Ruś Szlachtowska (''Shlakhtov Ruthenia'') was a name introduced in 1930s by Prof. Roman Reinfuss to denote the region surrounding the villages of Biała and

Czarna Woda Czarna Woda is a town in Starogard County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, with 2,735 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is located within the ethnocultural region of Kociewie within Pomerania. The town's name translates to "Black ...

, Jaworki, and

Szlachtowa Szlachtowa (Lemko: Шляхтова, , ''Shliakhtova'') is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Szczawnica, within Nowy Targ County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It was formerly part of the town of Szczawnica, but wa ...

in the

Grajcarek Grajcarek is a minor river, a stream, running between foothills of the Lesser Pieniny and Beskid Sądecki. It starts at Jaworki, as the confluence of the Biała Woda and Czarna Woda streams. The river flows through Jaworki, Szlachtowa, and flows ...

valley in the

Pieniny The Pieniny (sometimes also the PieninsSzafer, Władysław. 2013. ''The Vegetation of Poland: International Series of Monographs in Pure and Applied Biology''. Warsaw: Pergamon Press, pp. 156, 388. or the Pienin Mountains,Griffiths, Graham C. D ...

mountains, in the

Nowy Targ County Nowy Targ County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland, on the Slovak border. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government refor ...

of southern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. The region was the westernmost area inhabited by

Lemkos Lemkos (; ; ; ) are an ethnic group inhabiting the Lemko Region (; ) of Carpathian Rus', an ethnographic region in the Carpathian Mountains and foothills spanning Ukraine, Slovakia, and Poland. Lemkos are often considered to be a sub-group of ...

. It was separated from the rest of the Lemko Region by the Polish-dominated Poprad valley which led to isolation of the local population and its gradual assimilation with

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

and

Slovaks The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history ...

, until

Operation Vistula Operation Vistula (; ) was the codename for the 1947 forced resettlement of close to 150,000 Ukrainians in Poland, Ukrainians (including Rusyns, Boykos, and Lemkos) from the southeastern provinces of People's Republic of Poland, postwar Poland to ...

in 1947, when the Lemkos were deported together with the

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

and

Boykos The Boykos or Boikos (; ; ; ), or simply Highlanders (; ), are an ethnolinguistic group located in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Along with the neighbouring Lemkos and Hutsuls, the Boykos are a regional subg ...

to other areas of Poland and to the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Since then, the villages of Jaworki and Szlachtowa were gradually settled by Polish population from

Podhale Podhale (; ), sometimes referred to as the Polish Highlands, is Poland's southernmost region. The Podhale is located in the foothills of the Tatra range of the Carpathian Mountains. It is the most famous region of the Goral Lands which are a ...

and Spisz, and the remaining two villages do not exist today. It is not known for certain when the first settlers arrived in the valley, but it was probably not before the 15th century because

Jan Długosz Jan Długosz (; 1 December 1415 – 19 May 1480), also known in Latin as Johannes Longinus, was a Polish priest, chronicler, diplomat, soldier, and secretary to Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Kraków. He is considered Poland's first histo ...

states nothing about the settlement in his

Liber beneficiorum A Liber beneficiorum ("Book of Benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for s ...

References

External links

An essay about Ruś Szlachtowska

Szlachtowa Rus Trojanowski Article
Regions of Poland Nowy Targ County Lemkos Ethnic enclaves in Europe {{East-Slavic-hist-stub