Carpathian Ukraine, Transcarpathia

Ukrainian: Закарпатська область, transliteration: Zakarpats'ka Oblast'

Hungarian: Kárpátalja; Slovak, Czech: Podkarpatská Rus; Romanian: Regiunea Transcarpatia

The area comprises the Zakarpats’ka Oblast (administrative centre: Ungvar/Užhorod) in western Ukraine. The region is separated from the rest of Ukraine by the Carpathian Mountains; it borders Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

The oblast covers an area of 12,777 km²; it stretches from the lowlands of the Tisza Valley (Romanian and Slovak: Tisa; Hungarian: Tisza) in the south-west to the north-eastern Carpathians.

Until 1918, the region was known as ‘North-Eastern Hungary’ or ‘Eastern Upper Hungary’ (Északkeleti Felvidék) and comprised the Hungarian counties of Ung, Bereg, Ugocsa andMáramaros (Máramarosch). The region’s boundaries only became clearly defined after its incorporation into Czechoslovakia (1919) under the name Subcarpathian Rus (Podkarpatská Rus). The region’s current boundaries have been in place since 1946.

Slavic and Avar settlements were established in the early Middle Ages. Following the Hungarian conquest in the late 9th and early 10th centuries, the region became part of Hungary. In the 14th century, the Ruthenian prince Fyodor Koryatovich settled in Munkács/Mukačeve.

The Zakarpats'ka Oblast' is divided into five cities with district status (Ungvar, Mukachevo, Bergsass, Khust and Čop) and 13 districts (raions).

The mountains of Carpathian Ukraine have traditionally been inhabited by Rusyns, a sub-group of Ukrainians. Following the First World War, and particularly after the Second World War, their proportion of the urban population also rose sharply. Together with the rest of the Ukrainians and the Russians, the local Rusyns form the majority in the towns of Ungvar, Munkács and Huszt, and a significant minority in Bergsaß.

The largest minority in the region, the Hungarians, live in the lowlands in the south-west. On the eve of the First World War, all the towns in the region were predominantly inhabited by Hungarians; since then, their proportion has been steadily declining. At present, Bergsaß is the only town with a (relative) Hungarian majority; in Munkatsch and Ungwar, their proportion has fallen below ten per cent. Nevertheless, Hungarians form the absolute majority in the Bergsaß district and a large minority in the districts of Ungwar and Vinograd.

From the Middle Ages onwards, and particularly in the 18th century, German-speaking settlers from Main-Franconia, Lower and Upper Austria and the Bohemian Forest migrated to the region. Two linguistic enclaves formed in Palanka near Munkács and in the Teresva Valley near Hust. Unlike in Hungarian regions such as the Banat or Transdanubia, no major German settlements emerged in Carpathian Ukraine. Without compact settlement areas or national institutions, many Germans were absorbed into the Hungarian nation. The 1930 census recorded 13,804 Germans.^[1] Their numbers fell dramatically after the Second World War. Many emigrated to Germany, whilst others were resettled in the Donets Basin, Siberia and Kazakhstan. Their unconditional return to Carpathian Ukraine was not permitted until 1974. In 1989, 3,478 Germans were registered in the region; in 2001, the figure was 3,582.^[2]

From the 18th century onwards, Jewish immigrants from Galicia and Russia also left their mark on the region. They were active in retail trade, the service sector and manufacturing. The Jewish population (approx. 110,000 people) was murdered during the Second World War; a few survivors emigrated to the USA and Israel.

A Romanian minority lives in the south, near the Romanian border (32,000 people in 2001), and a Slovak minority lives in the west, near Ungvar (5,700 people in 2001).

Table 1: Ethnic composition (in %) in the present-day territory of Carpathian Ukraine, 1880–2001.^[3]

For centuries, Carpathian Ukraine was an underdeveloped, predominantly agricultural region on the periphery. Economic modernisation did not take place until the interwar period. After the Second World War, the timber and food industries, as well as mechanical engineering, developed particularly strongly. Nevertheless, the region has remained, to this day, a predominantly agricultural area characterised by livestock farming and forestry. Tourism in the mountains now also plays an important economic role.

To this day, the region is characterised by a rural settlement pattern; the two largest towns, Ungvar and Munkács, are situated in the south-western lowlands.

The Christian Germans were mainly engaged in agriculture. The Yiddish-speaking Jewish community was active in retail trade, finance and the service sector.

During the interwar period, regional politics was largely characterised by opposition. Alongside the strong Communist movement, nationalist parties emerged: pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian Rusyns, Hungarians and Jews.

During the Middle Ages, the Russian population predominantly belonged to the Orthodox Church. In 1646, the Greek Catholic Church was established through the Union of Ungvar. It was banned by the Soviet authorities in 1949 and forcibly united with the Russian Orthodox Church. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was re-established, though the majority of the faithful remained within the Orthodox Church. The Hungarian-speaking population belongs to the Reformed Church (with its seat in Bergsaß) and the Roman Catholic Church (Diocese of Munkács).

