Evening star., 1945-05-21
Rutheniu to the U. S. S. R.

SAi dAl1IouliCCulCllb ny LuCllch
Fierlinger, Premier of the restored
government of Czechoslovakia,
makes it virtually certain that the
easternmost province of that re-
public, known variously as Ruthenia,
Uhro-Rusinia or Carpatho- Ukraine,
will soon be incorporated as a new
member of the Soviet Union. The
text of this announcement is we'll
worth noting. The Prime Minister
said: "The population of the Car
pathian Ukraine are Ukrainians
speaking the language of the peas
ants of the Poltava and Kharkov
regions. They have now formed
their own autonomous government,
which expressed their desire to join
the Soviet Union, but in the mean
time still recognize the authority
of our government. President 9enes
and our government wish to settle
the question of the Carpathian
Ukraine with Moscow in the most
friendly atmosphere, taking into
consideration the true wishes ex-
pressed by the local population,
who have been liberated by the Red
Army last January"
Behind these amicable words lies
an interesting tale of power politics.
Ruthenia is an elongated belt of
forested upland with an area of
12,600 square miles approximately
the combined size of Massachusetts
and Connecticut) and with a popu-
lation estimated before the war at
about 100000. Geographically it
forms part of the great Hungarian
plain and was part of the old Austro-
Hungarian Empire before World'War
I. However, the bulk of it's popu-
lation is of Ukrainian stock, the re-
suit of an ancient migratio through
the one easy pass over the towering
Carpathian Mountain wall which
separates Ruthenia from the still
greater plains of Eastern Europe to
the northWard
At the Versailles peace settlement
the newly created Czechoslovak
state claimed Ruthenia for frankly
politico-strategic reasons. Dismem-
bered Hungary was the common foe
of all who had profted by it's par
tition. The other benefciaries were
Romania and Yugoslavia. They were
already In direct contact, but Ru-
thenia interposed a gap between
Romania and Czechoslovakia So
Czechoslovakia asked and got Ru-
thenla to forge an unbroken ring
OF the victors around Hungary to
guard against its spirit of revenge.
This was hard on the Ruthenians,
who had their natural market in
Hungary Shut off by a tariff wall
and who could not readily trade with
the rest of Czechoslovakia because
the mountains likewise ran the
wrong way.
Having no natural ties to con-
meet them with the CzechosIovaks.
1t is not surprising that when the
Red armies elected the Germans
and Hungarians who had occupied
the country after the dissolution of
preWar Czechoslovakia, the local
population should have been recep-
tive to propaganda urging them to
join their Ukrainian relatives in
the Soviet Union. Neither was it
possible for the Czechos1ovak gov
ernment in exile, dependent as it
was upon Russian support, to make
any opposition to Moscow's determi-
nation to include all outlying fringes
of Russian stock within the Soviet
Union, whether in Czechoslovakia
Poland or elsewhere. President
Benes and his Premier, Fierlinger.
have therefore bowed as gracefully
as possible to the inevitable, and the
Soviet Union will soon be ensconced
south of the Carpathians in the
Central European plain. Thus. in
advance of general European post
war settlement, another change is
about to be effected, this time tech
nlcally by bilateral action.