ETHNIC HOMOGENIZATION OF THE URBAN POPULATION OF TRANSCARPATHIA IN THE YEARS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND THE SOVIET PERIOD

Abstract

The Rusins of Subcarpathian Rus made up the majority of the population of this rural region of the Czechoslovak Republic on the eve of World War II. Also, in the region there were many representatives of other nationalities: Jews, Germans, Hungarians, Czechs and Slovaks, etc. The results of the war, as well as the inclusion of the region into the Soviet Union, determined the homogeneity of the ethnic space of this region. It must be admitted, that the events of the mid-twentieth century were used by many state regimes to solve their own "national problems", which resulted in ethnic homogenization in significant territories of Central and Eastern Europe. As a result of the war, the Holocaust, physical extermination, deportations and migrations the national structure of the many Central and Eastern European cities has particularly changed. Similar processes in the Transcarpathian region have led to the fact, that Ukrainians, who previously made up no more, than a quarter of towns inhabitants, are now the dominant part of the urban population. It should be noted that in the period before the Second World War, these cities were of a multicultural nature, which is still confirmed by architectural monuments of Jewish, Hungarian, Czech origin. As a consequence of post-war industrialization, the urban population continued to grow at the expense of migrants from Transcarpathian villages. Also, in the towns of Transcarpathia, the number of Russians continued to grow. Another feature of the changes in the cities of the region was the active Sovietization and Russification of their symbolic space, which stopped only with the end of Soviet power.