Lemkivshchyna

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Carpatho-Rusyn sub-groups - Sanok area Lemkos in original highlander folk-costumes from the village of Mokre near Sanok (Poland)
Carpatho-Rusyn sub-groups - Sanok area Lemkos in original highlander folk-costumes from the village of Mokre near Sanok (Poland)

Lemkivshchyna, sometimes called Lemkovyna, Lemkivshchyna, or Łemkowszczyzna, is the region traditionally inhabited by the Lemkos (Lemki). It forms an ethnographic peninsula 140 km long and 25-50 km wide within Polish and Slovak territory. The Lemko region occupies the lowest part of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains - most of the Low Beskids, the western part of the Middle Beskyd, and the eastern fringe of the Western Beskyd. It includes the higher elevations of the Carpathians of modern-day Poland, extending to around the Poprad River to the west, and extending to the east as far as the region around Sanok, where it meets the Boyko region. The corresponding latitudes of the adjacent highlands of present-day Slovakia are also included by some in the description of Lemko-land.

After the deportation of Lemkos from the northern part in 1946, only the southern part, southwest of the Carpathian Mountains, known as the Prešov region in Slovakia, has remained inhabited by Lemkos.

The landscape is typical of medium-height- mountain terrain, with ridges reaching 1,000 m and sometimes 1,300 m. Only small parts of southern Low Beskids and the northern San river region have a low-mountain landscape. A series of mountain passes along the Torysa River and Poprad River—Tylych Pass (688 m), Dukla Pass (502 m), and Łupków Pass (657 m)— facilitate communications between Galician and Transcarpathian Lemkos…

[edit] See also

[edit] Publications

  • "Łemkowie Grupa Etniczna czy Naród"?, [The Lemkos: An Ethnic Group or a Nation?], trans. Paul Best [1]
  • "The Lemkos of Poland" - Arrticles and Essays, editor Paul Best and Jarosław Moklak
  • "The Lemko Region, 1939-1947 War, Occupation and Deportation" - Arrticles and Essays, editor Paul Best and Jarosław Moklak