Northern Maramureș (Romanian:Maramureșul de Nord,[maraˈmureʃuldeˈnord];Hungarian:Észak-Máramaros;Ukrainian:Північна Мараморщина,romanized: Pivnichna Maramorshchyna) is a geographic-historical region comprising roughly the eastern half of theZakarpattia Oblast in southwesternUkraine, near the border withRomania. Until 1920, it was part of theMaramureș subregion ofTransylvania, at which time the formerMáramaros County was divided into a northern part (incorporated intoCzechoslovakia, the part which is now in Ukraine), and a southern part (incorporated into theKingdom of Romania).
From 1920 till 1939, the region belonged to Czechoslovakia, then until 1944 toHungary, and then until 1991 to theSoviet Union. Since 1991, Northern Maramureș has been part of Ukraine.
TheTisza River is part of the boundary separating Northern Maramureș fromRomania.
The majority of the population areUkrainians (Rusyns,Boykos andHutsuls - indigenous groups), while aRomanian community, totaling 32,100 according to the 2001 Ukraine census,[1] lives compactly, mostly in some eighteen localities, inRakhiv andTiachivraions (districts), close to the Romanian border. For most of the 20th century, communications between Southern and Northern Maramureș were severed. After thecollapse of Communist Regimes in Europe, and through cooperation between the Romanian and Ukrainian governments, the restoration of bridges across the Tisza has begun.
Maramureș is an almost completely enclosed mountain valley with an area slightly smaller than that of theU.S. state ofConnecticut. The only way to enter the region, besides crossing mountain slopes of 1,000 meters to 2,500 meters high, is to follow the riverTisza upstream. To a significant extent, the geography of Maramureș has determined its history and distinctive traditions.
Northern Maramureș includes all of the right bank of the Tisza within the historical region, and small mountain portions on the left bank. Rivers that flow through the region include the Tisza,Rika (Rica), andTereblia.Lake Sinevir is also located there.
The territory of the Zakarpattia Region of Ukraine is 12,880 km2. It has 1,287,400 inhabitants (1999 data). Zakarpattia is divided into 13 districts and 5 cities.[2] Of these, Northern Maramureș roughly corresponds to 4 districts and one city. Together these have an area of approximately 6,900 km2 and 445,000 inhabitants:[3]
The most important cities and towns of Northern Maramureș are (the district and population are indicated):
The biggest villages in Northern Maramureș are:
Northern Maramureș is historically and geographically close tosouthern Maramureș, and together form the historical region ofMaramureș (Romanian: Maramureș, Hungarian: Máramaros). Between 1870 and 1918, Máramaros (north and south) was a county in theTransleitanian part ofAustria-Hungary. It was divided into 10 rural districts (Hungarian:járás, Romanian:plase) and 1 urban district (Hungarian:rendezett tanácsú város, Romanian:plasă urbană):
| Northern Maramureș | Southern Maramureș |
|---|---|
| Sziget / Sighet /- (ruraldistrict) | |
| Dolha / Dolha / Dovhe (capital:Dolha / Dolha / Dovhe) | Izavölgy / Iza / - (capital:Dragomérfalva / Dragomireşti / -) |
| Huszt / Hust / Khust (capital:Huszt / Hust / Khust) | Sugatag / Şugatag / - (capital:Aknasugatag / Ocna Şugatag / -) |
| Ökörmező / Boureni / Mizhhir'ya (capital:Ökörmező / Boureni / Mizhhir'ya) | Visó / Vişeu / -(capital:Felsővisó / Vişeu de Sus / -) |
| Taracviz / Taras / Teresva (capital:Taracköz / Taras / Teresva) | Sziget / Sighet /- (urbandistrict; capital:Máramarossziget / Sighetu Marmaţiei / -) |
| Técső / Teceu / Tiachiv (capital:Técső / Teceu / Tiachiv) | |
| Tiszavölgy / Tisa / Tissa (capital:Rahó / Rahău / Rakhiv) | |
Note:All names are written in the following order:Hungarian /Romanian /Ukrainian.
Dolha, Huszt, Ökörmező, Taracviz, Técső, and Tiszavölgy districts each had a Ukrainian majority (with Tiszavölgy having a specifically Hutsul majority). The rural Sziget district, along with Izavölgy, Sugatag, and Visó districts each had a Romanian majority, while the urban Sziget district was mixed Hungarian/Romanian. There was a significant Ukrainian minority in Visó, and significant Romanian minorities in Huszt, Taracviz, Técső, and Tiszavölgy districts. Visó also contained a significant German minority ("Zipser") around the city of Felsővisó (Romanian:Vișeu de Sus; German: Oberwischau).
