The Hungarians in Ukraine (Hungarian: Ukrajnai magyarok, Ukrainian: угорці в Україні, tr.uhortsi v Ukraini) number 156,600 people according to the Ukrainian census of 2001 and are the third largest national minority in the country. Hungarians are largely concentrated in the Zakarpattia Oblast (particularly in Berehove Raion and Berehove city), where they form the largest minority at 12.1% of the population (12.7% when native language is concerned). In the area along the Ukrainian border with Hungary (the Tisza River valley), Hungarians form the majority.
Concentrated primarily in Zakarpattia (Trans-Carpathian), in Hungarian those Hungarians are referred to as Kárpátaljai magyarok (Transcarpathian Hungarians), while Zakarpattia is referred to as Kárpátalja.
The Zakarpattia region was briefly part of the short-lived West Ukrainian National Republic in 1918 and occupied by the Kingdom of Romania at end of that year. It was later recaptured by Hungary in the summer of 1919. After the defeat of the remaining Hungarian armies in 1919, the Paris Peace Conference concluded the Treaty of Trianon that awarded Zakarpattia to the newly formed Czechoslovakia as the Subcarpathian Rus, one of the four main regions of Czechoslovakia, the others being Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia.[1]
The region remained under Hungarian control until the end of World War II in Europe, after which it was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union. Hungary had to renounce the territories won in the Vienna Awards in the Armistice Agreement signed in Moscow on January 20, 1945.[2] The renunciation was reconfirmed at the Paris Peace Conference in 1946 and recorded in the Peace Treaty of 1947.[3]
When the Soviet Army crossed the pre-1938 borders of Czechoslovakia in 1944, Soviet authorities refused to allow Czechoslovak governmental officials to resume control over the region, and in June 1945, President Edvard Beneš formally signed a treaty ceding the area to the Soviet Union. It was then incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, it became part of independent Ukraine as the Zakarpattia Oblast.[1]
Most common mother tongue and its prevalence by urban and rural district in Zakarpattia Oblast, 2001 censusPercentage of Hungarians who called their native language Hungarian in Zakarpattia Oblast by the 2001 census
Hungary was the first country to recognize Ukraine's independence. Árpád Göncz, who was president of Hungary at the time, was invited to visit the region, and a joint declaration, followed in December 1991 by a state treaty, acknowledged that the ethnic Hungarian minority had collective as well as individual rights. The treaty provided for the preservation of their ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identities; education at all levels in the mother tongue; and the ethnic Hungarians' participation in local authorities charged with minority affairs.[4]
Since 2017, the Hungary–Ukraine relations rapidly deteriorated over the issue of Ukraine's education law.[8] Ukraine's 2017 education law makes Ukrainian the required language of primary education in state schools from grade five.[9] The situation since then has been ongoing in problem, as Hungary continues to block Ukraine's attempt to integrate within the EU and NATO over disputes on minority rights.[10]
Residents in seven of Mukachivskyi Raion's villages have the option to learn the Hungarian language in a school or home school environment.[when?][citation needed] The first Hungarian College in Ukraine is in Berehovo, the II. Rákoczi Ferenc College.
In 2017 a new education law made Ukrainian the required language of primary education in state schools from grade five.[9] This led to a rapid deterioration of Hungary–Ukraine relations over this issue.[8] Hungary continues to block Ukraine's attempt to integrate within the EU and NATO over disputes on minority rights.[10] László Brenzovics [uk], at the time[nb 1] the only ethnic Hungarian in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament), said that "There is a sort of purposeful policy, which besides narrowing the rights of all minorities, tries to portray the Hungarian minority as the enemy in Ukrainian public opinion."[12]
In 2017 there were 71 Hungarian Schools in Ukraine with 16,000 enrolled students.[13]
In January 2020 the 2017 Ukrainian education law was changed and made it legal to teach "one or more disciplines" in "two or more languages – in the official state language, in English, in another official languages of the European Union".[15] All not state funded schools were made free to choose their own language of instruction.[15] This policy change did not improve Hungary–Ukraine relations and Hungarian minority groups in also continued to be unsatisfied and demanded the whole 2017 law to be abolished.[15] According to the 2020 law until the fifth year of education all lessons can be completely thought in the minority language without mandatory teaching of subjects in Ukrainian.[15] In the fifth year not less than 20% of the lessons must be taught in Ukrainian.[15] Then every year the volume of teaching in the state language (Ukrainian) should increase, reaching 40% in the ninth grade.[15] In the twelfth and final year at least 60% of education should be taught in Ukrainian.[15]
The 2017 language education law stipulated a 3-year transitional period to come in full effect.[16][17] In February 2018, this period was extended until 2023.[18] In June 2023 this period was again extended to September 2024.[19]
In late 2022 the Language ombudsman reported that most of the 108 schools in Berehove Raion had classes with the Hungarian language of instruction alongside Ukrainian, but in 37 of them no class had been formed in which the training took place only in Ukrainian.[20]
The general manager of the Hungarian State Opera, Szilveszter Ókovács, claimed in a February 2023 letter published in The Guardian "in today’s Ukraine it is forbidden to use the Hungarian language today."[21]
Organisation
Logo of KMKSZ
The Hungarian Democratic Federation in Ukraine (UMDSZ) is the only nationally registered Hungarian organization. It was established in October 1991 by the Hungarian Cultural Federation in Transcarpathia (KMKSZ, which has suspended its membership since 1995), the Cultural Federation of Hungarians in Lviv, and the Association of Hungarians in Kyiv. The Hungarian Cultural Federation in Transcarpathia is associated with the political party KMKSZ – Hungarian Party in Ukraine, which was established in February 2005. In March 2005, the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice also registered the Hungarian Democratic Party in Ukraine upon the initiative of the UMDSZ.[22] Also Zoltán Lengyel was elected as mayor of Mukachevo after the election on 1 December 2008. UMDSZ also won city municipalities of Berehove, Vynohradiv and Tiachiv in this election.
^Kovrig, Bennett (2000) ‘Partitioned nation: Hungarian minorities in Central Europe’, in: Michael Mandelbaum (ed.), The new European Diasporas: national minorities and conflict in Eastern Europe, New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, pp. 19-80.
