NO.2

a law the president. He pushed for more Slovak autonomy and was the clear winner of parliamentary elections in e mem of Parliament have 1992 with 37 percent of the vote. Polls say his deserted him, forcing him to scramble to keep a An important meeting of the First District of working Lemko Association will be held on January 30, popularity has fallen drastically since. 1994 sponsored by the Elizabeth Branch, #35 - 7. gambler, not a statesman," The meeting will begin at 2:00 PM and will be Although Meciar claims an "economic said Emil the No. 2 man in the opposition at: miracle" in Slovakia, his opponents laugh him off. Christian Democratic Party. . P.A.l. Youth They point to nearly 14 unemployment and 400 Maple "",,,nt::IIII.I':= a deficit. linden, New Jersey Rudolf Firkus, who was dismissed as Controversy has swirled around him all year. ambassador to Austria and subsequently We request that all Lodges in the First Dis­ *M~ciar drew for a speech dis­ Meciar's Movement for a Democratic trict send their delegates to this meeting. paraging Gypsies and has chronic trouble with calls him an authoritarian who "wants to do it all by Slovakia's ethnic Hungarian minority. himself." District Committee "'He sacked his first foreign minister after three months and his ambassadors to key neigh­ "What is lacking is a clear economic ******************************************* boring countries Austria and Hungary. He got in a said Milan Flatcnik, deputy chairman of Excerpts from THE RECORD. fight with President Michal Kovac over protege of the Democratic Left -- the former Communists. Ivan Lexa, whom he wanted to appoint privatiza­ He called for a broad coalition government to Slovak independence more bitter than sweet. tion minister. it out. Kovac refused, and Lexa's harsh reaction continued on page 2 Trnava, Slovakia "- it is almost a year since prompted prosecutors to charge him with Violating nationalist leaders proclaimed fulfillment of what they considered an age-old dream: independence and an end to domination by bigger neighbors.

;s the government unstable. The new country that used to be the eastern third of Czechoslovakia is itself divided, primarily by the figure of populist Premier Vladimir Meciar.

Rather than boosting pride and sel1- confidence, independence has left many people confused about their own future and that of their fledgling republic of 5.2 million people.

In Czechslovakia, said housewife Claudia Honsova, pushing a baby carriage in this industrial town north of Bratislava, "there was certainty. Now we have that strange border."

A poll taken last month by an independent research group indicated that was a common sentiment. As many as 60 percent would oppose the split of the Czechoslovak federation today, up from 50 percent in March .. No margin of error was given. The Banquet for Peter Kohutov

Slovakia was dominated by its southern With only one week's advance notice, leav­ from those who have known him in the past when neighbor, Hungary, for centuries in the Austro­ ing scant time to notify people, advertise and make the travelled to Lviv, was clearly evident by the Hungarian Empire. When Czechoslovakia was all necessary preparations for food and drink, a numerous monetary gifts offered to him by ban­ formed in 1918, the more numerous and fine banquet was held in honor of our guest, Peter quet guests to assist him in his efforts on behalf of prosperous Czechs dominated the federation. Kohutov. Approximately 55 people attended in our people, when he returns home. The contribu­ spite of the very cold weather and icy roads. It tion were quietly and voluntarily made without any Industrialization was begun in Slovakia only was held at the Parish Hall of Christ the Saviour suggestion or solicitation by speakers at the ban­ after Communists took over in 1948. When they Orthodox Church,' Paramus, New Jersey. quet. were toppled 41 years later, the new federal government decided to convert most of the Talks were given by V. Rev. John The buffet and decorations were superb weapons industry centered in Slovakia to civilian Nehrebecky, Alex Herenchak and our honored with all dishes prepared by the women of Lemko use, and some 80,000 jobs were lost in the guest. At length, Peter Kohutov with Rev. Assoc. in their homes. We can honestly state the process. Nehrebecky translating, informed us of conditions the delicious food was superior to that provided by of our Lemko people in Ukraine, Slovakia and an average caterer. Our sincere thanks to the fol­ Czech domination convinced some Slovaks Poland, urging us here in America to maintain lowing ladies for their efforts at the banquet: Mary would be better off on their own. Some still close Contacts especially with our people in Barker, Victoria Windish, Mary Bakalets, Nancy that way. Anton Vyskoc, controller of Trnava's Poland. He informed us of the growing awareness Porada, Svetlana Ledenieva, Mary Rudawsky and Siovenske Siadovne beer and soft drink factory, and desire of the younger generation of lemkos in JUlia Adamiak. Our sincere thanks also to V. Rev. said he was convinced partition was inevitable. Poland and Ukraine to search out and preserve Nehrebecky and Matushka Eugenia for housing, "The banks, the export business, the finan- our culture and traditions. He also promised to transporting and taking care of Peter for about two cial system -- almost everything by . assist our newspaper, Carpatho-Rus, by submit­ weeks. Thanks also to Michael and Ann Logoyda, the Czechs," he claimed ... ting, periodically, stories about present day cultural John and Nancy Porada, John and Stephanie activities of our people in Europe as well as his­ Holovach Mr.jMrs. Fornazor and Mr.fMrs. ... But the Czech-Slovak split is not the only torical background information. Bakalets for the hospitality extended to Peter in theme cutting across the nation. The other divisive thek homes. , factor seems to be Medar. The depth of warm feeling toward Peter, I r PAGE 2 CARPATHO RUS I continued from page 1 Opposition leaders charge privatization has come to virtual standstill and is limited to people in cahoots with Meciar.

