1.2 Main Negotiations

Invoking the negotiations provisions of the Munich Agreement, Hungary demanded as early as October 1 that Czechoslovakia begin negotiations. Under international pressure and facing the diversionist activities of specially trained Hungarian terrorist groups sent mainly to the frontier regions -- 350 of whom were imprisoned -- Czechoslovakia agreed to start negotiations, which took place between 9 October and 13 October 1938 in Komárno on the Slovakian northern bank of the Danube, immediately across from Hungary.

The Czechoslovak delegation was led by the Prime Minister of autonomous Slovakia Jozef Tiso and included Ferdinand Durcanský , the Minister of Justice in the Slovak cabinet, and General Rudolf Viest. The Prague Government (that is to say, the central government of Czechoslovakia) was represented by Dr. Ivan Krno, Political Director of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. Autonomous Subcarpathia was mainly represented by I. Parkányi, a Subcarpathian minister without portfolio. The Hungarian delegation was led by Foreign Minister Kálmán Kánya and Minister of Education Pál Teleki. The Czechoslovak (that is mostly Slovak) delegation was inexperienced and unprepared, because there were many other internal problems to be solved in the newly created autonomous Slovakia and Subcarpathia. The Hungarian delegation, on the other hand, consisted of experienced persons and its government had the opportunity on 8 October to discuss the negotiations in advance. The instructions of the Hungarian government had been: do not negotiate, but demand.

The basic difference in the arguments of the two parties was that the Hungarians presented figures from 1910 (just like Germany in the Munich Agreement), while Czechoslovakia presented the last figures of 1930, contested the reliability of the particular census of 1910 and later also presented figures of Hungarian censuses before 1900, when the process of Magyarisation (Hungarianisation) was not so advanced yet as in 1910.

As a token of good will, the Czechoslovak delegation offered to Hungary the territories of the railway station in Slovenské Nové Mesto (until 1918 a suburb of the Hungarian town Sátoraljaújhely), as well as the town Šahy ( Hungarian: Ipolyság). Consequently, both territories were occupied by Hungary as early as on October 12.

At the beginning of the negotiations, Hungary demanded possession of southern Slovak and Subcarpathian territories up to and inclusive of the line defined by Devín (Hungarian: Dévény) - Bratislava (Pozsony) - Nitra (Nyitra) - Tlmace (Garamtolmács) - Levice (Léva) - Lucenec (Losonc) - Rimavská Sobota (Rimaszombat) - Jelšava (Jolsva) - Rožnava (Rozsnyó) - Košice (Kassa) - Trebišov (Toketerebes) - Pavlovce (Pálócz) - Uzhhorod ( Slovak: Užhorod, Hungarian: Ungvár) - Mukacheve (Mukacevo, Munkács) - Vinogradiv (Nagyszolos). In 1930, the Slovakian portion of this territory (12,124 km², about 85% of the total) comprised 550,000 Magyars and 432,000 Slovaks, and had 23% of the total population of Slovakia. Furthermore, the Hungarians required a plebiscite in the remaining Slovakia, in which the Slovaks should say whether they want be incorporated into Hungary.

The Czechoslovak delegation, on the other hand, offered Hungary the creation of an autonomous territory in Slovakia. Kánya characterisied this as a "joke". Then Czechoslovakia offered the cession of the Great Rye Island (Slovak: Žitný ostrov, Hungarian: Csallóköz, 1838 km², 105,418 inhabitants), the creation of a free port in the town of Komárno and a population exchange in the remaining frontier regions. Since Hungary refused this offer as well, on October 13, the Czechoslovak delegation proposed another solution, according to which there should remain just as many Slovaks and Ruthenians in Hungary as Magyars in Czechoslovakia. This proposal involved Czechoslovakia keeping the main towns of the region in question, namely Levice (Léva), Košice (Kassa) and Uzhorod (Ungvár). But this offer, too, was unacceptable to Hungary, and in the evening of 13 October, after consultations in Budapest, Kánya declared the negotiations failed, without presenting any Hungarian counter-proposal.

