Padyak V. Istoriia karpatorusyns′koho natsional′noho teatra y dramaturgiï. Vysokoshkols′kyi uchebnyk. Priashiv: Vydavatel′stvo Priashivs′koho univerziteta, 2018. 344 s.

Abstract

This article presents the textbook of the famous Transcarpathian and Slovak Rusinist Valery Padyak Istoriia karpatorusyns′koho natsional′noho teatra y dramaturgiï [History of the Carpatho-Rusyn National theatre and drama]. The Rusyns (more precisely, the Carpatho-Rusyns) are the autochthonous East Slavic population of the Carpathian region: Ukrainian Transcarpathia and the adjacent regions of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. There is also a Rusyn diaspora present in Serbia, Croatia, the USA, Canada, and other states. The number of Rusyns in the world is a controversial issue, one reason for this being their polyvariant identification. At present, a significant proportion of ethnic Rusyns consider themselves representatives of an independent people, who are not Ukrainian or Russian. Padyak, a staunch supporter of the Rusyn ethno-national identity and at the same time a serious academic scientist, made an attempt to trace the development of drama and theatre in the Rusyn environment in parallel with the processes of Rusyn national self-determination. The author traces the evolution of folk theatre performances to the modern Rusyn national theatre, which is actively being developed in different states with Rusyn inhabitants. V. Padyak pays increased attention to theater and drama in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as during the period when Subcarpathian Rus (Transcarpathia) entered the structure of interwar Czechoslovakia and Horthy Hungary. In contrast, the author hardly examines post-war theater life in the Transcarpathian region, believing that its study is more appropriate in the context of Ukrainian, rather than Rusyn, studies. This textbook by V. Padyak, addressed primarily to Rusynist students at the University of Prešov (Slovakia), is of undoubted interest to anyone interested in the history and culture of the Rusyns.