Zakarpattia Oblast
Zakarpattia Oblast (,
translit. Zakarpats'ka oblast' ; also referred to as the
Transcarpathian Oblast,
Transcarpathia or
Zakarpattya;
Hungarian:
Kárpátalja) is an
oblast (province) in western
Ukraine. Its
administrative center is
Uzhhorod. Other important cities are
Mukacheve and
Chop (the border town home to various transportation infrastructure).
The earlier history of the area is elaborated at
Carpathian Ruthenia, a former name for the geographic region.
The area of the oblast is 12,800 km².
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Detailed map of Zakarpattia Oblast |
Zakarpattia was part of
Austria-Hungary until the latter's demise at the end of
World War I. It then joined the newly formed
Czechoslovakia, of which it formed one of the main regions, the others being
Bohemia,
Moravia and
Slovakia. During the
World War II Nazi occupation of
Czechoslovakia, the region was awarded to
Hungary under the
First Vienna Award, becoming one of its 'highland' territories. After the
Soviet "liberation", Zakarpattia was annexed by the
Soviet Union and became part of the
Ukrainian SSR. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, it became part of independent Ukraine as the Zakarpattia Oblast.
Territorial Claims
There were suggestions prior to
1993 of the region rejoining Czechoslovakia, but this issue has been made largely superfluous with the latter's break-up.
The current estimated population is 1.2 million people (as of
2004).
Although ethnic
Ukrainians are in majority here (80.5%) [
1], 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%). Their languages and culture are respected by the provision of school education, clubs etc in their respective languages. 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. 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 acoording to the last census [
2].
Zakarpattia's economy depends mostly on trans-
border trade, vinery and
forestry.
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Raions of the Zakarpattia Oblast |
The 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,
Mukacheve, and the administrative center of the oblast,
Uzhhorod.
image:790px-Uschhorod oblastnarada.jpg|House of the Council of Zakarpattia Oblast in Uzhhorod with Taras Shevchenko Monumentimage:Zakarpatska-Oblast.JPG|Entrance from Ivano-Frankivsk on route A 265*
Subdivisions of Ukraine*
Carpathian Ruthenia*
Ruthenians and Ukrainians in Czechoslovakia (1918-1938) *
Carpatho-Ukraine
