When, in the seventeenth century, Carpatho-Rusyns began to publish books, they were written either in the vernacular Rusyn speech or in Church Slavonic, a liturgical language (functionally similar to Latin) used by East Slavs and South Slavs who were of an Eastern Christian religious orientation. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Carpatho-Rusyn writers continued to use the Rusyn vernacular, but also began to use Russian and Ukrainian for their literary language. The so-called "language question" was always closely related to the problem of national identity.

Ever since the nineteenth century, Carpatho-Rusyn leaders have argued about their national identity. Some have felt that Rusyns are a branch of the Russians, others that they are a branch of the Ukrainians, still others that they form a distinct central European Carpatho-Rusyn nationality. Each orientation has used language, whether Russian, Ukrainian, or Carpatho-Rusyn, as a means to identify themselves. Today there are only two national orientations--the Rusyn and Ukrainian. The Ukrainian orientation argues that Rusyns are a branch of Ukrainians and that a distinct Carpatho-Rusyn nationality cannot and should not exist.

Since the Revolution of 1989, there has been a Carpatho-Rusyn national revival in all countries where they live, and efforts have been undertaken, especially in Slovakia and Poland, to create a standard Carpatho-Rusyn literary language for use in schools and publications. Rusyns in Serbia's Vojvodina have had a literary language that has been used uninterruptedly in publications and schools ever since the first decades of the twentieth century.

Carpatho-Rusyns have a distinct literary tradition that dates back to the seventeenth century. Regardless of what language writers may have used--Rusyn, Church Slavonic, Russian, Ukrainian--their literary works have embodied the essence of Rusyn life and the mentality of its people. Among the most dominant themes have been a love for what is considered the pristine beauty of the Carpathian mountains and a characterization of Carpatho-Rusyns as a God-fearing and stoical people, who are seemingly destined to be controlled by natural forces and by foreign governments over which the individual has little power or influence. Each Carpatho-Rusyn region has its own literary founding father: Aleksander Duchnovyč (1803-1865) and Aleksander Pavlovyč (1819-1900) for the Prešov Region and Subcarpathian Rus'; Volodymyr Chŷljak (1843-1893) for the Lemko Region; and Gabor Kostel'nik (1886-1948) for the Vojvodina.

Today there are Rusyn-language newspapers, journals, and books in virtually every European country where Carpatho-Rusyns live. The works of playwrights are performed by the professional Aleksander Duchnovyč Theater in Prešov, Slovakia; the semi-professional Djadja Theater in Ruski Kerestur and Novi Sad, Yugoslavia; and the amateur theater of the Lemko Association in Legnica, Poland. The best known current Rusyn-language writers are: in Ukraine--Volodymyr Fedynyšynec', Dmytro Kešelja, Ivan Petrovcij, and Vasyl' Sočka-Boržavyn; in Slovakia--Anna Halgašova, Mykolaj Ksenjak, Marija Mal'covska, and Štefan Suchŷj; in Poland--Olena Duc'-Fajfer, Volodyslav Hraban, Stefanija Trochanovska, and Petro Trochanovskij; in Serbia and Montenegro--Natalija Dudaš, Irina Hardi-Kovačevič, and Djura Papharhaji; and in Hungary--Gabriel Hattinger-Klebaško and Judita Kiš.

Aside from various forms of folk culture, such as embroidery, painted Easter eggs, and folk music and dance performed by professional ensembles in Prešov and Užhorod and by numerous amateur ensembles elsewhere, Carpatho-Rusyns are most noted for an outstanding form of native architecture in the form of wooden churches. Perched on the top of hills, the majority of churches were built in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

During the first half of the twentieth century, Carpatho-Rusyns also created a unique school of painters, the so-called "Subcarpathian Barbizon," of whom the leading figures were Josyf Bokšaj, Adal'bert Erdeli, Fedor Manajlo, and Ernest Kondratovyč. About the same time, Rusyn life in the Lemko Region was captured on canvas by the world-renowned naive artist, Nykyfor Drovnjak. In more recent times, painters like Anton Kaššaj, Andrij Kocka, Volodymyr Mykyta, and the sculptors Mychajlo Belen' and Ivan Brovdij in Transcarpathia, as well as the painters Mychajlo Dubaj, Štefan Hapak, Deziderij Millŷj, and the political satirist Fedor Vico in Slovakia have produced a body of creative work that is filled with themes depicting Carpatho-Rusyn life and its environment.

