BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture Sorbs & Rusyn in Time Mag

For some interesting reading on a variety of minorities in Europe, turn to Time magazine and a series of articles on the times and tribulations of minorities. They start with Cornish people and move on to
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I'll read it fo sure, thank you! Being a regular visitor in Bieszczady region in Poland since I was a child,I did get charmed by the Lemko culture. It is a real shame how that culture was treated after the IIWW. Did you see/hear about the 'Nikifor' movie, Kai?

I am glad to see the movie 'Nikifor' is new, so it is likely to come up to Anchorage sometime. I will keep my eye open on the manday night schedule at the Bear Tooth cinema. It sounds rather interesting & will give me a chance to play cinematic tourist.

Kai

Kai,

Those articles are very interesting, thanks!

Nancy

Nykyfor Krynytskii � Nikifor Krynicki in Polish - is how Kikifor�s real name is presented in his own language, using the Latin alphabet. There is an interesting write-up about him in the �Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture� that tells about his life. Born 1`895 as Epifanii Drovniak, died 1968. Never learned to read or write and started painting at an early age. Recognition came in the 1930�s with his first exhibit in Paris in 10\932. Roman Turyn is named as the Galician-Ukrainian painter who brought him to the attention of the world. By WW II he was largely forgotten & after the war the Poles moved him out of the Lemko region to Szezecin three times and three times he walked across Poland to get back home.

In 1949 he was rediscovered. His work was exhibited around Europe through the 1960s while most of his time he remained in Krynica and the Lemko region painting and struggling to sell his paintings. With no great success at selling the paintings he gave some away as well. He is estimated to have made some 30,000 paintings. He had to beg to support himself and died in poverty in 1966.

The politics of ethnicity is strongly reflected in his history, with both Poles and Lemkos claiming him as their own. The Poles presented him to the world as �Jan Nikifor� and later �Nikifor Krynicki� and as late as 1990 the Nikifor Museum in Krynica insisted on suppressing any mention of his Lemko name �Nykyfor Krynytskii� or even allowing it on his grave stone. The Union of Lemkos sued and in 2003 succeeded in having his falsified birth certificate annulled.

As much as we like to think the ethnic divides are a thing of the past, we are periodically confronted with the differences and the works of the dominant culture to absorb the minority cultures of a country. At the same time the minority groups as becoming more vociferous around the world, and in the US, and the demands for recognition and sometimes support for maintaining the culture can appear endless to the dominant culture. In the US we can look at accusations of neglect in the Black community in New Orleans or the subsidies the Federal Government uses to support Native tribes within the USA. In Europe it encompasses the Gypsies, Basques and the Lemkos among others. I am happy the EU exists; it seems to be the idea European forum to establish minority rights and privileges within the political boundaries of the member states. While the relationship between dominant and minority cultures is a dynamic one, ever changing, having a �universal standard� that applies to many nations within the EU should have a stabilizing effect on the relationships and claims of the minorities. Even so, I foresee no period when the differences in demands and rights granted will go away.

Now I wonder how an 80 year old woman portrays a man throughout his lifetime, when he did attain recognition at a young age. There must be other actors playing his life at earlier stages or the story line and presentation must create quite a mechanism whereby he is only portrayed as an old man. It will be interesting to see the movie.

Had to check to see what I am compared to a chipmunk & figured it was easiest to add to this topic -

I never cared for primitive art, either Grandma Moses in America or the old back-of-glass paintings I have seen in some houses of Hungarians or Poles in America. Evidently painting on the backside of glass was ppular 100 years ago.

Kai

Agreed that the minorities in Poland under the Moscow-inspired communist rule were misfortunate, misplaced, mistreated. Agreed that there's lots to be done even today -mentally, not legally anymore. But, really, today one will have hard time to find someone saying that Nikifor was ETHNICALLY Polish.
As to the movie - just wait till you see it, won't give you any clues not to spoil the pleasure in the Bear Tooth cinema <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the recommendation Adam, I'll keep my eye out for the movie.

I don't believe ehtnic squabbles can be bleamed only on the communists or Soviets, our peoples have enjoyed them toolong in previous centuries to blame them on the 50 years the commies were around, and nay minoirty loves to much to call'discrimination' at the drop of a hat or forgetting to include htier name as a distinct group. In the US we have it with the indians and the blacks, in Central Europe it is the gypsie who is often romanticized in the US press and then all the neighboring peoples who blame one antoher - Poles & Ukies, Slovaks & Hungarians or Czechs... endlessly.

If anything the commies suppressed the minority complaints, and Tito even forged a Yugoslav identitiy that was so quickly torn apart by Milosovich and other nationalists. Those Europeans are crazy! All this ethnic Euro stuff makes me appreciate being American (though it is nice to have an identity with some background and not be some pasty, bland WASP).

Kai

Hi Kai!
Naturally, the ethnic misunderstandings in CE Europe cannot be blamed only on the inspiration of Russians. They have and would have existed even without their inspiration, either in the pre-1917 and post-1917 time. Yet The Soviet Russia knew especially well how to play on the ethnic stereatypes and prejudicies. Where I have to present an opinion different from yours it is about Tito and Yugoslavia. I am afraid that Tito did not forge a Yugoslav identity, he just killed all his opponents in the civil war.

Kai, you might still remember that we, the Europeans, do not understand such statements made by you, the Americans <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
We tend to see it another way. You've had and still have ethnic problems, you did commit atrocities (i.e. the so called Indian Holocaust, KKK etc). I understand that you may feel glad that you're American even with all this ethic US staff, just as I appreciate being European even with "the ethic Euro staff" on board.