Transformation of the ethnic identity of the Rusin minority in Slovakia

The author studies the transformation of the ethnic identity of Slovak Rusins from the 19th up to the present (Rusin revival in Hungary, emigration to the overseas, emergence of the Czechoslovak Republic, events connected with the Second World War, "relaxed" political atmosphere of the 1960s, the normalisation, and the period after 1989). The identity of the Slovak Rusins has always been characterised by a relatively low specificity towards ethnically, religiously and linguistically different environment. The ethnicity of the Rusins was created mostly through religion that influenced other cultural elements -language, festivals, fasting rules, cuisine. The paper also focuses on the reasons why, according to official statistics, there is an increase in the number of Rusins. One of the possible explanations is the national revival of the Slovak Rusins accompanied by the strengthening of their ethnic identity. However, as this revival is rather timid and not very clearly established in relation to the majority, the author defines it as a very slow disclosure of Rusins' ethnic characteristics.

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