Carpathian Ukraine in the Central European Political Crisis on the Eve of World War Ii (1938-1939)

CARPATHIAN UKRAINE IN THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN POLITICAL CRISIS ON THE EVE OF WORLD WAR II (1938-1939) Collective monograph Lviv-Toruń Liha-Pres 2020 DOI 10.36059/978-966-397-212-1 Reviewers: Prof. nadzw., dr hab. Stanisław Kunikowski, Rektor of Cuiavian University in Wloclawek (Republic of Poland); Prof. dr hab. Joanna Marszałek-Kawa, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu / Nicolaus Copernicus University (Republic of Poland). Carpathian Ukraine in the Central European political crisis on the eve of World War II : collective monograph / M. M. Vehesh, M. M. Palinchak, V. V. Marchuk, N. M. Kontsur-Karabinovych etc. – Lviv-Toruń : Liha-Pres, 2020. – 220 p. ISBN 978-966-397-212-1 The monograph reveals the multifaceted and multidimensional process of democratic transit. The specific sections focus on the priority problems of modern democracy. Creating a secure space for the existence and development of states is analyzed as a guarantee of the success of democratic transformations. The essence of security in the context of the hybrid nature of political processes is characterized. The specifics of conflicts in the modern world are highlighted. The peculiarities inherent in the legal, political, cultural, ethno-national dimensions of democratic transit are investigated. The basic signs of democratization on the examples of Ukraine and some foreign countries are clarified. Liha-Pres is an international publishing house which belongs to the category „C” according to the classification of Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE) [isn: 3943, 1705, 1704, 1703, 1702, 1701; prefixMetCode: 978966397]. Official website – www.sense.nl. ISBN 978-966-397-212-1 © Liha-Pres, 2020 CONTENTS Information about the authors ............................................................1 Introduction ..........................................................................................2 Part 1. Carpathian Ukraine: from autonomy to independence ..............5 Part 2. Carpathian Ukraine in the international relations: from the Munich Conference to the Vienna Arbitration ...................... 31 Part 3. Hungarian and Polish terrorists in Carpathian Ukraine ........... 57 Part 4. Activity of the Hungarian agents in Carpathian Ukraine ......... 81 Part 5. Illegal crossings of the Polish-Czechoslovak border and Carpathian Ukraine ............................................................................ 107 Part 6. International support of Carpathian Ukraine by the organizations of Ukrainian emigration ............................................... 136 Part 7. Tragedy of Czechoslovakia and Carpathian Ukraine ............. 161 Conclusions ....................................................................................... 179 References ......................................................................................... 183 iii iv INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHORS Vehesh Mykola Mykolayovych – Head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Uzhgorod National University, Doctor of History, Professor (introduction, Part 1, conclusions). Palinchak Mykola Mykhailovych – Dean of the Faculty of International Economic Relations, Uzhgorod National University, Doctor of Political Science, Professor (Part 2). Marchuk Vasyl Vasyliovych – Head of the Department of Political Institutes and Processes, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Doctor of History, Professor (Part 3). Kontsur-Karabinovych Natalia Mykolaivna – PhD in History, Associate Professor of the Department of Social Sciences, Ivano- Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas (Part 4). Korolko Andriy Zinovijovych – PhD in History, Associate Professor of the Department of History of Ukraine, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Part 5). Vehesh Ihor Mykolayovych – PhD in Political Science, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Uzhgorod National University (Part 6). Marchuk Natalia Vasylivna – Director of the EU Information Center, PhD in Political Science, Associate Professor of the Department of Journalism, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Part 7). 