Carpatho-Ukraine in the Plans of Hitlerite Germany

The article analyses the situation in the Ukrainian lands in the late 1930s, characterised by the international significance of the Ukrainian question, after the centre of Western Ukrainian national life had moved to Transcarpathia, which became the centre of European politics. It has been found out that the states where Ukrainians lived, as well as other countries, in particular Germany, where the Nazi party led by A. Hitler had come to power, disguised their interests in the Ukrainian question as attempts to solve it. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources and literature, the author argues that the Nazi regime, pursuing its far-reaching aggression plans, skilfully used the Ukrainian question as an important factor in relations with the Western states, the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and others. Hitler successfully played certain combinations at each stage of rapid change. Indulging the capture of Carpatho-Ukraine by Hungary, Berlin achieved three important tactical goals: Budapest was closely tied to the anti-Communist pact, the neutrality of Poland was guaranteed, though for a short time, and the prerequisites for further German-Soviet rapprochement were created. Hitler achieved his tactical goals and sought to realize the strategic goal, thereby precipitating the outbreak of WWII.

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