1.3 After the negotiations

On October 5, Germany decided internally that "for military reasons a common Hungarian-Polish frontier was undesirable" and that, "it was... [in Germany's] military interest that Slovakia should not be separated from the Czechoslovak union but should remain with Czechoslovakia under strong German influence."

On October 13 (the day the negotiations deadlocked), Hungary performed a partial mobilisation and, shortly after, Czechoslovakia declared martial law in the frontier region. Hungary sent delegations both to Italy and to Germany. Count Csáky went to Rome, and Italy started to prepare a four-power conference similar to the conference that produced the Munich Agreement. On October 16, the Hungarian emissary in Germany, Kalman Daranyi , told Hitler that Hungary was ready to fight, but Hitler, raising the criticism that Hungary had lied to him in their claim that the Slovaks and Ruthenians wanted union with Hungary at all costs, replied that if Hungary starts a conflict, nobody would help them. He advised Hungary to continue the negotiations and to observe the ethnic principle. Hitler also indicated that Hungary would not receive the (largely German) town of Bratislava, because the Germans never wanted to live as a minority under Hungary and because Hungary's controversial treatment of her minorities was known in Germany. As a result of this conversation, Ribbentrop in cooperation with Hungary and in the presence of the Czechoslovak (more exactly Czech) foreign minister František Chvalkovský , changed the Hungarian proposal into a new frontier line, the so-called Ribbentrop line, which was closer to the ethnic principle (it kept Bratislava and Nitra in Slovakia, for example), but actually did not differ much from the Hungarian proposal. During the drawing of the Ribbentrop line, Ribbentrop contacted Italy and told them to drop the plans for the four-power conference, because Germany preferred to act "behind the scenes".

The Czechoslovak foreign minister recommended back in Prague to accept the Ribbentrop line. On October 19, however, the Slovak representatives Jozef Tiso and Durcanský met Ribbentrop in Munich and -- showing him population statistics proving a strong Magyarisation in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 19th century (which also concerned the Germans) -- they managed to persuade him to assign Košice to Czechoslovakia and to accept the principle that there should remain just as many Slovaks and Ruthenians in Hungary as Magyars in Czechoslovakia. A few days later, Ribbentrop revealed himself to be quite hostile to the Hungarians. As the Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano saw it: "The truth is that he intends to protect Czechoslovakia as far as he can and sacrifice the ambitions, even the legitimate ambitions, of Hungary."

After October 17, activities around Subcarpathia intensified. Poland proposed a partition of Subcarpathia among Hungary, Poland and Romania, which Romania - as a loyal ally of Czechoslovakia against Hungary - strictly refused, even offering its military support for Czechoslovakia in Subcarpathia. Hungary, in turn, started to persuade the representatives of Subcarpathia to become part of Hungary. Since a common Polish-Hungarian frontier, which would arise by a Hungarian annexation of Subcarpathia, had been a long-term dream of both Poland and Hungary, Poland was moving troops towards the frontier for support. However, since a common Polish-German frontier would mean a kind of encirclement of Germany, Germany was willing to allow a common frontier only if Poland compensated for it by giving up the Danzig corridor to East Prussia. Poland refused this German proposal and retreated. On October 20, the Ruthenians produced a resolution more or less in favour of a plebiscite concerning the entirety of Subcarpathia becoming part of Hungary. Five days later, the Subcarpathian Prime Minister Brody was placed under arrest in Prague and the Subcarpathian foreign minister was appointed Prime Minister in his stead. He was willing to accept that only Magyar ethnic territories be ceded and rejected the idea of a plebiscite.