But rather than his public image, Meciar's chief concern is how to hold his coalition together. .

... After eight defections, Meciar holds 66 of 150 seats in Parliament. The nationalists have 14.

But Vladimir Miskovsky, a moderate in the National Party, said only eight of the party's deputies will support Meciar without reservation. Stephen P. Kopeatonaky

"The government is only surviving from one session to the other," Miskovsky sa,id.

******************************************** Continued from Issue # 1, 1/7/94

IN APPRECIATION PART 7 We extend our thanks for help in producing this Instigated by the daughter of Hreh, Udyna people how to perform good deeds. Even though week's issue of Karpatska Rus to Svetlana there were not many of them, they were supposed the fornicator, who slipped into the World of Light Ledenieva. to exterminate eventually all evil from the earth and Ed. unnoticed, Byelobog took into his head the idea of setting himself up as the chief of the "heavenly return it once again to its former pristine state -- a firmament." He stirred up the dyidki against their virtual paradise which would continue throughout ******************************************** the ages. superiors, the Dyidy, but the uprising ended wit~ REQUEST OF OUR READERS Byelobog's complete defeat. After his fall, the evil byeluny-dyidki were scorched by the lightning The "devils" mentioned in chronicles are the same dyidki that were maddened by the tortures of Through our archives we have searched for flashes of , turning them into black creatures, hell, inflicted upon them by the Chernaya Pot'ma old Lemko Calendars from the 1930s and 1940s. after which the earth split and opened up and the (Black Cloud) after the Fall. In those chronicles Many of those old Calendars are missing. We evil-mongers were swallowed up by the Black and other ancient memorials, the earlier Slav gods would like to request, from our readers, any old Cloud (Chornaya Pot'ma) who, after inflicting on and the evil spirits that tried to do harm to the Calendars that they may have and do not need. them the torture of hell, spewed them out again monks in their ascetic exploits were called byesi This would be of help to us in researching the his­ into the World of Light, but now as evildoers who (or devils). According to the people's beliefs, a tory of our people. Thank you. offended and harmed people. Before they were swallowed up by the Black Cloud, they were the flaming fire burned continuously in the bosoms of these dyidki -- the embers of which were brought Ed. helpers of the people, but now the Pot'ma spewed ******************************************** them out not as "giants," but even lesser than with them from hell. This burning fire tormented monstrous dwarfs, some hairy, others with hoofs them and made them evil things. NOTICE and tails, and still others with horns, or simply as little devlish monsters. They settled in the same . RUSALKI, MAVKI: beautiful water . Due to lack of hard currency, our sub­ places on the earth and under the earth where they It was generally accepted to consider rusalki to be scription mailing list to Poland, Slovakia, Rus­ lived before their fall, harming and bedeviling souls of those people who had lost their lives by sia, Byelorussia and Ukraine is limited. Some people at every turn. And the people, just as they drowning, and unbaptized children, etc. The time Amerlcans and Canadians pay for their relatives of their appearance on earth was said to be from and friends in East Europe. As an inducement, honored them previously, now damned and cursed Thursday before Easter (Great Thursday) to to increase our readership in East Europe, we them. Eventually, humankind began to use these Pentecost (Green Sunday) which feast days in Car­ , offer to send issues there at a special rate of invectives against' their own fellow men. Whatever pathian Rus and in Lemkovshchina are called $8.00 per year, which only represents the cost malevolence occurred to people would be blamed Rusa/ia; or even to the Sunday of the Holy Fathers, of postage. If readers in the United States and on the dyidki. In Halichina, on any acrimonious which in some localities is also called Rusalia. In Canada want to avail themselves of this occasion, a person would without fail shout: Akh, Halichina it is also called Turitsy (from the word tur, opportunity, kindly send us the name and ty chorny; dyidko proklyatyi! (Oh, you accursed that is, Perun). address of your relative or friend, with a check black dyidkof). for $8.00, and the newspaper will be sent. The general superstition represents the ******************************************** Depending on the place they lived and what rusalki as beautiful females with long flaxen hair they worked at, people called them spirits or sprits: and with dead, glassy eyes. Christianity considers SUBSCRIPTION FORM of the forest, of the home, of the fields, of the them evil "beings." Supposedly, on moonlit nights waters, and various other names. For example, in these nymphs (rusalki) in9ite young, amorous men Please start/renew my subscription to KAR­ Halichina they were called many (decoys) who led to their deaths by tempting them into watery PATSKA RUS. Enclosed please find my check or travelers astray from their paths, making them graves. money order for $20./year. wander in circles. The word manit' means to lure, to entice. They were also thought to SUbstitute The Sanskrit word rosa (water), Celtic rus Name their evil monsters for people's offspring. (sea), Latin ros (dew) and the Slavic rosa and .------ruslo attest to the fact that the root of the word Address. ______Byelobog, as with the sprites, was tarnished means water, and that this root has black, thus being transformed into a ,1 nothing in common with "souls," nor with the dead. City, State, and remaining in the Dark World where Chernaya This is confirmed by Byelorussian songs about Zip Code, ______Pot'ma chained him to the walls of hell. Being tor­ rusalki: tured by Chernaya Pot'ma, he in turn tormented Press Fund other souls who found themselves captive in hell. Privedu Rusalok Yak yavorochek Donation, ______But at the same time, he awaited salvation, V zelenoye zhito, A moyi zhitinki together with other occupants of hell, by the per­ Tam Rusalki v zhitse Yak proskurochki, Send to: formance of good deeds by the people on earth. Zelenom sidzeli, V pechke pirozhki, A moy kolosochek Na stole kolachiki. KARPATSKA RUS After the Fall, the White Carpathians 556 Yonkers Avenue darkened, shrank and split; rivers broke their From the rusalki the grain blooms and itself Yonkers, New York, 10704 banks, changed their courses and became shal­ answers: low. Byelogora (White Peak) became Chernogora ******************************************* (Black Peak)2 and dropped from heavenly heights Ne mogu stoyatsi, Kolos kolos klonits KARPATSKA RUS to even lower levels than other Carpathian peaks. Kolosa derzhatsi, I solome 10m its.

