On October 27, 1944, the Red Army liberated the city of Uzhgorod from the German-Hungarian troops. The next day, Soviet troops entered the city of Chop, actually completing the liberation of Subcarpathian Russia. In 1945-1946, these territories were annexed to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as the Transcarpathian region.

Munich conspiracy

During the events related to the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, Transcarpathia was occupied by Czechoslovak troops, and the inhabitants of Uzhgorod at a popular gathering supported the idea of ​​joining the Czechoslovak Republic. In the period between world wars, Subcarpathian Rus began to develop dynamically. In Uzhgorod, a hydroelectric power station and an airfield were built. In 1930, the population of the city was more than 26 thousand people, of which about 23% were Rusyns, 22% were Jews, about 17% were Czechs and Hungarians, and about 13% were Slovaks.

In Transcarpathia, in the interwar period, leftist ideas were popular. In local elections, from 25% to 40% of the vote was gained by the Communists. The Rusyns during this period split into two groups: Russophiles, who considered themselves part of the Russian people, and relatively small Ukrainophiles, who considered themselves Ukrainians.

On September 29–30, 1938, Germany received the consent of England, France, and Italy to annex the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia under the so-called Munich Agreement. In addition, the Western European powers approved the idea of ​​transferring part of the Czechoslovak lands to Hungary and Poland. The Hungarian question (which consisted in the seizure from Prague of the lands on which ethnic Hungarians lived), according to the Munich agreements, was to be decided at a special international arbitration.

On November 2, 1938, representatives of Germany and Italy at a meeting of the "arbitration" in Vienna decided that Czechoslovakia must transfer 12 thousand square meters to Hungary. km of its territory, including Uzhgorod and Mukachevo. Shortly before that, in October 1938, official Prague approved the creation of Transcarpathian autonomy Subcarpathian Rus, which self-government included both Russophiles and Ukrainophiles. However, in fact, his power extended only to a small part of Transcarpathia in the area of ​​the city of Khust. The remaining regions of Subcarpathian Rus came under the control of Hungary.

  • Propaganda car of the Ukrainian National Association (UNO) on the street of the Czechoslovak city of Khust (1939)
  • © Waralbum.ru

In March 1939, taking advantage of the complication of the political situation in Czechoslovakia, Transcarpathian Ukrainophiles tried to create an independent Carpathian Ukraine in the Khust region, asking Adolf Hitler for support. But Berlin did not help them. March 14-18, 1939 Transcarpathia was completely occupied by Hungarian troops.

Under occupation

After the forcible annexation of Transcarpathia to Hungary, repressions against the opposition from among representatives of Slavic peoples and Jews began in the region. When in the fall of 1939, Soviet troops entered Western Ukraine and the Transcarpathian border with the USSR appeared, there was a massive exodus of the local Slavic population in the territory controlled by the Soviets.

“Having suffered from the Hungarian occupation, thousands crossed the border with the USSR in order to find a normal life. Later in the USSR, part of Transcarpathian Ukrainians was included in the Czechoslovak foreign army - the corps of General Ludwik Svoboda, ”Andrei Kuparev, writer and documentary director, an employee of the scientific and methodological department of the Victory Museum, said in an interview with RT.

The ethnic composition of the population of Uzhgorod has changed dramatically. Of the 35 thousand people in 1941, 77% considered themselves Hungarians, 12% - Rusyns or Ukrainians, 5% - Jews, 3% - Slovaks. Part of the city’s population fled, other Uzhgorod residents were forcibly evicted or hid their nationality.

  • Wedges of the Hungarian occupation forces of Italian production Fiat-Ansaldo CV-35 enter the streets of the Czechoslovak city of Khust (March 1939)

Jews in Transcarpathia, as well as throughout Hungary, were harassed. They were forcibly sent to work in the so-called labor battalions. The targeted extermination of the Jewish population began after Hungary was occupied by Germany in March 1944. Jews of Transcarpathia were driven into the ghetto, and then sent to death camps. Out of 100 thousand Transcarpathian Jews, no more than 10-15% survived the war.

Liberation of Transcarpathia

According to Kuparev, during the war, the Nazis created serious defensive fortifications in the occupied territories in the Eastern Carpathians, so initially the command of the Soviet troops did not plan to storm them.

“Everyone understood that defense in depth, up to sixty kilometers, the breakthrough of which required lengthy preparations, could not be overcome without heavy losses,” the expert noted.

