DEMOGRAPHIC PROCESSES OF THE RUTHENIAN NATIONAL MINORITY IN THE PROVINCE OF VOJVODINA DURING THE 20TH AND BEGINNING OF 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

Rusyns or Ruthenians reside on the territory of Vojvodina since the mid-eighteenth century. They have always distinguished themselves from the population among whom they lived there Serbs, Hungarians, Germans and Slovaks – they were a separate ethnic community; and as they are also Greek-Catholics they have distinguished themselves from the community of Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Protestants. At the end of the eighteenth century there were about 3,500 Ruthenians in Vojvodina, while in the midnineteenth century there were around 8,500 of them. During the twentieth century there were about 20 thousand Ruthenians, and in the last fifty years, their number gradually decreased. The largest number of Ruthenians in Vojvodina live in four municipalities: Kula, Vrbas, Sid and Žabalj. Analysis of demographic processes during the twentieth and early twenty-first century, indicate changes in the Ruthenian minority in Serbia, which is characterized by a total reduction of population, aging population, emigration, assimilation. This work aims to improve the knowledge about the demographic characteristics of Ruthenians in Vojvodina, and that they, like most ethnic minorities in Vojvodina, share the fate of the major ity of Serbian people, with the unavoidable process of silent assimilation and integration with Serbian majority.