Ruthenians to Czechs, Czechs to Ruthenians?
Between 1932 and 1937, six wooden churches were brought from Subcarpathian Ruthenia to what is now the Czech Republic. The main declared reason for the move by the authorities was in all cases the desire to preserve the cultural heritage - the churches built in the 17th century gradually ceased to meet the capacity requirements of the locals, who built larger brick churches, while there were no funds left for the maintenance of wooden ones.
The buildings underwent a number of changes as they were being moved. The dismantling and reassembly had a detrimental effect on the preservation of the original interiors and in some cases the changes also reflected the needs of the new church users.
Subcarpathian Ruthenia was often presented to Czechoslovaks as an undeveloped territory and its inhabitants as uncivilized “pure” peasants in the interwar media. Thus, it became a target not only of modernization projects but also of internal colonization. It may be time to ask whether the relocation of the churches was not a deprivation of cultural artefacts in a situation where both sides were not acting from a position of equal power. The photographs presented here are a fraction of the series in which I document the transferred churches and their contemporary context.
Just as Dominik Želinský explores the nature of this relationship in his article “Was Slovakia (only) a Czech colony?” a parallel with Subcarpathian Russia is at hand. However, unlike Želinský’s conclusion, this case shows much more similarity to what we could call domination. Reflections on the position of Podkarpatska Rus within Czechoslovakia are beginning to appear in Czech historical discourse, with some authors calling this relationship “quasi-colonial”, as the independence of the territory declared in the constitution was only formal, not factual.
How can we perceive the transfer of these monuments today? Would the churches have survived to the present day without the intervention of the “custodial state” as Woodrow Wilson characterized the relationship between Czechoslovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia? Should the churches be returned to where they came from?