In the last centuries the cultural development of the Ruthenian population in Slovakia was markedly influenced not only by its geographic position on the crossroads between East and West, by its traditional socio-economic backwardness and political immaturity of its representation, but also by its creative intelligentsia's inclination toward romanticism and their naive reaction for actual problems of the period. From the 19th century the cultural life of South Carpathian Ruthenians was evidently marked by certain conservatism, isolation and disability to join democratizing and liberating movements of that time. This situation was even worse in the Northeast Slovakia. For those reasons the first impulses of modernisation could be applied better in the period of the first Czechoslovak Republic, even if in a considerably more complicated social and political situation. On the other hand, there was a certain advantage against foretime, that particularly after 1948, the protection of culture and art became the subject of the state. The expansion of culture among the population of Northeast Slovakia was ensured by the four Ukrainian speaking cultural inspectorates in Bardejov, Snina, Stara Lubovna and Svidnik. In villages with Ruthenian and Ukrainian population libraries with Ruthenian and Ukrainian literature were created and the groups of artistic creativity began to work more strongly and deliberately.
The authors present the formation and development of the Ukrainian national education system in Slovakia after the World War II, which was determined by its results and new political conditions. The founding of Russian schools in Eastern Slovakia did not correspond to the wishes of part of the Ruthenian population, and their preference was a source of permanent tension. The authors of this article analyse the personnel, material and technical problems related to the development of Ukrainian (Russian) schools as well as the activities of political and state authorities in their solution. The introduction of the Ukrainian language as the language of instruction disrupted the consolidation in this area and increased dissatisfaction in many municipalities. The efforts to persuade people or various administrative obstacles could not prevent the change of the language of instruction from Ukrainian to Slovak.
In the first part the authors define so-called orthodox action in Czechoslovakia, which rested in liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church and incorporation its priests and worshippers into Orthodox Church. The first part of the article also presents official and real motives and reason of that event, which destabilized especially social relations in the northeast of Slovakia for the long time. In the second part they define preparation for the action 'P' in some areas of sacral policy. They also describe the process and realization of the orthodox action in 1950. They observe that the action did not have expected success for many reasons and it embarrassed social and political progress in region.
The authors of the study present the development of legal and social status of the ethnic minority of Ruthenians and Ukrainians in Slovakia during the existence of the Czechoslovak state. Based on recent scholarship, in the first part of the study the authors characterize basic features of the minority and explain factors and circumstances which contributed to the annexation of the territories populated by this minority by the Czechoslovak state. The fact that Ruthenians and Ukrainians lived continuously on the annexed territory, as well as the factor of establishing of the formally autonomous region of Subcar- pathian Ruthenia, meant that members of this minority were characterized by several specifics which are dealt with in detail in the study. The democratic regime of the Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938) enabled development of self-governed minority bodies in the benefit of the members of the community. After the restoration of Czechoslovakia and the definitive separation from the majority of ethnicities, the new political conditions leads to artificial inter- ventions in the ethnic minority ethnogenesis. This has led to a decline in its number and weakening of national attributes. After the collapse of the communist regime, the development of the minority is limited, especially, by its partition and some temporary consequences of social transformation in Slovakia.
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