Zakarpattia Oblast: Difference between revisions

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Zakarpattia Oblast (Ukrainian: Закарпатська область, translit. Zakarpats’ka oblast’; Rusyn: Подкарпатьска област, translit. [Podkarpat’ska oblast] Error: {{Transliteration}}: unrecognized language / script code: ry (help); also referred to as the Transcarpathian Oblast, Transcarpathia, Zakarpattya, or historically Subcarpathian Rus) is an oblast (province) in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Uzhhorod. Other important cities within the oblast include Mukachevo and Chop, home to transport infrastructure.

Situated in the Ukrainian part of the Carpathian Mountains, the oblast is an important tourist and travel destination of Ukraine, housing many ski and spa resorts. The neighbouring mountains are important to the oblast's tourist and industry economy. The oblast is also home to many different nationalities, including Ukrainians, Hungarians, Romanians, and Rusyns, among many others.

Zakarpattia Oblast has a total area of 12,800 km² and is located in the Carpathian Mountains region of western Ukraine.^[1] It is the only Ukrainian oblast to have boundaries with four countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.^[2] On the West it borders the Prešov and Košice Regions of Slovakia and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Counties of Hungary, on the South — the Satu Mare and Maramureş Counties of Romania, on the East and Northeast — Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, and on the North — Lviv Oblast and the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of Poland.

Zakarpattia Oblast mostly consists of mountains and small hills covered with deciduous and coniferous forests, as well as alpine meadows. Mountains cover about 80% of the oblast's area, and cross from North-East to South-East.^[3] The Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians, part of which are located within Zakarpattia Oblast, were recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007.^[4]

The largest rivers that flow through the oblast include the Tysa, Borzhava, and the Tereblia. The region's climate is moderate and continental^[1] with about 700-1000 millimetres of rainfall per year.^[2] The average temperature in summer is +21°С (70°F) and -4°С (25°F) in winter.^[1]

With a total height of 2,061 metres, Hoverla, part of the Chornohora mountain range, is the tallest point in the oblast.^[1] The lowest point, 101 metres above sea level, is located in the village of Ruski Heyevtsi in the Uzhhorodskyi Raion.^[3]

Zakarpattia was part of Kingdom of Hungary, later Austria-Hungary until the latter's demise at the end of World War I. This region was briefly part of the short-lived West Ukrainian National Republic in 1918 and occupied by Romania at end of that year. It was later recaptured by Hungary in the summer of 1919. Finally, it joined the newly formed Czechoslovakia as Subcarpathian Rus, of which it formed one of the four main regions, the others being Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.^[5]

During the World War II German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the southern part of the region was awarded to Hungary under the First Vienna Award in 1938. The remaining portion was constituted as an autonomous region of the short-lived Second Czechoslovak Republic. After the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia on March 15, 1939 and the Slovak declaration of an independent state, Ruthenia declared its independence (Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine) but it was immediately occupied and later annexed by Hungary.^[6]

During the German occupation of Hungary in 1944, almost the entire Jewish population was deported; few survived the Holocaust.^[7] When the Soviet Army crossed the pre-1938 borders of Czechoslovakia in 1944, Soviet authorities refused to allow Czechoslovak governmental officials to resume control over the region, and in June 1945, President Edvard Beneš formally signed a treaty ceding the area to the Soviet Union. It was then incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR.^[7] After the break-up of the Soviet Union, it became part of independent Ukraine as Zakarpattia Oblast.

The province has a unique footnote in history as the only region in the former Soviet Union to have had an American governor: its first governor was Gregory Zatkovich, an American citizen who had earlier emigrated from the region and represented the Rusyn community in the U.S. Zatkovich was appointed governor by Czechoslovakia's first president, Tomáš Masaryk, in 1920 and served for about one year until he resigned over differences regarding the region's autonomy.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, there were ideas of separating from Ukraine to rejoin Czechoslovakia,^[8] but after Czechoslovakia's dissolution into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on January 1, 1993, these ideas have been rendered largely moot.

Zakarpattia Oblast is administratively subdivided into 13 raions (districts), as well as 5 cities (municipalities) which are directly subordinate to the oblast government: Berehove, Chop, Khust, Mukachevo, and the administrative center of the oblast, Uzhhorod. There are a total of 7 cities, 19 towns, and more than 579 villages.

Zakarpattia Oblast can also be divided into four unofficial geographic-historic regions (counties): Ung, Bereg, Ugocsa, and Northern Maramuresh.

The following data incorporates the number of each type of administrative divisions of Zakarpattia Oblast:^[9]

• Administrative Center — 1 (Uzhhorod);
• Raions — 13;^[10]
• City raions — 0;
• Settlements — 609, including:
  • Villages — 579;^[11]
  • Cities/Towns — 30, including:
    • Urban-type settlements — 19;^[12]
    • Cities — 11, including:
      • Cities of oblast' subordinance — 5;^[13]
      • Cities of raion subordinance — 6;^[14]
• Selsovets — 307.^[15]

The local administration of the oblast is controlled by the Zakarpattia Oblast Rada. The governor of the oblast' is the Zakarpattia Oblast Rada speaker, appointed by the President of Ukraine.

There are 13 raions (districts) in the oblast:

Largest cities and towns in the province are (with population figures in 2007):^[16]

According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, the population of Zakarpattia Oblast is 1,254,614.^[17] The current estimated population is 1.2 million people (as of 2004).

Although ethnic Ukrainians are in majority here (80.5%),^[18] other ethnic groups are relatively numerous in Zakarpattia. The largest of these are Hungarians (12.1%), Romanians (2.6%), Russians (2.5%), Roma (1.1%), Slovaks (0.5%) and Germans (0.3%).^[18] The Rusyn people living in Ukraine are not recognised as a distinct nation but rather as an ethnic group of Ukrainians. About 10,100 people (0.8%) identify themselves as Rusyns according to the last census.^[19]

Their languages and culture are respected by the provision of education, clubs, etc. in their respective languages. Those who recognise Ukrainian as their native language total 81.0% of the population, Hungarian — 12.7%, Russian — 2.9%, Romanian — 2.6%,^[17] and Rusyn — 0.5%^[20] Residents in seven of Mukachivskyi Raion's villages have the option to learn the Hungarian language in a school or home school environment.^[21]

Zakarpattia is home to approximately 14,000 ethnic Roma (otherwise known as Gypsies), the largest population of Roma in Ukraine. The first Hungarian College in Ukraine is in Berehovo, the II. Rákoczi Ferenc College.

Situated in the Carpathian Mountains, Zakarpattia Oblast's economy depends mostly on trans-border trade, vinery and forestry. The oblast is also home to a special economic zone.^[22][23]

The oblast's main industry includes woodworking. Other industries include food, light industry, and mechanical engineering. Segment of foodstuffs in the structure of ware production of national consumption is 45%. The total number of large industrial organisations is 319, compared to 733 small industrial organisations.^[2]

The most common crops grown within the region include cereals, potatoes and other vegetables. In 1999, the total amount of grain produced was 1,75,800 tons, of sunflower seeds — 13,000 tons, and potatoes — 3,780,200 thousand tons.^[2] The region also produced 7,610,000 tons of meat, 3,634,000 tons of milk and 2,41,900 eggs.^[2] The total amount of registered farms in the region was 1,400 in 1999.^[2]

• Administrative divisions of Ukraine
• Carpathian Ruthenia, small historical region
• Carpatho-Ukraine, a short-lived Ukrainian state on the territory
• Ruthenians and Ukrainians in Czechoslovakia
• Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, museum displaying Zakarpattia architecture

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