Carpatho-Russian Newspaper, published Not all dyidki (sprites), according to com­ bi-weekly by the Lemko Assoc. of the United mon beliefs, mutinied. A small number remained Procopius of Caesarea (a historian of the States and Canada. loyal to and continued to live on the earth, 6th century A.D.) wrote that the Slavs worshipped helping, as before, people in their life's mis­ the nymphs (and other spirits -- daimonia). Fur­ Subscription Rate: One Year ... $20. fortunes. A well-known Czechoslovakian legend ther, taking into consideration the reverence in tells how Czech, the "forefather" of the Czech which all sources of water are held by the Russians Edited By: Editor, pro-tern., A. Herenchak people, brought his personal dyidko on his own and generally by all Slavic peoples, it is difficult to USPS No. 291 460 shoulders to colonize a new (Czech) country. believe that they were of the opinion that rusalki Such "good" dyidki were considered as personal were the souls of the deceased. Slavic people in. Postmaster: Send address changes to: guardians of people, just as in Christianity Guard­ general considered water, which irrigated their ian Angels look after individual Christians. These fields and crops, as sacred and vivifying. KARPATSKA RUS good dyidki carried on an unmerciful struggle with 556 Yonkers Avenue the evil, black dyidki and cherty (devils) and taught Yonkers, New York, 10704 continued on page 3 PAGE 3 CARPAlHO RUS FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 1994 .~-~ ~-"" ". ~--.-.,,~ .. --.---..- ...... - .. -~--.-.." --"----~-.. ,,----,, -----".----.. ~" .. -.------.. ---.--.--._._----

