Obtaining autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus (Zakarpattia) as part of the Czechoslovak Republic in October 1938 and declaring the independence of Carpathian Ukraine in March 1939 went down in history as a desperate Ukrainians’ attempt to recreate national power in a single ethnic territory on the eve of World War II as the beginning of future united Ukraine. These events became the second stage in the Ukrai-nian struggle for the creation of a national state in the last century, after the Ukrainian revolution of 1917—1921. At the same time, this phenomenon of Ukrainian history caused a lot of falsifications to discredit the significance of state-building processes in Zakarpattia in the late 1930s and still leaves many controversial issues for researchers. Based on an analysis of the significant historiographic heritage and the use of documentary sources on the problem, the article is devoted to the 80th anniversary of the independence of Carpathian Ukraine. It highlights, along with key issues and debates about the history of Carpathian Ukraine, the historical events preceding its independence, in particular, the nature and the genesis of sociopolitical and especially national cultural processes in Zakarpattia. First of all, the article demonstrates the dynamic and complex events in the region after the World War I and during its development in the Czechoslovak Republic in 1919—1939s, which paved the way for the autonomy and independence of Carpathian Ukraine. The author focuses on the historical significance of building Carpatho-Ukrainian statehood, in particular on its influence on the actualization of all-Ukrainian problems in international relations and on the development of national-liberation movement of Ukrainians for a sovereign, independent, integral Nation-State. Despite the short period of Carpatho-Ukraine’s history, it has been in the focus of attention of the public opinion on other Ukrainian lands, of Ukrainian diaspora and many European States. A short history of the existence of Carpatho-Ukrainian State was caused by the failure to find a solution to the Ukrainian issue in international relations in the 1930s.
Source: Vidnyanskyj S. (2019) Carpathian Ukraine as a Stage of Ukrainian State-Building. Ukrainian historical journal. 2: 67-93
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