Lemkos

“Languages have stopped being used and have been formed and transformed all along in human history, but this rela vely slow and usual process has greatly accelerated within the last decades, leading to the modern «Great Dying». [...] These pro- cesses, without a doubt, cons tute one of the biggest societal challenges of the modern world, yet their global impact is s ll underes mated. A new agenda and complex tools to prevent that reduc on of linguis c assets of humankind are desper- ately needed, par cularly in case of the weakest and most imperiled language communi es. The understanding of the crucial factors behind these processes and possibili es of their reversal is a special tresponsibility of researchers, language ac vists and community members, shared by many authors of this book. While some of these processes are unfortunately irreversible, numerous endangered languages can be saved and safely maintained well into the future. By discussing and comparing various aspects of language vitality, endangerment, maintenance and revitalization – in both diachronic and synchronic perspective – the editors hope to provide a representative overview of language constellations and strategies (to be) applied. The case studies focus on both intra- and extralinguis c aspects of revitaliza-  on, but what connects them all is the coherence between languages and their communities”.

Chapter Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to investigate a largely ignored topic: the early legitimist movements in Austria and the obstacles to their cause. Legitimists, unlike monarchists (who merely wished for a crowned head of state), specifically wished for a return of the Habsburg-Lorraine hereditary dynasty – thus Karl until his demise in 1922, and thereafter his eldest son Otto, born in 1912. Though some legitimists desired this outcome for the sake of stability, continuity or legality, or out of loyalty to the former Imperial and Royal House, many believed that the Habsburgs were invested with a religious (that is to say, Catholic) mission and thus ruled by the grace of God. Additionally, the modalities of a reinstatement of the dynasty varied between support for a restoration within the boundaries of the new Austria or within the borders of the former empire (or of a similar Danubian realm), thus voiding the post-war peace treaties and the sovereignty of the successor states.  As unrealistic as its aims now appear, and despite its aforementioned limitations, the legitimist movement remained a thorn in the side of the fragile First Republic and a constant worry for its neighbours. Moreover, the legitimists’ early persistence and uninterrupted survival enabled them eventually to achieve small victories (though predictably not their main goal) and to play a not inconsiderable role after the collapse of the parliamentary republic. For these reasons, the first Austrian legitimists and the reasons for their failures (and survival) warrant greater academic investigation. For reasons of space, this piece will concentrate only on Austria and on the early years of the republic, and will focus chiefly on the domestic situation without, however, ignoring the closely intertwined international context.

Book Abstract:

This book presents a multi-layered analysis of the situation in Central Europe after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The new geopolitics emerging from the Versailles order, and at the same time ongoing fights for borders, considerable war damage, social and economic problems and replacement of administrative staff as well as leaders, all contributed to the fact that unlike Western Europe, Central Europe faced challenges and dilemmas on an unprecedented scale. The editors of this book have invited authors from over a dozen academic institutions to answer the question of to what extent the solutions applied in the Habsburg Monarchy were still practiced in the newly created nation states, and to what extent these new political organisms went their own ways. It offers a closer look at Central Europe with its multiple problems typical of that region after 1918 (organizing the post-imperial space, a new political discourse and attempts to create new national memories, the role of national minorities, solving social problems, and verbal and physical violence expressed in public space). Particular chapters concern post-1918 Central Europe on the local, state and international levels, providing a comprehensive view of this sub-region between 1918 and 1923.

Table of Contents:

1. The War That Never Ended: East-Central Europe After 1918
Tomasz Pudłocki and Kamil Ruszała

Part 1: New Challenges – New Orders

2. The Politics of Recognition at the Paris Peace Conference
Leonard V. Smith

3. The Protection of Minorities at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)
Miran Marelja, Ozren Pilipović, and Meta Athik

4. Montenegro 1918–1921 in the Context of the Adriatic Question
Petar Bagarić

5. Diplomacy and National Identity of Czechoslovakia in the Interwar Period: Appropriation, Thematisation, Institutionalization and Sustainability
Milada Polišenskás

Part 2: Postimperial Legacies, Legitimism and Memory

6. The Leftover Empire?: Imperial Legacies and Statehood in the Successor States of Austria-Hungary
Gábor Egry

7. Where Did the Postwar Politics of Memory Lead To?
Maciej Górny

8. "Hoch den Kaiser!": The Legitimist Cause in Early Postwar Austria
Christopher Brennan

Part 3: Long Lasting Violence

9. Polish and Ukrainian Propaganda of Violence During and Shortly After the War for Eastern Galicia (1918–1919)
Jagoda Wierzejska