continued from page 2 necessity during storms against the devils that Boroda and why they had followed him. Silach After the introduction of Christianity people broke through into the White World ("thunder from bids them to take him to this fearful pagan. So all were indoctrinated with the idea that their former a clear sky"). The evil virgins -- the Vi/y, ride on the three take off to capture this paganite and the kid­ gods were devils who had evil properties. It is Hromoviki with fiery Perun arrows or bolts in their napped princess. Eventually, they catch up with easier to believe that rusalki (among the Hutsuls hands. Boroda. They engage in a long, bitter struggle. and in Carpathian Rus they were called Mavki) are Silach is finally able to jam Boroda's long beard water goddesses, who induced sources of water THE bOGATYRI OF THE BYLINY into a large tree stump. But to the knights' amaze­ from the bosom of the earth for the irrigation of ment, Boroda invisibly disappears, leaving behind fields and crops, guaranteeing a bountiful harvest. SVIATOGOR In Halichina; among other his beard, his skin and flesh on the tree stump. It was, and still is, a sin among the Slavs to fill or Slavs: Val igor, Vernigora. SViatogor carries a cover up a spring or well or to muddy their water. heavy burden because of his great strength. The The trio take off again in hot pursuit of the This is attested to by the saying in Hutsulshchina: earth cannot hold him. He searched and found a denuded Boroda, following a bloody trail he left Bez Mavki ne bude travki (Without , there mountain which would hold him where he could behind. As they travelled, they came face to face will be no grass.) stay in peace. But he perished because he attempted to lift the earth's gravity from the with a foreboding forest, dark and inpenetrable, In Halichina, on the day of Rusalia, the ground. In doing so, he sunk to his knees in the into which, because of its complete, hellish dark­ people in procession, with the Cross at the fore­ ground and was stuck there to die and petrify. ness, they could not even take a step. Silach turns front, proceeded into the fields where the priest, to Tryasous and says: "This is your job!" So after reading the Gospel and special prayers, According to another legend Sviatogor, Tryasous shakes his whiskers and the trees of the blessed the fields with holy water, petitioning the when dying, laid down in a coffin; when Mikula forest tremble violently and all their leaves tumble lord for a good harvest. Undoubtedly, this Selianinovich closed the coffin, Sviatogor asked to the ground. Bereft of the leaves, the forest now procession with the Cross into the fields on the Mikula to bend down over the coffin. Sviatogor, becomes passable. The trio continue their trek through the denuded forest, but soon come to feast day of Pentecost (Rusa/ia) was the through a slit in the coffin, breathed into Mikula, Christianization of the ancient Slavic pagan rite, in transferring his great power and strength into another obstacle: before them rises a high mountain, Vysoch Gora.. Silach turns to Valigor this case as in many other cases, a compromise of Mikula. the Christian Church. Not being able to excise the and says: "This is your job!" Valigor, as suits his ; Sviatogor represented the power of the name, breaks down the mountain and they con­ I deeply rooted pagan rite, the Church sanctified it Slavs in cattle breeding while they lived a nomadic tinue to follow the bloody trail ofthe pagan Boroda. ! into a Christian ritual in order to effectively erase the memory of paganism from the people's minds. life. His transmittal of power to Mikula symbolized the transition of the Slavs from cattle breeding to They finally came to a "bottomless" pit in VllY, "twenty-nine sisters," nebulous virgins an agricultural and more settled life. which Boroda with the kidnapped princess had taken refuge. Valigor and Tryasous braid a thick -- the same as Rusalki, but with their domain in the rope from the hemp-like branches of a tree and : clouds, serving the Chernaya Khmara- Tucha (the As was said previously, the Russian people, after the