The
First Vienna Award was the result of the
First Vienna Arbitration, which took place at
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
's
Belvedere PalaceThe Belvedere is a baroque palace complex built by Prince Eugene of Savoy in the 3rd district of Vienna, south-east of the city centre. It houses the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum.- Lower Belvedere :...
on November 2, 1938. The Arbitration and Award were direct consequences of the
Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
(September 30, 1938).
By the First Vienna Award, arbiters from
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
and Fascist Italy sought a non-violent way to enforce the territorial claims of
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
, in revision of the
Treaty of TrianonThe Treaty of Trianon was the peace treaty concluded in 1920 at the end of World War I by the Allies of World War I, on one side, and Hungary, seen as a successor of Austria-Hungary, on the other. The treaty established the borders of Hungary and regulated its international situation...
of 1920.
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
was by then well into her own revision of the Versailles Treaty, with her request for a plebiscite in the
Saar RegionThe Territory of the Saar Basin , also referred as the Saar or Saargebiet, was a region of Germany that was occupied and governed by Britain and France from 1920 to 1935 under a League of Nations mandate, with the occupation originally being under the auspices of the Treaty of Versailles...
(13 January 1935),
remilitarization of the RhinelandThe Remilitarization of the Rhineland by the German Army took place on 7 March 1936 when German forces entered the Rhineland.-Background:Under Articles 42 and 44 of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles—imposed on Germany by the Allies after the Great War—Germany was "forbidden to maintain or...
(7 March 1936) and
Anschluss with AustriaThe ' , also known as the ', was the 1938 de facto annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime....
(12 March 1938).
The First Vienna Award separated largely Magyar-populated territories in southern
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
and southern
Carpathian RusCarpathian Ruthenia, aka Transcarpathian Ruthenia, Transcarpathian Ukraine, Zakarpattia, Rusinko, Subcarpathian Rus, Subcarpathia is a small region in Central Europe, now...
from
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
and awarded them to
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
. Hungary thus regained some of the territories in present-day
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
and
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
that she had lost by the Treaty of Trianon in the post-World War I dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In mid-March 1939,
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
gave Hungary permission to occupy the rest of
Carpathian RusCarpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent Ukrainian republic on March 15 1939, but was occupied by Hungary between March 15 and March 18, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the Nazi Occupation of...
, north up to the
Polish borderPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, thus recreating the historic common Hungarian-Polish border. Six months later, in September 1939, the Polish government and part of its military would escape to Hungary and Romania, and from there to France and French-mandated Syria to carry on the war against Hitler's Germany.
After World War II, the 1947
Treaty of ParisThe Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The treaties allowed Italy,...
declared the Vienna Award null and void.
Before the negotiations
The award, rendered in favor of Hungary, was one of the consequences of the
Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
. However, it's important to emphasize that the award had nothing to do with the goals of the
Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
; whilst the latter intended to change the status of Czech territories, the award was a worldwide favoured correction of the Trianon borders which less than 20 years ago had not consider neither 1000-year-old status quo nor ethnic maps in favor of newly created states (e.g. Czecho-Slovakia). This is the reason that although together with the Munich Agreement, it was part of Germany's plan for the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, supposedly a supporter of panslavism, did not make any strong move against this act. Hungary openly planned to reannex the former
Hungarian territoriesThe Kingdom of Hungary , emerged in 1000, when the Principality of Hungary, founded in 896, was recognized as a Kingdom. The form of government was changed from Monarchy to Republic briefly in 1918 and again in 1946, ending the Kingdom and creating the Republic of Hungary...
of the earlier
Upper HungaryUpper Hungary is the usual English translation of two terms:1. The older Hungarian term Felső-Magyarország formally referred to what is today approximately eastern Slovakia in the 16th-18th centuries and informally to all the northern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 19th century.2...
with a
HungarianHungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Hungarians in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium...
majority, the southern territory
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
and the Subcarpathian Rus. A third player was
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, with an authoritarian regime led by
Józef Beck' was a Polish statesman, diplomat, military officer, and close associate of Józef Piłsudski.-Early life:When World War I started, Beck was a student at a college of Engineering...
; Poland and Hungary found common interest in laying claim to parts of Slovakia. However Hungary, with its army almost completely disarmed by the
Treaty of TrianonThe Treaty of Trianon was the peace treaty concluded in 1920 at the end of World War I by the Allies of World War I, on one side, and Hungary, seen as a successor of Austria-Hungary, on the other. The treaty established the borders of Hungary and regulated its international situation...
, feared the consequences of a military conflict with a well-armed Czechoslovakia. As Horthy put it on October 16, 1938, "A Hungarian military intervention would be a disaster for Hungary, because the Czechoslovak army has currently the best arms in Europe and
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2009, Budapest had 1,712,210 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s...
is only five minutes from the border for Czechoslovak aircraft. They would neutralize me before I could get up from my bed." As for Poland,
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
had other plans (
see History of Poland: World War II).
Since Hungary did not want a military conflict, she tried to get the desired territories through diplomacy. Hitler, having no interest in breaking up the
status quo in the Carpathian basin, promised all things to all parties. As early as November 1937, Hitler had promised Hungary an unspecified portion of Czechoslovakia; at the same time, Hitler assured Czechoslovakia that no modification on borders would be carried out. At the beginning of 1938, representatives of Hungary and of Hungarian and German political parties in Czechoslovakia worked for its disintegration. On February 11, 1938, they made an agreement in Budapest that "Czechoslovakia must be broken up." On April 17–18, 1938, Count János Eszterházy, a leader of the Hungarian minority in Czechoslovakia, presented in
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
, Poland, a plan drawn up by the Hungarian government which aimed at breaking up Czechoslovakia and incorporating territory of Slovakia back into Hungary.
Miklós KozmaMiklós Kozma was a Hungarian politician, who served as Interior Minister between 1935 and 1937. He was also Minister of Defence for a short time in the cabinet of Gyula Gömbös. He attended the Ludovika Academy and fought in the World War I. He was the supporter of Miklós Horthy from the begins...
,
palatineThe palatine was the highest dignitary in the Kingdom of Hungary after the king from the kingdom's rise up to 1848/1918....
to Hungarian
RegentA regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Thus, the common use is for an acting deputy governor....