1 INTRODUCTION The formation of the Carpatho-Ukrainian state was the result of many years of activity of the Ukrainian patriotic forces in all spheres of social and political life. However, we should mention that the short-lived existence of an autonomous, and subsequently independent Transcarpathian region (Subcarpathian Rus’, Carpathian Ukraine) coincided with the acute political crisis in Central Europe that took place on the eve of World War II. It is natural that the international factor made its mark on the socio-political processes that took place in Europe in general, and in Czechoslovakia and Transcarpathia, as an integral part of it, in particular. Despite the complexity of the international situation at that time, Transcarpathia won the autonomous rights and built its statehood in alliance with the Czechs and Slovaks. Clarification of these and some other problems, an objective and comprehensive study of the place and role of Carpathian Ukraine in the context of the Central European political crisis before the Second World War deserves a special research. The situation of Carpathian Ukraine in the late 1930s should be considered in two respects: as a subject of political processes that took place in Central Europe on the eve of World War II, and as one of the stages of the struggle of Ukrainian people for the restoration of their statehood, taking into account such fact that here we can talk only about a separate part of the Ukrainian lands. Twenty years of being a part of the democratic Czechoslovak Republic has created optimal conditions for the diverse national and cultural development of Transcarpathia, though it is not necessary to idealize it. Owing to the active work of the Ukrainian parties, societies and individual socio-cultural figures, the national consciousness of the people in Transcarpathia grew up, the people who, in fact, underwent a peculiar evolution from the Hungarian Ruthenians to the Transcarpathian Ukrainians, to the self-awareness of their identity, to the idea of political unity with all Carpathian people. 2 Czechoslovakia’s attitude to Transcarpathia and to the Ukrainian problem in general differed significantly from the policy on the Ukrainian idea of other European countries, especially Poland. This fact undoubtedly contributed to A. Voloshyn’s clear Ukrainian course, albeit with a focus on German patronage, and the Transcarpathian autonomous governments received comprehensive support from Ukrainians in Eastern Galicia, European countries, the United States and Canada, who saw in that autonomous state the embryo of united Ukraine. Researching of this problem has got an indisputably scientific meaning. The small branch of the Ukrainian people, having received material and moral support from the Ukrainian emigration, causing wonder in all over the world, became able to carry out to some extent their own internal and foreign policy, which resulted in an attempt to form a Ukrainian statehood. This was not possible for the Ukrainians who were under totalitarian regime in the USSR, who were in Poland and Romania. The relevance of this study is also determined by the need to debunk the claims of modern neo-Ruthenian theorists who question the region’s belonging to Ukraine. They deny in every way the regularity of the political processes that took place here in 1918-1919 and, especially in the late 1930s, they attempt to prove that the idea of independence of Carpathian Ukraine was brought to Transcarpathia from outside, in particular from Galicia. The sources from a number of national and foreign archives have arguably proved all the baselessness and pseudoscience character of such separatist interpretations. On the contrary, these sources convince that Carpathian Ukraine was a creation of local factors, although it was influenced by a number of international and internal factors. The chronological boundaries of the research cover the period from September- October 1938, when the political forces of Transcarpathia intensified their activity in the struggle for autonomous rights and soon acquired them, until the end of March 1939 – the proclamation of independence of Carpathian Ukraine and the initial period of occupation of the land by the troops of the 3 Horthy’s Hungary. In order to trace the regularity and systematic nature of certain processes (the activities of the Hungarian irredentism in Transcarpathia), an excursion into the past is made. In 1938-1939, the Ukrainian people of Transcarpathia once again became convinced that only an independent Ukraine could guarantee the security of the region. On this basis, it will be undisputed that the existence of Carpathian Ukraine as an autonomous, and subsequently independent state has accelerated the process of reunification of all Ukrainian lands in a single state mechanism. An attempt to answer the above-mentioned problematic questions gives an opportunity to fill a significant gap in the history of Ukraine, allows us to approach in a new way a number of problems of national history. 4 DOI https://doi.org/10.36059/978-966-397-212-1/5-30 PART 1. CARPATHIAN UKRAINE: FROM AUTONOMY TO INDEPENDENCE On May 8, 1919 the Rus’ Central People’s Council in Uzhgorod decided to incorporate Transcarpathia into Czechoslovakia as an autonomy. This act fulfilled the requirement of the American Ruthenians, who on November

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