User talk:Solejar

History
Pannonian Rusyns emigrated from the area which is today known as eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine in the 18th century, along with Germans, Hungarians, and Slovaks. During the time of the Austrian Empire, an intensive colonization of certain areas in today's Banat and Bačka was carried out after the last Ottoman wars which left the treasury of the Empire almost empty. Population of Banat and Bačka was decimated in those wars. The Austrian Empire had intention to re-populate this rich, arable land, and increase the state revenue by collecting taxes. In the census of Kula municipality from 1746 appear three Rusyns for the first time on that territory: Janko and Petro Homa and Janko Makovicki. Kerestur was Serbian settlement mentioned in 1741 as ruined and abandoned village because its settlers moved to Čelarevo.

The official date of Rusyn settlement in Vojvodina is January 17, 1751 when Bačka administrator Franc Josip de Redl signed the contract with Mihajlo Munkači from village Červenovo in county of Bereg, to bring 200 Rusyn families of Greek-Catholic rite from the upper Hungarian districts known as the "Upper-Land" or "Горнїца".

The same administrator signed another contract on May15, 1763 with Petro Kiš from Kerestur, to bring in Kocur 150 Rusyn families of Greek-Catholic rite from the same areas in the "Upper-Land".

As population grew and arable land given by contract was limited, many families from Kerestur and Kocur decided to migrate into town of Novi Sad (1766 and 1767) mostly widows and joung girls who found jobs there as maids. Later, Rusyns settled in Šid, Vajska, and in early XIX century in Vukovar and Ilok, today Croatia. In Petrovci (also Croatia), Rusyns started settlement in 1833, in Bacinci 1834 etc.

In whole Bač-Bodroš county (which was southern Hungary and today mostly Banat and Bačka), census from 1767 shows about 2.000 Rusyns. Census from 1991 in the same area, shows about 25.000 Rusyns. Currently, number of panonian Rusyns declines and estimated number is about 15.000.