Photography, History and Whatever Else Strikes my Fancy.
Carpathian Ruthenia (Zakarpatska Oblast)
The homeland of my paternal ancestors:
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In the 20th century alone: Up until WWI most of this region was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. It was part of the short-lived Western Ukraine Republic in 1918-19. In the interwar period, it was part of the First and Second Czechoslovak Republic. The southern part was ceded to Hungary in 1938. On March 15, 1939 the area declared independence and the Kingdom of Hungary commenced annexation the area the same day, killing 27,000 people. Roughly 70,000 fled east into Soviet Ukraine. Note that the Holodomor, where Stalin’s policies caused millions of Ukrainians to die from starvation, happened only five years earlier. Of the 70,000 that fled in 1939, roughly 60,000 ended up in gulags. After the war, it was annexed by the USSR and became part of Soviet Ukraine. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union it remained part of Ukraine as the Zakarpatska Oblast. Right now the capitol of the oblast, Uzhhorod, is overwhelmed with refugees from the east. Roughly 200,000 have entered Slovakia via Uzhhorod and a great deal of the humanitarian aid coming in from the west is entering via Uzhhorod.