The six districts in the left-hand column were apportioned to Czechoslovakia in 1920. In 1938, Hungary regained their southern portion by the terms of theFirst Vienna Award and then seized the rest in March 1939. In 1944 they went to the Soviet Union. Since 1991 they have been part of Ukraine. The four districts in the right-hand column were given to Romania, where they have remained ever since, except for 1940–1944, when they were again in Hungary by the terms of theSecond Vienna Award. The rural Sziget (Sighet) district, despite being ethnically homogeneously Romanian, was divided: the part north of the Tisza river followed the same fate as the Ukrainian districts, while the part south of the Tisza, the same as the Romanian ones. More than half of the Romanian minority in the present Zakarpattia Oblast resides in what before 1920 was the rural Sziget district.
The total area of Maramureș county was 10,354.9 km2, of which 6,974 km2 became the northern part and 3,381 km2 became the southern part. The approximately 160 localities were divided as follows: slightly less than 100 joined the north, and slightly more than 60 joined the south. in 1920, the south had a population of approximately 155,000. A majority of the inhabitants were Romanian, with Jewish, Hungarian, Ukrainian and German minorities. The north at the same time had a population of about 220,000, including some 20,000 Romanians.
According to the 1910 Austrian census,Máramaros County had a population which by language was:
A substantial part of the German and Hungarian-speaking population were in fact Jews.
Carpathian Ruthenia, i.e., the region inhabited by Rusyns (Ruthenians) in Austria-Hungary, spread over some two-thirds of the historic counties ofUng,Bereg, andUgocsa (the remaining one third are respectively Slovak, Hungarian, and Romanian), and from the 16th century also gradually over a part (up to half) of Maramureș county. Therefore, in texts dealing with the period after 1600, Northern Maramureș is sometimes included in historic Carpathian Ruthenia, historic Ruszinszko, or Pidkarpadska Rus', as opposed to earlier texts, when it is not.[4]
| Census year | Total population of Pidkarpadska Rus' / Zakarpattia | Total population of the 4 raions and Khust | Ukrainians | Romanians (official numbers[5]) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1880 | 408,971 | 16,713 | ||
| 1921 | 604,745 | 220,000 | 140,000 | 20,000 |
| 1930 | 734,315 | |||
| 1959 | 920,170 | 18,346 | ||
| 1970 | 1,056,000 | 23,454 | ||
| 1979 | 1,155,000 | 27,155 | ||
| 1989 | 1,245,000 | 29,485 | ||
| 2001 | c. 1,255,000 | 32,100 |
In Northern Maramureș, there are anywhere between ca. 32,000 (according to official Ukrainian sources), ca. 40,000 (according to most Romanian sources), to over 50,000[6] Romanians living today in a compact area of about 300 km2, in 17 villages and one town, separated fromRomania only by the riverTisza. This compactly Romanian-inhabited region, which itself separates the Hutsul areas (most of theRakhiv raion/district) in the east from the rest ofZakarpattia, corresponds exactly to the north-Tisza part of the former rural district of Sighet inMáramaros County before 1920 (see map). These 18 localities, with their quasi-total Romanian population, are (population data from the 2001 Ukrainian census):
Some Romanians also live in localities of Northern Maramureș outside the above compact area:
although far fewer than in previous centuries.
Note: There are also Romanians in the two major Zakarpattian cities,Uzhhorod andMukachevo, as well as in the town ofKorolevo (Romanian:Craia), inVinogradovo raion, which arenot in Maramureș, but respectively in Ung, Bereg, and Ugocsa. There are also two other Romanian villages:
The two villages are 40 km one from the other, in the northwest ofZakarpattia, which is not part of Northern Maramureș, but of the formerUng County. They are the last remnants of the Vlachs (Romanians) who inhabited present-dayHungary and Zakarpattia before the arrival of theSlavs (6th-8th centuries) andHungarians (9th century), when they were isolated and afterwards assimilated. Their Ukrainian neighbors also call the inhabitants of these two villagesvolokhi orloshkarini, Slavic names for Romanians no longer in current use.[7]
In the Middle Ages,Maramureș had a Romanian population, organized into theVoivodeship of Maramureș with avoevod elected from among the village noblemen (Romanian:knezi). The majority of the peasants in the region were free and went by a regional term specific only to Maramureş:nămeşi (fromneam, clan), and only a minority wereserfs (first serfs mentioned in documents in 1405).
In the more mountainous villages and hamlets, the main dwelling was raising sheep, which implied constant moving in search of new pastures to accommodate raising stocks. As a consequence, between 10th and 13th centuries, modern mountainous regions of eastern and central Slovakia saw a migration ofVlach (Romanian) shepherds from Maramureş, eventually assimilated. Another similar migration occurred in the 14th century with destination the mountainous southeasternmost corner of modern Poland. The new migrants were given special rights known asJus Valahicum, and a century later serious local feuds occurred when these rights were abolished and the Vlachs were assimilated. A significant portion of the heritage ofGorals comes from the assimilated Vlachs. Other migrants who advanced along the Carpathian range between the 14th and 17th centuries became known asMoravian Vlachs. On their way they gradually lost their original language with the exception of some Romanian words they use in their Czech and Slovak dialect, but they preserved much of their culture (especially folklore, songs and costumes) and economic base, namely sheep breeding. In 1644, during theThirty Years War, they were crushed byAlbrecht von Wallenstein.