The Jews of Carpathian Ukraine are almost exclusively Orthodox Hasidim. The only exception was a liberal community in Ungvar. The largest and most important Jewish community was established in Munkács, where Jews made up half the population on the eve of the First World War. At present, there are still six small Jewish communities.

The State University of Ungvar (Užhorodskyj Deržavnyj Universitet) was founded in 1945. Since 1996, there has been a Hungarian university of applied sciences in Bergsaß, funded by the Hungarian government, which specialises in teacher training (II. Rákóczi Ferenc Kárpátaljai Magyar Főiskola). There are no German-speaking schools.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, there has been a slight increase in the German population between 1989 and 2001. In the 1990s, a number of German associations were founded (‘Wiedergeburt’, ‘Hoffnung’). The Council of Germans in Ukraine has branches in Munkács and Hust. There are no independent German-language media outlets; the regional radio and television station Tisa 1 broadcasts a German-language programme twice a week.

Since the 1990s, several monuments dedicated to national minorities have been erected (the Masaryk Monument in Ungvar, and the Hungarian ‘land seizure’ monuments in Munkács and on the Vereckyj Pass); however, there are no German monuments amongst them.

The idea of an independent Carpatho-Ukraine is based on the Rusyn national ideology and has been discussed on several occasions since the First World War. Apart from a few intellectuals, however, it found hardly any supporters. The region’s self-determination has been repeatedly proclaimed since 1991, and several governments have been formed – albeit unsuccessfully. Despite an intensive census campaign, only around 10,000 people declared themselves to be Rusyns in 2001.

• Viktória Bányai, Csilla Fedinec, Szonja Ráhel Komoróczy (eds.): Jews in Transcarpathia. History and Heritage [Jews in Transcarpathia. History and Heritage]. Budapest 2013 (Hungaria judaica 30).
• Čilla Fedinec, Mykola Veheš (eds.): Zakarpattja 1919–2009 rokiv. Istorija, polityka, kul’tura [Carpathian Ukraine 1919–2009. History, Politics, Culture]. Uzhhorod 2010.
• Stephan Gaisbauer, Hermann Scheuringer (eds.): Carpathian Berries. Bavarian-Austrian Settlement, Culture and Language in the Ukrainian-Romanian Forest Carpathians. Linz 2006 (Writings on Literature and Language in Upper Austria 10, 1).
• Yeshayahu A. Jelinek: The Carpathian Diaspora. The Jews of Subcarpathian Rus’ and Mukachevo 1848–1948. New York 2007 (East European Monographs 721).
• Jurij Anatolovich Lebenec: Zakarpattja v etnopoliticnomu vimiri [Carpathian Ukraine in an Ethnopolitical Context]. Kyiv 2008.
• Paul Robert Magocsi: The Shaping of a National Identity. Subcarpathian Rus’, 1848–1948. Cambridge 1978 (Harvard Ukrainian Series).
• Paul Robert Magocsi, Ivan Pop (eds.): *Encyclopaedia of Rusyn History and Culture*. Toronto 2002.
• Mária Mayer: The Rusyns of Hungary. Political and Social Developments, 1860–1910. New York 1997 (East European Monographs 490).
• Georg Melika: The Germans of Transcarpathian Ukraine. The origins and development of their settlements and way of life in a multi-ethnic region. Marburg 2002 (Publications of the Commission for German and East European Folklore within the German Society for Folklore e. V. 84).
• Athanasius B. Pekar: The History of the Church in Carpathian Rus’. New York 1992 (East European Monographs 322).
• Aleksei L. Petrov (ed.): Medieval Carpathian Rus’. The Oldest Documentation on the Carpatho-Rusyn Church and Eparchy, 1391–1498. New York 1998 (East European Monographs 491).
• Andrej I. Puskas: Civilisation or Barbarism. Transcarpathia 1918–1945. Moscow 2006.

• www.carpatho-rusyn.org (Russian database)
• www.carpathia.gov.ua (Administration of Zakarpats’ka Oblast)

[1] Melika: The Germans, p. 130.

[2] Svitlana Mel’nik, Stepan Černičko: Movna polityka v nezaležniy Ukrajini [Language Policy in Independent Ukraine]. In: Čilla Fedinec, Mykola Veheš (eds.): Zakarpattya 1919–2009. History, Politics, Culture. Uzhhorod 2010. p. 693.

[3] Stepan Černičko: The Status of Languages in Various Historical Epochs. In: Fedinec, Veheš: Zakarpattya, p. 632.

Bálint Varga: Carpathian Ukraine. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2014. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/54128.html (accessed 10 December 2014).