While investigating the history of Uzhhorod, I stumbled across various declassified CIA reports from the early 50s about Uzhhorod and Zakarpattia Oblast. Note that the oblast was never part of the USSR until 1945, so the shocks were quite significant.
Here are some fascinating gems. For further reading, I recommend this article, which I also found, because they were able to access some documents that seemed to have become harder to find. It seems, by the way, these reports use Ruthenian and Ukrainian interchangeably.
These excerpts illustrate that initially, many were favourable to the idea of collectivisation. This is because of the “substandard existence” prior to it. Similarly, the same documents claim that both Ukrainian nationalists and communists saw the Red Army as liberators from Hungary, so they could be united with their fellow Ruthenians.
Speaking of Ukrainian nationalists, apparently, the Vatican was trying to get Western cooperation to send money to the Uniate church (Greek Catholics) — this is according to a spy, in the article I linked at the start.
The Greek Catholic priests, as well as the Roman Catholics, were forced to join the Russian Orthodox church under the Soviets. This quote below illustrates that the people opposed Soviet religious policy, and the Russian Orthodox priests were political agents. What is fascinating is that many think the Soviet Union had no churches, was fully atheist, etc. No, it used the church, even under atheist Stalin, as a political tool to enforce social morals and control people directly.
A notable Greek Catholic priest, who was “anti-communist,” died mysteriously, likely killed by a nurse after being beaten.
The people of the region resisted what they called “Russianization” as much as they resisted “Magyarization” (Hungarianisation).
The resistance was sometimes violent, with Soviet officials travelling to more remote areas with NKVD escorts, due to “Ruthenian resistance.”
However, many of the Ruthenian groups were themselves split on what they would prefer. Some wanted an independent state, others to be part of Ukraine, or Czechoslovakia.
The earlier-mentioned support for collectivisation faded fast. Food required waiting in line, luxury goods disappeared, coffee was unaffordable (a HUGE deal in Western Ukraine), no one could have a car, people were starving, and workers would steal potatoes. Life was miserable in the Stalinist period in Zakarpattia, that is for sure. Note the following excerpts:
For those unable to read the image here, everything is expensive, people steal, and conditions are getting worse. The quotes were highlighted in the article I linked, so you can go there if you need to use a voice reader or try on the CIA document. I don’t have the time to type the excerpts up.
The people were terrified of deportations, yet listened to illegal foreign radio. Additionally, the people in the region did not have access to the wine and grapes that were produced in the region.
Additionally, coffee houses were replaced with teahouses, and cinemas mostly showed Soviet films to half-empty cinemas, or old films from the West to full houses.
There was a significant military presence in the region, and the border between the USSR and Czechoslovakia was heavily guarded. With 15,000 troops there in 1950.
The Soviet Union sent about 300,000 Soviet Russians to the region, mostly soldiers and workers in defense. This impact can still be felt today, with some people here having tendencies of Russophilia, by the way, when compared to Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts. Etc.
I have the quote here in text from the file
“The total pre-World War II population of the Carpathian Ukraine was 750,000. Of the 120,000 Jews included in this number, fewer than 20,000 are still residing in the area. Of 100,000 Hungarians, only about one-half are left in the Carpathian oblast. Some 50,000 inhabitants of the area were forcibly resettled in different regions of the USSR. There have been no reports on the whereabouts of these people. In spite of these sizable population movements, the population of the Carpathian oblast was estimated at 950,000 to one million in 1950 or considerably more than the pre-war figure. Of the total population, some 600,000 are believed to be ethnically Ukrainian. Only a sizable influx of non-Ukrainian elements, presumably from other areas of the USSR and for military service and defense industries, could account for the present population picture. “
This really indicates the massive shift.
Essentially, life was bleak. Now, you may reasonably say that the CIA would want to make it worse, but this was not for public consumption. This was to get an accurate understanding of the USSR in the case of a war, of their capabilities. There are reports of factories and pipelines, much of it mundane. They want to see the strengths and weaknesses of the region. So, you get a fascinating glimpse into the history.
Links to the reports I could find:
- Past and Present Developments in Carpatho-Ukraine
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