Boykos

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Ethnic group

title: "Boykos" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["slavic-ethnic-groups", "slavic-highlanders", "carpathians", "ethnic-groups-in-ukraine", "boykos", "ethnic-groups-in-slovakia", "ethnic-groups-in-poland", "ethnic-groups-divided-by-international-borders"] description: "Ethnic group" topic_path: "geography/poland" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boykos" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Ethnic group ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox ethnic group"]

FieldValue
groupBoykos
native_nameбойки
imageBoykos of Maniava.jpg
image_captionBoyko family of Maniava, late 19th century
region1Ukraine
pop1131 (2001)
ref1
region2Poland
pop2258 (2011)
ref2
region3Slovakia
languagesBoyko dialect of Rusyn or Ukrainian language
Slovak
religionsEastern Catholic, Orthodox Christianity
relatedLemkos Hutsuls
::

| group = Boykos | native_name = бойки | image = Boykos of Maniava.jpg | image_caption = Boyko family of Maniava, late 19th century | population = | region1 = Ukraine | pop1 = 131 (2001) | ref1 = | region2 = Poland | pop2 = 258 (2011) | ref2 = | region3 = Slovakia | pop3 = | ref3 = | region4 = | pop4 = | ref4 = | region5 = | pop5 = | ref5 = | region6 = | pop6 = | ref6 = | region7 = | pop7 = | ref7 = | region8 = | pop8 = | ref8 = | region9 = | pop9 = | ref9 = | languages = Boyko dialect of Rusyn or Ukrainian language Slovak | religions = Eastern Catholic, Orthodox Christianity | related = Lemkos Hutsuls

The Boykos or Boikos (; ; ; ), or simply Highlanders (; ), are an ethnolinguistic group located in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Along with the neighbouring Lemkos and Hutsuls, the Boykos are considered a sub-group of Rusyns and speak a distinct East Slavic dialect. Within Ukraine, the Boykos and other Rusyns are seen as a sub-group of ethnic Ukrainians. Boykos differ from their neighbors in dialect, dress, folk architecture, and customs.

Etymology

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Dolyna_local_history_museum_of_Tatiana_and_Omelan_Antonovych_1.jpg" caption="Museum of Boyko Culture, [[Dolyna"] ::

Regarding the origin of the name Boyko there exist several etymological hypotheses, but it is generally considered, as explained by priest Joseph Levytsky in his Hramatyka (1831), that it derives from the particle boiie. Specifically, it derives from the exclamation "бой!, бойє!" (**), meaning "it is really so!", which is often used by the population. The 19th-century scholar Pavel Jozef Šafárik, with whom Franjo Rački and Henry Hoyle Howorth agreed, argued a direct connection of the Boykos with the region of Boiki mentioned in the 10th century De Administrando Imperio, but this thesis is outdated and rejected, as most scholars, Mykhailo Hrushevsky among them, already dismissed it in the 19th century because Boiki is a clear reference to Bohemia, which in turn derives from the Celtic tribe of Boii. The derivation from Boii, is also disputed because there is not enough evidence. They are also called Vrchovints (Highlanders). As in the case of Hutsuls and Lemkos, they are recorded in historical and ethnographic sources since the 18th and 19th century.

Some people otherwise identifiable as Boykos regard that name as derogatory and call themselves highlanders (verkhovyntsi).

Origin

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Map_of_Ukrainian_dialects_en.png" caption="Map of Ukrainian dialects (2005). Boyko dialect (13)"] ::

Boykos are either considered one of the descendants of East Slavic tribes, specifically White Croats who lived in the region, possibly also Ulichs who arrived from the East, or Vlach shepherds who later immigrated from Transylvania.

Demography

In the Boyko Region (, Boyko and ), there lived up to 400,000 people of whom most were Boykos. They also lived in Sanok, Lesko and Przemyśl County of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship in Poland, before the Population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine and the forced relocation of Rusyns and Ukrainians in Poland in 1947. In commemoration of Boykos, Ukraine's national parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in 2016 renamed Telmanove Raion into Boykivske Raion where Boykos were deported from Czarna, Bieszczady County (today in Poland) after the 1951 Polish–Soviet territorial exchange. It is estimated from the evidence available that in 1970 there lived 230,000 people of Boyko origin.

In Ukraine, the classification of Boykos as an ethnicity distinct from Ukrainians is controversial. The deprecated and archaic term Ruthenian, while also derived from Rus', is ambiguous, as it technically may refer to Rusyns and Ukrainians, as well as Belarusians and in some cases Russians, depending on the historical period. According to the 2001 Ukraine census, only 131 people identified themselves as Boykos, separate from Ukrainians. This is also on top of many attempts within the USSR and modern day Ukraine to assimilate the Rusyn people into the modern Ukraine state. In the Polish census of 2011, 258 people stated Boyko as a national-ethnic identity, with 14 of those people listing it as their only national-ethnic identity.

Location

To the west of Boykos live Lemkos, east or southeast Hutsuls, northward Dnistrovyans, Opolyans.

