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Mukachevo (, ; , ; see name section) is a city in Zakarpattia Oblast, western Ukraine. It is situated in the valley of the Latorica and serves as the Capital city of Mukachevo Raion. The city is a rail terminus and highway junction, and has beer, wine, tobacco, food, textile, timber, and furniture industries. During the Cold War, it was home to Mukachevo air base and a radar station.
Mukachevo lies close to the borders of four neighbouring countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Today, the population is The city is a traditional stronghold of the Rusyn language, and the population of Mukachevo is officially reported as 77.1% ethnic Ukrainians. Ukraine Census There are also significant minorities of: Russians (9.0%); Magyars (8.5%); Germans (1.9%); and Romani people (1.4%).
While Uzhhorod is the main administrative city in the region, Mukachevo is a historic spiritual center of the region and center of the former Eastern Orthodox eparchy of Kyivan Metropolis. In the 17th century it united with the Catholic church by the Union of Uzhhorod, similar to the Union of Brest. Up until World War II and the Holocaust, Mukachevo was primarily a Jewish town, and half the population was Jewish (see below). The population comprised Russians, Hungarians, Slovaks, and other minorities. Formerly in Czechoslovakia, and before that in Hungary, it was incorporated into Soviet Ukraine after World War II.
On 23 May 2017, the Ukrainian parliament officially renamed Mukacheve ( Мукачеве) into Mukachevo ( Мукачево), a year after the city council had decided to rename the city. As it turned out, the name Mukacheve came into use in 1947 due to a mistake. According to press reports, the renaming of the city was initiated by its residents as part of the decommunization law, since the name Mukacheve appeared after the city joined the USSR. Council renamed Mukacheve into Mukachevo, BBC Ukrainian (23 May 2017) Previously, it was usually spelled in as Мукачево ( Mukachevo) by locals, and this name is typical for the Ukrainian language in forming city names, while Мукачів ( Mukachiv) was sometimes also used. Mukachiv in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine The city's name portrayed on the city's coat of arms. The name of the city in other languages include:
During the 16th century, Munkács became part of the Principality of Transylvania. The 17th century (from 1604 to 1711) was a time of continuous struggle against the expansionist intentions of the Habsburg Empire for the Principality. In 1678 the anti-Habsburg Revolt of Emeric Thököly started out from Munkács. The region also played an important role in Rákóczi's War of Independence.
Without delay the new authorities decreed the expulsion of all Jews without Hungarian citizenship. As a consequence, Polish and Russian Jews, long-term residents of the now Hungarian-controlled Transcarpathian region, and also from Mukachevo, as well as the native Jews who could not prove their citizenship, were deported over the Ukrainian border where they were turned over to the Nazi Germany Einsatzgruppen commando led by Friedrich Jeckeln. On 27 and 28 August 1941, they were all murdered by the Germans in Kamianets-Podilskyi's massacre. Kamenets-Podolski in Yad Vashem Even so, Mukachevo's population still held an important Jewish component, up until 1944 when all remaining Jews were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp by Adolf Eichmann.
At the end of 1944, the Red Army stormed Carpathian Ruthenia. At first the territory was given to the re-established Czechoslovakia, which then became part of the Soviet Union later in 1945 by a treaty between the two countries. The Soviet Union began a policy of expulsion of the Hungarian population. In 1945, the city was ceded to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and is currently under the sovereignty of Ukraine. Since 2002, Mukachevo has been the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mukachevo. The 128th Mountain Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces has been based in Mukachevo since World War II.
In 1921, 21,000 people lived in Mukachevo. Of these, 48% were Jewish, 24% were Rusyn, and 22% were Hungarian.
In 1966, 50,500 people lived in Mukachevo. Of these, 60% were Ukrainian, 18% were Hungarian, 10% were Russian, and 6% were Jewish.
According to the 2001 census, 82,200 people live in Mukachevo. The population in 1989 was 91,000, in 2004, 77,300 and in 2008, 93,738. Its population includes:
Residents in seven villages of the Mukachevo Raion have the option to learn the Hungarian language in a school or home school environment.
Fischer Sports, an company that produces Nordic skiing, Alpine skiing, and ice hockey equipment, has a factory in Mukachevo. The firm benefits from provisional application on January 1, 2016 of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area provisions of the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement.