acceptance of Christianity, had difficulty in with this rope lower Silach into the "bottomless" pit. I ! Black Cloud). They carry out the Black Cloud A bitter struggle with Boroda ensues. Silach grap- ' under the firmament and then put her away again forgetting their beloved pagan Slavic gods and even still more the rites, rituals and customs of pies desperately with Boroda, but cannot master into her lair. During thunderstorms, the Vily ride him: he tears off his arm, but the arm creeps back the thunderbolts from the Black Cloud to the earth their forefathers. As a result they fastened their pagan divinities to Christian holy days and saints and attaches itself anew to its previous position; he and then back again. which, by their nature or by their names, reminded severs Boroda's leg, but the leg jumps nimbly to its rightful place; Silach tears off Boroda's head, but it According to people's beliefs during the them of their former deities: Sviatogor -- St. twists and turns and re-attaches itself. Silach is union of Perun and the Black Cloud, the Vi/y scat­ George; -Volos -- St. Vlasi, St. Vasili and the losing his strength and is near exhaustion. The ter the Perun seeds [rain] flowing out of the Cloud Entrance (they led their cattle into their izby;) kidnapped princess, seeing the imminent danger to the earth and water the earth, thus enhancing Perun -- St. Elias, St. Nicholas; Kupalo -- St. John the Baptist, etc. In search of a homonym, Russian to Silach, weighs down the disattached members the growth of crops. After the people accepted people covered not only , but also Sviatogor of the pagan's body with large blocks of stone so ~ Christianity, Perun was transformed into a devil with St. George. According to Christian as well as that they could not return to their original positions, and the Black Cloud into a witch. During a heavy pagan beliefs, both were shepherds, the first of thus saving Silach from impending disaster. storm with lightning and thunder, people would earthly, the second of heavenly, flocks. say: The devil Is "embracing" the witch. The Black Gathering Boroda "into his pocket," Silach Cloud (or ) is also called a witch. On a MIKULA SEUANINIVICH. With the Slovaks tugs the improvised rope and Valigor and Tryasous summer day, when a shower would suddenly he was called VAUDUB. Mikula was a gallant lift him and the princess out of the pit "into the light descend from the Cloud, people would say: "The knight and represented the peasant-farmer. The of day." The three knights, with the princess and witch is churning butter." In gray antiquity the (epic) has him mocking the strength of the the "pocketed" Boroda, depart for the king's cloud was not a witch but rather a "gracious god­ knights and Dobrynia Nikitich, palace. The king rewards the trio generously for dess," and Perun was not a devil, but a mytholo­ saving the princess and orders that the headless, gical god who cleansed the earth with the fire of who together -- and even with the help of their legless, armless Boroda be tied to the tail of a wild Svarog. The Cloud or Mokosh was not a witch druzhinniki -- could not lift Mikula's plow and hide it horse to be disposed of permanently. since witches damaged and harmed people and in the bushes. Mikula himself lifts it up with one did not treat them with buttermilk, only the gra­ hand as if it were a toy and tosses it into the KOSTRUB -- hoar frost; the same as Dyed cious goddesses (Baby) could saturate the earth laburnum bushes. By this act Mikula symbolizes Moroz or Kashchei or . Kostrub as men­ with buttermilk. the end of the unsettled, nomadic era and the tioned on Ve/ikden (the former festival of ) beginning of the settled, agricultural epoch of the in the hailki-horovody, is mocked and laughed at. Russian Rusalki are called Vily in Serbia and peasant-farmer, the new power and strength of the He is summoned to appear before the horovod. Samovily in Bulgaria. Scholars say the word vily is Rus people. (A town in the Hutsul Carpathians One of the maidens promises to "stand under the derived from v'lna, v'lny -- daughter of water. was named after Mikula -- Mikulichin, and