Бойки.png|Areas of Boyko settlement on the border of Ukraine (right) and Poland (left) PogMAP2.png|Ethnographic groups of southeasternmost Poland, Boykos in dark blue. Bojky001.jpg|Boyko family. Dolyna district. 1898 Бойки.jpg|Boyko family. Beginning of the XX century Bojki1837.jpg|Boyko inhabitants of Galicia, lithograph from 1837 Boiko from Beskydy.jpg|Boyko man, 1925–1939. Boykos 2.jpg|Boyko family, prewar. Boykivshchyna (2).jpg|Boyko family, prewar. Tucholka. Bojkiwska chata 1903.jpg|Boyko hut, 1903 Bojkhata.JPG|interior of the Boyko hut. Museum of Culture and Life of Boykivshchyna

Religion

Most Boykos belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with a minority belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The distinctive wooden church architecture of the Boyko region is a three-domed church, with the domes arranged in one line, and the middle dome slightly larger than the others. DrohobychCer3.JPG|St. George's Church in Drohobych File:Krivki church.jpg|A traditional Boyko church in Lviv File:Rosolin, cerkiew św. Onufrego (HB1).jpg|Wooden Church of St. Onuphrius in Rosolin Михайлівська церква (дер.) 1700 р. Вишка 7661-HDR.jpg|Church of Saint Michael in Vyshka Церква Зіслання Святого Духа (1804).jpg|Church of the Pentecost in Verkhnia Rozhanka Гукливий, Церква Св. Духа 2010 (6074).jpg|Holy Spirit Church in Huklyvyi Matkiv.jpg|Saint Demetrius Church in Matkiv

Notable people

References

References

  1. [http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/results/nationality_population/nationality_popul2/select_5/?botton=cens_db&box=5.5W&k_t=00&p=0&rz=1_1&rz_b=2_1&n_page=1 Ukrainian Census 2001]
  2. [http://www.stat.gov.pl/cps/rde/xbcr/gus/LUD_ludnosc_stan_str_dem_spo_NSP2011.pdf Ludność. Stan i struktura demograficzno-społeczna]. Narodowy Spis Ludności i Mieszkań 2011 (National Census of Population and Housing 2011). [[Central Statistical Office (Poland). GUS]]. 2013. p. 264.
  3. (2006). "Encyclopedia of European Peoples". Infobase Publishing.
  4. (25 May 2011). "Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia". Bloomsbury Academic.
  5. [Richard T.Schaefer (ed.), 2008, ''Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, Volume 1'', Sage Publications, p. 1341.
  6. James Stuart Olson, Lee Brigance Pappas & Nicholas Charles Pappas, 1994, ''An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires'', Greenwood Publishing Group, pp. 109–110.
  7. Войналович В.А.. (2003). "БОЙКИ". [[Naukova Dumka]], [[NASU Institute of History of Ukraine]].
  8. Sofiia Rabii-Karpynska. (2013). "Boikos". [[University of Toronto Press]].
  9. Jaroslav Rudnyckyj. (1962–1972). "An Etymological Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language: Parts 1–11, A–G". [[National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
  10. Howorth, H. H.. (1878). "The Spread of the Slaves. Part I. The Croats.". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
  11. Mykhailo Hrushevsky. (1997). "History of Ukraine-Rus'. Volume 1: From Prehistory to the Eleventh Century". Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press.
  12. (1949). "De administrando imperio". Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Görög Filoĺ́ogiai Intézet.
  13. Łowmiański, Henryk. (2004). "Hrvatska pradomovina (Chorwacja Nadwiślańska in Początki Polski)". Maveda.
  14. . (2011). ["Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine"](https://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/1424.pdf).
  15. Вортман Д.Я., Косміна О.Ю.. (2007). "КАРПАТИ КРАЇНСЬКІ". [[Naukova Dumka]], [[NASU Institute of History of Ukraine]].
  16. Magocsi, Paul Robert. (1995). "The Carpatho-Rusyns". Carpatho-Rusyn American.
  17. George Shevelov. (2002). "A Historical Phonology of the Ukrainian Language".
  18. Ісаєвич Я.Д.. (2003). "БОЙКІВЩИНА". [[Naukova Dumka]], [[NASU Institute of History of Ukraine]].
  19. И. А. Бойко. (2016). "БО́ЙКИ". Bolshaya Rossiyskaya Entsiklopediya, [[Russian Academy of Sciences]].
  20. Professor Ivan Pop: ''Encyclopedia of Subcarpathian Ruthenia''(Encyclopedija Podkarpatskoj Rusi). Uzhhorod, 2000.
  21. Paul Robert Magocsi, ''Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture ''. University of Toronto Press, June 2002.
  22. Tom Trier (1998), ''Inter-Ethnic Relations in Transcarpathian Ukraine''

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slavic-ethnic-groupsslavic-highlanderscarpathiansethnic-groups-in-ukraineboykosethnic-groups-in-slovakiaethnic-groups-in-polandethnic-groups-divided-by-international-borders