The Soviet command was going to make a maneuver in the area of ​​the Eastern Carpathians to bypass enemy fortifications, but these plans had to be changed.

“Political circumstances intervened in the situation - a request for help to the Slovak uprising. And operational expediency receded into the background. According to the new tactical plan, the 4th Ukrainian Front was operating in the Uzhgorod direction, and the troops, nevertheless, had to take those very well-fortified and hard-to-reach passes, ”Kuparev said.

On September 8, the East Carpathian strategic offensive operation of the Soviet troops began, an integral part of which was the Carpathian-Uzhgorod frontal operation.

The 4th Ukrainian Front, under the command of Colonel-General Ivan Petrov, which included units with a total number of about 153 thousand people, advanced on the position of an army group under the command of Colonel-General of the Wehrmacht Gotthard Heinrici, consisting of the 1st German Panzer Army and 1- th Hungarian army (about 106 thousand people) and occupying well-fortified positions.

In late September - early October 1944, Soviet troops with heavy fighting entered the valley of the Tisza River. On October 13, Colonel General Petrov created several mobile groups, before which he set the task of taking Mukachevo and Uzhgorod. Captive Nazis reported that the capital of Subcarpathian Rus was well fortified and that it was protected by a powerful garrison of SS and Hungarian soldiers.

  • Major of the Red Army makes a speech in front of a formation of soldiers on Miklosha Horthy Square in Uzhgorod, 1944

On October 26, 1944, Soviet troops expelled the Nazis and their allies from Mukachevo. In Uzhgorod, panic began. Representatives of the Hungarian administration and businessmen collaborating with them fled en masse from the city. The Germans and the Hungarian military mined a number of objects.

“On the outskirts of the city, our scouts, moving first, met fierce resistance from the enemy. Enemy artillery fired heavily. Then, using the radio, we transmitted the signal to disperse and continue to move. At the same time, all the headlights of cars, self-propelled guns and tanks were lit. Our guns opened fire. A mass of fire and light moved towards the city, before which the fog and darkness of night could not resist. The battle with the enemy was short-lived, but cruel. When the dawn began, our tanks burst from the southeastern outskirts, ”wrote Colonel Ivan Khomich in his memoirs, which were included in the book“ In the Fights for the Carpathians ”.

The Nazis blew up bridges across the Uzh River and the local airfield. However, this did not help them. On October 27, Soviet troops drove them out of Uzhgorod.

“Ukrainians, Ruthenians, Czechs, young and old, took to the streets to meet our soldiers and officers. Two women met us with flowers in their hands, ”wrote the Soviet military commissars in the newspaper Stalin's Banner.

On October 28, 1944, Soviet troops also expelled the Nazis from the city of Chop, 25 km from Uzhgorod. The Nazis desperately counterattacked. They tried to break through to the capital of Transcarpathia, but they failed. Hitler troops were finally pushed back from Uzhgorod in late November.

  • Group portrait of the militants of the OUN-UPA of Transcarpathia (1944)

In the liberated territories, a special territorial entity was created - Transcarpathian Ukraine. Representatives of his self-government turned to the Soviet leadership with a request to provide them with the opportunity to create a new republic within the USSR.

However, this initiative did not find support in Moscow. On November 26, 1944, on the recommendation of the Union leadership, the first congress of the people's committees of Transcarpathian Ukraine adopted a manifesto on the reunification of Transcarpathian Ukraine with Soviet Ukraine.

In 1945, Czechoslovakia officially renounced its rights to Transcarpathia, and on January 22, 1946 the Transcarpathian region of the Ukrainian SSR was formed with its center in Uzhgorod. In Transcarpathia there was an active campaign for Ukrainization. The local Ruthenian population campaigned for the adoption of Ukrainian identity and the literary Ukrainian language. Unlike Galicia and Volhynia, the positions of Ukrainian nationalists in Transcarpathia were extremely weak. The small underground OUN-UPA was quickly suppressed by the Soviet state security agencies.

According to the military historian Yuri Knutov, the fighting in the Eastern Carpathians was one of the most fierce in the second half of 1944.

“Unlike many other Nazi allies, the Hungarians fought quite effectively,” said the expert.

According to him, the events of 1944 in Transcarpathia were crucial for the Ukrainian SSR.

“This was a decisive step towards the formation of Ukraine within the borders that it has today,” Yuri Knutov summed up.