Self-determination of Rusyns: Historical, legal and sociopolitical aspects of implementation

Abstract

The acquisition of statehood by the Eastern Slavic peoples - Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians -actualized the issue of self-determination of another related community - Rusyns, who originally lived in Transcarpathia and on the territory of other countries. In the modern Ukrainian state, Rusyns are not classified as a separate (indigenous) people or national minority, they are regarded as part of the Ukrainian ethnos and are under the threat of targeted assimilation. The article aims to substantiate the right of the Rusyn people to be recognized as an ethnic minority, to search for an optimal model of its self-identification, and to determine its equal position in the family of Eastern Slavs, taking into account the political and legal reality. For a comprehensive characterization of the object of research, the authors analyze scientific and normative sources that reveal the historical and political prerequisites for the formation of the Rusyn people's ethnic identity, caused by its isolated and long-term presence in the environment of a foreign-speaking and other-confessional population. Based on general scientific, specific scientific and special research methods, in particular, on the fact of an established original culture, a stable way of life, a well-developed literary Rusyn language, maintained permanent cross-border relationships between communities of foreign countries, the authors infer that there is a sociocultural reality - the Rusyn people. This conclusion is confirmed by examples from foreign legislation that classify Rusyns as an ethnic minority different from Ukrainians and allow the official use of the Rusyn language in places of Rusyns' compact settlement at the level of local communities in several European countries. In addition, attention is focused on international documents on human rights, which reflect the approach that national self-identification is realized as a result of an ethos's own sociopolitical choice rather than on the basis of ideological or other expediency in relation to an ethnos from the outside. Recognition of Rusyns as a national minority in Ukraine is seen in the introduction of this item on the agenda of international relations, including the convening of an international conference on this topic. Self-determination of the Rusyn people can be carried out in the form of intrastate autonomy, by analogy with what happened earlier in Article 81 of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 by decision of the leading powers of the world. Here, according to the authors, the main role belongs to Russia, since apart from it there are no other influential actors in world politics capable of ensuring the rights of the kindred Rusyn people through the involvement of international human rights mechanisms and other opportunities.