Zakarpattia Oblast

The Transcarpatia or Zakarpattia Oblast (Закарпатська область, translit. Zakarpats’ka oblast’; see other languages) is an administrative oblast (province) located in southwestern Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Uzhhorod. Other major cities within the oblast include Mukachevo, Khust, Berehove and Chop which is home to railroad transport infrastructure.

Zakarpattia Oblast was formally established on 22 January 1946, after Czechoslovakia ceded the territory of Subcarpathian Rus to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, under a treaty between Czechoslovakia and USSR. Some scholars say that during the Ukrainian independence referendum held in 1991, Zakarpattia Oblast voters were given a separate option on whether or not they favored autonomy for the region. Although a large majority favored autonomy, it was not granted. However, this referendum was about self-government status, not about autonomy (like in Crimea).

Situated in the Carpathian Mountains of western Ukraine, Zakarpattia Oblast is the only Ukrainian administrative division which borders upon four countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. The Carpathian Mountains play a major part in the oblast's economy, making the region an important tourist and travel destination housing many ski and spa resorts.

The oblast is ranked 23rd by area and 17th by population. According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, the population of Zakarpattia Oblast is 1,254,614. This total includes people of many different nationalities of which Hungarians, Romanians and Rusyns constitute significant minorities in some of the province's cities, while in others, they form the majority of the population (as in the case of Berehove).

Name
The oblast is also referred to as the Transcarpathian Oblast, Transcarpathia, Zakarpattya, or historically as Subcarpathian Rus. In other languages the oblast is named:
 * Подкарпатьска област, translit. Podkarpat’ska oblast.
 * Kárpátalja
 * Podkarpatská Rus
 * Maramureș or Regiunea Transcarpatia
 * Закарпатская область, translit. Zakarpatskaya oblast

While the name Transcarpathia is a translation of the Ukrainian version of the name, the Hungarian name translates as Subcarpathia, following the Hungarian language logic "feet of the mountains", naming a territory after its geographic location at the lower section of a mountain range. (Following the same language pattern that applies to the name of the sub-Alpian territory in Western Hungary, Alpokalja) Generally, the Transcarpathia name and its versions reflect the East Slavic language logic, while some Western languages follow the same logic as the Hungarian:
 * Subcarpathia, Subcarpathian Russia, Subcarpathian Ruthenia, Sub-Carpathian Ukraine
 * Ukraine Subcarpathique, Russie subcarpathique

Other Western languages follow their own logic in creating a name for the region:

The coat of arms of Zakarpattia was originally created in the end of the 1910s in the then Czechoslovakia.

Geography
The Zakarpattia Oblast has a total area of 12800 km2 and is located in the Carpathian Mountains region of western Ukraine. It is the only Ukrainian oblast to have boundaries with four countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. On the West it borders the Prešov and Košice Regions of Slovakia and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Counties of Hungary, on the South—the Satu Mare and Maramureş Counties of Romania, on the East and Northeast—Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, and on the North—Lviv Oblast and the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of Poland.



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

The largest rivers that flow through the oblast include the Tysa, Borzhava, and the Tereblia. A high altitude lake is located in Rakhiv Raion, which is the highest in the region. It is called Nesamovyte. The lake is located in the Hoverla preserve on the slopes of Turkul mountain. The lake's area is 3000 m2 and it is located 1750 m above sea level.

The region's climate is moderate and continental with about 700 - 1000 mm of rainfall per year. The average temperature in summer is +21 °С (70 °F) and −4 °С (25 °F) in winter. With a total height of 2061 m, Hoverla, part of the Chornohora mountain range, is the tallest point in the oblast. The lowest point, 101 m above sea level, is located in the village of Ruski Heyevtsi (Oroszgejőc in Hungarian) in the Uzhhorodskyi Raion.

The four of the oblast's historical-cultural sites were nominated for the Seven Wonders of Ukraine competition in 2007: Palanok Castle, Museum upon the Chorna River, Mykhailiv Orthodox Church, and the Nevytsky Castle.