Miklós HorthyMiklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944...
, would openly admit a year later, on April 12, 1939 — after the Vienna Award — that "the demands of the Hungarian minorities in the neighboring countries were only tactics directed at implementing a strategic goal — the restoration of the
Kingdom of HungaryThe Kingdom of Hungary , emerged in 1000, when the Principality of Hungary, founded in 896, was recognized as a Kingdom. The form of government was changed from Monarchy to Republic briefly in 1918 and again in 1946, ending the Kingdom and creating the Republic of Hungary...
occupying the entire Carpathian Basin."
On September 30, 1938, the
Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
was concluded regarding the German population in Czechoslovakia. Following pressures from Poland and Hungary, the agreement received supplementary
protocolIn international politics, protocol is the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state.A protocol is a rule which guides how an activity should be performed, especially in the field of diplomacy. In diplomatic services and governmental fields of endeavor protocols are often unwritten guidelines...
s. Proposed from the Italian side, the
clauseIn grammar, a clause is a pair or group of words that consist of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase. It may instead be marked on the verb...
of the Munich Agreement requested Czechoslovakia to resolve territorial disputes with Hungary and Poland with substantial
HungarianHungarians in Slovakia are the largest ethnic minority of the country, numbering 520,528 people or 9.7% of population . They are concentrated mostly in the southern part of the country, near the border with Hungary...
and Polish minorities within three month through bilateral negotiations; otherwise matters would be resolved by the four signatories to the Munich Agreement (Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom). The principle of four powers handling all important issues in Europe was however deeply resented by Poland, leading to annexation
ZaolzieZaolzie is the Polish name for an area now in the Czech Republic which was disputed between interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. The name means "lands beyond the Olza River"; it is also called Śląsk zaolziański, meaning "trans-Olza Silesia". Equivalent terms in other languages include Zaolší in...
(801,5 km², with a predominantly Polish population) already on October 1, pursuant to demands made on Czechoslovakia as early as September 21. The negotiations required by the Munich Agreement began only on October 25, 1938. As a result of them, on December 1 Poland received further territories, this time in northern Slovakia, comprising 226 km², with 4,280 inhabitants, less than 0.3% of whom were Poles.
Following the early-October occupation of frontier regions of the
Czech partThe "Czech lands" is an auxiliary term used mainly to describe the combination of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia.Today, those three historic provinces compose the Czech Republic. The Czech lands had been settled by the Celts until the turn of the Era, later by Germanic tribes until the...
of Czechoslovakia by Germany pursuant to the Munich Agreement, the Czechoslovak territories of
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
and Subcarpathian Rus received autonomy within Czechoslovakia on October 6 and October 11, respectively. In November 1938, Subcarpathian Rus was unofficially renamed "
Carpathian UkraineCarpathian Ruthenia, aka Transcarpathian Ruthenia, Transcarpathian Ukraine, Zakarpattia, Rusinko, Subcarpathian Rus, Subcarpathia is a small region in Central Europe, now...
" aka "
Carpatho-UkraineCarpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent Ukrainian republic on March 15 1939, but was occupied by Hungary between March 15 and March 18, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the Nazi Occupation of...
" by the new pro-Ukrainian government of Avhustin Voloshyn.
Main negotiations
Invoking the negotiation provisions of the Munich Agreement, Hungary on October 1 demanded that Czechoslovakia begin negotiations. Under international pressure, and facing diversionist activities by specially trained groups of
HungarianHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
partisanA partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements that opposed German rule in several countries during World War II .- History :As early as the...
s sent mainly to the frontier regions, Czechoslovakia agreed to begin negotiations, which took place between October 9 and October 13, 1938, in
KomárnoKomárno is a town in Slovakia at the Danube and the Váh rivers. Komárno was formed from part of a historical town in Hungary situated on both banks of the Danube. Following World War I, the border of the newly created Czechoslovakia cut the historical, unified town in half, creating two new towns...
on the Slovak northern bank of the Danube River, just on the border of Hungary.
The Czechoslovak delegation was led by the Prime Minister of the Slovak Nazi puppet state,
Jozef TisoJozef Tiso was a Slovak politician of the SPP, who became the fascist leader of the WWII Slovak Republic, a satellite state of Nazi Germany existing between 1939 and 1945...
, and included
Ferdinand DurčanskýDoctor Ferdinand Ďurčanský was a Slovak nationalist leader who for a time served with the collaborationist government of Jozef Tiso....
, Minister of Justice in the Slovak cabinet, and General Rudolf Viest. The
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
Government (the central government of Czechoslovakia) was represented by Dr. Ivan Krno, Political Director of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. Autonomous Subcarpathian Rus was mainly represented by I. Párkányi, Subcarpathian
minister without portfolioA Minister without Portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
. The Hungarian delegation was led by Foreign Minister
Kálmán KányaKálmán de Kánya , Foreign Minister of Hungary during the Horthy era....
and Minister of Education
Pál TelekiPál Count Teleki de Szék was prime minister of Hungary from 19 July, 1920 to 14 April, 1921 and from 16 February, 1939 to 3 April 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a university professor, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association...
. The Czechoslovak (mostly Slovak) delegation was inexperienced and unprepared, because the puppet regime had many other internal problems to solve. The Hungarian delegation, on the other hand, comprised experienced individuals, and its government had had an opportunity on October 8 to discuss the negotiations in advance.
The basic difference between the arguments of the two parties was that the Hungarians presented the 1910
censusA "census" is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
figures (as had Germany during the Munich Conference) while Czechoslovakia presented the latest, 1930 figures, contested the validity of the 1910
censusA "census" is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
, and later also presented figures from Hungarian censuses before 1900.
One of the chief reasons for the discrepancies between the ethnic proportions as indicated in the 1910 Hungarian and the 1930 Czechoslovak censuses was the large number of individuals of mixed origins, or Slovak-Hungarian bilinguals, who could declare themselves with equal ease as either Slovaks or Hungarians, and decided to go for the side where they were not harassed. Another reason for a large difference in the two censuses was that both states preferred to fill public administration positions with members of the state-forming nation, whose loyalty to the state was not questioned. This implied that a large number of former Hungarian civil servants and intellectuals were driven out of Czechoslovakia after the
Treaty of TrianonThe Treaty of Trianon was the peace treaty concluded in 1920 at the end of World War I by the Allies of World War I, on one side, and Hungary, seen as a successor of Austria-Hungary, on the other. The treaty established the borders of Hungary and regulated its international situation...
