History of mail and postage stamps of Transcarpathian Ukraine

Until the end of World War I, Carpathian Ukraine was ruled by Hungary . During this period, first Austrian (from the middle of 1850) and then Austro-Hungarian (from 1867) and Hungarian postage stamps (from May 1871) were in circulation on its territory.

In November 1918, Transcarpathian Ukraine became part of the Czechoslovak Republic . From 1919 until the middle of 1939, the functioned on its territory. The liquidation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 led to the emergence of an independent state of Transcarpathian (Carpathian) Ukraine, which lasted only two days, and then annexed to Hungary.

March 15, 1939 , on the day of the declaration of independence and the opening of the Sejm of the Carpathian Ukraine , a postage stamp with the inscription in Ukrainian “Carpathian Ukraine” ( “ Carpathian Ukraine ” ) issued by the Czechoslovak post went in Khust . The mark of the stamp - the image of the church in Jasin - repeated the Czechoslovakian stamp of 60 Hellers ( Yt # 245) , issued in 1928 on the anniversary of the country's independence, but with a different face value (3 Czechoslovak crowns ), color and inscriptions.

During the occupation in the territory of Transcarpathian Ukraine, until its liberation in the autumn of 1944, Hungarian postage stamps ran. In December 1944, at the direction of the Delegate of the Government of Czechoslovakia, which had a residence in the city of Khust, Hungarian stamps were overprinted with the black stamp “ČSP” ( Czechoslovak Post ) and the year numbers “1944” . Stamps of this issue have been in circulation throughout the Transcarpathian Ukraine, east of the city of Sevlyush for several months. A similar overprint on Hungarian stamps was made at the end of 1944 in Mukachevo , however this was an unofficial issue and its origin is not clear. Overprints of Transcarpathian Ukraine are relatively rare, so they were repeatedly faked to the detriment of collectors .

On February 10 and March 20, 1945, the region’s administration, represented by the People’s Rada of Transcarpathian Ukraine, made a typographic overprint in black or red in three lines in the Ukrainian language “Posta / Zakarpatska / Ukraine” and the face value on postage, surcharge and fiscal stamps of Hungary. The first issue was made in a state printing house, the second in a private printing house of Feldeshi (both in Uzhgorod ). Denomination of stamps without currency . This was due to the simultaneous circulation in the territory of Transcarpathian Ukraine after its liberation of Czechoslovak and Hungarian banknotes .

On May 1, 1945, the People’s Council of Transcarpathian Ukraine issued its own postage stamps depicting a soldier, a broken chain and a hand clenched in a fist and tearing shackles. In June and August 1945, two more series of stamps of Transcarpathian Ukraine came out depicting a five-pointed star with a sickle and a hammer . On all of these postage stamps, denominations are indicated without a currency name. They were printed in a private printing house of Lama in Uzhgorod.

On November 15, 1945, according to an agreement between the USSR and Czechoslovakia, Transcarpathian Ukraine became part of the Ukrainian SSR and a Union post began to operate on its territory ^[1] . After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, Ukrposhta functions in the Transcarpathian region.

In 2009, in connection with the 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the Carpathian Ukraine, the Ukrainian postal department prepared an artistic envelope with an original stamp (designed by Natalia Mikhaylichenko). The postal miniature, canceled by a special stamp , depicts a stamp of the Carpathian Ukraine of 1939. The red stamp has an inscription in honor of the opening of the first Diet on March 15, 1939. The drawing on the envelope is a portrait of the President of the Carpathian Ukraine, Augustin Voloshin ^[2] .

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