The Carpatho-Russian problem at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919

The Paris Peace Conference formed a new world order on the basis of the legalised right of nations to self-determination. However, European borders were determined not only by the national factor, but also through a diplomatic battle between the great powers, which unfolded during the Conference. The participant states aimed at creating a 'balance of powers' in the post-war Europe. The right to self-determination turned out to be low on the agenda and did not constitute the main focus of negotiations at the Conference. It was Russia's Civil War that had a clear effect on the outcome of diplomatic disputes; it paved the way for different scenarios for the Russian state' western borders to be settled, including the Carpathian Rus' problem (Carpatho-Russia). After Austria-Hungary's dissolution, its peoples, with the Rusins (Carpatho-Rusins) among them, came to be of great political and geopolitical interest, first of all, on the part of Great Britain, France, the Russian Whites, and the emerging states of Czechoslovakia and Poland. The pro-Moscow Rusin political elite advocated the national unity and inclusion of territories inhabited by the Rusins into the Russian state. In their address to the leaders of France, the USA, Great Britain, and Czechoslovakia, they stressed that the Carpatho-Russian issue was "an indispensable part of the all-Russian state and national issue". They also expressed hope that "the voice of Carpathian Rus' will be heard by the allied nations" so as not to allow a situation where "on the truly Russian land" "the right to humane treatment and justice" as well as "the right to self-determination enjoyed by a part of the Russian people" was undermined. However, their demands were not taken into consideration at the Versailles Conference. As a result, the Rusin population found itself in territories of the newly created states of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary.

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