History
The lands of Transcarpatia for a long time were part of the Kingdom of Hungary which eventually transformed into the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary until the latter's demise at the end of World War I. This region was briefly part of the short-lived West Ukrainian National Republic in 1918. The region was soon annexed by Romania by the end of that year, mostly the eastern portion such as Rakhiv and Khust. It was later recaptured by Hungarian Soviet Republic in the summer of 1919. Finally, under the name Subcarpathian Rus (Podkarpatská Rus), after the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 it was annexed to Czechoslovakia with a supposedly equal level of autonomy as Slovakia and Bohemia-Moravia-Czech Silesia (Czech lands). Nevertheless, such autonomy was granted as late as in 1938, after detrimental events of the Munich Conference; until then this land was administered directly from Prague by the government-appointed provincial presidents (zemští prezidenti) and/or elected governors (guvernéři).

The province has a unique footnote in history as the only region in the former Czechoslovakia to have had an American governor: its first governor was Gregory Zatkovich, an American citizen who had earlier emigrated from the region and represented the Rusyn community in the U.S. Zatkovich was appointed governor by Czechoslovakia's first president, T. G. Masaryk in 1920, and served for about one year until he resigned over differences regarding the region's autonomy.



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



During the German occupation of Hungary in 1944, almost the entire Jewish population was deported; few survived the Holocaust. In October 1944 the Sub-Carpathian Ukraine was occupied by the Red Army. In June 29, 1945, Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš formally signed a treaty ceding the area and the next month it was united with the Ukrainian SSR through the "Manifest for unification with the Soviet Ukraine" that was accepted by the 1st Congress of People's Committees of Sub-Carpathian Ukraine without any knowledge of common people. It was then incorporated or better said annexed into the Ukrainian SSR as Zakarpattia Oblast. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, it became part of independent Ukraine.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine held an independence referendum in which the residents of Zakarpattia were asked about the Zakarpattia Oblast Council's proposal for self-rule. About 78% of the oblast's population voted in favor of autonomy; however, it was not granted. There were also propositions of separating from Ukraine to rejoin Czechoslovakia, but after Czechoslovakia's dissolution into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (1993), these ideas have been rendered largely moot.

On October 25, 2008, delegates to the Congress Of Carpathian Ruthenians declared the formation of the Republic of Carpathian Ruthenia. The prosecutor’s office of Zakarpattia region has filed a case against Russian Orthodox Church priest Dmytro Sidor and Yevhen Zhupan, an Our Ukraine party deputy of the Zakarpattia regional council and chairman of the People’s Council of Ruthenians, on charges of encroaching on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine.

Politics


Zakarpattia Oblast's local administration is controlled by the Zakarpattia Oblast Council (rada).

The oblast's governor (currently Oleksandr Ledyda ) is appointed by the President of Ukraine.

Administrative divisions
[[File:Historical Counties in Zakarpattia.GIF|thumb|250px|Historical regions in Zakarpattia Oblast:

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

Zakarpattia Oblast incorporates four unofficial geographic-historic regions (counties): Ung, Bereg, Ugocsa, and Northern Maramuresh. There is a project for a reform of the current administrative division of the Oblast

The following data incorporates the number of each type of administrative divisions of Zakarpattia Oblast:


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

Rayons
There are 13 rayons (districts) in the oblast:


 * 1) Berehove Rayon
 * 2) Irshava Rayon
 * 3) Khust Rayon
 * 4) Mizhhiria Rayon
 * 5) Mukachevo Rayon
 * 6) Perechyn Rayon
 * 7) Rakhiv Rayon
 * 8) Svaliava Rayon
 * 9) Tiachiv Rayon
 * 10) Uzhhorod Rayon
 * 11) Velykyy Bereznyi Rayon
 * 12) Volovets Rayon
 * 13) Vynohradiv Rayon

Cities
Largest cities and towns in the province are:


