Anthracite Coal Region's Slavic Community - Hardcoverby Brian Ardan (Author) Beginning in the latter half of the 19th century, individuals identifying themselves as Poles, Slovaks, Carpatho Rusyns, Ukrainians, and others began what would eventually become a mass influx of eastern and central Europeans into Pennsylvania's anthracite coal mining region. These people brought with them languages and customs quite alien to the longer established groups that had settled the area many years earlier. At times