The status of greek catholic rusyns in Slovakia during world war i (economic, cultural and religious aspects)

Political, economic, cultural and social development of Greek Catholic Rusyns in Slovakia was greatly influenced by the events of World War I., at the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The present study is devoted mainly to economic, cultural and religious aspect of that period. The poor economic situation caused the emigration of high number of population to overseas, especially to the USA. This status of one of the poorest parts of Hungary has significantly worsened after the outbreak of the World War I. The north-eastern Slovakia, inhabited mainly by Rusyns, became a place of heavy combat operations for a few months at the turn of 1914-1915. After the final retreat of the front there was desolate landscape remained, marked by military graves. A large part of the population was evacuated from threatened area. Many villages have been partially or completely burned. During the duration of World War I. this population was severely tested also in cultural and religious matters. Several proposals of the Hungarian government meant the visible interference with the Eastern tradition of the Greek Catholic Church. Gradually a number of reforms was forcibly introduced by the state authorities, such as the sacral ceremony reform, the church calendar reform, the script reform (the Cyrillic alphabet removing), the reform of education of the priests in seminaries, the reform of Order of St. Basil the Great. These reforms, however, were refused to accept by the Ruthenian Greek Catholic population. Due to the approaching end of World War I. the Hungarian government did not have enough time to undertake this reforms. Ruthenian Greek Catholic faithful in Czechoslovakia (in the Diocese of Mukachevo and Presov) decided to stay with the old Julian calendar and Cyrillic script after the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918. The partial improvement of the status of the Rusyns in Slovakia became after the establishment of the new Czechoslovak state in 1918, although many of the hopes and aspirations of this nation were not fulfilled yet.

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