4.1. Institutions of minority culture

4.1.1. Book publishing

Transcarpathia’s schools with instruction in Hungarian were supplied with textbooks by the local Hungarian editorial office (founded in June, 1946) of the Ukrainian publisher of textbooks 'Radyanska Shkola'. The textbooks in Hungarian language and literature were written by the editorial staff of the Publishers while the manuals in other subjects were translated into Hungarian from Russian or Ukrainian by the translation section that was attached to the Hungarian staff.

The Transcarpathian Publishing House and Radyanska Shkola are both in financial difficulties today. They do not publish textbooks in Hungarian independently, rather in 1995, Radyanska Shkola published several Hungarian textbooks with 'Svit' (L'viv, Ukraine) and National Publishing House ('Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó', Budapest, Hungary). School-books from Hungary have been arriving to Transcarpathia since the end of the 1980s, thus the importance of the local Hungarian editorial staff of Radyanska Shkola has decreased.

Besides Radyanska Shkola, Hungarian books were published by the Transcarpathian Publishing House, but because of financial problems now it cannot publish Hungarian books either.

The monopoly of the two state publishers was broken by the private publishers gradually appearing since 1992. 'Galéria Kiadó' (Gallery Publishers) was the first to appear on the market. It issued thirty volumes (mainly fiction) between 1992 and 1995. It closed down on 1 January, 1996.

It was also in 1992 that the most significant Transcarpathian Hungarian private publishing house, 'Intermix Kiadó' (Intermix Publishers) was founded, which has published more than 150 belletristic and scientific books so far. The most attractive and perhaps the best quality books are by 'Hatodik Síp' (Sixth Fife) in coproduction with 'Új Mandátum Kiadó' (New Mandate Publishers).

Some other smaller publishers issue one or two Hungarian books a year.

It can be said about each of the publishers that (practically) they are financed by support coming from Hungary. Only governmental publishers are state-supported, but this is too little for regular book publishing, and these, too, bring out most of their Hungarian volumes by getting support from Hungary. Transcarpathian Hungarian book publishing is virtually sustained by the Ministry of Culture and Education of Hungary that annually conducts a competition for Hungarian book publishing for Hungarians living beyond the Hungarian frontier. Between 1992 and 1996, 143 books were issued with the financial support of the Major Department of Hungarians beyond the Frontier within the Ministry of Culture and Education of Hungary. Books published in Hungary have not been placed on the market since 1991, thus the importance of locally published books has increased.

4.1.2. Theatres

The Beregszász (Berehovo) People's Theatre was organized in 1952, working with two groups of actors: a Hungarian company with 50 members and a Ukrainian one with 30 members. The Hungarian section has performed almost 50 plays since the establishment of the theatre.

The first steps towards organizing a permanent Hungarian professional theatre were taken in 1989. Then in 1993 the Hungarian National Theatre named after Gyula Illyés was founded in Beregszász (Berehovo).

4.1.3. Hungarian scientific life

The Uzhhorod State University's Hungarian Philology Department established in 1963 was the only workshop of Transcarpathian Hungarian scholarly life for many decades. Its research fields are: linguistics, theory of literature, folk-lore. However, for various reasons, it has not become a real centre of scientific research.

The Soviet Hungarological Centre was founded in 1989 within Uzhhorod University, with significant financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Education of Hungary. Nowadays it is known as the Hungarological Institute of Uzhhorod. The Transcarpathian Hungarian Scientific Society (THSS) was formed in 1994 within the Hungarological Institute. Both have their journals. 'Acta Hungarica' is the journal of the Hungarological Institute, while 'Proceedings of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Scientific Society' ('A KMTT Közleményei') is that of the THSS. Both journals are only partly Hungarian. Most of the articles issued in 'Acta Hungarica' are written in Russian or Ukrainian.

The THSS has several natural scientists among its members.

Transcarpathian Hungarian amateur local historians and ethnographers have established the Transcarpathian Hungarian Ethnographical Society.

4.1.4. Libraries

The Uzhhorod State University Library has the largest Hungarian book stock in the country. Out of more than one million volumes the number of Hungarian books is about 100,000.

