World Congress of Rusyns V, Uzhorod Ukraine 1999

Declaration of the V World Congress of Rusyns (Užhorod, 1999)

During the period before the VI World Congress of Rusyns, we resolve to take the following steps:

1. The World Council of Rusyns must create a plan of work for the World Congress of Rusyns.
2. The World Council of Rusyns and its president must make diplomatic contacts with European and international organizations and with the governments of those states in which Rusyns live.
3. The World Council of Rusyns must assist in the publication of an anthology of Rusyn prose, Rusyn songs and an encyclopedia of Rusyn history and culture.
4. The World Council of Rusyns must make contact with Rusyn organizations in those countries which have not hitherto been contacted.

Call of the V World Congress of Rusyns to the Organs of the Government of Ukraine

[introductory paragraphs omitted]… the V World Congress of Rusyns turns to the organs of the government of Ukraine at the highest levels with a request to resolve the following issues of the Subcarpathian Rusyn community:

1. To officially denounce the SAMOVOLJU which was VCHINENA to the Stalinist totalitarian regime in connection to the Rusyns at the time of Transcarpathia’s annexation to the Soviet Union, to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
2. To officially recognize the Rusyn nationality in Ukraine (as has been done in other democratic states throughout the world), to renew the rights of Rusyns on a par with those of other national minorities in Ukraine, primarily:
   a. To add the Rusyn nationality to the metadata of the official census of nationalities of Ukraine under as an independent grouping.
   b. To halt the practice of the information blockade as regards Rusyns in the official mass media, which has cultivated a negative image of Rusyns and ROSPALJUJUT international NENAVIST.
   c. To ensure that Rusyn organizations have access to the state mass media on a par with the organizations of other national minorities.
   d. To halt the practice of undemocratic PERESLIDOVANJA PRIKHYLENCIV of the Rusyn movement which is at work within state structures.
3. To ensure, morally and materially, the necessary conditions for the maintenance and development of the Rusyn language and culture and to return to the Rusyn nation its historical memory.
4. To open at Užhorod State University a Cathedral of Rusyn Language and Literature and also a group at the Mukačevo Pedagogical Institute to prepare Rusyn teachers for preschools and elementary schools.
5. To found a study center for Rusynistics for research into history, ethnography, literature, linguistics and folklore.
6. To introduce into the school program elements of Rusyn history, folklore, literature and language.