 * Uzhhorod (116,400)
 * Mukachevo (93,738)
 * Khust (31,083)
 * Vynohradiv (27,600)
 * Berehove (24,274)
 * Rakhiv (17,000)
 * Svaliava (16,217)
 * Tiachiv (9,256)
 * Mizhhiria (9,133)
 * Irshava (9,000)
 * Velykyy Bychkiv (8,920)
 * Solotvyno (8,774)
 * Dubove (8,745)
 * Velyki Luchky (8,540)
 * Chop (8,436)
 * Ilnytsia (8,420)
 * Bushtyno (8,091)

Demographics
According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, the population of Zakarpattia Oblast is 1,254,614. The current estimated population is 1.2 million people (as of 2004). With the comparison of the last official Soviet Census of 1989 the total population grew by 0.7%.

Although Ukrainians, including ethnic Rusyns, are in the majority (80.5%), 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%). The Ukrainian government does not recognize the Rusyn people living in that country as a distinct nationality but rather as an ethnic sub-group of Ukrainians. About 10,100 people (0.8%) identify themselves as Rusyns according to the last census.

Out of 1,010,100 Ukrainians in the region, 99.2% (~1,002,019) acknowledged their native language, while about 0.5% (~5,051) consider their native language to be Russian. Out of 151,500 Hungarians, 97.1% (~147,107) acknowledged their native language, while about 2.6% (~3,939) consider their native language to be Ukrainian. Out of 32,100 Romanians, 99.1% (31,811) acknowledge their native language, while 0.6% (~193) consider their language Ukrainian. Out of 31,000 Russians, 91.6% (28,396) acknowledge their native language, while 8.1% (~2,511) consider their language Ukrainian. Out of 14,000 Romani peoples only 20.7% (2,898) acknowledge their native language, while 62.9% (~8,806) consider their language Ukrainian or Russian. Out of 5,600 Slovaks 43.9% (2,458) acknowledge their native language, while 42.1% (~2,358) consider their language Ukrainian. Out of 3,500 Germans, 50.0% (1,750) acknowledge their native language, while 38.9% (~1,362) consider their language Ukrainian. About 81% of the oblast population considers the Ukrainian language their native one, while 12.7% of population gives consideration to the Hungarian language and just over 5% considers either the Russian or Romanian languages.

The largest denomination is the Ruthenian Catholic Church; the oblast's territory forms the church's Eparchy of Mukachevo; with 380,000 faithful, it has a solid majority of the oblast's churchgoers. Other smaller groups include Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox, which are largely associated with minority groups; Roman Catholics and Protestants tend to be Hungarian or local Ruthenian, while the Eastern Orthodox are usually Romanians, Russians, or Ukrainians from further east.

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

Zakarpattia is home to approximately 14,000 ethnic Roma (Gypsies), the highest proportion of Roma in any oblast in Ukraine. The first Hungarian College in Ukraine is in Berehovo, the II. Rákoczi Ferenc College.

Beside the major ethnic groups, Zakarpattia is home to several Ukrainian ethnic sub-groups such as Boykos, Lemky, Hutsuls, and others.

Age structure

 * 0-14 years: 19.1% (male 123,009/female 116,213)
 * 15-64 years: 69.8% (male 428,295/female 445,417)
 * 65 years and over: 11.1% (male 48,826/female 89,800) (2013 official)

Median age

 * total: 35.1 years
 * male: 33.2 years
 * female: 37.1 years (2013 official)

Economy


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

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

The most common crops grown within the region include cereals, potatoes and other vegetables. In 1999, the total amount of grain produced was 175,800 tons, of sunflower seeds — 1,300 tons, and potatoes — 378,200 tons. The region also produced 76,100 tons of meat, 363,400 tons of milk and 241,900,000 eggs. The total amount of registered farms in the region was 1,400 in 1999.

Wooden churches

 * Sredne Vodyane churches
 * Verkhnye Vodyane church
 * Danylovo church
 * Kolodne church
 * Krainykovo church
 * Nyzhnie Selyshche church
 * Olexandrivka church
 * Sokyrnytsia church