Transcarpathia's biggest public library is the Regional Library with its Foreign Language Department and 90 % of the books in this department is Hungarian. The Beregszász (Berehovo) and Nagyszõlõs (Vinohradiv) District Libraries also have a large number of Hungarian books and so does the Transcarpathian Hungarian Regional Archives can be found in Beregszász.

4.1.5. Central nationality institutions

The nationality question has ceased to be considered a taboo since Ukraine became independent. This is proved by the fact, for instance, that in 1991 an all-country fund was started for the national minorities living in Ukraine. But President Leonid Kuchma cancelled the fund in 1996.

The Ministry of Nationalities, Migration and Religion was established in 1992 which included in its remit the task of dealing with the affairs and problems of the nationalities living in the country. In 1996 the Ministry was reduced into a major department by President Kuchma.

There is a parliamentary committee within the Ukrainian Parliament dealing with nationality issues.

In 1992 the Nationality Department was formed within the Transcarpathian Regional Council. It has had three presidents so far, but only one of them was Hungarian, though Transcarpathia's largest minority is the Hungarian one.

The Ukrainian-Hungarian Inter-state Joint Commission having the right of proposal is in session twice a year, its task being to promote the interests of Hungarians in Ukraine and Ukrainians living in Hungary. The leaders and representatives of the organizations safeguarding minority interests are also invited to the sessions of the above mentioned joint commission.

4.2. Educational system

Transcarpathian Hungarian education has been incomplete for decades. The situation has substantially improved recently; nevertheless, not all the missing stages have been filled up.

4.2.1. Nursery schools

There were no nursery schools with Hungarian as a language of instruction until 1988.

In the 1991/1992 school year 50,819 children attended 657 nursery schools in Transcarpathia. 3,489 children received training in Hungarian in 68 nursery schools. Thus 6.8 % of Transcarpathian nursery school children attended Hungarian nursery school groups. This ratio is lower than that of the Hungarian population within Transcarpathia.

The district distribution of Hungarian nursery groups in the 1994/1995 school year can be seen in.

In the 1996/1997 school year 9.6 % of Transcarpathian nursery school children attended Hungarian groups.

4.2.2. Schools

It was in the 1944/1945 school year that Hungarian education started in Transcarpathia.

The school system of the Hungarians can be considered as well-developed as compared to other nationalities of Ukraine except for the Ukrainian,

Russian and Moldavian systems of education because the Hungarians have primary, comprehensive and secondary schools.

The first secondary schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction were started in the 1953/1954 school year.

The number of Hungarian schools was unchanged for years. The slow development began only at the end of the 1980s.

The ratio of Hungarian schools in the Transcarpathian school system is about the same as that of the Hungarian population within the region.

The distribution of pupils according to the language of instruction shows, however, that fewer Hungarian children attended schools with Hungarian as the language of teaching than the ratio of the Hungarian population is within Transcarpathia. We can observe an increase of the prestige of the Hungarian language in Transcarpathia after the opening of the borders by looking at the growth of the ratio of those Hungarian pupils who get instruction in their mother tongue. The fact that it has been possible to get further education in Hungary since 1989 was probably instrumental in the rise of the prestige of the Hungarian language. The number of pupils studying in Ukrainian is gradually growing, too, but the number and ratio of those getting education in Russian is decreasing. This prestige modification is even more significant looking at the data of the first form pupils.

Judging from the above data, the school system with Hungarian as the language of instruction apperas to be good, because Hungarian language schooling is accessible for Hungarian children. But this conclusion is superficial, because it is true only for Hungarians who live in a block in the flat-land parts of Transcarpathia: regarding the instruction in the mother tongue there are territorial differences. For instance, the Hungarians living in minority in the Upper-Tisza territory have no opportunity for mother tongue instruction.

In the 1996/1997 school year there were altogether 98 Hungarian schools in Transcarpathia, among them 94 schools in those districts where the majority of the Transcarpathian Hungarian population lives.

4.2.3. Professional training

Hungarian language professional training did not exist in Transcarpathia until 1988: all the vocational schools in the region worked with Ukrainian and Russian as the language of instruction. The first Hungarian group was opened in 1988 at Berehovo Vocational School No 18. At present there are 6 vocational and technical schools where we can find Hungarian groups.

