ORGANIZATIONAL EFFORTS OF CARPATHO-UKRAINIAN STUDENTS DURING 1939 – 1943: CZECHOSLOVAK HERITAGE IN THE TIMES OF THE KINGDOM OF HUNGARY (BASED ON PERIODICALS AND MEMOIRS)

Abstract

Based on the achievements of Ukrainian and foreign historiography, as well as an analysis of a significant database of published sources (periodicals, memoirs, etc.), the article analyzes the attempts of Carpatho-Ukrainian students to organize their public activities in the period after the break-up of Czechoslovakia and integration of the Transcarpathia into the Kingdom of Hungary. The analyzed material makes it possible to assert that the Carpatho-Ukrainian student movement, formed during the Czechoslovak Republic, had an inevitable logical continuation in a new reality. During this period, several Carpatho-Ukrainian student associations operated in the Kingdom of Hungary. In particular, in 1940, the «Центральный Союзъ Русскихъ Студентовъ» (Central Union of Russian Students) was established. Its backbone was formed by activists of Russophile student organizations of the Czechoslovak Republic. Due to its own national and linguistic orientation, its structure was not legalized. Still, it operated de facto for the next few years, uniting small groups of students in Debrecen, Budapest, Pécs, Sopron, and Szeged. In 1941, after a long preparatory process, the "Society of Subcarpathian Rus Higher Education Students" ("Kárpátaljai Ruszin Egyetemi és Főiskolai Hallgatók Egyesülete") was formed in Debrecen. The organization followed the official course of "Ugro-Rusynism" and, for some time, was under the care of the Regent's Commissariat of the Carpathian Territory. Many student activists from the Czechoslovak period were also members of the executive board. At the same time, ideological orientation and loyalty to the Hungarian authorities caused apathy among a large part of the students. As a result, the society failed to expand its activities to other educational centers in the country. At the same time, during this period, there were attempts to involve Carpatho-Ukrainian students in international fellowship organizations (Debrecen Felvidéki Egyetemi és Főiskolai Hallgatók Egyesülete) and to establish informal creative associations ("Budapest club"). At the same time, the government's attempts to interfere in the student movement mainly met with resistance from the activists meanwhile strengthening their (students') opposition.