The decades following the revolutions of 1989 represent one of the greatest eras of opportunity that the Rusyn people have ever seen. There were times when we had been more autonomous and demanding in our ambitions, but to claim another era has been freer or more supportive of the rights of minorities would be foolish. Our trusted elite with its tremendous intellectual capability, tendency for delusion, and the courage of a fawn at the sound of a snapping branch, would have accomplished far less if this were not the case.

Послідны рокы еколоґічна цілосность Пудкарпатя ся наражує серйозным выпровбованьом. Переміщіня промысла, спонтанноє й часто непрозороє інвестованя, масштабна урбанізація окремых дарабу, незаконні застройкы у еколоґічно чутливых зонах приводят до деґрадації ландшафта й порушіня звычных способу ґаздованя. Пуд сесі процесы чим дале май часто пудлажувут економічні інтересы извон, а місні громады трафлявут у ситуації, коли їх роль – пасивный позирач перемін, ініціованых хоть кым, лем не нима самыма.

Ukrainianism has long revealed itself to be one of the greatest existential threats that the Carpatho-Rusyn people have ever known. At its core is the idea of a nation stretching from Galicia to the Kuban—a people and homeland between the European West and a Russian East that represents the “true” Rus civilization. While the history of this national project is far more complex than what can be elaborated on here, its goals have not been especially well hidden.

Since the early 1990s, the World Congress of Rusyns has served as the premier political institution of the international Rusyn community (referred to more officially as the “authoritative representative of Rusyn interests”). In practice, the combined project between a handful of leading regional organizations from the homeland and diaspora is more of a symbolic display of unity than a pillar of international leadership.