[PEN-L:6108] trans-Carpathian Ukraine

["J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

     In responding to Louis P. yesterday (or was it
the day before?) I misspoke.  "Carpatho-Ukraine"
is not a completely ridiculous location, but the more
precisely correct current term is "trans-Carpathian
Ukraine," namely the part of Ukraine that is actually
south of the Carpathian mountains and hence on the
other side of them from the rest of Ukraine.
      This is the region that was briefly an autonomous
Ruthenian state in 1939 under Hitler's patrimony, before
it was given to the allied Hrorthy government of Hungary,
Hungary having controlled the region under Austro-
Hungarian rule prior to World War I.  Between the wars
it was part of Czechoslovakia, but attached to the Slovak
part, not the Czech part, Rob Schaap, :-).
      An element of tragedy about this region is that it was
once one of the most ethnically diverse places in all of
Europe, with its capital of Uzhgorod being almost like
Sarajevo in that regard.  The diversity showed up at the
village level with different villages having different characters,
with them being all mixed up as in much else of Central Europe.
Although the Ruthenians were the largest group, other groups
there in significant numbers included Slovaks, Ukrainians,
Hungarians, Gypsies, Jews, Germans, and Romanians.
Many of these are no longer there, for reasons that do not
need to be explained to this list.
     After the post World War II annexation by the Soviet
Union (with incorporation into the Soviet republic of the
Ukraine), this zone became the place where the Soviet
Union shared a common boundary with Hungary.  It was
through Uzhgorod that the Soviet military moved in 1956
to suppress the Hungarian uprising.  It was also through
Uzhgorod very recently that the Russian humanitarian
mission to Yugoslavia was going that was blocked for
several days (and parts of it were permanently blocked)
by the Hungarians.  How things change...
Barkley Rosser