Zakarpatia

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Zakarpatya Picture Albums

Rakhiv (Rakhov)

Mountain Routes In The Carpathians

About Zakarpatia
Zakarpattia was part of Austria-Hungary until the latter's demise at the end of World War I. This region was occupied by Romania at end of 1918 but recaptured by Hungary in the summer of 1919. Finally it joined the newly formed Czechoslovakia, of which it formed one of the four main regions, the others being Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.

During the World war II Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, the southern part of the region was awarded to Hungary under the First Vienna Award in 1938. The remaining portion was constituted as an autonomous region of the short-lived Second Chechoslovak Republic. After the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia on March 15, 1939 and the Slovak declaration of an independent state, Ruthenia declared its independence (Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine) but it was immediately occupied by Hungary and annexed to that country. During the German occupation of Hungary in 1944, almost the entire Jewish population was deported; few survived the Holocaust. When the Soviet Army crossed the pre-1938 borders of Czechoslovakia in 1944, Soviet authorities refused to allow Czechoslovak governmental officials to resume control over the region, and in June 1945, President Edvard Beneš formally signed a treaty ceding the area to the USSR. It then became part of the Ukrainian SSR. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, it became part of independent Ukraine as the Zakarpattia Oblast.

The province has a unique footnote in history as the only region in the former Soviet Union to have had an American governor: its first governor was Gregory Zhatkovich, an American citizen who had earlier emigrated from the region and represented the Ruthenian community in the U.S. Zhatkovich was appointed governor by Czechoslovakia's first president, Tomáš Masaryk, in 1920 and served for about one year until he resigned over differences regarding the region's autonomy.

Territorial claims

There were suggestions prior to 1993 of the region rejoining Czechoslovakia, but this issue has been rendered largely moot with the latter's break-up. The current estimated population is 1.2 million people.

Although ethnic Ukrainians are in majority here (80.5%), other ethnic groups are relatively numerous in Zakarpattia. The largest of these are Hungarians (12.1%), Romanians (2.6%), Russians (2.5%), Roma (1.1%), Slovaks (0.5%) and Germans (0.3%). Their languages and culture are respected by the provision of education, clubs, etc. in their respective languages. Zakarpattia is home to approximately 14,000 ethnic Roma (otherwise known as Gypsies), the largest population of Roma in Ukraine). The first Hungarian College in Ukraine is in Berehovo, the II. Rákoczi Ferenc College. The Rusyn people living in Ukraine are not recognised as a distinct nation but rather as an ethnic group of Ukrainians. About 10,100 people (0.8%) identify themselves as Rusyns according to the last census

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