1.4 Resumed negotiations

In the meantime, the negotiations between Czechoslovakia and Hungary were resumed in the form of negotiations through diplomatic channels. As a result of the Slovak trip to Munich on October 19, Czechoslovakia made the so-called Third Territorial Offer on October 22: they offered to cede Hungary a territory of 9,606 km² in southern Slovakia plus 1,694 km² in Subcarpathia; Czechoslovakia would retain Bratislava, Nitra and Košice. Hungary refused this proposal and demanded that the territories offered by Czechoslovakia be immediately occupied by Hungary, that there be a plebiscite in the disputed territory, and that Subcarpathia "be to decide on its own future" (that is decide that they want to join Hungary). It also warned that if Czechoslovakia refused this proposal, Hungary would demand an arbitration (Italo-German arbitration in western Slovakia, Italo-German-Polish arbitration in eastern Slovakia and Subcarpathia). Czechoslovakia rejected these demands, but agreed to the requested arbitration. There were several reasons for this besides international pressure: not only the Hungarian government was co-operating with Hitler, but the newly autonomous Slovak government was co-operating with Germany as well (e.g. the October 19 meeting with Ribbentrop). Both of these parties hoped that Germany would support their demands. In the meantime, the U.K. and France had proclaimed a lack of interest in such an arbitration, but they remained ready to participate in a four-power conference if such should arise.

1.5 Before the arbitration

Czechoslovakia, however, underestimated Hungary's influence in Italy. Hungary managed to persuade Italy that the strong German influence exercised through Czechoslovakia could be eliminated by a strong Hungary, which would, of course, support Italy. Consequently, on 27 October in Rome the Italian foreign minister persuaded Ribbentrop - who in the meantime changed his mind and supported a four-power conference - that the German-Italian arbitration was still a good idea, because Ciano viewed it as a "gigantic event" against Franco-British influence. After long hesitation, Ribbentrop was also persuaded that the award should go beyond the ethnic principle, and above all should give to Hungary also the important Czechoslovak towns Košice, Uzhorod and Mukacheve. Giving up the last two towns, however, meant that Carpatho-Ukraine would be deprived of her economic centres and could not survive. Of course, Czechoslovakia did not know about this change in Ribbentrop's attitude, and the Slovak leaders' confidence in a favourable German decision was instrumental in bringing them to accept the arbitration.

On 29 October 1938, Czechoslovakia and Hungary officially asked Germany and Italy to arbitrate, and they declared in advance that they would abide by the results.

2 The Arbitration

2.1 The delegations

The award was rendered in Vienna by the foreign ministers of Germany ( Joachim von Ribbentrop) and of Italy ( Galeazzo Ciano).

The Hungarian delegation was led by Foreign Minister Kálmán Kánya , who was accompanied by Minister of Education Pál Teleki.

The Czechoslovak delegation was led by Foreign Minister František Chvalkovský and by Ivan Krno . Important members of the Czechoslovak delegation were the representatives of Subcarpathian Rus - Prime Minister Avhustyn Vološyn - and of Slovakia - Prime Minister Jozef Tiso and Minister of Justice Ferdinand Durcanský .

2.2 The arbitration procedure

The arbitration started in the Belvedere Castle in Vienna on November 2 at 12:15. Göring was also present. The Czechoslovak and the Hungarian delegation were allowed to present their arguments at the beginning. Kanya was "bitter and argumentative," Teleki was "calm and with more documentation." Chvalkovsky was brief and left the task of presenting the Czechoslovak case to Minister Krno. Ribbentrop at this point prevented the Slovak Prime Minister Tiso, and the Subcarpathian Prime Minister Volosin from stating their views officially.

The two arbiters Ribbentrop and Ciano continued their conversations with the delegates during lunch and then went to a separate room, where they quarrelled above a map. Ciano, protecting Hungarian interests, tried to shift the new frontier to the north, Ribbentrop, protecting Czechoslovak interests, tried to shift it in the opposite direction. But due to Ribbentrop's unpreparedness and indolence, the Italian foreign minister was more successful, so that around 19:00, when the award was pronounced, the Czechoslovak delegation was so shocked that Jozef Tiso even had to be persuaded by Ribbentrop and Chvalkovský to sign the award.

