Culture

D.Doboshynsky “Lemko Church”
Courtesy of Radio “Voskresinnia”

The Lemko region produced many Ukrainian activists and intellectuals, few of whom could find employment there. Most of them were descendants of old clerical families. Many religious leaders, including Yosyf Sembratovych, Sylvester Sembratovych, Toma Syrus Poliansky, Yuliian Pelesh, and Yosafat Kotsylovsky, and some scholars, such as Rev Yosyf Delkevych and Rev Tyt Myshkovsky, came from the region. Authors of Lemko origin who wrote about the region include Rev Volodymyr Khyliak, Bohdan Ihor Antonych, Ivan Fylypchak, Yuliian Tarnovych, Hryhorii Hanuliak, and Ivan Rusenko. The composer Mykhailo Verbytsky and the singers Modest Menzinsky and the Baiko sisters are of Lemko descent. Contemporary artists whose Lemko heritage is reflected in their work are Mykhailo Chereshnovsky, V. and I. Odrekhivsky, Hryhorii Petsukh, and Nykyfor.

Research work on the Lemko region reached a high point in the 1920s and 1930. It focused mostly on the Lemko dialects (Ivan Verkhratsky, Ivan Zilynsky, Ivan Pankevych, Y. Shemlei, and Zdislaw Stieber) and ethnography (Volodymyr Hnatiuk, Filaret Kolessa, I. Falkivsky, and Roman Reinfuss). There are only a few works on the history of the Lemko region (Myron Korduba, Mykola Andrusiak) and several works in contemporary history (I. Fylypchak, Yu. Tarnovych, F. Kokovsky, and V. Buchatsky).

Source: Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Shevchenko Scientific Society