In the previous series of articles on the problems impacting the Rusyn people (https://rusynsociety.com/2021/02/10/challenges-from-globalization-to-the-rusyn-people/), there was a great deal of emphasis placed upon issues that will impact the ability to maintain and grow their culture in the short-term & long term. These problems to varying degrees have been identified and commented on before, but few practical solutions have been put forth to properly address each of them so that the damage caused by the changes in the 21st century can be mitigated. In addition, the challenges posed by the modern era have largely been viewed as problematic instead of opportunities for the Rusyn community to grow. Due to this these next few article will be primarily focused giving a basic roadmap on what can be done to ensure that Rusyn culture can survive and thrive despite the challenges we face.
The main inspiration for each of the solutions given in this series stem primarily from successful ethnic movements of the past. In particular, the most successful ethnic movements in the modern era, both in the diaspora and in the homeland, can be seen with the Assyrian, Coptic, Jewish, Polish and Armenian ethnicities that have taken advantage of the opportunities afforded to them. In the case of the Assyrians & Copts, these peoples provide the closest parallel to the Rusyn community because of these ethnicities not having their own nation to call home, having a large & growing diaspora, being a minority within their traditional homelands, and multiple other factors. Regarding Jews, Poles, and Armenians, there are fewer parallels that can be made as each of these ethnicities have nation-states in their historical homelands in the 21st century and thus have a far firmer foundation in ensuring their cultures will flourish in the modern era.
With this being said, the Rusyn people have their own firm foundations that can be built upon compared to other ethnicities with their own nation-state, like the Georgian people. Despite having a nation with roughly three million ethnic Georgians residing inside of it and being united under one singular Georgian Eastern Orthodox Church, there have been no organizations historically or currently made to preserve Georgian culture in the diaspora, which is where a substantial number of ethnic Georgians reside. Previous challenges to the Rusyn people, like the division along Church lines (Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox), have been eliminated in the ethnic organizations established by Rusyns in the past few centuries, which provides a high degree of hope for the continuing to unite our culture in the 21st century. This situation in relation to the Church that has historically and currently provided institutional support for Rusyn culture is comparable to the Armenian people in the modern era that have put aside Church differences to ensure the preservation of Armenian culture.
As explained previously, one of the main challenges that we face is a decline in the number of people identifying as Rusyn and the numbers of people, especially in the diaspora, even having the capability to realize that they are Rusyn. The problem of identification largely stems from the lack of genealogical services available when compared to the previously mentioned ethnicities and an overall lack of consistency in identifying who is Rusyn & who is not. This could be solved if multiple different Rusyn organizations adopted the same approach as the Jewish and Armenian people in making their own genealogical services that are low-cost or free of charge. By doing this, these organizations would ensure their long-term success in membership growth, and the process of assimilation in the diaspora would be reduced considerably. The next major solution that can be implemented to ensure the success of Rusyn culture is by presenting it as something that is unique and counter-cultural in the age of globalization.
One of the main characteristics of globalization has been the forming of one homogenous “culture” that follows mainly the mainstream mass media and imarily by the post-modern western world. The process of cultural change is natural to all cultures, as noted by the United Nations World Commission on Culture and Development in the following quote, “a society’s culture is neither static nor unchanging but rather is in a constant state of flux, influencing and being influenced by other world-views and expressive forms” (“Globalization and culture | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,” 2021). This cultural change has occurred in other time periods within the long history of the Rusyn people, but in the form of globalization, it has the potential to cause the complete destruction of Rusyn culture.
With this being said, through the marketing of Rusyn culture as counter-cultural, this process of cultural change driven by globalization can be hindered severally, especially in the Rusyn community under the age of 30. The attraction and eventual success of counter-cultures among the youth of a given people have been noted at multiple points in history, including the 20th century, as shown by the “Beat” counter-culture of the 1950s. The success of the Beat counter-cultural movement can be seen from the following quote, “The Beats were a famous early counterculture group in 1950s America whose ideas of freedom, adventure, sex, drugs, music, and rejection of settled consumerism helped to lay the seeds of what eventually sprouted into the famous 60s counterculture” (Fitzsimons, 2021). In the age of globalization, there is nothing more counter-cultural than the preserving of one’s unique ethnic heritage, which has infinitely more depth, value, and uniqueness than the global “culture” found in the mainstream of most developed nations. This counter-culture aspect should be communicated as much as possible by new and historical Rusyn cultural foundations as institutional support will help preserve its ideas and boost its reach.
This concludes the first part of a multi-part article series on the solutions that globalization brings for the Rusyn people by Kyrylo M’yazha.
References
Does globalization destroy culture?. Acton Institute PowerBlog. (2021). Retrieved 7 June 2021,
from https://blog.acton.org/archives/91015-does-globalization-destroy-culture.html.
Fitzsimons, A. (2021). The Concept of Counterculture – The Harvard Independent. The Harvard
Independent. Retrieved 7 June 2021, from https://harvardindependent.com/2018/11/the–concept-of-counterculture/.
Globalization and culture | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Unesco.org. (2021). Retrieved 7 June 2021, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/culture-and-development/the-future-we-want-the-role-of-culture/globalization-and-culture/.