National Self-Government of Rusyns in Hungary

Вседержавноє Русинськоє Самосправованя - Országos Ruszin Önkormányzat

The National Self-Government of Rusyns in Hungary is one of the 13 minority self-governments of Hungary, seated in Budapest. It is a representative institution of the Rusyns in Hungary. The self-government performs the representation of the nationality, the protection and support of the political and cultural interests of Rusyns as well as the preservation of heritage, culture, language, traditions and celebrations of Rusyns.

The activities of the Self-Government include the administrative activity of national and local minority self-governments, provision and support of nationality public duties, social science human basic research, administration of culture, art, exhibition, publishing activities, library services, programme support as well as international cultural cooperation.

Rusyn language is taught only in St. Peter Greek Catholic Primary School in the village of Mucsony. As there are students in high schools who speak Rusyn, last year the self-government received a request from the education office to compile maturity exam on two levels. To help the education and for science purposes the self-government published The Rusyn - Hungarian, Hungarian – Rusyn vocabulary for students in 2018 and three editions in 2021: Carpathian Rusyn place names, The Rusyn grammar, The Rusyn - Hungarian, Hungarian – Rusyn vocabulary of technical terms. In 2020, two collections of Rusyn folk songs were published. Several other editions were published before such as Fruci - The album of Rusyn painter Dr. Atanaz Fedinecz, Rusyn foods and so on.

Hungary’s Rusyn community actively organises various cultural and enlightening activities. There are five fixed national celebrations per year: Memory of the Academic Antal Hodinka, celebration of Ferenc Rákóczi II., Rusyn National Day, Indulgence feast and Masterpieces of Rusyn Art. On each of them, many Rusyns participate so that they can meet each other and use the Rusyn language. On the event called Masterpieces of Rusyn Art every year, Rusyn music, songs, folk dresses, paintings of Rusyn artists, rare books on Rusyn language from previous centuries and also new books are presented. Besides this, the community tries to hold as many events as possible – folk and gastro feasts, exhibitions, book presentations, scientific lectures.

The 20 years old newspaper “Rusyn World” in Rusyn and Hungarian is published every two months and reports about all the events. The National Self-Government of Rusyns in Hungary is a member of FUEN since 2023.