By 1851, Munkács supported a large yeshiva, thereby demonstrating the community's commitment to learning and piety.
Materially impoverished, yet wealthy in ideological debate, the Jews of interwar Munkács constituted almost half of the town's population. The Munkács Jewish community was famous for its Hasidic activity as well as its innovations in Zionism and modern Jewish education.One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has been released under the GFDL:
The Jewish population of Munkács grew from 2,131 in 1825 to 5049 in 1891 (almost 50 percent of the total population) to 7675 in 1910 (about 44 percent). By 1921, the 10,000 Jews still made up about half the residents, though by 1930, the proportion had dropped to 43 percent, with a little over 11,000 Jews. The Jews of Munkács constituted 11 percent of the Jewry of Subcarpathian Rus'.
Interwar Munkács had a very large Jewish population, which was most visible on Shabbat. On that day most stores were closed and, after services, the streets filled with Hasidic Jews in their traditional garb. The first movie house in the town was established by a Hasidic Jew, and it too closed on the Shabbat and Jewish holidays.
The Chief Rabbi of Munkács, Chaim Elazar Spira (who led the community from 1913 until his death in 1937) was the most outspoken voice of religious anti-Zionism. He had succeeded his father, Rabbi Zvi Hirsh Spira, who had earlier inherited the mantle of leadership from his father Rabbi Shlomo Spira. He was also a Hasidic rebbe with a significant number of followers. Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira was succeeded by his son-in-law, Rabbi Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinowicz.
Along with the dominant Munkácser Hasidic community there co-existed smaller yet vibrant Hasidic groups who were followers of the rebbes Belz, of Spinka, Zidichov, and Vizhnitz. By the time of the Holocaust there were nearly 30 in town, many of which were Shtiebel ("small house" - small Hasidic synagogues).
The Hebrew Gymnasium (high school) was founded in Munkács five years after the first Hebrew speaking elementary school in Czechoslovakia was established there in 1920. It soon became the most prestigious Hebrew high school east of Warsaw. Zionist activism along with Hasidic pietism contributed to a community percolating with excitement, intrigue and at times internecine conflict.
In 1935, Chaim Kugel, formerly director of the Munkács gymnasium (Jewish high school) and then Jewish Party delegate to the Czechoslovak Parliament, gave a speech during a parliamentary debate: "…It is completely impossible to adequately describe the poverty in the area. The Jews… are affected equally along with the rest…. I strongly wish to protest any attempt to blame the poverty of the Subcarpathian Ruthenian peasantry on the Jews" Quoted in Sole, "Subcarpathian Ruthenia, 1918-1938," in The Jews of Czechoslovakia, vol. 1, p. 132. (Kugel later got to Mandatory Palestine and eventually became mayor of the Israeli city of Holon).
Government policies were covertly directed against Jews, who bore a heavy share of taxes and had difficulty getting high civil service positions.
In 1939, the Hungarians seized and annexed Subcarpathian Rus—including Munkács—taking advantage of the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Though antisemitic legislation was introduced by the Hungarian authorities, Subcarpathian Rus, like the rest of Hungary, remained a relative haven for Jews until Nazi Germany occupied Hungary in 1944.
In the spring of 1944 there were nearly 15,000 Jewish residents of the town. This ended on May 30, 1944, when the city was pronounced Judenrein (free of Jews after ghettoization and a series of deportations to Auschwitz).
Today, Mukachevo is experiencing a Jewish renaissance of sorts with the establishment of a supervised kosher kitchen, a mikveh, Jewish summer camp in addition to the prayer services which take place three times daily. In July 2006, a new synagogue was dedicated on the site of a pre-war Hasidic synagogue.
Economy
Jewish community
There are documents in the Berehove (Beregszász) State Archives which indicate that Ashkenazi Jews lived in Munkács and the surrounding villages as early as the second half of the seventeenth century. The Jewish community of Munkács was an amalgam of Galician and Hungarian Hasidic Judaism, Orthodox Jews, and Zionists. The town is most noted for its Chief Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira who led the community until his death in 1937.
Architectural landmarks
Sport
The main soccer team is MFA Mukachevo, which play in Ukrainian Second League.
Notable people
Twin towns – sister cities
Mukachevo is Sister city with:
Gallery
See also
Further reading
External links
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