Lemkos (; ; ; ) are an

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

inhabiting the Lemko Region (; ) of

Carpathian Rus' Transcarpathia (, ) is a historical region on the border between Central and Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast. From the Hungarian Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin, conquest of the Carpathian Basin ...

, an ethnographic region in the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...

and

foothills Foothills or piedmont are geography, geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an highland, upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low terrain, relief hill ...

spanning

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

, and

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 ...

. Lemkos are often considered to be a sub-group of

Rusyns Rusyns, also known as Carpatho-Rusyns, Carpatho-Russians, Ruthenians, or Rusnaks, are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group from the Carpathian Rus', Eastern Carpathians in Central Europe. They speak Rusyn language, Rusyn, an East Slavic lan ...

. Members of these groups have historically also been given other designations, such as ''Verkhovyntsi'' ("highlanders"). Among people of the Carpathian highlands, communities speaking the same dialect will identify with a different ethnic label when crossing borders due to the influence of state-sponsored education and media. As well, the same community may switch its preferred identification over time. In Slovakia, between the 1991 and 2001 censuses, the number of people identifying as "Ukrainian" declined by 2,467 (an 18.6% decrease), while those reporting Rusyn as their national identity increased by 7,004 people (a 40.6% increase). It is not clear, however, if this refers to the same individuals switching their identification, more young first-time respondents choosing Rusyn, or migration. The spoken language of the Lemkos, which has a code of ''rue'' under ISO 639-3, has been variously described as a language in its own right, a dialect of Ukrainian, or a dialect of Rusyn. In Ukraine, almost all Lemkos speak both Lemko and standard Ukrainian (according to the

2001 Ukrainian Census The 2001 Ukrainian census is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989. Ukraine itself categorizes Lemkos as an ethnic subgroup of Ukrainians and not as a separate ethnicity. In the Polish census of 2011 10,531 citizens declared Lemko nationality (compared to 51,001 declarations of Ukrainian identity, 46,787 Belarusian identity and 13,046 Russian identity). 5,612 people declared only Lemko nationality, 3,621 declared double national identity — Lemko-Polish, and 1,088 declared double identity Lemko-Ukrainian.
Przynależność narodowo-etniczna ludności – wyniki spisu ludności i mieszkań 2011
'. GUS. Materiał na konferencję prasową w dniu 29 January 2013. p. 3. I.D. Liubchyk (І.Д.Любчик) cites the number of around 700 thousand people with Lemko ancestry in the world, out of which 350 thousand are in Ukraine, 150 thousand in North America, 100 thousand in Poland, 100 thousand in Slovakia, and 50 thousand in post-

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

states. During the

2001 Ukrainian census The 2001 Ukrainian census is to date the only census of the population of independent Ukraine. It was conducted by the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989. The term is thought to have first originated as a nickname for users of the word ''lem'' in the borderlands between the Lemko and Boyko regions: the easternmost extent of usage of the word on the north side of the Carpathians. (On the south side of the Carpathians, the analogous nickname, ''lemak'', was used in the ''lem-lyš''

isogloss An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistics, linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Isoglosses are a ...

area.) The ethnonym eventually entered use in academia and was first recorded in print with the 1834 publication of ''Grammatik der ruthenischen oder klein russischen Sprache in Galizien'' (lit. 'Grammar of Ruthenian or Little Russian Language in Galicia') by Yosyp Levytsky. Ukraine Caul

As an endonym, ''Lemko'' only entered wider use in the early 20th century. Prior to adopting the name, Lemkos would refer to themselves as ''

'' () or ''Rusnaks'' (). By the interwar period the popularity of ''Lemko'' as an endonym had grown, and appeared in periodicals such as ''Lemko'' and ''Naš Lemko''. Polish authorities also played a hand in popular adoption of the term leading up to World War II. Concerned by the potential for Ukrainian nationalism in the region, authorities sought to encourage Rusyn identity to counter it. This led to promotion of the exaggerated historicity of Lemkos as a distinctive ethnographic group and of their corresponding ethnonym. In the aftermath of WWII, ''Lemko'' finally supplanted ''Rusyn'' and ''Rusnak'' as the term of choice for the Rusyns on the north face of the Carpathians in Poland.

History

Several hypotheses account for the origin of the Lemkos, however, like all Rusyns, they most probably have a diverse ethnogenetic origin. The Lemkos (and other Carpatho-Rusyns) are considered to be descendants of the medieval

White Croats The White Croats (; ; ; ), also known simply as Croats, were a group of Early Slavs, Early Slavic tribes that lived between East Slavs, East Slavic and West Slavs, West Slavic tribes in the historical region of Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia n ...

