page_title: Carpathian Ruthenia
section_title: Transitional period (1918–1919)
hierarchical_section_title: Carpathian Ruthenia / History / Transitional period (1918–1919)
caption_attribution_description: English: Gregory Žatkovich signing the Declaration of Common Aims at Independence Hall, Phila. PA
context_page_description: Carpathian Ruthenia, Carpatho-Ukraine or Zakarpattia is a historic region in the border between Central and Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast, with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia and Lemkivshchyna in Poland. In the Middle Ages it was part of Kievan Rus'. Before World War I most of this region was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. In the interwar period, it was part of the First and Second Czechoslovak Republic. During World War II, the region was annexed by the Kingdom of Hungary once again. After the war, it was occupied by the USSR and became part of Soviet Ukraine.
  It is an ethnically diverse region, inhabited mostly by Ukrainians, with Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, Rusyn, Slovak, Lemko, Polish minorities. It also has small Hutsul, Jewish and Romani minorities.
context_section_description: After World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed and the region was briefly (in 1918 and 1919) claimed as part of the independent West Ukraine Republic. However, the region was, for most of this period controlled by the newly formed independent Hungarian Democratic Republic, with a short period of West Ukrainian control.
  On November 8, 1918, the first National Council (the Lubovňa Council, which was later reconvened as the Prešov Council) was held in western Ruthenia. The first of many councils, it simply stated the desire of its members to separate from the newly formed Hungarian state but did not specify a particular alternative — only that it must involve the right to self-determination.
  Over the next months, councils met every few weeks, calling for various solutions. Some wanted to remain part of Hungarian state but with greater autonomy; the most notable of these, the Uzhhorod Council (November 9, 1918), declared itself the representative of the Rusyn people and began negotiations with Hungarian authorities, resulting in the adoption of Law no. 10, making four of the Rusyn counties autonomous. Other councils, such as the Carpatho-Ruthenian National Council meetings in Huszt (Khust) (November 1918), called for unification with a Ukrainian state. It was only in early January 1919 that the first calls were heard in Ruthenia for union with Czechoslovakia.
  Prior to this, in July 1918, Rusyn immigrants in the United States had convened and called for complete independence. Failing that, they would try to unite with Galicia and Bukovyna; and failing that, they would demand autonomy, though they did not specify under which state. They approached the American government and were told that the only viable option was unification with Czechoslovakia. Their leader, Gregory Zatkovich, then signed the "Philadelphia Agreement" with Czechoslovak President Tomáš Masaryk, guaranteeing Rusyn autonomy upon unification with Czechoslovakia on 25 October 1918. A referendum was held among American Rusyn parishes in November 1918, with a resulting 67% in favor. Another 28% voted for union with Ukraine, and less than one percent each for Galicia, Hungary and Russia. Less than 2% desired complete independence.
  In April 1919, Czechoslovak control on the ground was established, when Czechoslovak troops acting in coordination with Romanian forces arriving from the east – both acting under French auspices – entered the area. In a series of battles they defeated and crushed the local militias of the newly formed Hungarian Soviet Republic, whose proclaimed aim was to "unite the Hungarian, Rusyn and Jewish toilers against the exploiters of the same nationalities". Communist sympathizers accused the Czechoslovaks and Romanians of atrocities, such as public hangings and the clubbing to death of wounded prisoners.
  This fighting prevented the arrival of Soviet aid, for which the Hungarian Communists hoped in vain; the Bolsheviks were also too preoccupied with their own civil war to assist. Transcarpathia, as well as a broader region, was occupied by Romania from April 1919 until July or August 1919, and then was again occupied by Hungarian state.
  In May 1919, a Central National Council convened in the United States under Zatkovich and voted unanimously to accept the admission of Carpathian Ruthenia to Czechoslovakia. Back in Ruthenia, on May 8, 1919, a general meeting of representatives from all the previous councils was held, and declared that "The Central Russian National Council... completely endorse the decision of the American Uhro-Rusin Council to unite with the Czech-Slovak nation on the basis of full national autonomy." Note that the Central Russian National Council was an offshoot of the Central Ruthenian National Council and represented a Carpathian branch of the Russophiles movement that existed in the Austrian Galicia.
  The Hungarian left-wing writer Béla Illés claimed that the meeting was little more than a farce, with various "notables" fetched from their homes by police, formed into a "National Assembly" without any semblance of 
caption: Gregory Žatkovich signing the Declaration of Common Aims at Independence Hall, Philadelphia 10-26-1918.
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