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Czechoslovakia Soviet Annexation of Carpatho-Ukraine (Subcarpathian Ruthenia)
On May 8, 1944, Benes signed an agreement with Soviet leaders
stipulating that Czechoslovak territory liberated by Soviet
armies would be placed under Czechoslovak civilian control.
Subcarpathian Ruthenia had been reconstituted into the autonomous
Carpatho-Ukraine during the Second Republic. When the Second
Republic collapsed, Carpatho-Ukraine declared its independence
but was occupied by the Hungarians
(see Second Republic, 1938-39
, this ch.). In October 1944, Carpatho-Ukraine was taken by the
Soviets. A Czechoslovak delegation under Frantisek Nemec was
dispatched to the area. The delegation was to mobilize the
liberated local population to form a Czechoslovak army and to
prepare for elections in cooperation with recently established
national committees. Loyalty to a Czechoslovak state was tenuous
in Carpatho-Ukraine. Benes's proclamation of April 1944 excluded
former collaborationist Hungarians, Germans, and the Russophile
Ruthenian followers of Andrej Brody and the Fencik Party (who had
collaborated with the Hungarians) from political participation.
This amounted to approximately one-third of the population.
Another one-third was communist, leaving one-third of the
population presumably sympathetic to the Czechoslovak Republic.
Upon arrival in Carpatho-Ukraine, the Czechoslovak delegation
set up headquarters in Khust and on October 30 issued a
mobilization proclamation. Soviet military forces prevented both
the printing and the posting of the Czechoslovak proclamation and
proceeded instead to organize the local population. Protests from
Benes's government went unheeded. Soviet activities led much of
the local population to believe that Soviet annexation was
imminent.
The Czechoslovak delegation was also prevented from
establishing a cooperative relationship with the local national
committees promoted by the Soviets. On November 19, the
communists, meeting in Mukachevo, issued a resolution requesting
separation of Carpatho-Ukraine from Czechoslovakia and
incorporation into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. On
November 26, the Congress of National Committees unanimously
accepted the resolution of the communists. The congress elected
the National Council and instructed that a delegation be sent to
Moscow to discuss union. The Czechoslovak delegation was asked to
leave Carpatho-Ukraine.
Negotiations between the Czechoslovak government and Moscow
ensued. Both Czech and Slovak communists encouraged Benes to cede
Carpatho-Ukraine. The Soviet Union agreed to postpone annexation
until the postwar period to avoid compromising Benes's policy
based on the pre-Munich frontiers. The treaty ceding CarpathoUkraine to the Soviet Union was signed in June 1945. Czechs and
Slovaks living in Carpatho-Ukraine and Ukrainians (Ruthenians)
living in Czechoslovakia were given the choice of Czechoslovak or
Soviet citizenship.
Data as of August 1987
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