, affected by the migration of Rusyn-influenced

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 ...

, and the

Vlach Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula) ...

/ Romanian migrations in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Lemko Region became part of Poland in the time of the medieval Piast dynasty but was frequently disputed with the neighbouring Rus', as can be seen by taking the town of

Sanok Sanok (in full the Royal Free City of Sanok — , , ''Sanok'', , ''Sianok'' or ''Sianik'', , , ''Sūnik'' or ''Sonik'') is a town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of southeastern Poland with 38,397 inhabitants, as of June 2016. Located on the San ...

as an example: In 981CE Vladimir I of Kiev invaded the area and took it over from Poland. In 1018 it returned to Poland, in 1031 it went back to Rus', and in 1340

Casimir III of Poland Casimir III the Great (; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, retaining the title throughout the Galicia–Volhynia Wars. He was the last Polish king fr ...

recovered it for Poland. The '' gord'' of Sanok is mentioned for the first time in

Hypatian Codex The ''Hypatian Codex'', also known as Hypatian Letopis or Ipatiev Letopis, is a compendium of three Rus' chronicle, Rus' chronicles: the ''Primary Chronicle'', ''Kievan Chronicle'' and ''Galician-Volhynian Chronicle''. It is the most important sou ...

in 1150. Lemkos (or their progenitors) became an

ethnic minority The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

as part of the Austrian province of Galicia in 1772. Mass

emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

from this territory to the Western hemisphere for economic reasons began in the late 19th century. Prior to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Lemkos began to develop conflicting national identities. While some adopted the Ukrainian nationality, others favored the concept of the All-Russian nation (the so-called "Old Ruthenian" identity). As the

Greek Catholic Church Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine-Catholic Church may refer to: * The Catholic Church in Greece * The Eastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite: ** The Albanian Greek Catholic Church ** The Belarusian Gre ...

was keen on promoting the Ukrainian identity, some of the pro-Russian Lemkos began converting to the

Orthodoxy Orthodoxy () is adherence to a purported "correct" or otherwise mainstream- or classically-accepted creed, especially in religion. Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical co ...

. One of the most notable Orthodoxy converts was Saint Maxim Sandovich, a Lemko peasant who, after a brief experience as a Greek Catholic monk, converted to Orthodoxy, became a priest and began spreading Orthodoxy in the region. The

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

was highly suspicious of the pro-Russian Lemkos, as well of Sandovich himself. This led to a series of imprisonments before the breakout of World War I, including one of Sandovich himself. After the war broke out, Sandovich was imprisoned again, and executed without trial. In 1914, the Austro-Hungarian authorities created the

Thalerhof internment camp Thalerhof (also transliterated as Talerhof from Cyrillic-based East Slavic texts) was a concentration camp created by the Austro-Hungarian authorities active from 1914 to 1917, in a valley in foothills of the Alps, near Graz, the main city of th ...

, where they imprisoned Lemkos suspected of spying for the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. During the war, 1767 people died in the Thalerhof camp. In the immediate aftermath World War I, Lemkos founded two short-lived republics, the Lemko-Rusyn Republic in the west of Galicia, which had a russophile orientation, as well as attempted to merge with

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and the Komancza Republic, with a Ukrainophilic orientation, which attempted to merge with

West Ukrainian People's Republic The West Ukrainian People's Republic (; West Ukrainian People's Republic#Name, see other names) was a short-lived state that controlled most of Eastern Galicia from November 1918 to July 1919. It included major cities of Lviv, Ternopil, Kolom ...

. During the time of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

, the identity conflict between the Lemkos intensified. In 1926, following a conflict with their local Greek Catholic priest, the Lemko people of the village Tylawa underwent a massive conversion to Orthodoxy. This event, known as the Tylawa schism began a wave of mass conversions in the region, during which many villages completely converted to Orthodoxy, while some remained either loyal to Eastern Catholicism or divided between the two religions. As the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

was unwilling to hand over their temples to the Orthodox Church, in many convertite villages new churches had to be built. It is estimated that about 130,000 to 140,000 Lemkos were living in the Polish part of the Lemko Region in 1939. Depopulation of these lands occurred during the

forced resettlement Population transfer or resettlement is a type of mass migration that is often imposed by a state policy or international authority. Such mass migrations are most frequently spurred on the basis of ethnicity or religion, but they also occur d ...

