Across many cultures and nations throughout history, the elimination of language has been used as a tool for subjugation and control. In many instances, the languages of groups that have been marginalized or colonized have been misrepresented as dialects, slang, or bad grammar. This is a tool that is utilized to eliminate these languages, and, by extension, suppress the cultural practices connected to them. This can be seen in the suppression of the Scots language, resulting in a phenomenon known as the “Scottish cringe”, the banning of the Catalan and Galician in Spain, the banning of a wide array of Indigenous American languages, and, of course, the suppression of the Rusyn language.

Of course, these are only a handful of examples, and many of the same strategies to suppress language are used globally, inciting shame at best and resulting in capital punishment or death at worst. One of the most insidious aspects of this type of suppression is that it can be hidden things such as misidentifying the language. Growing up, I was always told that my family was Russian and maybe Ukrainian and that they spoke Russian when they immigrated to the United States. Of course, upon doing further research, this conclusion made no sense for a number of reasons; the region we were from was not considered a part of Russia or Ukraine at the time and there is a photo of my great-great-grandparents captioned “Baba and Dido Honchock”. Now, despite having the linguistic capabilities of an infant, I knew ‘Dido’ was not Russian for ‘grandfather’, which eliminated one possibility. Coming back to that photo with the knowledge that my family was Lemko made things fit. 

Language matters, it is key to creating a functioning society and culture. However, that language manifests can vary immensely but the fact that it matters is retained regardless. It is used to communicate values and ideas and build connections amongst members of one or multiple cultures. Language preservation is important, as communication methods die, cultural traditions, stories, and inherited knowledge will die alongside it. As time goes on, this will cause a culture to disappear or only become a thing of the past, which can have personal, social, and anthropological impacts. Appreciation and an in-depth understanding of a specific culture will be lost and, in the case of Rusyn cultures and languages, it runs the risk of being so integrated with a dominating culture that it loses its identity. 

Historically, Rusyn has been lumped in as a dialect of Ukrainian or Russian, depending on who you ask and what time period is in question. In the early 20th century, the language faced direct suppression from the USSR and related satellite states. During this time, Rusyns were not recognized as an independent people and their language was dismissed as a dialect of Ukrainian. This action would go on to deepen the effects of Operation Vistula in Poland, which was an act that forcibly removed Boykos, Lemkos, and Ukrainians from their homelands and scattered them throughout the country. Lemkos made up approximately 20% of the population dislocated by the operation. People who came from a single village would be split apart into tens of towns far from home and far from each other. If priests or teachers, individuals who would be considered intelligentsia, were found in groups being displaced, they would be taken and further separated from what was left of their communities. This cut people off from sources that could assist in passing on elements of culture and general education, further encouraging disenfranchisement. The suppression of the Rusyn language was just one tool used on the machine that would deeply scar Rusyns and groups displaced alongside them. 

This combination of active attempts at erasure in the form of banning language and shredding community structure apart and passive suppression in the form of negative stereotypes and placement in less-than-ideal physical environments is only a microcosm of what happens when nations or groups attempt to overrun and take power over another. This methodology is one of many tools used to oppress and eradicate minority groups. Even after the events of Operation Vistula and the fall of the Soviet Union, Rusyns had to fight for recognition of their language and culture as one separate from the cultures they had been forcibly integrated into. Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Serbia recognized Rusyns as a national minority and the Rusyn language as a protected language soon after the beginning of the post-Soviet era. Ukraine passed legislation recognizing Rusyn as a separate language in 2012 but it would go on to rescind this decision in 2014. Even now, Ukrainian scholars will argue that Rusyn is nothing more than a dialect of Ukrainian. While the movement for the autonomy of Rusyns has progressed as time has continued on, the revitalization and recognition of the Rusyn language are vital to Rusyns deepening the connection to their cultural identity.