Overview

The 20th century was the roughest in history for the Carpatho-Rusyns of Central Europe. After World War II, when they were declared Ukrainians by the new Communist regimes in every country where they live, Carpatho-Rusyns in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere became extinct overnight -- and this was their existence for more than 50 years. But with the 1989 Velvet Revolution, led by the playwright and former dissident Václav Havel, Carpatho-Rusyn ethnicity revived in every country - including the United States. This is the story of that revival.