2.3 Provisions of the award

Czechoslovakia had to surrender the territories in southern Slovakia and southern Subcarpathia south of the line (and inclusive of the towns) Senec - Galanta - Vráble - Levice - Lucenec - Rimavská Sobota - Jelšava - Rožnava - Košice - Michalany - Velké Kapušany - Uzhhorod - Mukacheve - and the Romanian border. This means that Czechoslovakia retained in the western section of Slovakia the towns of Bratislava and Nitra and Hungary recovered the three disputed eastern towns, in addition to four others in the central section.

The area of these territories was 11,927 km² (out of which 10,390 were in what is as of 2004 present-day Slovakia, the rest in Subcarpathia/Carpatho-Ukraine) with approximately 1,060,000 million inhabitants. According to last Czechoslovak censuses performed before the Vienna Award, the Slovak part of the territory in question had 852,332 inhabitants:

• 506,208 (59%) Magyars,
• 290,107 (34%) Slovaks,
• 26,227 (3.07%) Jews,
• 13,184 (1.5%) Germans,
• 1,892 (0.2%) Ruthenians and
• 14,714 (1.7%) other nationalities.

According to a Hungarian census of late 1938, there were only 121,603 Slovaks in the territory in question; according to another Hungarian census of 1941, the number of Hungarians was 751,944 (86.5%) out of a total population of 869,299 and the number of Slovaks decreased to 85,392 (9.8%). 70,000 Magyars (according to Slovak sources) or 67,000 Magyars (according to Hungarian sources) remained in the non-annexed part of Slovakia.

Although, in analogy to the Munich Agreement, the award was supposed to cede territories that according to the census of 1910 - the last Hungarian census carried out when Slovakia and Subcarpathia were still parts of the Kingdom of Hungary - had more than 50% Magyars, in reality it violated even this old and controversial census in several regions, especially in the surroundings of Košice, Bratislava, Nové Zámky, Vráble, Hurbanovo and Jelšava. The violation of the ethnic principle was even worse when considering the figures of the 1930 census. According to the Czechoslovak census of 1930, Slovaks constituted the majority population in 182 communities (out of 779 in sum), there were 60% Slovaks in the ceded town of Kosice and 73% in the ceded district of Vráble. Thus, the award was a violation of the principle of ethnic frontiers .

Slovakia lost 21% of its territory, 20% of its industry, more than 30% of its arable land, 27% of its power stations, 28% of its extractable iron ore, more than 50% of its vineyards, 35% of its swine and 930 km of railway tracks. Eastern Slovakia lost its central town (Košice). Eastern Slovakia and many towns in southern Slovakia lost a railway connection to the remaining world, because their only railway lines ran through the annexed territory and the border was closed. Carpatho-Ukraine was deprived of its two principal towns, Uzhhorod and Mukacheve and of the whole of its fertile territory.

In addition, the award stated that "both parties accept the arbitral award as the final frontier adjustment". This provision, however, would soon be violated by Hungary, as described below.

3 Consequences

The award was of course unfavourable for Slovakia and the Carpatho-Ukraine. The fact that the remaining Slovakia remained a separate territory enabled Germany to gain control over this strategic territory in central Europe and later to play off Hungary and Slovakia against each other, both of them trying to get German approbation.

3.1 Some events after the Vienna Award

Shortly after the pronouncement of the award, János Eszterházy, the leader of Magyars in Slovakia, proposed that Hungary should return to Slovakia 1000 km² of the territory received (more precisely, predominantly Slovak territories in the districts of Šurany/Nagysurány and Palárikovo/Tótmegyer) in order to ensure long-term peaceful coexistence of both nations. This proposal, however, was ignored in Budapest.

The territory ceded was occupied by the Hungarian honveds (Magyar Királyi Honvédség) between November 5 and 10. On November 11, Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy solemnly entered the main town of the occupied territory - Kosice/Kassa. By that time 15,000 Czechs and Slovaks had left the town; 15,000 more would do so before the end of the month, leaving perhaps 12,000 Slovaks and virtually no Czechs.

The recovered "Highland Territories" were incorporated into Hungary on November 12 by act of the Hungarian Parliament. The occupied territory was mostly divided in two new counties with seats in Nové Zámky and in Levice, some territories became part of other Hungarian counties.