10. Ethnicization of Anti-Bolshevism: A Comparative Analysis of Anti-Semitic Violence in Hungary and Ukraine (1919–1921)
Giuseppe Motta

11. "Robbery and Murder": Conflicts at the Polish-Romanian Border in the Aftermath of the War
Elisabeth Haid

Part 4: Shaping Postimperial Space: Administration and Society

12. Three Nations at the Crossroads: Poles, Jews and Lemkos Between 1918 and 1919
Kamil Ruszała

13. The Formation of a New Administrative and Political Apparatus in Slovakia, 1918–1920: Backgrounds and Networks
Etienne Boisserie

14. Feldsberg/Valtice and the Lower Austrian Towns That Became Czech, 1918–1920
Kathryn E. Densford

15. Defending Christianity and Social Order in the Aftermath of the First World War: Discourse and Polemics in the Austrian Catholic Conservative Press
Konstantinos Raptis

16. The Denationalized Children of Transylvania: The State Children’s Asylum in Cluj After 1918
Edina Gál

Part 5: In the Service of Nation and/or State

17. The Birth of Czechoslovakia Between Ideals and Realpolitik: Masaryk, Beneš and Štefánik in Balance Between Italy and France on the International Chessboard
Alessandro Volpato

18. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in 1918–1923: Facing Social and Religious Challenges
Iryna Orlevych

19. The Greek Catholic Parish Clergy in Liberation Struggle of the Galician Ukrainians in 1918–1923
Nataliia Kolb

20. Serving Science versus Serving the Country: University Professors of Western Neophilologies in Poland, 1918–1923
Tomasz Pudłocki

21. Stefan Surzycki’s Activities for Polish Agriculture in the Revived Polish State
Andrzej Synowiec

Lemkos began to settle in the United States in the late 1870s. By the mid-1880s, numerous communities of Lemkos and other Carpatho-Rusyns were forming in the anthracite coal mining districts of northeastern Pennsylvania. One of the largest concentrations of Lemko immigrants was in the city of Shamokin and in surrounding coal “patches” such as Excelsior, Hickory Swamp, and Enterprise. The community’s development began with the founding of the Ss. Cyril & Methodius Brotherhood (1888) and Transfiguration Greek Catholic Church (1889).
In addition to the church and fraternal lodges, the 1889 founding of the Russian Mercantile Company, a cooperative store run by and for Lemkos/Carpatho-Rusyns, was a milestone that led to the proliferation of Lemko-owned hotels/taverns and grocery stores in the city. Many of the leading businessmen were also active in the local Greek Catholic parish and in the Ruskii Narodnŷi Soiuz/Russian National Union founded in Shamokin in 1893 (in 1914 renamed the Ukrainian National Association).
The article draws on city directories, biographical information, memoirs, and advertisements in newspapers and almanacs to describe the development of local Lemko community institutions and businesses. It focuses on the activities of community leaders and businessmen Tevdozii Talpash (Theodor Talpasz), Ivan/John Talpash, Iuliian Kopŷstianskii (Julian Kopyscianski), Ivan Glova (John Glowa), Aleksii Sharshon' (Alexis Sharshon), Havryl Malyniak (Gabriel Maliniak), Petro Kuzmych (Peter Kuzmicz), Iefrem Luchkovets (Ephrem Luczkovec), and others, some of whom even became board members of otherwise non-Lemko establishments functioning beyond their ethnic community. This serves to illustrate a ready adaptation to American society and a vibrant entrepreneurship in the early Lemko immigration that was first manifested in Shamokin and seen later in other American Lemko communities.

This issue of "The Polish Review" is devoted to the concept of collective suffering on Polish lands as it is understood as Poland’s major cultural trauma. Despite its importance, the issue of how the anguish of different groups informs the understanding of Polish suffering and Polish identity has not been addressed in scholarly literature, although it has been noted by scholars of trauma, such as Jeffrey C. Alexander, who argued that “social groups can, and often do, refuse to recognize the existence of others’ trauma, and because of their failure they cannot achieve a moral stand. This observation by Alexander was behind the idea of bringing together a number of articles on the suffering that took place on Polish lands, not of the Poles only, but also of the other groups,—the Jews, Roma, Lemkos, Germans, Kashubians, and Ukrainians, and in so doing to present a more complex picture of relationships within mythologies and narratives of victimhood and suffering of the majority and minority groups. At the same time, the issue focuses on Poland’s attachment to its collective suffering, noticeable, for instance, in the inability to celebrate Poland’s unquestionable victories, like the victory of The Battle of Warsaw (1920) that not only secured Poland’s independence after WWI, but also stopped further Soviet advances into Europe.