Speaking about professional training we cannot help mentioning the peculiarity that the Mukachevo Teachers' Training School is a vocational secondary school according to its status, where one can apply after leaving comprehensive school. It trains nursery school and primary school teachers with a secondary educational level. This institution has been training teachers for the Transcarpathian Hungarian schools since 1950. The students of the Mukachevo Teachers' Training School study only their major subjects in Hungarian (Hungarian language and literature, singing and music, mathematics), disciplines like pedagogy, psychology, etc. are taught in Ukrainian.

4.2.4. Higher education

The first period of Hungarian higher education in Transcarpathia began in 1953 at the Uzhhorod Teachers' Training College where a new specialisation tier was opened - Hungarian language and literature studies. But the institution was closed down in 1954, and the students of the college (among them those who studied Hungarian language and literature) became the students of Uzhhorod State University, which was established in 1945.

The second period began in 1963 when the Hungarian Philology Department was founded at Uzhhorod State University. This department which trains teachers of Hungarian language and literature for the Transcarpathian Hungarian schools, represented Hungarian higher education in Transcarpathia for a long time. However, it is only the special subjects that are taught in Hungarian, the general subjects were taught in Russian before and now they are in Ukrainian. First the department worked with 20 students per year. In the 1969/1970 academic year a correspondence course was opened, thus the number of regular students was reduced to 10, and at the same time there were 10 correspondence students per year. The low-standard Hungarian correspondence course was subsequenty cancelled, but instead of 10 regular students nowadays there are 15 admitted per year, and further students can join them but they have to pay a tuition fee. Approximately 500 teachers of Hungarian language and literature have got their degrees at the Hungarian Philology Department since 1963.

It was only the Hungarian department where the language of instruction was (partly) Hungarian till the 1995/1996 academic year. That year on the initiative of the Transcarpathian Association of Hungarian Pedagogues (TAHP) Hungarian groups were started at the mathematics, physics and biology faculties. The additional expenses of their instruction in the mother tongue are financed by the TAHP, the money for which they get from the advisory board of the Illyés Public Endowment (ie. from Hungary). This is because Volodimir Slivka, Rector of Uzhhorod State University, declared that the university will start Hungarian groups if the TAHP is able to raise funds for it.

The third period of Hungarian higher education in Transcarpathia started in 1990. Since this year it has been possible for young people of Transcarpathia to continue their studies at higher educational establishments in Hungary. In the 1995/1996 academic year there were 350 Transcarpathian students studying at a higher educational establishment in Hungary.

The fourth period started in 1993 when the Foundation for the Transcarpathian Hungarian College (FTHC) was founded, the aim of which was to establish an independent Hungarian Teachers' Training College in Transcarpathia. After the FTHC had entered into a contract with the Ministry of Culture and Education of Hungary and the György Bessenyei Teachers' Training College of Nyíregyháza, Hungary, Hungarian teacher training was started in Berehovo, Transcarpathia in 1994, the financial guarantees of which were created by the FTHC, the personal expenses were covered by the Ministry of Culture and Education of Hungary, and the lecturers were provided by the György Bessenyei Teachers' Training College of Nyíregyháza. Until the authorization of the independent Transcarpathian Hungarian Teachers' Training College in September, 1996, the 'cover-name' of the program was Beregszász Special Training. It functioned as a transferred department training nursery school and primary school teachers, and teachers of English and History and English and Geography.

The Transcarpathian Hungarian Teachers' Training College held its first official opening session in 1996. It has four tiers: primary school teacher, English-Geography, English-History, History-Geography. The official language of instruction is Hungarian. The Transcarpathian Hungarian Teachers' Training College is the first independent higher educational establishment beyond the frontiers of Hungary.

4.3. Mass communication

4.3.1. Newspapers, journals

Two regional Hungarian newspapers appeared in Transcarpathia after World War II.

Kárpáti Igaz Szó (Transcarpathian True Word) has been issued since 5 December, 1945; till 1965 it was the Hungarian copy of the Ukrainian 'Zakarpatska Pravda' and it could not publish its own articles. It was transformed into an independent Hungarian-edited newspaper on 8 March, 1967.

