Trochanowski. The audience spontaneously
arose during this song. Andrezj Kopcza, the author and director, said that this
single moment was worth the more than six months it took to write and rehearse
the play. Odciete korzenieplayed fore two dozen odd times in different
towns and was videotaped for purposes of preservation. Andrzej Kopcza is now
writing the second part to his saga, entitled Na obczyznie ("In Exile").
Some scenes are already completed and are being rehearsed. The rehearsals take
place in a club room on the second floor of an apartment building at 1 Roosevelt
Street. This room is also the site of musical practices and classes in the Lemko
dialect. Similar activities, albeit less well developed than those in Legnica,
are conducted at other branch locations of the Society of Lemkos where Lemkos
reside in sufficient numbers.

How and by hat means can Lemkos prevent the loss of their consciousness? The
overwhelming majority of Lemkos now reside in Ukraine, where they are subjected
to the powerful pressure of local nationalists. [Relocated] Lemkos in Ukraine no
longer regard themselves as Lemko. About 800,000 reside there....[9]

Has the creation of an independent Ukrainian state affected the mood among
Lemkos? Many of them, even those in Poland, are emotionally drawn to Ukraine.
They say that they are happy that it [an independent Ukraine] has risen. Lemkos
dread, however, any further advances by Ukrainian nationalists. They do not
expect an improvement in their situation either in Ukraine or here in Poland,
where they are numerically a much weaker presence. There they are threatened by
Ukrainization; hence they are threatened by Polonization. For those like Andrzej
Kopcza, who regard themselves as Rusnaks, neither alternative is palatable.

How very little we know about the history and daily problems of this people.
And there are few places where we can turn to learn more [about Lemkos]. Even
the Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna [the Polish equivalent of Encyclopedia
Britannica] devotes to the topic 11 short lines. Lemkos themselves, as a result
of their mistrustfulness (?), are not much inclined to help us or even help
themselves. An essay competition on Lemko themes mounted by the University of
Wroclaw brought in only 15 submissions, our body of knowledge on Lemkos will be
somewhat more expanded.

This gentle people, exotic to us despite having lived among us for
centuries, has earned a place in our tolerant county. Even if only due to
undeserving suffering and opposition to their continuing [attempts to retain
their] distinct identity, Lemkos have managed to create a culture unique in the
world.

1. See: Ireneusz Krzysztof Szmidt. 7 February 1992. "Kultura cichego
   narodu," Ziemia Gorzowska, 6.

2. The only sources of demographic data on Lemkos are the two census
   conducted by Poland in 1921 and 1931. These, however, inquired into mother
   tongue rather than nationality. Hence, any estimate of the number of Lemkos is
   at best conjecture. Most scholars place the number of Lemkos residing in
   interwar Poland at between 150,000 and 200,000.

3. The Ukrainian perspective argues that the ancestors of Lemkos originated
   further east, in Kievan Rus', hence justifying the Ukrainian ethnohistorical
   claim to western Galicia. Polish scholars, in order to establish Polish
   ethnohistorical title to the region, speculate that Lemkos are descended from a
   mixed Vlach/Rusyn migration of wandering pastorilists who settled among a Polish
   population already settled in the Carpathians by the 14th century.

Lemko-Rusyns, however, argue that they were the earliest settlers in the
Carpathian region, arriving as early as the 5th century. Only later in the 10th
century were these "White Croatian" ancestors overrun and subjugated
by the ancestors of modern Ukrainians.

This three way contention over Lemko ethnogenesis is typical of virtually
all matters concerning Lemkos. This is an example of the way in which a small
people residing at the boundary between larger civilizations can become a hotly
contested historical and geographical "prize" in the competition
between larger neighbors.

4. The numerous nationalistic excesses of World War II prompted the
   victorious states and vengeful publics to undertake a host of involuntary
   population resettlements - both planned exchanges and spontaneous expulsions -
   between the years of 1944-1948.

Polish-Ukrainian conflict at Poland's new eastern border was a local
manifestation of this larger European-wide problem of ethnonationalism. In an
attempt to "clean up" militarily sensitive border regions inhabited by
politically unreliable or despised ethonational minorities, Poland and the
neighboring Soviet Republics of Ukraine, Byelorus and Lithuania undertook
ostensibly "voluntary" exchanges of populations between 1944-1946.

By 1947, approximately 2/3 of the Lemko population had in this way been
forced into exile. Only 35,000 remained at the start of the "Vistula"
campaign.

5. "Bojko" and "Dolinian" (the second refers to plains
   dwellers or lowlanders) are terms used to describe ethnographic groups to the
   east of the Lemkos and Lemkovyna. The "recovered territories" refers
   to the regions of southeast Prussia, east Pomerania and Silesia, "recovered"
   by Poland from defeated Nazi Germany after World War II. Now depopulated after
   the expulsion of their German population, these regions were to be repopulate by
   Poles who themselves were displaced after the Soviet Union annexed eastern
   Poland. The "Vistula" evacuees - Ukrainians, Lemkos and mixed families

• were also slated to repopulate the "recovered territories."

6. These Poles from east of the Bug River had just lived through bloody
   Polish-Ukrainian conflict in their former homes. They mistakenly assumed that
   the arriving Lemko resettlers were these same Ukrainian "bandits" who
   had earlier terrorized them. Hence, Lemkos who themselves had just lived through
   the numerous traumas of war, were met with fear and hostility by another
   population itself recovering from war. This fear and hostility gradually abated
   as Poles came to know their new Lemko neighbors as hard-working, honest and
   pacific.

7. All property left behind by the Lemkos in 1947 passed into state
   ownership and had since been reallocated to ethnic Poles with the intent of
   refilling the region with an assumed more politically reliable ethnic Polish
   population. Hence, Lemkos returned to find that their former homes were now the
   property of new owners. Due to the harsh living conditions and lack of ancestral
   feeling for the land, some of the new Polish owners were quite willing to rid
   themselves of their Lemko properties.

8. The year in which the play ends was 1947. The play closed with the
   family's forcible removal from their home during the "Vistula"
   operation population resettlement.

9. This figure is likely a gross exaggeration. There is no concrete
   statistical data available. An estimated 150,000 - 200,000 Lemkos are believed
   to have been living in Poland in the interwar period. Two-thirds (or
   approximately 100,000 - 150,000) of these are believed to have been relocated to
   the Soviet Union between the years 1944-1946. It is safe to assume, however,
   that assimilation has been extensive in an environment not friendly to a
   Lemko-Rusyn ethnic consciousness and that, at any rate, the high level of
   fecundity required to bring this base population up to 800,000 would not have
   been possible during the then prevalent conditions of war, scarcity and poverty.
   Informal guesses generally put the number of Lemkos in Ukraine today at about
   200,000.

Colophon

Ireneusz Krzysztof's "The Culture of a Quiet People" (originally
published February 7, 1992 in the Polish newspaper Ziemia Gorzowska;
English translation published in Karpatska Rus', May 27, 1994, Vol.
LXVII #11) is hosted at carpatho-rusyn.org (Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge
Base). Captured 2026-08-05 from
http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/kr/kulture.htm. Published here under
permission held by the New Tianmu Anglican Church for this material,
recorded 2026-08-05; all rights remain with the original author,
Ireneusz Krzysztof, Ziemia Gorzowska, and Karpatska Rus'. This is a
third-party translation reprint, not a Good Works Translation prepared
by this library from the Polish original. Numbered footnotes in the body
are rendered as bracketed numbers keyed to the author's own endnotes,
reproduced in full at the end of the piece.

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