Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia (sometimes called Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia) lies in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. It had been detached from Hungary during its dismemberment by the plutocratic Western Allies, and in the Treaty of Trianon, 10 September 1919, was awarded to the new artificial State[1][2][3] of Czechoslovakia. The inhabitants were not consulted about their fate.
In 1928 its population was estimated at 400,000 Ruthenians (or Little Russians), 180,000 Hungarians, 40,000 ethnic Germans, and about 100,000 Jews. the country was divided into three sections: there is a rich level agricultural land in the south producing wheat and sugar-beet. Nearer the foothills of the Carpathians, sheltered from the northern and esatern winds, are some of the finest vineyards of Old Hungary. Further east, where the peninsular narrowed, the ground is less fertile - the crops are chiefly potatoes, rye, and maize; while near the impenetrable wall of the Carpathians the real but primitive Ruthenians numbering about 80,000 reside in Verchovina. Prior to their transfer to Czechoslovakia, Carpathian Ruthenia was fully integrated into the Hungarian economy.
The Czechs oppressed the Ruthenians as they did the Germans and Slovakians and following the cession of the Sudetenland to Germany in the Munich Agreement, and the declaration of Slovakia's independence on 14th March 1939, the French Ambassador in Berlin, writing to Georges Bonnet, France's Minister for Foreign Affairs the same day, declared that Slovakia's independence has "broken up the framework of the Czecho-Slovak federal State.......Events in Slovakia have had an immediate repercussion in Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia where Prime Minister Volosin has also proclaimed independence and requested German protection (which was declined[4]), saying "in view of the declaration of independence by Slovakia it is impossible for the Ruthenian people to remain within the federative union of the Czechoslovak State".[5] "Indeed as the result of clashes with the Czech forces, Hungarian troops have already entered Ruthenian territory"[6] at 6 a.m. The Hungarian Foreign Minister told the German Ambassador in Budapest that the Hungarian Government would grant autonomy to Carpathian-Ruthenia.[7]
After World War II the Soviet Union refused to recognize the 1938 reversion of Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia to Hungary and kept it themselves, illegal in international law.
Sources
- ↑ Donald, G.B.E., LL.B., Sir Robert,The Tragedy of Trianon, London, 1928, pps: 25-6, 57-8.
- ↑ de Colonna, Count Bertram, Czecho-Slovakia Within, London, 1938, p.9.
- ↑ Taylor, A.J.P., The Origins of the Second World War, London, 1961, p.201.
- ↑ German Documents, 1951, p.275-6
- ↑ Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945, by an editorial board, Dept., of State, Washington, U.S.A., 1951, Series D, vol.iv, pps:250-1 and 254.
- ↑ The French Yellow Book (1938-1939), published by the French Government, English-language edition, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1939, p.73-4.
- ↑ German Documents, 1951, p.280.
- Donald, G.B.E., LL.B., Sir Robert, The Tragedy of Trianon, London, 1928, chapter XIV: "Czech betrayal of Ruthenians", pps:130-147; 151-155.
