Witnesses to Interwar Subcarpathian Rus’: The Sojourns of Petr Bogatyrev and Ivan Olbracht by Slavicist Patricia A. Krafcik is a major, must-read contribution to the ever-burgeoning corpus of Carpatho-Rusyn studies. Brilliantly researched, organized, and written, Witnesses documents the studies of interwar Czechoslovakia’s most ethnically diverse province by ethnographer and folklorist Petr G. Bogatyrev (1893–1971) and writer-journalist Ivan Olbracht (Kamil Zeman, 1882–1952).

Edward Kasinec, Stanford University

This is a beautifully delineated tale about two individuals who explored a remote mountain land in the heart of Europe, discovering there an intriguing blend of ancient Slavic culture and Christianity. Krafcik’s thorough investigation of their lives and works is a wonderful contribution to our understanding of how scholars’ personalities and backgrounds influence the lenses through which they see society and culture. Krafcik offers readers a thought-provoking journey in which a fascinating intersection of East and West inspires theoretical interpretations as well as contemplation of ethnic and national identities. Biographical treatment of Bogatyrev and Olbracht, for the first time available in English, is an invaluable source for anyone interested in the history of scholarly inquiry and the understanding of other cultures. A captivating story about theory and politics, magic and tradition, clash of cultures and a vanishing old world!

Tatiana Bužeková, Comenius University

Krafcik has written an eminently readable and impressively documented book about Subcarpathian Rus’, a far-eastern province of interwar Czechoslovakia. Much more than a geographical and historical primer on this little-known region, where the Slavic East meets West, this book offers the reader an intimate familiarity with the life and times of its denizens. Krafcik accomplishes this with the help of two outsiders who became insiders, the Czech journalist and prosaist Ivan Olbracht and the Russian ethnographer and theoretician Petr Bogatyrev, whose works introduce us both to the Carpatho-Rusyns and to their neighbors, the Hasidic Jews. Krafcik’s attention to the Jewish population, their religious practices and political orientations, is particularly noteworthy.

Robert A. Rothstein, University of Massachusetts Amherst

This comparative and interdisciplinary study of two prominent cultural figures from interwar Czechoslovakia (the Czech Communist Olbracht and the Russian émigré Bogatyrev) provides an erudite yet highly engaging description of one of Central Europe’s least-known regions during a period of great social change. This book's detailed attention to Carpatho-Rusyn and Hasidic Jewish cultural traditions as those writers experienced them is particularly timely as an example of the national diversity within the territory of today’s Ukraine.

Charles Sabatos, author of Frontier Orientalism and the Turkish Image in Central European Literature

This is a story of how two outsiders to the region—one Russian, one Czech—came to penetrate the mountainous Czechoslovak hinterland known as Subcarpathian Rus’ (today a part of Ukraine) and to study the fascinating folklore and enchanted life worlds of its inhabitants. Steeped in knowledge gleaned from sources in seven languages, the author of Witnesses to Interwar Subcarpathian Rus' takes readers on a journey of discovery of both Petr Bogatyrev and Ivan Olbracht and their scholarly and literary contributions while also bringing to life this bygone world, home to simple Slavic peasants and Hasidic Jews, brigands, and bears.

Patrice Dabrowski, author of The Carpathians: Discovering the Highlands of Poland and Ukraine

Krafcik’s book is a compelling exploration of the interwar years in Subcarpathian Rus’. Rather than a quantitative data-driven analysis, the author takes a cultural approach that builds on personal accounts and lived realities. Through the subjective perceptions of ethnographer Petr Bogatyrev and writer Ivan Olbracht, Krafcik introduces the place and its people in an engaging manner that captures the reader’s interest and stimulates further exploration.

Elaine Rusinko, author of Straddling Borders: Literature and Identity in Subcarpathian Rus'