The One day Republic: Carpatho-Ukraine

[Music] in september of 1939 nazi germany invaded poland officially starting a war that had actually been simmering underneath the surface of european peace for many years while the fighting in poland was dramatic and to the attention of the world it wasn't actually the first fighting in europe that was the result of nazi territorial ambitions little remembered today is the fact that the first fighting against axis powers in europe occurred six months before the invasion of poland and not far from the polish border a part of the world that has had many names historically including the republic of carpatho ukraine it is history that deserves to be remembered the area known as subcarpathian ruse carpathian ruthenia or carpathian ukraine is a small region that sits south of the carpathian mountains in eastern europe became part of the kingdom of hungary around the year 1000. the name ruthinia is a latinized form of russian the term for the ancient ruse people of kievan rus many medieval european sources use ruthenia and ruse interchangeably such as in a 1520 treatise with a chapter titled about ruse or ruthenia a danish diplomat titled his memoir of a journey to meet ivan the terrible in 1578 voyage to ruthenia ruthinia also referred in various ways to parts of modern day belarus and ukraine eastern slavic peoples in the region that became ukraine continued to call themselves ruse throughout the middle ages the ethnic ukrainian didn't become popular until after the 1880s over centuries ruthenia began to refer to a smaller and smaller area russian or ruthinian was a common term in the medieval era for all eastern slavs and within the polish lithuanian commonwealth only to slav living in what is now modern ukraine in belarus after the partition of poland in 1795 it referred primarily to ukrainians who lived under the habsburg monarchy by the end of the first world war ruthenia referred only to the region in hungary south of the carpathian mountains and the people that lived there the end of world war one brought significant territorial changes one of woodrow wilson's 14 points was the peoples of austro-hungary have the freest opportunity to autonomous development a goal which demanded the dissolution of the dual monarchy this dissolution allowed a number of ethnic and regional groups to gain independence including czechoslovakia which would include the region of carpathian ruthenia ukraine and belarus would be split between poland and soviet russia in the treaty of riga in 1922. ruthenian leaders had negotiated with czechoslovakia for autonomy within a future state the paris peace conference also specifically stipulated that subcarpathian roosts be granted full autonomy in an assembly for self-administration the czechoslovakian constitution of 1920 did not fully grant the region autonomy but promised it would come later no assembly for the region ever met and complaints about autonomy remained a persistent source of discontent within the region major political movements in the region included ukranophiles who supported greater autonomy or a union with soviet ukraine as well as russophiles who emphasized the region's cultural and historical connections to russia relatively few in the region supported the status quo under the czechoslovak government despite the restrictions the period was relatively good for the region's cultures they were allowed to speak their own language and control schooling and theater the rise of the nazi regime in germany sparked concern in czechoslovakia in the late 1930s the country built extensive defenses along the german border to deter invasion in march of 1938 germany annexed austria leaving czechoslovakia nearly surrounded next hitler's off the sudetenland the region of mostly german speakers in czechoslovakia along the german border diplomatic negotiations were held between the uk france germany and italy ending with the september 1938 munich agreement which handed the sudetenland to germany in czechoslovakia the agreement had another name the munich betrayal neville chamberlain announced from 10 downing street that for the second time in our history a british prime minister has returned from germany bringing peace with honor i believe it is peace in our time it didn't look that way to the checks the country lost its expensive fortifications as well as many of its factories and heavy equipment czech refugees swamped what was left of the country fleeing from german occupation subcarpathian ruse in the far eastern part of the country was spared territorial loss at first following the loss of the sudetenland poland occupied a small section of the country that had been contested between the two nations the czechoslovakian republic tumbled into the second texas slovak republic and slovakia and subcarpithian roost declared autonomy as part of a newly organized country simultaneously the czech government sought to stave off invasion by becoming german friendly the country banned the communist party and suspended jewish teachers as part of the munich agreement territorial demands by hungary were also promised a resolution in october of 1938 hungary attacked czechoslovakia several times forcing arbitration that included representatives from the central czechoslovak government as well as representatives from each autonomous region germany and italy arbitrated ultimately awarding parts of slovakia and sub-carpathian ruthenia to the hungarians in the first vienna award in november a new government was elected to govern ruthenia led by ukrainophile prime minister and priests augustine voloso luthenia also formed the carpathian sich an irregular paramilitary force on december 30th subcarpathian ruse renamed itself carpathian ukraine tensions in the region remained high in the early months of 1939. hitler planned on invading poland but wanted to neutralize what was left of czechoslovakia first in a series of diplomatic meetings with autonomous slovakia the german government made it clear that slovakia's only chance of autonomy was declare independence and leave the remnants of bohemia and moravia to german ambition in ruthenia the sich had around fifteen thousand members although only two thousand of them were organized to fight and an even smaller number were actually armed at the time foreign observers thought that germany meant to create a greater ukraine that would have itself started the ukrainian leading ruthenia to go the ussr ukraine was a serious topic at the time with one canadian scholar calling it the greatest unsolved problem in nationality well a letter to another newspaper called ukraine the forgotten nation of europe ukraine was always a central part of hitler's territorial plans as he hoped for it to be the breadbasket of his empire the toronto daily star quoted hitler saying what we could