, and the same tendency could have been observed after the First Vienna Award, this time to the detriment of the Slovak civil servants. According to 'official' Hungarian statistics 107,000 Hungarians had to escape from their home between 1918–1924 (10% of the total Hungarian population of Czechoslovakia)
Agreeing to a Hungarian request for two border-crossing towns, the Czechoslovak delegation offered Hungary the railway town of
Slovenské Nové MestoSlovenské Nové Mesto is a village and municipality in the Trebišov District in the Košice Region of south-eastern Slovakia.-History:...
(until 1918 a suburb of the Hungarian town of
SátoraljaújhelySátoraljaújhely is a town located in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county in northern Hungary near the Slovak border. It is east from the county capital Miskolc.- History :...
) as well as the town of
ŠahyŠahy is a town in southern Slovakia, The town has an ethnic Hungarian majority and its population is 7,971 people , with an average age of 42.5.-Geography:...
. Both were occupied by Hungary on October 12.
At the beginning of the negotiations, Hungary demanded southern Slovak and Subcarpathian territories up to and including the line defined by
DevínDevín originally a separate town at the confluence of the Danube and Morava rivers, is now a borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It is an important archaeological site, famous for the ruins of Devín Castle...
(Hungarian:
Dévény) -
BratislavaBratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River...
(
Pozsony) -
NitraNitra is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. With a population of 85,000, it is the fourth largest city in Slovakia. Nitra is also one of the oldest cities in Slovakia and the country's earliest political and cultural center...
(
Nyitra) -
TlmačeTlmače is a town and municipality in the Levice District in the Nitra Region of Slovakia.- History :In historical records the town was first mentioned in 1075 as Talmach. It has town status since 1986...
(
Garamtolmács) -
LeviceLevice is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies on the left bank of the lower Hron river. The ....
(
Léva) -
LučenecLučenec is a town in the Banská Bystrica Region of south-central Slovakia. Historically, it was part, and in the 18th century the capital, of the Nógrád county of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1918, as a result of the Treaty of Trianon, it became a part of Czechoslovakia...
(
Losonc) -
Rimavská SobotaRimavská Sobota is a town in southern Slovakia, in the Banská Bystrica Region, on the Rimava river. It has 24,374 inhabitants . The town is a historical capital of the Gömör-Kishont county .-Geography:...
(
Rimaszombat) -
JelšavaJelšava is a town and municipality in Revúca District in the Banská Bystrica Region of Slovakia.-Geography:The town lies in the Revúcka vrchovina highlands at the border of the Slovak Ore Mountains and Slovak Karst, in the valley of the Muráň river, at an altitude of around 258 m...
(
Jolsva) -
RožňavaRožňava is a town in Slovakia, approximately 71 km by road from Košice in the Košice Region, and has a population of 19,120....
(
Rozsnyó) -
KošiceKošice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the Hornád River at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the borders with Hungary...
(
Kassa) -
TrebišovTrebišov is a small industrial town in the easternmost part of Slovakia, with a population of around 23,000. The town is an administrative, economic and cultural center with machine , food and building materials industries.- History :...
(
Tőketerebes) - Pavlovce (
Pálócz) -
UzhhorodUzhhorod is a city located in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. It is the administrative center of the Zakarpattia Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Uzhhorodskyi Raion within the oblast...
-
MukacheveMukacheve or Mukachevo is a city located in the valley of the Liatorytsia river in the Zakarpattia Oblast , in southwestern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Mukachivskyi Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
(
Mukačevo,
Munkács) - Vinogradiv (
Nagyszőlős). In 1930, the Slovak portion of this territory (12,124 km², about 85% of the total) comprised 550,000 Magyars and 432,000 Slovaks (according to the 1930 census), and held 23% of the total population of Slovakia. The Hungarians further demanded a plebiscite in the remaining territory of Slovakia, in which Slovaks would declare whether they wanted to be incorporated into Hungary.
The Czechoslovak delegation, for its part, offered Hungary the creation of an autonomous Hungarian territory within Slovakia. Kánya characterized the proposal as a "joke". Czechoslovakia then offered the cession of Great Rye Island (Slovak:
Žitný ostrov, Hungarian:
Csallóköz, 1838 km², with 105,418 inhabitants of whom an overwhelming majority were Hungarians), the creation of a
free portA free port or free zone is a port or area with relaxed jurisdiction with respect to the country of location. Free economic zones may also be called free ports....
in the town of
KomárnoKomárno is a town in Slovakia at the Danube and the Váh rivers. Komárno was formed from part of a historical town in Hungary situated on both banks of the Danube. Following World War I, the border of the newly created Czechoslovakia cut the historical, unified town in half, creating two new towns...
, and a population exchange in the remaining frontier regions. Since Hungary turned down this offer as well, on October 13 the Czechoslovak delegation proposed another solution, under which there would remain as many Slovaks and Rusyns in Hungary as Magyars in Czechoslovakia. This proposal involved Czechoslovakia keeping the main towns of the region: Levice (Léva), Košice (Kassa), and Uzhhorod (Ungvár). This offer was unacceptable to Hungary. In this aspect, it was not clear why Rusyns, a would-be minority in both countries, counted as Slovaks in the Slovak proposal. On the evening of October 13, after consultations in Budapest, Kánya declared that the negotiations as failed, and asked the four signatories of the Munich Agreement to be the adjudicator. As United Kingdom and France have decided not to undertake any decision, the adjudicators became
Joachim von RibbentropUlrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.- Early life :...
German Foreign Minister and
Galeazzo CianoGian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari , was Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Benito Mussolini's son-in-law.-Early life:Ciano was born in Livorno, Italy, in 1903...
Italian Foreign Minister. There are unfortunately no public documents from
Entente- History :* The Entente Cordiale, 1904 between France and the United Kingdom* The Anglo-Russian Entente, 1907 between the United Kingdom and Russia* The Triple Entente, 1907 between France, Russia, and the United Kingdom...
powers why the border agreement was "ignored".