, initially 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 ...

(about 90,000 people) and later to Poland's newly acquired western lands (about 35,000) in the

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 ...

campaign of the late 1940s. This action was a state ordered removal of the civilian population, in a

counter-insurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN, or NATO spelling counter-insurgency) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the ac ...

operation to remove potential support for

guerrilla war Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrorism ...

being waged by the

Ukrainian Insurgent Army The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (, abbreviated UPA) was a Ukrainian nationalist partisan formation founded by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) on 14 October 1942. The UPA launched guerrilla warfare against Nazi Germany, the S ...

(UPA) in south-eastern Poland. Some 5,000 Lemko families returned to their home regions in Poland between 1957 and 1958,Lemko Republic of Florynka / Ruska narodna respublika Lemkiv
/ref> (they were officially granted the right to return in 1956), the Lemko population in the Polish section of Lemkivschyna only numbers around 10,000–15,000 today. Some 50,000 Lemkos live in the western and northern parts of Poland, where they were sent to populate former

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

villages in areas ceded to Poland. Among those, 5,863 people identified themselves as Lemko in the 2002 census. However, 60,000 ethnic Lemkos may reside in Poland today. Within the Lemko Region, Lemkos live in the villages of Łosie,

Krynica-Zdrój Krynica-Zdrój (until 31 December 2001 Krynica, Rusyn language, Rusyn: Криниця ) is a town in Nowy Sącz County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It is inhabited by over eleven thousand people. It is the biggest spa town in Pola ...

, Nowica, Zdynia, Gładyszów, Hańczowa, Zyndranowa, Uście Gorlickie, Bartne, Binczarowa and Bielanka. Additional populations can be found in Mokre, Szczawne, Kulaszne, Rzepedź, Turzańsk, Komańcza,

Nowy Sącz Nowy Sącz (; ; ; ; ) is a city in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of southern Poland. It is the district capital of Nowy Sącz County as a separate administrative unit. With a population of 83,116 as of 2021, it is the largest city in the Beskid S ...

, and

Gorlice Gorlice () is a town and an urban municipality ("gmina") in south-eastern Poland with around 29,500 inhabitants (2008). It is situated south east of Kraków and south of Tarnów between Jasło and Nowy Sącz in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (sinc ...

. In 1968 an open-air museum dedicated to Lemko culture was opened in Zyndranowa. Additionally, a Lemko festival is held annually in Zdynia.

Persecution

Forced Relocations (Operation Vistula): The Lemkos have faced severe persecution in the 20th century, including mass deportations. A major example was Operation Vistula in 1947, when Poland’s communist regime, with Moscow’s tacit backing, forcibly resettled the Lemko people from their ancestral homes in the Carpathian region. Approximately 30,000 Lemkos were brutally deported in 1947 as part of Operation "Wisła" (Vistula), an effort to remove Ukrainian and Lemko populations from southeastern Poland and suppress the Ukrainian insurgency. This ethnic cleansing scattered Lemkos to distant areas (many were sent to Poland’s western territories), destroying their communities. Earlier, under a 1945 Polish-Soviet agreement, most Lemkos had already been compelled to leave for Soviet Ukraine, and by mid-1946 around 70–80% of Lemko families were uprooted from Poland. Those remaining were then caught in Operation Vistula’s dragnet the following year.

Religion

An important aspect of Lemko culture is their deep commitment to Byzantine Christianity which was introduced to the Eastern Slavs from Byzantium via Moravia through the efforts of

Saints Cyril and Methodius Cyril (; born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (; born Michael, 815–885) were brothers, Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs". They are ...

in the 9th century. Originally the Lemkos adhered to Orthodoxy, but in order to avoid latinization, directly entered into

Union of Brest The Union of Brest took place in 1595–1596 and represented an agreement by Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Ruthenian portions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to accept the Pope's authority while maintaining Eastern Orthodox liturgical ...

with the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th century. Most Lemkos today are Eastern rite or Byzantine-rite Catholics. In Poland they belong to the

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a Major archiepiscopal church, major archiepiscopal ''sui iuris'' ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Cathol ...

with a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

minority, or to the Ruthenian Catholic Church (see also

Slovak Greek Catholic Church The Slovak Greek Catholic Church or Byzantine Catholic Church in Slovakia, is a ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic church based in Slovakia. As a Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites, particular ch ...