do if we had the ukraine one paper even reported that one hundred thousand german troops were ready to fight to prevent poland and hungary from crushing carpatho ukraine and indeed in the fall of 1938 the german foreign office had instructed two researchers to analyze the issue of carpatho ukraine advised making the territory into a mecca of ukrainianism one of the principal opponents to the scheme was poland whose significant ukrainian population was even then crossing the border to join the ruthenian sich polish and hungarian agents began slipping into the country to sabotage defenses while the world wandered however hitler had made his own decision and iced out pro carpathia ukrainian advisors hitler prepared to invade czechoslovakia on march 15th and gave hungary permission to invade with india in february within yet nonetheless attempted to get german of promises of assistance and instituted a single party system under the ukrainian national union party the ruthenians had few friends who instead surrounded by enemies poland and hungary against an independent ukraine in hungary for territory the ussr just as hostile to ukrainian independence and germany the only country among them that could offer any guarantee of autonomy instead germany allowed hungary to blockade the tiny region on march 14th slovakia declared independence and immediately asked for the protection of the german reich the following day german forces invaded bohemia and moravia facing almost no resistance the hungarian army was ready to invade carpathian ukraine and began marching into the country in the early hours of march 14th the sich whose effective forces might have been as many as 5 000 faced possibly 10 times that number and were poorly armed sich units began arming themselves from czech barracks and czech soldiers objected at 6am czech forces attacked the main such bases in the carpathian capital with around 200 troops six tanks machine guns and borders fighting between the two forces lasted throughout the day 40 to 156 troops were killed while seven to twenty czechoslovakian soldiers were killed meanwhile the carpathian government assembly met for the first time officially declaring independence augustine volusion was named head of state in the first act the state chose the blue and yellow ukrainian flag and chose the song ukraine has not perished as its national anthem the ocean sent a telegram to germany asking them to take the carpathian ukraine under their protection they received no response by march 15th the remaining czechoslovakian units were fleeing hungary said a messenger asking the ruthenians to please allow themselves to be annexed the lotion responded that carpathia ukraine is a peaceful state and wants to live in peace with its neighbors but if necessary will repel any aggressor the situ recruited anyone they could find and within a regular and poorly equipped force attempted to resist the invasion fighting was fiercest near the capitol on the red field where some 3 000 sich defended the capital hungarian sources claimed 236 were killed and 160 hungarians polish forces also invaded from the north by march 16th the carpathian government fled for romania and hungary officially annexed the tiny country once soldiers saw the newly appointed general of the army flee into romania the first to escape the army is at war he said and the commander is fleeing the new york times reported of all the incredible episodes and the breakup of czechoslovakia what has happened during the last three days in carpathia ukraine is the most fantastic on tuesday the smallest sector of the tripartite czech state was fighting the checks on tuesday night it proclaimed itself an independent state on wednesday morning czech flags were down czech troops in full flight and ukrainian colors were flying from every window in the capital hoost by wednesday afternoon the hungarian tri-colors had replaced ukrainian blue and yellow carpatho ukraine was actually under three flags in 27 hours it would take several days to completely stamp out organized resistance with the last holdouts in the mountains defeated by march 18th a number of such members would continue to fight his guerrilla units soldiers who had crossed into ruthinia from poland were handed over to the polls many were executed the weeks after the invasion were brutal as well with as many as 27 000 people executed without trial every night for several days it would take some of them out and kill them in the forest wrote one observer tens of thousands fled to the ussr where many would wind up in the gulag many thousands more were forcibly deported by the hungarians there was a relatively large population of jewish people in ruthenia most of whom would be killed in death camps after germany occupied hungary in 1944 much of the world still believed that hitler would use the idea of an independent ukraine to begin his attack on the ussr in london a british diplomat warned the soviet ambassador that hitler would attack based on the liberation of ukraine under the slogan of self-determination stalin see the situation differently with leo trotsky writing that the transfer of carpathian ukraine to hungary was clearly interpreted by stalin as an act of peace stalin's notes say that western concern about ukraine was meant to poison the atmosphere and provoke a conflict with germany for no apparent reason although ultimately futile the struggle for carpatho ukraine was illustrative of the complexity of that conflict even in its earliest phases fear of the creation of an independent ukrainian state was common among most of the interested parties in negotiating the political interests of the largest players seemed to be paramount above all else velocity the president of the one day republic died in 1945 in soviet custody having been arrested and accused of being a ukrainian nationalist the official cause of death was listed as heart failure both carpatho ukraine and czechoslovakia found themselves without options abandoned by allies and unable to defend themselves but the the defense of carpatho ukraine whether that is seen as a fight for an independent ukrainian republic or just for a tiny ruthenian state was still significant it represented some of the first organized armed resistance against the axis powers in europe come and join our community of people who believe that history deserves to be remembered at the historyguyguild.locals [Music] this is sporter i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our merchandise at teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you need to do is [Music] subscribe you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 53,692

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, wwii, ukraine

Id: ccjKdCp9TZo

Length: 12min 52sec (772 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 26 2022