After the negotiations
On October 5, 1938, Germany had decided internally that "for military reasons a common Hungarian-Polish frontier was undesirable", and that "it was [in Germany's] military interest that Slovakia should not be separated from the Czechoslovak union but should remain with Czechoslovakia under strong German influence."
On October 13, the day the negotiations deadlocked, Hungary conducted a partial mobilization and, shortly after, Czechoslovakia declared
martial lawMartial law is the system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice.Martial law is sometimes imposed during wars or occupations in the absence of any other civil government. Examples of this form of military rule include Germany and Japan...
in her frontier region. Hungary sent delegations both to Italy and to Germany. Count Csáky went to Rome, and Italy began preparing a four-power conference similar to the one that had produced the Munich Agreement. On October 16 the Hungarian emissary in Germany,
Kálmán DarányiKálmán Darányi de Pusztaszentgyörgy et Tetétlen was a Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1936 to 1938. He also served as Speaker of the House of Representatives of Hungary from December 5, 1938 to June 12, 1939 and from June 15, 1939 to November 1, 1939...
, told Hitler that Hungary was ready to fight. Hitler demonstrated that Hungary had lied to him in claiming that the Slovaks and Rusyns desired union with Hungary at all costs, and said that if Hungary started a conflict, nobody would help her. He advised Hungary to continue the negotiations and to observe the ethnic principle. Hitler also indicated that Hungary would not receive the (largely German) town of
BratislavaBratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River...
, because Germans did not want to live as a minority under Hungary. As a result of this conversation,
RibbentropUlrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.- Early life :...
, in cooperation with Hungary and in the presence of Czechoslovak (more exactly, Czech) Foreign Minister
František ChvalkovskýFrantišek Chvalkovský was a Czech diplomat and the fourth foreign minister of Czechoslovakia.-Activities during the First Republic:...
, substituted for the Hungarian proposal a new frontier line, the "Ribbentrop line". This kept closer to the ethnic principle but actually differed little from the Hungarian proposal. During the drawing of his line, Ribbentrop contacted Italy and told her to drop the plans for a four-power conference, because Germany preferred to act "behind the scenes".
Back in Prague, the Czechoslovak foreign minister recommended accepting the Ribbentrop line. On October 19, however, the Slovak representatives Tiso and Ďurčanský met with Ribbentrop in
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
and managed to persuade him to assign Košice (with 75% Hungarian majority in 1910) to Czechoslovakia and to accept the principle that there should remain as many Slovaks and Rusyns in Hungary as Magyars in Czechoslovakia. A few days later, Ribbentrop revealed to be quite hostile to the Hungarians. As Italian Foreign Minister
Galeazzo CianoGian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari , was Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Benito Mussolini's son-in-law.-Early life:Ciano was born in Livorno, Italy, in 1903...
saw it, "The truth is that he intends to protect Czechoslovakia as far as he can and sacrifice the ambitions, even the legitimate ambitions, of Hungary".
After October 17, activities around Subcarpathian Rus intensified. Poland proposed a partition of Subcarpathian Rus among Hungary, Poland and
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
. Romania, staunch ally of Czechoslovakia against Hungary, rebuffed the proposal, even offering military support for Czechoslovakia in Subcarpathia. Hungary, in turn, attempted to persuade the Carpathorusyn representatives to become part of Hungary. Since a common Polish-Hungarian frontier, which would arise by a Hungarian annexation of Subcarpathian Rus, had been a long-time dream of both Poland and Hungary, Poland was moving troops toward that frontier for support. However, since a common Polish-Hungarian frontier would mean a minor flanking of Germany, Germany was willing to countenance such a common frontier only if Poland made compensation by giving up the
DanzigGdańsk, also known by its German name Danzig , is a city on the Baltic coast in northern Poland, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area....
corridor to
East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia...
. Poland refused the German proposal. On October 20, the Rusyns produced a resolution more or less in favor of a plebiscite concerning the entirety of Carpathorus becoming part of Hungary. Five days later Subcarpathian Prime Minister Andriy Borody was placed under arrest in Prague, and Subcarpathian Foreign Minister
Avhustyn Voloshyn Avgustyn Ivanovych Voloshyn was a Subcarpathian politician, teacher, and essayist. He was president of the independent Carpatho-Ukraine, which existed for one day on March 15th, 1939....
was appointed prime minister in his stead. He was willing to consider the cession only of ethnically Hungarian territories to Hungary, and rejected the idea of a plebiscite.
Resumed negotiations
In the meantime, negotiations between Czechoslovakia and Hungary resumed via diplomatic channels. As a result of the Slovak visit to Munich on October 19, Czechoslovakia made her "Third Territorial Offer" on October 22: she offered to cede Hungary 9,606 km² in southern Slovakia plus 1,694 km² in Subcarpathian Rus; Czechoslovakia would retain Bratislava, Nitra and Košice. Hungary turned down the proposal and demanded that the territories offered by Czechoslovakia be immediately occupied by Hungary, that there be a plebiscite in the disputed territory, and that Subcarpathia "decide her own future". Hungary also warned that if Czechoslovakia refused this proposal, Hungary would demand arbitration (Italo-German in Western Slovakia, Italo-German-Polish in Eastern Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus). Czechoslovakia rejected the demands, but agreed to arbitrate. Both parties hoped that Germany would support their demands. Meanwhile Britain and France announced a lack of interest in arbitration, but remained ready to participate in a four-power conference if such should arise.
Before the arbitration
Czechoslovakia, however, underestimated Hungary's influence with Italy. Hungary managed to persuade Italy that the powerful German influence exercised through Czechoslovakia could be eliminated by a strong Hungary, which would support Italy. Consequently on October 27, in Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Ciano persuaded Ribbentrop — who meanwhile had changed his mind and now supported a four-power conference — that German-Italian arbitration was a good idea as it would be a major move against Franco-British influence. After long hesitation, Ribbentrop was also persuaded that the award should go beyond the ethnic principle, and should above all give Hungary the important Czechoslovak towns of Košice (Kassa), Uzhhorod (Ungvár) and Mukachevo (Munkács). Giving up the last two Carpathorusyn towns, however, meant that Carpatho-Ruthenia would be deprived of her economic centers and could not survive. Of course, Czechoslovakia did not know about this change in Ribbentrop's attitude, and the Slovak leaders' confidence in a favorable German decision was instrumental in bringing them to accept arbitration.