) in Slovakia. A substantial number belong to the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

. Through the efforts of the martyred priest Father Maxim Sandovich (canonized by the Polish Orthodox Church in the 1990s), in the early 20th century, Eastern Orthodoxy was reintroduced to many Lemko areas which had accepted the Union of Brest centuries before. The distinctive wooden architectural style of the Lemko churches is to place the highest

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

of the church building at the entrance to the church, with the roof sloping downward toward the

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

as opposed to their neighbouring sub-ethnic groups such as the Boykos who place the highest cupola in the middle. Both groups styles have three cupola with numerous

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...

Language/dialect

The Slavic dialects of Central Europe form (or formed, prior to standardization) a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

with few distinct boundaries between neighbouring varieties. However the question of language boundaries has become a controversial political issue since the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later the Soviet Union into "

nation states A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the State (polity), state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly ...

", each having only one official language. The Lemko dialects share many features with other Carpathian ones, which are often grouped together as the

Rusyn language Rusyn ( ; ; )http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2781/1/2011BaptieMPhil-1.pdf , p. 8. is an East Slavic language spoken by Rusyns in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, and written in the Cyrillic script. The majority of speakers live in Carpathian Rut ...

by outside linguists. The Lemko dialect has been influenced greatly by the languages spoken by geographically neighboring peoples and ruling elites, so much so that some consider it a separate entity.Lemko speech includes some patterns matching those of the surrounding Polish and

Slovak language Slovak ( ; endonym: or ), is a West Slavic language of the Czech-Slovak languages, Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script and formerly in Cyrillic script. It is part of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is ...

s. Metodyj Trochanovskij developed a Lemko Primer (''Bukvar: Perša knyžečka dlja narodnŷch škol'', 1935) and a First Reader (''Druha knyžečka dlja narodnŷch škol'', 1936) for use in schools in the Lemko-speaking area of

. In 1934, Lemko was introduced as the language of instruction in schools in the Lemko region. The pupils were taught from textbooks prepared by Trochanovskij and published by the State Publishing House. However, shortly before the outbreak of World War II Polish authorities replaced them with Ukrainian texts. Important fieldwork on the Lemko dialect was carried out by the Polish linguist Zdzisław Stieber before their dispersal. According to the Central Statistical Office of Poland, in the school year 2010–2011, Lemko was taught as a first language in twenty primary schools and interschool groups, and ten schools and interschool groups at junior high level, with 188 students attending classes. In the late 20th century, some Lemkos/Rusyns, mainly emigres from the region of the southern slopes of the Carpathians in modern-day Slovakia, began codifying a standard

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

for the Lemko dialect, which was presented on the 27 January 1995 in Prešov, Slovakia. In 2013 the famous novel ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (, ) is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and was published po ...

'' was translated into Lemko by Petro Krynyckij.

Lemkos in fiction

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the Grotesque#In literature, grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works "The Nose (Gogol short story), ...

's short story '' The Terrible Vengeance'' ends at Kriváň, now in

and pictured on the Slovak

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

, in the heart of the Lemko Region in the

Prešov Region The Prešov Region (, ; ), also Priashiv Region (, ), is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 13 districts (okresy) and 666 municipalities, 23 of which have town status. The region was established in 1996 and is the mos ...

Avram Davidson Avram Davidson (April 23, 1923 – May 8, 1993) was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won a Hugo Award and three World Fantasy ...

makes several references to the Lemko people in his stories. Anna Bibko, mother-in-law of the protagonist of ''All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well'', is a Lemko "guided by her senses of traditionalism and grievance, not necessarily in that order". In the critically acclaimed movie '' The Deer Hunter'' the wedding reception scene was filmed in Lemko Hall in the Tremont neighborhood of

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, which had a significant immigrant population of Lemkos at one time. The three main characters’ surnames, however, appear to be Russian, possibly Polish and Ukrainian (Michael "Mike" Vronsky, from Polish ''Wroński'', Steven Pushkov, and Nikonar "Nick" Chevotarevich) and the wedding was filmed inside St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral, which is also located in Tremont.

