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Ruthenia[rOOthE´nEu] Pronunciation Key, Latinized form of the word Russia. The term was applied to Ukraine in the Middle Ages when the princes of Halych briefly assumed the title kings of Ruthenia. Later, in Austria-Hungary, the term Ruthenians was used to designate the Ukrainian population of W Ukraine, which included Galicia, Bukovina, and Carpathian Ukraine. After 1918 the term Ruthenia was applied only to the easternmost province of Czechoslovakia, which was also known as Carpathian Ukraine, or by its Czech name, PodkarpatskA Rus [Sub-Carpathian Russia]; for the history of this area from 1918, see Transcarpathian Region. There is no ethnic or linguistic distinction between Ukrainians and Ruthenians. Culturally, however, the Ruthenians were distinct from the Ukrainians, especially after 1596, when the Orthodox Church of the Western Ukraine entered into union with the Roman Catholic Church, and after 1649, when a similar union was effected in Hungary. The Ruthenian Uniate Church of the Byzantine (see Roman Catholic Church) thus included the majority of the Ruthenians in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, while the Greek Orthodox Church was fully restored (17th cent.) in the Russian part of the Ukraine. When all Ruthenians were united (1945) in Soviet Ukraine, government pressure resulted in the secession of the Ruthenian Uniate Church from Rome and its reunion with the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1989 the Uniate Church broke with the Russian Orthodox Church and reestablished its ties with Rome.
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