On October 29, 1938, Czechoslovakia and Hungary officially asked Germany and Italy to arbitrate, and declared in advance that they would abide by the results.
The delegations
The award was rendered in Vienna by the foreign ministers of Germany (
Joachim von RibbentropUlrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.- Early life :...
) and Italy (
Galeazzo CianoGian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari , was Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Benito Mussolini's son-in-law.-Early life:Ciano was born in Livorno, Italy, in 1903...
). The Hungarian delegation was led by Foreign Minister
Kálmán KányaKálmán de Kánya , Foreign Minister of Hungary during the Horthy era....
, accompanied by Minister of Education
Pál TelekiPál Count Teleki de Szék was prime minister of Hungary from 19 July, 1920 to 14 April, 1921 and from 16 February, 1939 to 3 April 1941. He was also a famous expert in geography, a university professor, a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Chief Scout of the Hungarian Scout Association...
. The Czechoslovak delegation was led by Foreign Minister
František ChvalkovskýFrantišek Chvalkovský was a Czech diplomat and the fourth foreign minister of Czechoslovakia.-Activities during the First Republic:...
and by
Ivan KrnoDr. Ivan Krno, after emigration Dr. Ivan Kerno, was an important Slovak lawyer and diplomat serving for the inter-war Czechoslovakia. He was a member of the Czechoslovak delegation at the First Vienna Award in 1938...
. Important members of the Czechoslovak delegation included representatives of Subcarpathian Rus — Prime Minister
Avhustyn Voloshyn Avgustyn Ivanovych Voloshyn was a Subcarpathian politician, teacher, and essayist. He was president of the independent Carpatho-Ukraine, which existed for one day on March 15th, 1939....
— and of Slovakia: Prime Minister
Jozef TisoJozef Tiso was a Slovak politician of the SPP, who became the fascist leader of the WWII Slovak Republic, a satellite state of Nazi Germany existing between 1939 and 1945...
and Minister of Justice
Ferdinand ĎurčanskýDoctor Ferdinand Ďurčanský was a Slovak nationalist leader who for a time served with the collaborationist government of Jozef Tiso....
.
Hermann GöringHermann Wilhelm Göring was a German politician, military leader and a leading member of the Nazi Party. Among many offices, he was Hitler's designated successor and commander of the Luftwaffe...
was also present.
Arbitration
The arbitration began in the Belvedere Palace, in Vienna, at noon on November 2, 1938. The Czechoslovak and Hungarian delegations were allowed to present their arguments. Chvalkovský was brief and left the task of presenting the Czechoslovak case to Minister Krno. Ribbentrop then prevented Slovak Prime Minister Tiso and Subcarpathian Prime Minister Voloshyn from officially stating their views. As Ribbentrop explained, Tiso and Voloshyn participated in the bilateral negotiations as members of the Czechoslovakian delegation, so they could not be considered third parties.
The two arbiters, Ribbentrop and Ciano, continued their conversations with the delegates at lunch and then retired to a separate room, where they argued over a map. Ciano sought to shift the new frontier north; Ribbentrop sought to shift it in the opposite direction. The Italian foreign minister prevailed. When the award was announced around 7 p.m., the Czechoslovak delegation was so shocked that Jozef Tiso actually had to be talked by Ribbentrop and Chvalkovský into signing the document.
Provisions of the award
Czechoslovakia was obliged to surrender the territories in southern Slovakia and southern Subcarpathia south of the line (and inclusive of the towns of) Senec (Szenc) -
GalantaGalanta is a small town in Slovakia. It is situated 50 km due east from the Slovak capital Bratislava.-Geography:Galanta lies in the Danubian Lowland , the warm southern part of Slovakia...
(Galánta) -
VrábleVráble is a small town in the Nitra District, Nitra Region, western Slovakia.-Geography:It is located in the Danubian Hills on the Žitava river, about 20 km south-east-east from Nitra. The cadastral area of the town has an altitude from 140 to 240 m ASL...
(Verebély)-
LeviceLevice is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies on the left bank of the lower Hron river. The ....
(Léva) -
LučenecLučenec is a town in the Banská Bystrica Region of south-central Slovakia. Historically, it was part, and in the 18th century the capital, of the Nógrád county of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1918, as a result of the Treaty of Trianon, it became a part of Czechoslovakia...
(Losonc) -
Rimavská SobotaRimavská Sobota is a town in southern Slovakia, in the Banská Bystrica Region, on the Rimava river. It has 24,374 inhabitants . The town is a historical capital of the Gömör-Kishont county .-Geography:...
(Rimaszombat) -
JelšavaJelšava is a town and municipality in Revúca District in the Banská Bystrica Region of Slovakia.-Geography:The town lies in the Revúcka vrchovina highlands at the border of the Slovak Ore Mountains and Slovak Karst, in the valley of the Muráň river, at an altitude of around 258 m...
(Jolsva) -
RožnavaRožňava is a town in Slovakia, approximately 71 km by road from Košice in the Košice Region, and has a population of 19,120....
(Rozsnyó) -
KošiceKošice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the Hornád River at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the borders with Hungary...
(Kassa) -
MichaľanyMichaľany is a village and municipality in the Trebišov District in the Košice Region of south-eastern Slovakia.-Geography:The village lies at an altitude of 131 metres and covers an area of 8.152 km².It has a population of about 1750 people.-Ethnicity:...
(Szentmihályfalva) -
Veľké KapušanyVeľké Kapušany is a small town on the eastern plains of Slovakia, not far from the Ukrainian border.-History :The territory of the town has been settled since time immemorial . From the second half of the 10th century until 1918, it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary...
(Nagykapos) -
UzhhorodUzhhorod is a city located in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. It is the administrative center of the Zakarpattia Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Uzhhorodskyi Raion within the oblast...
(Ungvár) - Mukachevo (Munkács)- to the border with
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
. Thus Czechoslovakia retained the western Slovak towns of Bratislava and Nitra, while Hungary recovered the three disputed eastern towns as well as four others in the central area.