In the 14th century, several groups of Maramureș noblemen with their warriors (Romanian:viteji) established themselves in modern northernMoldavia, and were the driving force that led to the creation of that principality in 1345 (byDragoş of Bedeu, former voevod of Maramureş), and its independence in 1359 (up to 3,000 families in strength, led byBogdan of Cuhea, the voevod of Maramureș who previously led a 20-year-old campaign to avoid theVoevodat of Maramureș being turned and organized as a County (Comitatus), as KingLouis of Anjou of Hungary strove for and eventually succeeded).
TheComitatus ofMáramaros was formally established in theKingdom of Hungary in 1303. In late 14th and early 15th century, count-voevodDrag of Bedeu, Dragoş' grandson, raise to eventually become one of the 10peers of theKingdom of Hungary that in 1386 enthronedSigismund of Luxembourg as King, who in turn in not yet clear circumstances confiscated in 1404 all the estate of Drag and his family in Maramureș (over 50 villages), and forced them to resettle in a small estate inSzatmar. In 1391, Drag and his brother Balc were responsible for obtaining from thePatriarch of Constantinople raising of the NewRum Monastery of Saint Michael the Archangel ofPeri (modern village of Grushevo in Northern Maramureș on the bank of theTisza) to the rank ofStauropegicBishopric, this being the first Romanian (non-rural) bishopric, with jurisdiction over eight nearby counties.
Since the 15th century, local nobility was largely assimilated within the Hungarian nobility, adoptedCatholicism andHungarian language. In 1526, after the collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary at the hands of theOttoman Turks, Máramaros, along with the whole of modernTranscarpathia, was incorporated into the semi-independent Principality ofTransylvania, which became aHabsburg domain in 1687, and at thein 1867 was included in the Hungarian part ofAustria-Hungary.
The ethnic composition of Maramureș started to diversify already in the Middle Ages with the arrival of German colonists that founded or re-built five cities: Visc, Teceu, Câmpulung, Bocicoi, and Sighet. The adoption of Hungarian language and the Catholic faith in the 15th century (then a Protestant one in the 16th century) by the Transylvanian nobility created a linguistically and religiously distinct upper class which ruled the area. Since the 16th century, Ukrainian peasants moved from nearbyBereg andUgocsa counties, and from PolishGalicia. The Ukrainization of some villages in Northern Maramureș was strengthened by the long jurisdictional disputes in 18th century between the Greek Catholic Bishopric ofMuncach (Ukrainian) and Orthodox Bishopric of Peri (Romanian), later also with participation of RomanianGreek Catholics. In the 19th century the region was also settled by numerous Jews who arrived from Galicia. The Ukrainian population of Northern Maramureș is also diverse:Hutsuls in the east,Boiko in northwest, andRusyn in the western part, inTisza valley, the former two originating from Galicia, and the latter from Bereg and Ugocsa.
After the defeat of theCentral Powers inWorld War I, the northern part of the comitatus (about 60% of the territory) became part ofCarpathian Ruthenia within the newly formedCzechoslovakia. The southern part (40%, including the former capitalSighetu Marmaţiei) became part ofRomania. This division was confirmed by theTreaty of Trianon in 1920.[8]
Just beforeWorld War II, the region was part of the briefly independentCarpatho-Ukraine in March 1939, but this republic, comprising the part ofCarpathian Ruthenia not given to Hungary by theFirst Vienna Award a few months earlier, was almost immediately annexed byHorthystHungary, which in 1940 also annexed the Romanian part of Maramureș following theSecond Vienna Award. After the war, in 1945 the formerly Czechoslovak Maramureș was transferred to theSoviet Union, and in 1946 it was included in theZakarpattia Oblast of theUkrainian SSR. The latter after thedissolution of the Soviet Union became the independent Ukraine.
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A considerable part of Maramureș's history was associated in past centuries with well-known feudal families of Europe. From the 14th to the 19th century:
Other prominent feudal families of 16th-19th centuries wereKaroli,Teleki,Toldi,Kornish,Stoyko,Fisher,Reyti, andSoplontsay.
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The people of Maramureș are generally tougher and swifter, the sense of justice and honor is very keen for them. They have, and perhaps for good reasons, great pride in their specificity, and even in their toughness, since in few other places are ancient Romanian traditions preserved to such an extent. Their wooden churches are quite beautiful. Every village has its separate set of traditions, and every little valley has a name that begins with"The Country of ..."[citation needed].
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