Rusyn Americans (Rusyn:Русиньскы Америчаны), also known asCarpatho-Rusyn Americans, areAmericans with ancestors that wereRusyns, fromCarpathian Ruthenia or neighboring areas ofCentral Europe. However, some Rusyn Americans identify asUkrainian Americans,Russian Americans, or evenSlovak Americans.^[3]

They are sometimes also referred to asCarpatho-Ruthenian Americans orCarpatho-Russian Americans;^[4] however, terms based onRuthenian orRussian designations are often viewed as imprecise, since they have several wider meanings, related to their diverse historical, religious and ethnic uses and scopes, that were encompassing variousEast Slavic groups.^[5][6]

Since theRevolutions of 1989, there has been a revival in Rusyn nationalism and self-identification in both Carpathian Ruthenia and among the Rusyndiaspora in other parts of Europe and North America.^[7]

Rusyns began immigrating to the United States in the late 1870s and in the 1880s. Upon arrival in North America, the vast majority ofRusyns identified with the larger state from which they had left. It is, therefore, impossible to know their exact number. It is estimated that between the 1880s and 1914 some 225,000 Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants came to northeastern United States.^[8] Based on immigration statistics and membership records in religious and secular organizations, it is reasonable to assume that there are about 620,000 Americans who have at least one ancestor of Rusyn background.^[2]

At the time of the first and largest wave of immigration (1880s to 1914), the Rusyn homeland was located entirely within theAustro-Hungarian Empire. In both parts of Austria-Hungary, the economic situation for Rusyns was the same. Their approximately 1,000 villages were all located in hilly or mountainous terrain from which the inhabitants eked out a subsistence-level existence based onsmall-scale agriculture, livestock grazing (especially sheep), and seasonal labor on the richer plains of lowland Hungary.^[9]

Since earning money was the main goal of the immigrants, they settled primarily in the northeast and north central states, in particular the coal mining region aroundScranton–Wilkes-Barre innortheastern Pennsylvania and in thePittsburgh andErie areas in the west of Pennsylvania. Other cities and metropolitan areas that attracted Rusyns werePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania;New York City and northeasternNew Jersey; southernConnecticut; theBinghamton area insouth central New York;Cleveland andYoungstown,Ohio;Chicago,Illinois;Gary andWhiting,Indiana;Detroit andFlint,Michigan; and theMinneapolis–Saint Paul area inMinnesota. By 1920, nearly 80 percent of all Rusyns lived in only three states: Pennsylvania (54 percent), New York (13 percent), and New Jersey (12 percent). There were concentrations of Rusyn communities in the coal regions ofsouthern Illinois, includingRoyalton,Dowell,Muddy,Buckner,Benld, andDuQuoins.^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}

These communities published books and newspapers in Rusyn. By the 1910s, there were several newspapers written in Rusyn. The book dealerGeorge Sabo and the Greek Catholic Union Typography company were the main publishers of Rusyn books in America until the 1950s.^[17]

Like other Eastern and Southern Europeans, Rusyns were effectively segregated from the rest of American society because of their low economic status and lack of knowledge of English.^{[citation needed]} This was, however, a relatively short-term phase, since the American-born sons and daughters of the original immigrants had, by the late 1930s and 1940s, assimilated and become absorbed into the American mainstream.^[13]

TheCarpatho-Rusyn Society has purchased the historic former Cathedral of St. John the Baptist inMunhall, Pennsylvania, to convert it into the nation's first National Carpatho-Rusyn Cultural Center.

The historic structure was the first cathedral in America exclusively for Carpatho-Rusyns. It was built in 1903 at the corner of Tenth and Dickson Streets in Munhall, just outside of Pittsburgh. Designed by the Hungarian-born architect,Titus de Bobula, and patterned after the Rusyn Greek CatholicCathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross inUzhorod, Subcarpathian Rus. The parish was established in 1897 and the church, the parish's second, was built in 1903. By the 1920s the congregation had more than 700 families. In 1929 it was chosen as the cathedral for theRuthenian Greek Catholic Exarchate in America.

The congregation, then known as St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic parish, left the building in 1993 when it constructed a new suburban cathedral. In April 2004, the property was purchased by theCarpatho-Rusyn Society to create a home and center for the organization and culture.

• American people of Rusyn descent
• European diaspora in the United States
• Rusyn diaspora in the United States
• Rusyn-American history

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