The Persistence of Regional Cultures. Rusyns and Ukrainians in Their Carpathian Homelandand Abroad by Paul MagocsiReview by: Martyn RadyThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 73, No. 2 (Apr., 1995), pp. 354-355Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4211825 .

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354 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

an impeccable source, as do some historians who, through an excess of zeal, draw inferences from his work which are without foundation. This is certainly the case with an alleged contemporary of Gelou called Menumorout, whose domain was termed 'a Romanian-Slav duchy' by the Romanian historian $tefan Pascu, in spite of the absence of anything in Anonymus to suggest that he had a connection with the Vlachs, and even more so with another alleged ruler of the time, Glad. Notwithstanding the latter's probable status as a creation of Anonymus, he too was considered the ruler of a 'Romanian political unit'. More extreme in its fancy and tone was the assumption by Lieutenant-General Dr Ilie Ceau?escu, a brother of the late President and, until the revolution the historian with the highest political profile in Romania, that the voivodes Gelou, Glad and Menumorout were Romanians who 'succeeded, behind the resistance organized by the communities' population on the border, in mobilizing the entire army of the voivodship and meeting (896) the Magyar aggressor shortly after the latter had invaded the Romanian territory' (Romanian Military Doctrine Past and Present, Boulder, Colorado, I 988, p. 23). Such aberrations by champions of Anonymus served not only to provide ammunition for the opponents of Gelou and the Vlachs, but brought the reader back to the realm of mythos.

This is not the place to review all the evidence for and against the Daco-Roman continuity theory. This present volume leaves the reader with the impression that there is little evidence to support it, and taken with former minister Bela Kopeczi's misleading assertion in his preface that 'Transylvania was twice united with Romania: once in 1920, and then again in I947' (P. xiv)

in 1947 northern Transylvania was restored to Romanian rule, the southern half having remained under it since I9I9- might lead the discerning reader to question the book's objectivity on the contentious periods of history. In part six of the book, covering Transylvania since i 9I8, a sense of regret at the loss of the province to Romania colours many of the judgements. That said, the considerable scholarly achievement which this book represents should not be overlooked. Its seven hundred pages provide a valuable political, social and economic history from prehistoric times until I 947 of a province which offers striking examples of multiculturalism and of both tolerance and intolerance. It is richly illustrated with photographs and maps, and expertly translated. School of Slavonic and East European Studies DENNIS DELETANT University of London

Magocsi, Paul (ed.). The Persistence of Regional Cultures. Rusyns and Ukrainians in their Carpathian Homeland and Abroad. Classics of Carpatho-Rusyn Schol- arship, No. 5. East European Monographs, No. 365. East European Monographs, Boulder, Colorado, I993. Distributed by Columbia Uni- versity Press, New York. ix + 2 i8 pp.; ix + 220 pp. in one volume. Maps. Notes. Tables. $48.50.

ANDY WARHOL, in whose memory one of the leading Rusyn cultural societies in Slovakia is currently named, predicted that eventually everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes. The Rusyns, whose inter-war state survived for a

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REVIEWS 355

bare twenty-four hours in I 939, have so far received international attention of comparably short duration. However much to be regretted, this neglect is in many respects understandable. Divided and dispersed among the territories of present-day Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary and Yugoslavia, the Rusyns are in no position to jeopardize security interests in the region. Additionally, and as the contents of the present volume amply suggest, Rusyn national identity is only weakly held and evinces few distinguishing characteristics. First, many Rusyns appear (if the account provided here by Mikola Musynka is to be believed) to have no adequate means of describing themselves. The term rus'kjy employed by the Rusyns of Slovakia thus means as much 'Russian' as 'Rusyn'. Secondly, because they lack a literary language of their own, the Rusyns have historically been drawn into the stronger Ukrainian cultural orbit. (Paradoxically, however, many of the Rusyns who emigrated from Slovakia to Ukraine after the Second World War discovered soon after their arrival that they were really Slovaks.) Thirdly, the Rusyn populations of Eastern Europe are apt to seek out their own separate ethnic identities even to the extent, as with the Lemkos of Poland, of inventing a mythological descent from the White Croats of antiquity. In view of the weakness of their collective identity, it is certainly tempting to conceive of the Rusyns as an ethnographic curiosity destined for eventual assimilation. Nevertheless, as Andrzej Zieba suggests here, 'the problem of identity formation among the Rus' inhabitants of the Carpathians' will probably be more fruitfully understood 'within the context of other border peoples in this part of Europe' (p. 217).

The present work comprises papers collected in the course of a rolling seminar which took the editor from Harrogate to Kiev during the period I99o-9I. The quality of the contributions is varied and ranges from a most scholarly attempt to sketch the history of the Rusyns in Hungary to an intemperate denial of the very concept of a separate Rusyn identity. Other chapters treat upon the Rusyns of Poland, Slovakia, Yugoslavia and North America. Several conclusory essays bring order and commonsense to the work as a whole. The volume is arranged in two parts, the first being an English translation of the second, which consists of the papers in the language in which they were originally delivered. Pages 80-IO2, being composed in Lemko- Rusyn, will be of particular interest to linguists and philologists.

School of Slavonic and East European Studies MARTYN RADY

University ofLondon

Bering, Dietz. The Stigma of Names: Antisemitism in German Daily Life, i8i2-1933. Translated by Neville Plaice. Polity Press, Cambridge, I992. xii + 345 pp. Bibliography. Index. Tables. ?39.50.

THE theme of this book is summed up by the plaintive lament of a Jewish university professor in Breslau in the I88os: 'You try being called Cohen for fifty years!' On one level it is the examination of how some names in modern German culture came to be regarded as Jewish, and how they served as markers for theJewish origins of those who bore them.

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