These territories came to 11,927 km² (10,390 of them in what is present-day Slovakia, the rest in Carpathian Ruthenia) with approximately 1,060,000 inhabitants.
| . |
Area (km²) |
Population |
Hungarian |
Slovak |
| Population |
Ratio (%) |
Population |
Ratio (%) |
|
| 11 927 |
852 332 |
506 208 |
59 |
290 107 |
34 |
|
| 869 299 |
751 944 |
84,1 |
85 392 |
9,8 |
According to Slovak sources 67,000 Hungarians, according to Hungarian sources, 70,000 remained in the non-annexed part of Slovakia.
Slovak sources declare that although, analogously to the Munich Agreement, the award was supposed to have ceded territories that, according to the 1910 census, had more than 50% Magyars, in reality the award was contrary even to that old census in several regions, especially in the areas of rural Košice, Bratislava,
Nové ZámkyNové Zámky is a town in southwestern Slovakia.-Geography:The town is located on the Danubian Lowland, on the Nitra River, at an altitude of 119 metres. It is located around 100 km from Bratislava and around 25 km from the Hungarian border. It is a road and railway hub of southern Slovakia.The town...
, Vráble,
HurbanovoHurbanovo is a town and large municipality in the Komarno District in the Nitra Region of south-west Slovakia. It is named after Slovak writer Jozef Miloslav Hurban.- Geography :...
and Jelšava. If the Czechoslovak census is taken for basis: Slovaks constituted the majority in 182 communities out of the 779 ceded, and were 60% in the ceded town of Košice and 73% in the ceded district of Vráble.
Hungarian sources however state Košice (Kassa) had 75% Hungarian majority, Bratislava itself had a German 41% relative majority, Hungarian population was 40% while Slovakian 14% in 1910, and
Nové ZámkyNové Zámky is a town in southwestern Slovakia.-Geography:The town is located on the Danubian Lowland, on the Nitra River, at an altitude of 119 metres. It is located around 100 km from Bratislava and around 25 km from the Hungarian border. It is a road and railway hub of southern Slovakia.The town...
had 91% Hungarians.
Slovakia lost 21% of its territory, 20% of its industry, over 30% of its arable land, 27% of its power stations, 28% of its extractable iron ore, over 50% of its vineyards, 35% of its swine and 930 km of railway tracks. Eastern Slovakia lost its central town, Košice. Eastern Slovakia and many towns in southern Slovakia lost their railway connections to the rest of the world, because their only railway lines ran through the annexed territories and the border was closed. Carpathian Ruthenia was deprived of its two principal towns, Uzhhorod and Munkachevo, and of all of its fertile lands. We have to add that this border adjustment was in any case not comparable to the
Treaty of TrianonThe Treaty of Trianon was the peace treaty concluded in 1920 at the end of World War I by the Allies of World War I, on one side, and Hungary, seen as a successor of Austria-Hungary, on the other. The treaty established the borders of Hungary and regulated its international situation...
, and from the Hungarian side, the resources of cities and the railroads were reconnected.
In addition, the award stated that "both parties accept the arbitral award as the final frontier adjustment".
Consequences
The award was, of course, unfavorable to Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine. The fact that the rest of Slovakia remained a separate entity enabled Germany to gain control over this strategic territory in central Europe and later to play Hungary and Slovakia off against each other, with both trying to gain German approval.
Aftermath of the Vienna Award
Shortly after the award had been announced, János Eszterházy, a leader of Hungarian minority in Slovakia, proposed that Hungary return to Slovakia 1000 km² of the territory that Hungary had received (more precisely, predominantly Slovak lands in the districts of Šurany (Nagysurány) and Palárikovo (Tótmegyer) in order to ensure long-term peaceful coexistence between the two nations. His proposal was ignored in Budapest.
The ceded territories were occupied by Hungarian honvéds (
Magyar Királyi Honvédség) between November 5 and 10, 1938. On November 11, Hungarian
RegentA regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Thus, the common use is for an acting deputy governor....
Miklós Horthy solemnly entered the principal town, Košice (Kassa). By that time 15,000 Czechs and Slovaks (the Czechs settled there after 1919) had left the town; 15,000 more would do so before the month was out, leaving perhaps 12,000 Slovaks and virtually no Czechs.
The recovered
Upper HungaryUpper Hungary is the usual English translation of two terms:1. The older Hungarian term Felső-Magyarország formally referred to what is today approximately eastern Slovakia in the 16th-18th centuries and informally to all the northern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 19th century.2...
territories were incorporated into Hungary on November 12, 1938, by act of the Hungarian Parliament. Following the ancient
counties of the Kingdom of HungaryA comitatus is the name of an administrative unit in the Kingdom of Hungary and in the Republic of Hungary from the 10th century until 1949 when it was abolished by the new constitution.The area of the Kingdom of Hungary also included present-day...
, the occupied territory was divided into two new counties with seats in Nové Zámky and Levice, while some lands became part of other Hungarian counties.
As the frontier established by the award had been set on a large-scale map, Hungary was able to shift the actual frontier even farther North during the delimitation process. Czechoslovakia did not protest, because its government was terrified of another arbitration.
Under pressure from Hitler, Slovakia on March 14, 1939, declared her total independence. Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Two days earlier, Hitler had informed Hungary that she was allowed to occupy the rest of Carpathorus within 24 hours, but that she was to keep her hands off the remainder of Slovakia, which Hitler wanted to turn into a strategically located German ally, especially for his planned
invasionAn invasion is a military offensive consisting of all, or large parts of the armed forces of one geopolitical entity aggressively entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering, liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a...
of
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. On March 14–15, what remained of Carpathorus declared its independence, and shortly after, between March 15 and 18, "Carpatho-Ukraine" was occupied by Hungary. From Carpatho-Ukraine, Hungary on March 15 occupied a small part of Slovakia. Seeing no substantial reaction, Hungary on March 23 launched a larger attack on Eastern Slovakia. The plan was to "advance as far west as possible." After a short
Slovak-Hungarian WarThe Slovak–Hungarian War or Little War , was a war fought from March 23 to March 31/April 4, 1939 between the First Slovak Republic and Hungary in eastern Slovakia.-Prelude:...
(with several Hungarian air raids, e.g. March 24 on Spišská Nová Ves, Hungary was forced by Germany to stop and negotiate. As a result of the negotiations (March 27–April 4), Hungary received further territories in Eastern Slovakia (1,897 km²) with 69,630 inhabitants, almost exclusively Slovaks or Rusyns. This was a violation of the spirit of the Vienna Award.