village in crown" (in marriage) with him on the "white stone" Opolye -- Mikulintsy.) (that is, on the snow). But the sun beats down TSAPOK, Tsap -- goat. In this case -­ relentlessly upon him with its hot rays and he Capricorn-Fawn. According to people's beliefs, After the establishment of Christianity in the i young goats are joyful, entertaining creatures, Rus, Mikula was replaced by St. Nicholas of Myra "perishes." The maidens "bury him" with joy and . similar to people, but with beards, horns and four lycia. To no other saint did the Russian people on his grave they "trample with their maidenly feet legs. They were supposed to have been created give more devotion and veneration, having com­ and caress the soil with their hands until it is per­ to entertain and amuse all other creatures in para­ plete confidence and faith in his power; and to no fectly level." dise, romping in fields and forests and playing other Christian saint did they light up more candles upon reed pipes. than to S1. Nicholas. (In Halichina, the people call During winter Kostrub often sneaks upon him Mikola, instead of Nikolai.) the sleeping or relaxing lazy wind () and After the Fall, they like the dyidki, became clings to his wings. The wind, attempting to shake evil creatures, waylaying single women in the fields In Galician-Russian tales (variants of the Kostrub off its wings, thrashes to and fro in and forests, luring them into caverns and deep Vladimir cycle), we meet, besides Valigor-Sviatgor, exasperation, thus generating wind storms of hurri­ forests where they kept them as their wives who with yet three other knights: Tryasous, Valigor and cane proportions and violent snow blizzards that gave birth to monster-offspring that were sub­ Silach, the latter, stronger and more powerful than bring death to people, animals and plant life. stituted among the people as newly born human all other knights. Tryasous, when he shook his children. whiskers, the trees trembled and all their leaves fell Luxemburg Slavs until recent times called the devil - to the ground. Val igor, meaning one who breaks Chernobog. Helmold (Chronica Siavorum) wrote about the The author heard the following: "It is fearful down or topples mountains, was Tryasous's com­ Baltic Slavs: Malum deum sua lingua diabol sive Zcernoboch, to go to Berezina (name of a forest near the village panion. In the Kaluzhsky uzed people are wont to id est nigrum deum appellant bonumque -- Belbock. (In their of Podhaichiki of the Rudki uezd). There tsapki tell the tale of these two knight -- and their new­ own tongue they call the evil god "a devil" or Zcernoboch, that whistle day and night and the wild goats romp and found companion, Silach. means "black god," the good god (they call) Belboch, or dance continuously." "white god.") Valigor and Tryasous were hired by a king HROMOVIKI. By the name of Hromovik it is to save his daughter who had been kidnapped by 2 Mas'udi (an Arabic geographer of the 10th century) accepted to count Perun himself and other gods of the evil pagan Boroda -- "who was only a cubit in mentions a Chernohora in the Carpathians. According to him, the Dyidy. I n the representation of the people height, but whose beard was three cubits long." the mountain was surrounded by enlivening waters known for thunder is the fearsome, ferocious and deafening The two "courageous" knights caught up with the their healing qualities. Upon this Chernohora peak stood, roaring of animals -- Hromoviki. They supposedly fleeing Boroda, but alas they were soundly supposedly, a wonderful edifice -- a temple to Dazhbogh, guard the White or Bright World from the black, defeated by the latter, turned tail and fled in terror from which every day the rising of the sun was greeted early impure powers. Perun keeps them in his court on "into the world beyond sight." As they fled they in the morning with prayers and hymody. tethers -- on fiery chains anchored to the clouds -­ met up with the knight Silach, to whom they told and lets them loose (lowers them) in case of their tale of the terrible strength of the pagan

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