The brief existence of an autonomous Carpatho-Ukrainian state played an important role in the buildup of tensions prior to the Second World War.

France, Britain, Germany, and Italy were involved in the Munich agreement of 29-30 September 1938—the diplomatic showdown that pressured Czechoslovakia to shed territory and to recognize the auton­omy of what was then called Subcarpathian Rus.

The territory’s first autonomous government was appointed on 9 October 1938 and the state of Carpatho-Ukraine existed until 14 March 1939, when it was invaded by Hungary.¹ On the day following this invasion, in a gesture of defi­ance, it declared independence. By then, the Czechoslovakian state had collapsed, Hitler’s troops had invaded Prague, and Slovakia had declared independence. The immediate repercussions from these events were dra­matic and wide-ranging. They led in 1939 to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the invasion and dismemberment of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, and the outbreak of the Second World War. Border dis­putes over Carpatho-Ukraine have since played a role in the histories of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Ukraine, and are still revived periodically, notably in Hungary, whenever claims relating to postwar border settlements, minority rights, and political responsibilities are raised. The Carpatho-Ukrainian episode is also debated in contempo­rary Ukraine, where the Transcarpathian regional and national identity is often discussed.

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