Location

The Lemkos' homeland is commonly referred to as the Lemko Region (; ; ). Up until 1945, this included the area from the Poprad River in the west to the valley of Osława, Oslawa River in the east, areas situated primarily in present-day

, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Lesser Poland and Subcarpathian Voivodeships (Administrative divisions of Poland, provinces). This part of the Carpathian mountains is mostly deforestation, deforested, which allowed for an agrarian economy, alongside such traditional occupations as pastoralism, ox grazing and sheep herding. The Lemko region became part of Poland in History of Poland (966-1385), medieval Piast times. Lemkos were made part of the Austrian province of Galicia in 1772. This area was part of the

until its dissolution in 1918, at which point the Lemko-Rusyn Republic (''Ruska Lemkivska'') declared its independence. Independence did not last long however, and the republic was incorporated into Poland in 1920. As a result of the forcible deportation of Ukrainians from Poland to the Soviet Union after World War II, the majority of Lemkos in Poland were either resettled from their historic homeland to the prеviously German Former eastern territories of Germany, territories in the North-Western region of Poland or to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Only those Lemkos living the

in present-day

continue to live on their ancestral lands, with the exception of some Lemkos who resettled in their homeland in the late 1950s and afterward. Lemkos are/were neighbours with

, Carpathian Germans and ''Lachy sądeckie'' (Poles) to the west, Pogorzans (Polish people, Poles) and ''Dolinians'' (a Rusyn people, Rusyn subgroup) to the north, Boykos (a Ukrainians subgroup) to the east, and

to the south. PogMAP2.png, Highlander groups of southeastern Poland, Lemkos in blue. Austria-Hungary (ethnic) - 1880 Podkarpacie.jpg, National map of languages (Outer Eastern Carpathians;

; and Subcarpathian Voivodeship, 1876) Carpatho-Rusyn sub-groups - Presov area Lemkos (left side) and Przemyśl area Ukrainians in original goral folk-costumes..jpg, Prešov area Lemkos (left side) and Przemyśl area Ukrainians in traditional attire. Photo: Village Mokre near

. 2007

Notable Lemkos

* Anytchka, singer * Bohdan Ihor Antonych, poet * Mary Beck, Detroit politician * Thomas Bell (novelist), Thomas Bell, American novelist * Dmitry Bortniansky, Russian-Ukrainian composer * Emil Czyrniański, chemist * Steve Ditko, comic book artist, co-creator of Spider-Man * Oleksandr Dukhnovych, writer * Bill Evans, American jazz pianist and composer * , Lemko activist, creator of the Lemko Culture Museum in Zyndranowa * , musician * Misia Furtak, musician * Andrew Kay, inventor of the digital voltmeter (1953), and inductee of the Computer Hall of Fame for founding Kaypro Computer * Nina Petrovna Khrushcheva, wife of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev * Ivan Krasovs'kyi, Lemko ethnographer/historian * Volodymyr Kubiyovych, Ukrainian geographer * Seman Madzelan, Lemko writer and activist * Adrian Mikhalchishin, Ukrainian chessmaster * , Ukrainian politician, member of Ukrainian party Svoboda (political party), Svoboda, son of Adrian Mikhalchishin * Nikifor, painter * Radoslav Rochallyi, writer * Maxim Sandovich, Orthodox saint * Andrij Savka aka Andrew Sawka, bandit, folk hero, Lemko "Robin Hood", led peasant revolution in 1651 * Sofiia Fedyna, Sofia Fedyna, Ukrainian singer and politician * Michael Smerconish, American radio host, television host, and author * Khrystyna Soloviy, Ukrainian folk singer * George Stroumboulopoulos, Canadian television personality with Ukrainian-born mother * Petro Murianka (Piotr Trochanowski), Lemko poet, involved with contemporary Lemko issues * Metodyj Trochanovskij, Lemko grammarian * Andy Warhol (birth name Warhola), American artist, major figure in the pop art movement * James Warhola, American artist * John Warhola, American artist * Julia Warhola, American artist * Nick Holonyak, American electrical engineer and inventor of first light-visible LED

Notes

References

External links

Lemko Portal in Ukraine

Canadian Lemko Association

Lemko revival in Poland

The Zarzad Glowny Zjednoczenia Lemkow w Polsce (Lemko-Ukrainian Union in Poland)

Lemko.org

Stowarzyszenie Łemków (Association of Lemkos)

Lemko Portal in Lviv

"The Lemko Project" - A blog and resource site about Lemko history, culture and events. English language.

Ukraine Lemko ethno folk group
* "The bells of Lemkivshchyna. Will the authorities of Ukraine and Poland listen to them", Zerkalo Nedeli, (''Mirror Weekly''), May 25–31, 2002. Available onlin
in Russian
an
in Ukrainian
* "Five questions for a Lemko", Zerkalo Nedeli, (Mirror Weekly), January 19–25, 2002. Available onlin
in Russian
an

Lemko Portal in Poland
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