(The argument of the Hungarian government was that the Vienna award was an arbitration between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and the latter had ceased to exist a few days earlier.)
Life in the annexed territories
The Hungarian author K. Janics would write in 1994 that 90% of Hungarians in the annexed territories welcomed the annexation, but as early as the summer of 1939 the same Hungarians would have liked to secede from Hungary. In fact, their objection was not to Hungary as such but to the authoritarian regime of
Miklós HorthyMiklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944...
, which had ruled Hungary since 1920 and although the country had recovered somewhat since World War I, Czechoslovakia was generally more prosperous. As by the Treaty of Trianon the Hungarian economy was depressed, so in Hungary there were longer working hours, higher prices, lower pay, higher taxes, no collective bargaining, no unemployment benefits, almost no leaves of absence from work. The local population failed in most of their attempts to preserve the advantages of the Czechoslovak system, but did prevail on one count: both in the annexed territories and throughout Hungary, compulsory education was increased from 6 years to the Czechoslovak standard of 8.
In violation of the provisions of the award, Hungary imposed military dictatorship on the annexed territories (which were administered by the military) and failed to promote minorities. On the contrary, Slovak, Rusyn, Jewish, and to some extent also German citizens of the annexed territories were subjected to persecution. In particular, Hungarian gendarmes frequently committed violence against Slovaks. The best-known case occurred at
ChristmasChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
1938, when gendarmes fired at Slovaks leaving a church, merely because they had sung a Slovak national song during mass. Special military courts which sentenced resistance members to death or torture were nothing out of the ordinary. Looting of Slovak and Czech stores and properties in the annexed territories was commonplace. Many Slovak libraries and books were burned; thousands of Slovak and Czech employees — especially in the railways and public services — were dismissed; Slovak and Jewish trade licenses were revoked; priests unwilling to say mass in Hungarian were tortured. Most Slovak schools were closed (386 primary schools, 28 council schools ["burgher schools"] and 10
gymnasiaA gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools...
); protestors were imprisoned, and 862 of 1,119 Slovak teachers were fired. Many of them were presumably among the 100,000 Slovaks and Czechs who fled or were expelled from the annexed territories. Deportations began with an order of November 5, 1938, from the Hungarian Chief of Staff that all Czech and Slovak colonists be expelled from the annexed territories. Only when the upset Slovak government ordered retaliatory measures against Magyars in Slovakia in November 1938, did Hungary start to negotiate. The result of all this was — as the Hungarian ambassador in Prague put it in February 1939 — that "emotional conflicts have arisen between the Slovaks and Hungarians that have never existed before".
In addition, the Hungarian authorities openly and deliberately called up mainly Slovaks, Romanians and Rusyns into the Second Hungarian Army, which was sent to the Soviet Union in 1942. This army was totally defeated at the Battle of the Don, with thousands of fatalities. In this connection, Hungarian Prime Minister
Miklós KállayMiklós Kállay de Nagy-Kálló was a Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary during World War II, from March 9, 1942 to March 19, 1944....
said on February 23, 1943: "Thank God the losses of the Hungarian Army did not to an appreciable extent touch the substance of the Magyar nation, because the [non-Magyar] nationalities have lost more lives".
After World War II
After the Soviet Army's occupation of the annexed territories, they — like the short-lived Slovak republic — immediately became part of Czechoslovakia again (see below:
Nullification). After World War II, until 1948, the Hungarians were considered war criminals, except for those who had been
underground resistance fightersA resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence. The term resistance is generally used to designate movement considered...
against the Germans. However, the
AlliesThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
did not allow a deportation of the Hungarians similar to that of Germans from the Czech lands, instead they invented another brutal idea: "exchange of ethnicity", in which 68,407 Magyars were resettled to Hungary in exchange for Slovaks resettled to Czechoslovakia. A further 31,780 Magyars were expelled because they had come to these territories only after the Vienna Award. Hungarians and Germans were forced to go through a Re-Slovakization process. Earlier, with a will to assimilate Hungarians in Czechoslovakia, some 44,000 Magyars, much as over 100,000 Slovaks, had been sent or deported to the depopulated
SudetenlandSudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia associated with Bohemia.The name is derived from the...
for labor service. One or two years later, the Hungarians were allowed to return to southern Slovakia, and some 24,000 availed themselves of the opportunity. This brief lawless period ended with the 1948 Communist coup (see
History of CzechoslovakiaWith the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy at the end of World War I, the independent country of Czechoslovakia was formed, encouraged by, among others, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson...
), following which the Hungarians — unlike the Germans — got back their Czechoslovak citizenship and all their rights, but not the property (see
Benes decreesThe Beneš decrees is a current popular term for a series of laws enacted by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile during World War II in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament...
). In October 1948 the Czechoslovak parliament restored Czechoslovak citizenship to Hungarians who were resident in Slovakia on November 1, 1938, and who had not been convicted of crime. This latter provision excluded from restitution the Hungarian "war criminals", a category that embraced a large number of Hungarians; members of Hungarian cultural or social associations or of Hungarian political parties; people connected directly or indirectly with the Hungarian administration in the years 1938 to 1944.
Strategic role of the Hungarian-Polish border
From the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
well into the 18th century, Hungary and Poland had shared a historic common border, and the two peoples had always enjoyed good-neighborly relations. Following the
Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
(September 30, 1938) the two countries, from common as well as their own special interests, had worked together to restore their historic common border. A step toward their goal was realized with the First Vienna Award (November 2, 1938).
Until mid-March 1939, Germany had considered that "for military reasons a common Hungarian-Polish frontier was undesirable". Indeed
HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
, when in March 1939 authorizing
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
to occupy the rest of
CarpathorusCarpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent Ukrainian republic on March 15 1939, but was occupied by Hungary between March 15 and March 18, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the Nazi Occupation of...