Since the frontier set by the award was made on a large-scale map, Hungary managed to shift the actual frontier even farther to the north during the delimitation process. Czechoslovakia did not protest, because its government was terrified of another arbitration.

Under pressure from Hitler, Slovakia declared total independence on 14 March 1939. Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Already two days before that, Hitler had informed Hungary that it was allowed to occupy (the rest of) Subcarpathia within 24 hours, but that it was to keep hands off (the rest of) Slovakia, which Hitler wanted to turn into a strategically located ally for German activities, especially for the planned attack against Poland. On 14 March and 15 March (the remaining) Subcarpathia declared its independence. Between 15 March and 18 March, the remaining Carpatho-Ukraine (with almost no Magyar population) was occupied by Hungary, which was a direct violation of the Vienna Award. From the Carpatho-Ukraine, Hungary also occupied a small part of Slovakia on 15 March. Seeing no substantial reaction, Hungary launched a larger attack on eastern Slovakia on 23 March. The plan was to "advance as far to the west as possible". After a short Hungarian-Slovak War (with several Hungarian air raids, e. g. on 24 March on Spišská Nová Ves), Hungary was forced by Germany to stop and to negotiate. As a result of these negotiations ( 27 March - 4 April), Hungary received further territories in eastern Slovakia (1897 km²) with 69,630 inhabitants, almost exclusively Slovaks or Ruthenians. This was another violation of the Vienna Award.

3.2 Life in the annexed territories

Although initially, the arrival of the honveds was welcomed by most Magyars living on the annexed territory, shortly after the inscriptions on walls turned from Mindent vissza! ("Everything back" - that is whole Slovakia) into Minden drága, vissza Prága! ("Everything is expensive, back to Prague") and people were saying Nem ezeket a magyarokat vártuk ("It is not these Magyars that we have been waiting for"). The Magyar writer K. Janics wrote in 1994 that 90% of the Magyars on the annexed territory welcomed the annexation, but the same Magyars desired a separation from Hungary again as early as at the end of the summer 1939. Of course, their objection was not to Hungary as such, but to the authoritarian regime of Miklós Horthy, which had ruled Hungary since 1920, and had continued the democratic and economic backwardness into which that country had lapsed after World War I. This was the exact opposite to what had occurred in Czechoslovakia after WWI: In Hungary there were longer working times, higher prices, lower pay, higher taxes, no collective bargaining, no unemployment benefits, almost no leaves of absence from work, etc. The local population failed in most of their attempts to preserve the advantages of the Czechoslovak system, but prevailed on one count: both in the annexed territories and throughout Hungary, compulsory education was increased from 6 years to the Czechoslovakian standard of 8 years.

In violation of the text of the award, Hungary imposed military dictatorship on the annexed territories (they were led by the military) and, above all, it did not promote minorities. On the contrary, Slovak, Ruthenian/Ukrainian, Jewish and to some extent also German citizens of the annexed territories were subject to various kinds of persecution. In particular, Hungarian gendarmes frequently committed acts of violence against Slovaks; altogether they killed thousands of people. The best known case happened at Christmas 1938, when the gendarmes shot at Slovaks leaving a church, merely because they had sung a Slovak national song during the mass . Special military courts, which sentenced members of the underground to death or torture were nothing out of the ordinary. Lootings in Slovak or Czech stores and properties in the annexed territory were very frequent. Huge amounts of Slovak libraries and books were burned, thousands of Slovak and Czech employees - especially those of the railways and of public service - were dismissed, trade licenses of Slovaks and Jews were revoked, priests that were not willing to say mass in Hungarian were tortured, etc. Most of Slovak schools were closed down (386 primary schools, 28 council school s [literally "burgher schools"] and 10 gymnasia); those who initiated protests against this were imprisoned and 862 out of 1119 Slovak teachers were fired. Many of these were presumably among the 100,000 Slovaks and Czechs who fled or were expelled from the annexed territory. The deportations started with an order of 5 November 1938 of the Hungarian Chief of Staff stipulating that all Czech and Slovak "colonists" be expelled from the annexed territories. Only when the upset Slovak government ordered retaliatory measures against Magyars in Slovakia in November 1938 did Hungary start to negotiate. The result of all this was - as the Hungarian ambassador in Prague put it in February 1939 - that "emotional conflicts have arisen between the Slovaks and Magyars that have not existed ever before".