Several museums exist with permanent exhibits of Carpatho-Rusyn folk art, icons, and painting. The most important and wide-ranging collections are in Svidník and Užhorod, with more specialized museums in Bardejov (icons), Medzilaborce (modern art), Nowy Sącz (icons), and Zyndranowa (on Lemkos). Open-air ethnographic museums (skanzens) with traditional Carpatho-Rusyn domestic architecture are found in Svidník and Užhorod. Similar museums in Bardejovské Kúpele, Humenné, Stará Ľubovňa and Sanok also include examples of Carpatho-Rusyn material culture.

Numerous scholars are engaged in studying the history, language, literature, ethnography, art, and music of Carpatho-Rusyns. Many are connected with scholarly institutions, such as the Institute of Carpathian Studies at Užhorod State University (Ukraine), the Department of Rusyn Language and Culture at Prešov University (Slovakia), the Department of Ukrainian and Rusyn Philology at the Bessenyei Pedagogical Institute (Hungary), the Department of Rusyn Language and Literature at the University of Novi Sad (Serbia and Montenegro), the Society for Rusyn Language and Literature (Serbia and Montenegro), the Division of Lemko-Rusyn Philology at the Academy of Pedagogy in Cracow (Poland), and the Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center (United States). There are as well several scholars outside of the homeland countries who specialize in Carpatho-Rusyn themes, including Luca Calvi (Italy), Aleksander Duličenko (Estonia), Sven Gustavsson (Sweden), Stanislav Konečny (Slovakia), Paul Robert Magocsi (Canada), Ivan Pop (Czech Republic), Elaine Rusinko (United States), and Marc Stegherr (Germany).

Religion
Like their language and culture, Carpatho-Rusyn churches share elements from both the eastern (Slavia Orthodoxa) and western (Slavia Romana) Christian worlds. Religion has remained for Carpatho-Rusyns wherever they live the most important aspect of their lives. This is so much the case that in the popular mind Carpatho-Rusyn culture and identity have often been perceived as synonymous with one of the traditional Carpatho-Rusyn Eastern Christian churches.

The earliest ancestors of the Carpatho-Rusyns believed, like other Slavs, in several gods related to the forces of nature. The most powerful of these pagan gods was Perun, whose name is still preserved in the Carpatho-Rusyn language as a curse. Christianity first was brought to the Carpathians during the second half of the ninth century. Popular legends supported by scholarly writings suggest that Carpatho-Rusyns received Christianity in the early 860s from the "Apostles to the Slavs," Cyril and Methodius, two monks from the Byzantine Empire. As would be the case throughout the Slavic world, several pagan customs practised by Rusyns were easily adapted to the Christian holy days. Thus, the mid-winter festival of koljada was merged with Christmas and Epiphany; the festival of spring with Easter; and the harvest and summer solstice festival of Kupalo with the feast of John the Baptist.

Cyril and Methodius as well as their disciples were from the Byzantine Empire. Therefore, when the Christian church was divided after 1054, the Carpatho-Rusyns remained within the Eastern Orthodox sphere nominally within the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Religious affiliation helped to distinguish Carpatho-Rusyns from their Slovak, Hungarian, and Polish neighbors who were Roman Catholic or Protestant. As Eastern Christians, the Carpatho-Rusyns used Church Slavonic instead of Latin as the language in religious services; followed the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; received both species (leavened bread and wine) at Communion; had married priests; and followed the old Julian calendar so that fixed feasts like Christmas eventually fell two weeks later than the western Gregorian calendar, on January 7. The Carpatho-Rusyns were distinguished as well from fellow East Slavic Christians (Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians) by certain practices and rituals borrowed from their Latin-rite neighbors, but in particular by their liturgical music. That music, still in use today, consists primarily of congregational and cantorial singing (no organ or other instrument is permitted). Based on traditional East Slavonic chants and influenced by local folk melodies, it is known as Carpathian plain chant (prostopinije).

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