The Social Democratic Workers' Party in Subcarpathian Rus ( Ukrainian: Соціал-демократична робітнича партія на Підкарпатській Русі, ''Sotsial-demokratichna robitnicha partiya na Pidkarpats'kiy Rusi''; cs, Sociálně demokratická strana dělnická na Podkarpatské Rusi) was a social democratic

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Carpathian Ruthenia Carpathian Ruthenia ( rue, Карпатьска Русь, Karpat'ska Rus'; uk, Закарпаття, Zakarpattia; sk, Podkarpatská Rus; hu, Kárpátalja; ro, Transcarpatia; pl, Zakarpacie); cz, Podkarpatská Rus; german: Karpatenukrai ...

(or Subcarpathian Rus') in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. The party was founded in 1919. At the party congress in September 1922 the party adopted a party programme which acknowledged the inclusion of Carpathian Ruthenia as an autonomous region in the Czechoslovak Republic.Kowalski, Werner.
Geschichte der sozialistischen arbeiter-internationale: 1923 – 1940
'. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1985. p. 330 The party obtained the support of the

Gregory Žatkovich Gregory Ignatius Zhatkovich ( rue, Ґріґорій Жатковіч, hu, Zsatkovics Gergely) (December 2, 1886 – March 26, 1967) was an American lawyer and political activist for Rusyns in the United States and Europe. He was the fir ...

, the first governor of Subcarpathian Rus, during his tenure 1920–1921. Magocsi, Paul R., and I. I. Pop.
Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture
'. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. p. 468 The main difference between the party and the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers Party (ČSDSD) was that ČSDSD supported the government in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, whilst the Subcarpathian party opposed it as the government did not support the formation of an autonomous region of all Rusyn-inhabited areas.

Organization and leadership

The party had around 3,500 members. The party organization was based on individual memberships. The party activists came from working and middle-class background, recruiting members from the Rusyn, Hungarian, Jewish and Czech communities. The highest organ of the party was the party congress. The party established several cooperatives and

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

s, particularly in the lumber industry. Leading members of the party included Jacko Ostapčuk, Jaromír Nečas, Dmytro Nimčuk, Stephan Kločurak and János Horváth.

Elections

In the Czechoslovak National Assembly elections, the party contested the elections in the Užhorod constituency (which had nine parliamentary seats) in alliance with ČSDSD. The joint list won one of the nine Užhorod seats in the 1924, 1925 and 1929 elections; getting 23,800 votes (9.4% of the votes in Užhorod) in 1924, 18,200 votes (7.4%) in 1925 and 22,900 votes (8.6%) in 1929. In the 1924 and 1925 elections, the seat was won by

Jaromír Nečas Jaromír Nečas (17 November 1888 in Nové Město na Moravě, Margraviate of Moravia – 30 January 1945 in Merthyr Mawr) was a Czechoslovak politician. He was one of the leading figures in the Social Democratic Workers' Party in Subcarpathia ...

of the Social Democratic Workers Party in Subcarpathian Rus, in 1929 the seat was won by Julius Husnaj of the ČSDSD.

Merger into ČSDSD

The party sent five delegates to the

joint conference of the Social Democratic parties in the Czechoslovak Republic January 28–29, 1928. The party congress of the Social Democratic Workers Party in Subcarpathian Rus held in Chust on December 22, 1929 decided to merge the party into the ČSDSD. The merger became effective in 1930, as the party became a territorial organization of ČSDSD.

Press

The party published four weekly newspapers; ''Vpered'' (initially published in Rusyn from 1921, later in

Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( uk, украї́нська мо́ва, translit=ukrainska mova, label=native name, ) is an East Slavic language of the Indo-European language family. It is the native language of about 40 million people and the official state lang ...

; edited by Klocurak) was published from Užhorod, ''Hlas východu'' (Czech language, published 1928–1932) published from Užhorod, ''Ruszinszkoi Népszava'' (

Hungarian language Hungarian () is an Uralic language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary, it is also spoken by Hunga ...

, edited by Horváth) and ''Szabadság'' (Hungarian language, published from

Berehovo Berehove ( uk, Берегове; hu, Beregszász) is a city located in Zakarpattia Oblast (province) in western Ukraine, near the border with Hungary. It is the cultural centre of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. Serving as the administrativ ...

). Magocsi, Paul R., and I. I. Pop.
Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture
'. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002. p. 537

International affiliation

The party was a member of the

Labour and Socialist International The Labour and Socialist International (LSI; german: Sozialistische Arbeiter-Internationale, label= German, SAI) was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a ...

from 1923 onwards.

References

{{reflist Interwar minority parties in Czechoslovakia Political parties established in 1919 Social democratic parties in Europe Members of the Labour and Socialist International Rusyn political parties