At the War Museum on March 15, a public discussion titled "Silver Land: From Legend to Independence Proclamation" took place, dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the phenomenon of statehood of Carpathian Ukraine.
Researchers of national history know that Carpathian Ukraine was the first legitimately proclaimed independent democratic state of our people with a lawfully elected parliament. Its resistance to Horthy’s Hungary was the first armed confrontation against the Hitler’s powers, which lasted while Austria and Czechoslovakia had already surrendered without a fight.
In his welcoming speech, the Director-General of the War Museum, Yurii Savchuk, emphasized the insufficient coverage of the topic of Carpathian Ukraine in the national-patriotic discourse and announced a large-scale museum re-exposition with a focus on Ukrainian state-building.
Historian Oleksandr Pahiria shared little-known facts about the institutional formation of Carpathian Ukraine, its international activities, and, in particular, the role of Father Avgustyn Voloshyn in these processes.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a representative of the Klympush family, reconstructed the life under Soviet occupation of the family of one of the participants in the creation of the independence of Carpathian Ukraine. Dmytro Klympush (1897–1959) was one of the leaders of the Hutsul Republic in 1918. He was the Chief Commander of the "Carpathian Sich," a semi-military organization during the autonomy of Subcarpathian Rus within Czechoslovakia. During the Soviet occupation of the region, he was arrested and sentenced to eight years in labor camps.
Andriy Sheketa, the first deputy chairman of the Zakarpattia Oblast Council, focused on the experience of societal commemoration of the memory of Carpathian Ukraine.
Throughout the meeting, the moderator, Svitlana Datsenko, highlighted parallels between the events of 85 years ago and the present day. Currently, two units bearing the name of Carpathian Ukraine are fighting for our independence. Therefore, the task of the War Museum is to illuminate and popularize the history of this Ukrainian state in society.