The editorial office of Kárpáti Igaz Szó was virtually the first Hungarian institution in Transcarpathia after 1944. The paper was published daily till 1991, since then it has been appearing three times a week - on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. In 1990 it had a circulation of 40,000 copies while in 1998 this number was 8,900.

The other regional Hungarian newspaper of Transcarpathia was Kárpátontúli Ifjúság (Youth Beyond the Carpathians), the title of which was changed into Kárpátaljai Ifjúság (Transcarpathian Youth) on 1 February, 1991. It was issued as the Hungarian translation of the Ukrainian newspaper 'Molody Zakarpatya' from 1958 till 1992 when the Hungarian publication was stopped. The Hungarian circulation was 10,000 and it was a weekly paper. It was the paper of the Ukrainian communist youth association, the Komsomol. Today it is published only in Ukrainian.

Beside the regional papers three local or district newspapers are published regularly in Transcarpathia.

From 2 December, 1945, the Berehovo district paper was Vörös Zászló.

7.5.4. What can we lose if we do not speak Ukrainian?

The question of taking entrance exams in the mother tongue has been solved every year so far - though only temporarily. But it is another matter how a Hungarian student manages at university after passing the admission exams in the native language successfully (knowing the conditions under which he/she studied the state language), for the language of instruction at Uzhhorod State University is Ukrainian - except for the Hungarian Philology, Mathematics and Physics Departments where part of the lectures are held in Hungarian. The Transcarpathian Hungarian students who do not get a grade in Ukrainian, can apply to Uzhhorod State University because this is the university which makes it possible to take admission exams in Hungarian by the help of understanding Hungarian. There is an exception, The Transcarpathian Hungarian Teachers' Training College which was registered not long ago and is not a state-governed, but a foundation college, where there are four tiers: English-Geography, English-History, History-Geography and Primary School Teacher Training.

The situation with those who are not graded in Ukrainian and do not apply to a university is even worse than that, because there are only six vocational schools in Transcarpathia where there are Hungarian groups, but only general subjects are taught in Hungarian. The teaching of the profession itself is in Ukrainian.

But those Transcarpathian pupils who were graded in Ukrainian could not continue taking other exams because they got an unsatisfactory mark at the first entrance examination which was Ukrainian dictation. In the 1995/1996 academic year not one of those Transcarpathian Hungarian children who were forced to take their entrance examinations in Ukrainian was admitted to Uzhhorod University.

The ratio of those who participate in further education among the Transcarpathian Hungarian population is very low because of language barriers and limits; it is the ratio of applicants to vocational schools that is mainly shocking. For instance, in the 1993/1994 school year 1,587 pupils got their general certificates about primary education in one of Transcarpathia's schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction. In the following school year (1994/1995) 736 pupils (46.3 %) continued their studies in secondary schools, 614 (44 %!) did not continue their studies at all, and only 154 pupils (9.7 %) got admission to a vocational or a secondary technical school. It can be supposed that this is due to professional education being carried out in Ukrainian.

A kind of solution to the problem can be the training of Transcarpathian Hungarian students at universities, colleges and vocational schools in Hungary. But after finishing his or her studies, the person will certainly need the knowledge of Ukrainian if he/she wants to get by in Ukraine.

If the Transcarpathian Hungarian intellectual class can assert itself only within the territory of its own ethnic group, the community can be completely isolated and unemployment can increase which, judging from the Ukrainian economic conditions, can aggravate their unfavourable perspectives and it can also accelerate the process of emigration (e.g. besides economic reasons, part of the Transcarpathian Hungarian students graduated from an educational establishment in Hungary will never return home because they do not speak Ukrainian).

It is also important that Transcarpathian Hungarians lose the possibility to be accepted for a state post unless they speak Ukrainian.

For instance, the Constitution says that only the person who speaks the state language can be elected President of Ukraine (besides other requirements) (Article 103). It is probable that in the nearest future no one of the Transcarpathian Hungarians will step down the post of President of Ukraine because of lacking the knowledge of Ukrainian, but it is more serious that according to Article 127, „A citizen of Ukraine, not younger than the age of 25, who has a higher legal education and has work experience in the sphere of law for no less than three years, has resided in Ukraine for no less than ten years and has command of the state language, may be recommended for the office of judge by the Qualification Commission of Judges”.

