From the North-East Felvidék to Podkarpatská Rus (Kárpátalja), with Special Regard to the Activity of Masaryk and Beneš

In 1918–1919 the purest region of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy joined to the Czechoslovak Republic from the Hungarian Kingdom. At the first sight this was a simple proceeding. But according to our opinion in fact, the 1918–1919 developments in the history of the North-Eastern Felvidék were influenced four factors: 1. The conflicting efforts of countries intending to keep (Hungary) and to acquire (Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland and various Ukrainian state formations) the region. 2. The people’s assemblies of the Ruthenian and Hungarian populations, with their diverging (ukranophile, hungarophile, czechophile) orientations and their searching for allies. 3. The activity of the Ruthenian emigration in the US, strongly favouring one possible scenario (i. e. the Czechoslovakian one). 4. The great powers’ decision about the fate of the region at the Versailles peace talks. Our paper surveys a seemingly most important element of this complex process, the activity of the Czechoslovak state founders Masaryk and Beneš; we also intend to present how their work resulted in the North-East Felvidék becoming Kárpátalja.