In addition, The Hungarian authorities openly and purposefully called up mainly Slovaks, Romanians and Ukrainians into the Second Hungarian Army, which was sent to the Soviet Union in 1942. This army was totally defeated at the Battle of the Don and thousands died. The Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Kállay said in this connection on 23 February 1943: "Thank God that the losses of the Hungarian army did not concern the substance of the Magyar nation to an appreciable extent, because the [non-Magyar] nationalities have lost more lives."

The Hungarian-speaking Jews of the territory were deported by a commando group led by Adolf Eichmann after German occupation of Hungary (see History of Hungary) on March 19 1944.

3.3 After World War II

After liberation of the territory by the Soviet Army, the territory, just like the short-lived Slovak Republic, immediately became part of Czechoslovakia again (see below: Invalidity ). After WWII (until 1948), the Magyars were considered war criminals, except for those who were were underground resistance fighters against the Germans during the war. However, the Allies did not allow a deportation of the Magyars similar to the deportation of Germans from the Czech lands. They only allowed a so-called "exchange of population", in the course of which 68,407 Magyars were resettled to Hungary in exchange for Slovaks resettled to Czechoslovakia. A further 31,780 Magyars were expelled, because they had come to the territory in question only after the Vienna Award. Already before this, some 44,000 Magyars (like over 100,000 Slovaks) were sent/deported to the now depopulated Sudetenland for labour service. One or two years afterwards, the Magyars were allowed to return to southern Slovakia, and some 24,000 of them took this opportunity. This temporary lawless period ended with the Communist coup in 1948 (see History of Czechoslovakia), after which the Magyars (unlike the Germans) got back their Czechoslovak citizenship and all their rights.

4 Invalidity

While WWII was still in progress, the Allies declared the award null and void, because it was a direct result of the equally void Munich Agreement, it was an act of gross violence, a violation of international law and of the 30 September 1938 agreement between Germany and the U.K., which required consultations with the U.K. and France before such an award. The above was confirmed in the text of the Treaty of Peace with Hungary ( Treaty of Paris) signed on February 10, 1947, which in its Article 1 (4a) confirmed "The decisions of the Vienna Award of November 2, 1938 are declared null and void" and - in further text - that the frontier between Hungary and Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union (which "received" Carpatho-Ukraine from Czechoslovakia in June 1945) were to be fixed along the former frontier between Hungary and Czechoslovakia as it existed on January 1, 1938, (except for 3 villages south of Bratislava, which were given to Czechoslovakia).

5 References

This article is largely based on the corresponding article in the German-langauge Wikipedia.

Here are some of the data sources used in the article:

• Deák, Ladislav: Hra o Slovensko [The play for (the stake) Slovakia]. Slovak Academy of Sciences, 1991
• Deák, Ladislav: Viedenská arbitráž 2. november 1938. Dokumenty, zv. 1 (20. september – 2. november 1938) [Vienna Arbitral 2 November 1938. Documents, volume 1 (20 September – 2 November 1938)]. Matica slovenská, 2002
• Encyklopédia Slovenska [Encyclopaedia of Slovakia], volume VI, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 1982
• Kronika Slovenska [Chronicle of Slovakia]. volume II, Fortuna Print Praha, 1999

6 External links

• Text of the first arbitral award of Vienna
• Edward Chaszar : The Czechoslovak-Hungarian Border Dispute of 1938

6.1 Map

• A map showing:
• in the south: territories annexed by Hungary under the First Vienna Award
• in the east: territories annexed by Hungary after the war of March-April 1939
• in the west: territories where Germany was allowed to station its troops

History of Slovakia Hungarian history Ukrainian history

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