The Language Policy Council functioning beside the President adopted a program 'The Ukrainian Language' setting the following goal: the bases of the Ukrainian language's becoming an essential communicative means in Ukraine must be created. The document also contains the following: in the future the knowledge of the state language will be considered when filling a state office (cf. ibidem). The new Ukrainian Law of Elections adopted on 24 September, 1997 says that a citizen of Ukraine, not younger than the age of 21, who has resided in Ukraine for at least five years and speaks the state language fluently can be a candidate in Ukraine.

The above mentioned matters have political importance, too. The facts that Transcarpathian Hungarians have to fight for the right to sit school-leaving and entrance examinations in their native language every year and that the result of this struggle in each of the cases depends only on the Ministry's 'benevolence', gradually undermines the Transcarpathian Hungarian education system - parents seeing this uncertain situation ask themselves the question: will it not do harm for children in the long run if they let them attend schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction? And the results of ruining mother tongue education are known by everybody.

All this, of course, may have a more threatening message. Undermining the prestige of Hungarian language teaching can serve the isolation of Hungarians: „making school-leaving and entrance examinations in Ukrainian obligatory deprives the school-leavers of schools with Hungarian as the language of teaching of possibilities of equal and honest competing, and in the long run it degrades the members of the Hungarian national minority into secondary citizens incapable of rise and development. What makes the situation more difficult is that the state educational bodies have not created the necessary conditions for acquiring Ukrainian on a proper level, it is taught in nationality schools in accordance with the conception of teaching the mother tongue, in this way, therefore, acquisition of the Ukrainian language by native speakers of Hungarian is made impossible”.

In 1995 the Ukrainian-Hungarian Joint Commission wrote about the entrance examinations in the following way: „The Joint Commission greeted the fact that the Ukrainian party made it possible for pupils studying at Hungarian schools to sit their school-leaving examinations in Hungarian. It is recorded in a legal rule that pupils who left schools with Hungarian as the language of teaching can sit entrance examinations in their mother tongue at Uzhhorod State University” (Protocol of Session V of Ukrainian-Hungarian Joint Commission on Guaranteeing Rights of National.

We should not forget either that the deprival of the right to make entrance examinations in the mother tongue has financial consequences, too.

In Ukraine there is a government regulated limit of number of students getting admission to a vocational school, college or university. These students' studies are financed by the state. Since 1993 educational institutions can accept students above the limit, but for them paying tuition is obligatory. In practice it works like this: those who reached the defined score limits by the points gained at the entrance examinations, get admission to the given educational establishment, but those who did not gain the necessary points can start their studies paying tuition.

As far as citizens belonging to minorities will be deprived of the right to take entrance examinations in their native language, it is evident that applicants whose mother tongue is not Ukrainian are at a disadvantage and will only have the chance of getting further education at their own expenses.

At the Philology Department of Uzhhorod State University those who covered their own educational expenses had to pay hryvnias equal to $500 for two terms, at the Medical and Legal Departments this sum was $900 in the 1996/1997 academic year. The monthly income of an average Ukrainian citizen is less than $40.

Thus, the question of sitting entrance exams in the native language is not only a political, but also an economic matter. And as such, it definitely influences the perspectives of Transcarpathian Hungarians in the long run.

While the state has not created the conditions for the acquisition of the state language, it made a sketch of the conception of such a school type for minority pupils according to which mother tongue education would be forced back to the level of elementary schools (the first 4 years of study). László Brenzovics, vice-president of the THCA, considers it to be a further example of the chaos in Ukraine, and believes that the Ukrainian-Hungarian dictionaries and manuals of the Ukrainian language for Hungarian schools have not been published because the state does not reckon with nationality schools.

Thus, one can feel retrocession in the Ukrainian nationality policy, which can probably be explained by the fact that Ukraine feeling its European positions confirmed, gradually gives up the tactics of tolerance in the minority question, needed in the first years of its sovereignty for winning the European public opinion, and now begins to act as a homogenous national state. After the 1991 ratification of the Ukrainian-Hungarian Basic Treaty, in the first halves of 1996 and 1997 Ukraine signed the Basic Treaty with all its neighbours, by this sanctioning its frontiers, and after the international political stage it confirmed its positions in the area, too.