, had warned Hungary not to touch the remainder of
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
. He meant to use Slovakia as a staging ground for his planned
invasionAn invasion is a military offensive consisting of all, or large parts of the armed forces of one geopolitical entity aggressively entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the objective of either conquering, liberating or re-establishing control or authority over a...
of
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. In March 1939 Hitler changed his mind about the common Hungarian-Polish frontier, and decided to betray Germany's ally, the
Organization of Ukrainian NationalistsOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists or OUN is a Ukrainian political movement originally created in 1929 in interwar Poland . The OUN at one time accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies of their cause as the revenge upon the occupation of...
, who had already in 1938 begun organizing Ukrainian military units in a
sich- Military :Sich is the administrative and military centre for Cossacks and especially the Zaporizhian Cossacks. It is derived from the Ukrainian word siktý, "to chop", meaning to clear a forest for an encampment, or to build a fortification with the trees that have been chopped down.The...
outside
UzhhorodUzhhorod is a city located in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. It is the administrative center of the Zakarpattia Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Uzhhorodskyi Raion within the oblast...
under German tutelage – a
sich- Military :Sich is the administrative and military centre for Cossacks and especially the Zaporizhian Cossacks. It is derived from the Ukrainian word siktý, "to chop", meaning to clear a forest for an encampment, or to build a fortification with the trees that have been chopped down.The...
that Polish political and military authorities saw as a real and present danger to nearby southeastern Poland, with its largely
UkrainianUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly—citizens of Ukraine...
population. Hitler, however, was concerned that, if a Ukrainian army organized in Rus were to accompany German forces invading the Soviet Union, Ukrainian nationalists would insist on the establishment of an independent Ukraine; Hitler, who had plans for the natural and farming resources of the Ukraine, did not want to have to have to deal with an independent Ukrainian government.
HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
would soon have cause to regret his decision regarding the fate of
Carpatho-UkraineCarpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent Ukrainian republic on March 15 1939, but was occupied by Hungary between March 15 and March 18, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the Nazi Occupation of...
. In six months, during his 1939
invasion of PolandThe Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II...
, the common Hungarian-Polish border would become of major importance when Admiral Horthy's government, on the ground of long-time friendship between Poles and Hungarians, declined, as a matter of Hungarian honor, Hitler's request to transit German forces across Carpathian Rus into southeastern Poland to speed Poland's conquest. This in turn allowed the Polish government and tens of thousands of Polish military personnel to escape into neighboring
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
and
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
, and from there to France and French-mandated
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
to carry on operations as the third-strongest Allied belligerent after Britain and France. Also, for a time
PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and British
intelligenceMilitary intelligence is a military service that uses intelligence gathering disciplines to collect informations that informs commanders decision making process....
agents and
courierA courier is a person or company employed to deliver messages, packages and mail. Couriers are distinguished from ordinary mail services by features such as speed, security, tracking, signature, specialization and individualization of services, and committed delivery times, which are optional for...
s, including the famous
Krystyna SkarbekKrystyna Skarbek, GM, OBE, Croix de guerre was a Polish-born World War II British Special Operations Executive agent.In 1941 she began using the name Christine Granville, which she legally adopted after the war....
, used Hungary's
CarpathorusCarpatho-Ukraine was an autonomous region within Czechoslovakia from late 1938 to March 15, 1939. It declared itself an independent Ukrainian republic on March 15 1939, but was occupied by Hungary between March 15 and March 18, 1939, remaining under Hungarian control until the Nazi Occupation of...
as a route across the
Carpathian MountainsThe Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the largest mountain range in Europe...
to and from
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Nullification
While World War II was still in progress, the
AlliesIn general, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose. In English usage, those who share a common goal and whose work toward that goal is complementary may be viewed as allies for various purposes even when...
had declared the Vienna Award null and void, because it was a direct result of the equally void
Munich AgreementThe Munich Agreement was an agreement permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along borders of Czechoslovakia, mainly inhabited by Czech Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe...
and was a violation of
international lawPublic international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states, analogous entities, such as the Holy See, and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
and of the September 30, 1938, agreement between Germany and Great Britain, requiring consultations with Britain and France before such an award. (This is dubious, as the latter parties showed no interest). This was confirmed in the peace treaty with Hungary (
Treaty of ParisThe Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The treaties allowed Italy,...
) signed February 10, 1947, whose Article 1 (4a) stated that "The decisions of the Vienna Award of November 2, 1938, are declared null and void." The Treaty went on to declare that the
frontierA frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary.-Colonial North America:In the earliest days of European settlement of the Atlantic coast, the frontier was essentially any part of the forested interior of the continent beyond the fringe of existing...
between
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
and
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
was to be fixed along the former frontier between Hungary and Czechoslovakia as it existed on January 1, 1938 (except for three villages south of
BratislavaBratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River...
, which were given to Czechoslovakia). The Soviet Union, seeking a border with Hungary, had "received" Subcarpathian Ruthenia from
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
in June 1945. Neither the Vienna Act nor the nullification solved the problem of mixed ethnicities in southern Slovakia. Like so many nationality questions, the problem retreated into the twilight during the communist years as part of the
Pax Sovietica; like all
Eastern BlocThe terms Eastern Bloc, Communist Bloc or Soviet Bloc were used to refer to the former Communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, including the countries of the Warsaw Pact, along with Yugoslavia and Albania, which were not aligned with the Soviet Union after 1948 and 1960...
countries, Czechoslovakia and Hungary officially considered themselves "socialist brother countries," and differing political opinions on the matter were not encouraged by the authorities. The post-communist nationalist landscape has, however, seen the matter re-emerge with a vengeance.
See also
- Second Vienna Award
The Second Vienna Award was the second of two Vienna Awards. Rendered on August 30, 1940, it re-assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.-Prelude and historical background :...
- Vienna Awards
The Vienna Awards are two arbitral awards by which arbiters of Germany and Italy sought to enforce peacefully the claims of Hungary on territory it had lost in 1920 when it signed the Treaty of Trianon...
- Carpathian Rus
Carpathian Ruthenia, aka Transcarpathian Ruthenia, Transcarpathian Ukraine, Zakarpattia, Rusinko, Subcarpathian Rus, Subcarpathia is a small region in Central Europe, now...
- German occupation of Czechoslovakia
Following the Anschluss of Nazi Germany and Austria in March 1938, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's next target for annexation was Czechoslovakia. His pretext was the alleged privations suffered by ethnic German populations living in Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, known...
External links