"So What’s A Lemko?"

By Walter Kish

At some point when I was young and the universe around me was much simpler, I became aware that I was Ukrainian and that there were many people on this earth who were not of this same ethnic persuasion. I got used to this curious state of affairs and even developed a strong degree of pride and attachment to my unique inherited trait, one that has lasted to this day.

As I grew older and became more exposed to the troubling consequences of acquired knowledge, things became a little more complicated. I found out that being Ukrainian is not the whole story. Apparently, there are also such people as Hutsuls, Lemkos, Galicians (Halychany), Rusyns, Boykos, Volynians, Podillians, Bukovynians and several other groups that claim ethnic distinction to a greater or lesser degree. By and large, most of these people consider themselves to be Ukrainians, though much heated polemics and emotional debate have been spawned by a minority within each of these groups that would claim otherwise.

The most vocal of these have been the Rusyns, a group originally from the westernmost regions of Ukraine bordering on Poland and Slovakia. Though in modern day Ukraine there remain few Rusyns that would claim distinct nationality, huge numbers of Rusyns immigrated to North America in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries where they formed strong communities and organizations that continue to claim distinct ethnic status to this day. Although the Rusyn language is recognizably Ukrainian, there are noticeable Polish and Slovakian influences. The Rusyns’ ethno-ideological champion is Professor Robert Magosci of the University of Toronto who has made popularizing the Rusyn cause his personal crusade. In Eastern Europe, aside from Ukraine, Rusyns are now mostly scattered around Poland, Slovakia, Serbia and Croatia.

So who is a Lemko, or for that matter, any of the other proto-Ukrainian groups that I mentioned above? Well, the Lemkos ethnographically are  Ukrainians who lived just north of the Rusyns in what is now primarily southwestern Poland. Obviously Polish language and culture could not help but leave its mark on Lemko society sometimes by osmosis, and sometimes by force. In the aftermath of WWII, most Lemkos were forcibly resettled either elsewhere in Poland (by the Wisla Operation or Akcja Wisla) or repatriated back to Soviet Ukraine where most now live near the Polish border. I am rather partial to Lemkos, being one myself on my mother’s side of the family.

The largest of the groups I mentioned earlier are the Galicians (Halychany) who occupy most of what is now called Western Ukraine. Their ethnographic area is basically centred on the triangle formed by Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk. Galician culture, traditions and language are the ones most Ukrainian Canadians are familiar with in that they formed the vast majority of the Ukrainian Immigration to Canada. I am also of Galician extraction on my father’s side who hails from a little village not far from Brody (Lviv Oblast region).

To the north of Galicia, stretching up into Belarus between the Prypiat and Western Bug Rivers is the area known as Volyn. To the immediate east of Galicia is Podillia, forming a large chunk of west Central Ukraine, encompassing most of the current Khmelnytskyi and Vynnitsia Oblasts.

To the south of Galicia and east of the Rusyns, we find some of the most interesting Ukrainians of all. The part of the Carpathian Mountains just south of Lviv is populated by a mountain people calling themselves Boykos. Closely related to the Rusyns, they are renowned for their magnificent wooden churches with a distinctive dome in the centre, flanked linearly with a smaller dome on each side.

South east of the Boykos we find the Hutsuls, probably the most artistically distinctive and talented of all Ukrainians, whether you are talking about art, music, or any other aspect of Ukrainian culture. Hutsuls are fiercely independent and have probably succeeded better than any other Ukrainian ethnic sub-group in maintaining their traditions and identity.

Lastly, to the east and southeast of the Hutsuls near the border with Romania are the Bukovynians. In view of the history and geography of the area, there are strong Romanian influences on Bukovynian language and culture. The city of Chernivtsi is the cultural as well as administrative heart of Bukovyna.

I hope this brief overview to the peoples of Western Ukraine will prove useful the next time someone tells you he or she is a Lemko or a Boyko. Tell them you learned it from a Lemko Galician Ukrainian.