The book shows the mechanisms of the functioning of the competing Lemko political orientations in Poland between 1918 and 1939: Old Rusyns, Moscophiles and National Movement Activists. It discusses the connections of the Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches with the political, cultural, educational and economic life of the Lemko Region, as well as the ethnic policy of Polish governments towards Lemkos.

Jaroslaw Moklak is a historian employed in the Institute of History at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and in the Institute of International Relations at the East European State Higher School in Przemysl. He specialises in the 19th and 20th century history of Ukraine and the history of Galicia and the Lemko Region; he also researches the Ukrainian parliamentary and education systems. He is a co-founder of the Carpatho-Slavic Studies Group (New Haven, Connecticut) and cooperates with the Carpathian Institute (Higganum, Connecticut). He is a member of the Commission on Eastern Europe of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (Krakow) and the founder and editor in chief of the magazine New Ukraine. A Journal of History and Politics (Kraków-Przemysl).