Carpatho-Ukraine or Carpathian Ukraine (Ukrainian: Карпа́тська Украї́на, romanized: Karpatska Ukraina, IPA: [kɐrˈpɑtsʲkɐ ʊkrɐˈjinɐ]) was an autonomous region within the Second Czechoslovak Republic and short-lived state. It was created in December 1938 and renamed from Subcarpathian Rus', whose full administrative and political autonomy had been confirmed by constitutional law of 22 November 1938.
20 years earlier, by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, the region, which had historically belonged to Hungary, had been detached from the Kingdom of Hungary and attached to newly created Czechoslovakia. Subsequently Hungary had sought revision of the Treaty of Trianon and the restoration of her historical borders.
On 2 November 1938 the First Vienna Award separated territories from Czechoslovakia, including southern Carpathian Rus', that were mostly Hungarian-populated and returned them to Hungary.
After the breakup of the Second Czechoslovak Republic, Carpatho-Ukraine on 15 March 1939 proclaimed itself an independent republic, headed by President Avgustyn Voloshyn.
However, Nazi Germany sided with Hungary against Ukrainian independence, and the short-lived state was invaded by the Kingdom of Hungary and Poland, crushing all local resistance by 18 March 1939. Subcarpathia remained under Hungarian control until the end of World War II in Europe, after which Transcarpathian Ukraine was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union. The territory is now administered as the Ukrainian Zakarpattia Oblast.
Soon after the implementation of the Munich Agreement, signed on 30 September 1938, by which Czechoslovakia lost much of its border region to Nazi Germany, a series of political reforms were initiated, leading to the creation of a Second Czechoslovak Republic, comprising three autonomous political entities, including an autonomous Slovakia and an autonomous Subcarpathian Rus' (in the Rusyn language, Підкарпатьска Русь).
The first local government of autonomous Subcarpathian Rus', appointed on 11 October 1938, was headed by Prime Minister Andrej Bródy. There ensued a crisis involving two factions, pro-Rusyn and pro-Ukrainian, leading to the resignation of Bródy's government on 26 October. The new regional government, headed by Avgustyn Voloshyn, adopted a pro-Ukrainian orientation and changed the region's name from "Subcarpathian Rus'" to "Carpathian Ukraine".
On 22 November 1938 the Second Czechoslovak Republic adopted a "Constitutional Law on the Autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus'" (in the Czech language, Ústavní zákon o autonomii Podkarpatské Rusi), officially reaffirming the self-determination rights of the "Rusyn people" (preamble) and confirming the full administrative and political autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus', with its own assembly and government. This was seen as showing the central government's support for the pro-Rusyn faction.
On 30 December 1938 the regional government issued a provisional decree changing the region's name to "Carpathian Ukraine". That led to a peculiar terminological duality: in the Second Czechoslovak Republic's constitutional system, the region continued to be known as Subcarpathian Rus', whereas the region itself used the name "Carpathian Ukraine".
In late September 1938, Hungary was ready to mobilize between 200,000 and 350,000 men on the Czechoslovak borders in case the Czechoslovak question could not be solved on diplomatic level, in favor of the Hungarian territorial claims. After the Munich Agreement the Hungarian Army had remained poised threateningly on the Czechoslovak border. They reportedly had artillery ammunition for only 36 hours of operations, and were clearly engaged in a bluff, but it was a bluff the Germans had encouraged, and one that they would have been obliged to support militarily if the much larger, better trained and better equipped Czechoslovak Army chose to fight. The Czechoslovak army had built 2,000 small concrete emplacements along the border in places where rivers did not serve as natural obstacles.
The Hungarian minister of the interior, Miklós Kozma, had been born in Subcarpathia, and in mid-1938 his ministry armed the Rongyos Gárda ('Ragged Guard'), which began to infiltrate guerrillas along the southern borders of Czechoslovakia, into Slovakia and Subcarpathia. The situation was now verging on open war, which might set the whole of Europe ablaze again. The appendix of the Munich Agreement stated that Czechoslovakia and Hungary should settle their disputes by mutual negotiation, which however failed to achieve agreement.
Between 25 October and 1 November 1938, Poland and Hungary conducted coordinated guerrilla operations in Carpathian Rus, with the objective of eliminating the sich (military camp) that had been established by the German-backed Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists outside the Rusyn capital, Uzhhorod. Poland had felt its southeastern Kresy threatened by the sich, while Hungary wished to regain Carpathian Rus, which Hungary had lost after World War I. Poland and Hungary hoped that the eventual restoration of their historic common boundary (which would indeed occur in March 1939) would satisfy the purposes of both countries.
The Hungarian and Czechoslovak governments accepted the German-and-Italian-brokered First Vienna Award, of 2 November 1938 (France and the United Kingdom having declined to participate in the negotiations).
The agreed border line returned 11,927 square km. to Hungary. A census in mid-December found 1,041,401 inhabitants in the reannexed territory, of whom 879,007 (84.4%) were Hungarians and 123,864 (11.9%) were Slovaks.
On 8 November 1938, the Slovak National Unity Party received 97.5 percent of the Slovak votes, and a one-party state was instituted. Slovak autonomy was formalized by the Prague parliament on 19 November, and to symbolize this new Slovak assertiveness, the country's name was then altered to Czecho-Slovakia. Carpatho-Ukraine was also given autonomy.
The Arbitration of Vienna fully satisfied nobody, and there followed 22 border clashes between 2 November 1938 and 12 January 1939, during which five Czechoslovaks were killed and six were wounded. The Slovak national militia Hlinka Guard participated in these clashes. The ineffectiveness of the Prague government in protecting their interests stirred Slovak and Ukrainian nationalism further. On 6 January 1939 Czechoslovak troops ordered by general Lev Prchala performed a surprise attack on the city of Munkács (now Mukacheve), in which the Carpathian Sich were as well involved, but the Rongyos Gárda with the help of the local police pushed them back. After this incident Döme Sztójay, the Hungarian ambassador in Berlin transferred a message to the German government in case of the German occupation of the Czech lands and the declaration of Slovak independence Hungary will occupy the rest of Carpathian Ruthenia, regardless of German approval. On March 11, the German ambassador in Budapest outlined in the German Government's response if Hungary will maintain and uphold the economic contracts with Germany, respect the rights of the local Germans and would not persecute the members of the Voloshyn Cabinet, then in case of the proclamation of an independent Carpatho-Ukraine would be acquiescent regarding the Hungarian plans.
Slovak and Ukrainian nationalism grew more intense. On 10 March, the Hlinka Guard and Volksdeutsche demonstrated, demanding independence from Czecho-Slovakia. In the evening of 13 March, Slovak leader Jozef Tiso and Ďurčanský met Adolf Hitler, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Generals Walther von Brauchitsch and Wilhelm Keitel in Berlin.
Hitler made it absolutely clear: Slovakia could either declare independence immediately and associate itself with the Reich, or he would allow the Hungarians to take over the country – whom Ribbentrop reported were massing at the border. During the afternoon and night of 14 March, the Slovak parliament proclaimed independence from Czecho-Slovakia, and at 05:00 on 15 March 1939, Hitler declared the unrest in Czecho-Slovakia to be a threat to German national security. He sent his troops into Bohemia and Moravia, meeting virtually no resistance.