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Maramureş (in Romanian; Hungarian: Máramaros; Latin: Marmatia; Ukrainian: Мармарощина / Marmaroshchyna, Мараморщина / Maramorshchyna, Марамуреш / Maramuresh) is a historical region in the northern of Transylvania, along the upper Tisza River. The territory of its southern section is now parts of Maramureş County in the northern Romania; its northern section is included in the Zakarpattia Oblast of western Ukraine. Prior to this division, that occured in 1920, the region coincided with Máramaros comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary.
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[edit] Additional info
Carpathian Ruthenia, the region inhabitted by Rusyns in Austria-Hungary, spread over approx. 2/3 of the historic counties of Ung, Bereg, and Ugocsa (the remaining 1/3 are respectively Slovak, Huungarian, and Romanian), and from 16th century also gradually over a part (up to 1/2) of the county of Maramures, generally over its north. Therefore, after 1600, Northern Maramures is sometimes included in historic Carpathian Ruthenia, historic Ruszinszko, or historic Pidkarpadska Rus' . (Footnote: Rusyns, which inhabitted these regions from 8th century, must not be confused historically and especially culturally with Lemko, Boiko, and Hutsul, which moved in the 16th century to the monthain-crests regions of Carpathian Ruthenia from Galicia, although they are confused ethnically adn linguistically in the Austia-Hungary censa. All these ethnicities converged during 19th century to the new ethnicity - Ukrainians, although Rusyn emmigrants (to USA, Americas, Yugoslavia, etc) from before the establishement of the name Ukrainians, generally retained the name Rusyns, or sometimes even Boiko, Lemko, Hutsul.)
În 1846 a avut loc recensământul populaţiei Imperiului Austriac. În 4 comitate, Ung, Bereg, Ugocea si Maramures locuiau 468,838 oameni: rusini-ucraineni – 235,266 maghiari – 119,816, slovaci – 13,857, români – 64,917, nemţi – 10,351, evrei – 24,589, greci – 42. Trebuie gasite date doar despre Maramures.
[edit] Old books
În Transcarpatia se păstrează multe cărţi vechi şi manuscrise preţioase: Evanghelia Regală (1401), Psaltirea din or. Mucacevo (sec. XIV), Evanghelia Ostrimirovo (sec. XIV), Evanghelia Moscovită (sec. XVI), Biblia rusă (sec. XV) a lui Francisc Scorini, Biblia de la Ostrog (1581), a lui Ivan Fiodorov, instrucţiuni pentru Solii lui Bogdan Hmelniţchii, Lexicon slavorus şi tălmăcirea numelor (1627 Pamva Berinda), “Evanghelia română”, “Pacea omului cu Dumnezeu ” (1661, Inochentii Ghizeli), “Gramatica rusă” (1755, Mihail Lomonosov), “Scurtă descriere a fundaţiei lui Fedor Coreatovici” (Ioanichii Bazilovici), “Evangheliile Învaţaceilor: din Neagoevsche, din Scotarsche (sec. XVI), din Iza, din Danilovo (sec. XVII), Culegerea din Sochirniţa (sec. XVII), Culegerea din Uglea “Cheia” (sec. XVII), Triod Kobâleţca Poleana (1561), Alexandria (sec. XVII): Ujgorod, Pistrealovo, Tâsiv. --- Trebuie vazut exact ce se refera la Maramures din acesta versiune romana de pe pagina regiunii Transcarpatia.
[edit] Coat of arms
The Maramures coat-of-arms noramally includes some miners in black (the color of prudence), a mine in white (the color of hope), a mountain goat (the symbol of the mountains), brazi trees (the symbol of th eforests), and other elements.
Stema Maramureşului (raioanele Mijgiria, Hust, Teaciv, Rahiv): pe scutul de forma germană sunt arătaţi mineri de culoare neagră (culoarea prudenţei) cu târnăcop în mâini la întrarea în mina albă (culoarea speranţei), mai jos apare imaginea râurilor montane sub forma unor panglici. În partea de sus a stemei imaginea caprei de munte (simbolul munţilor) iar de ambele părţi doi brazi (simbolul pădurilor).
[edit] History
[edit] Anticity
Traces of mesolithic people settlements, dating from approx. 7 kya have been found near the villages of Camianitsa and Dibrova (Apşa de Jos) in Northern Maramuresh, and are considered among the oldest in Eastern Europe. Their inhabitants were hunter-gatherers, that were living during the winter in half-digged houses near the rivers, and in the summer - in huts. Using tools such as chisels, carpenters, different bows and arrows, harpoons, they also knew methods to work the stone (abrading, boring), knew texture, pottery (painted ceramics). In a corner of their households they made clay furnaces. The people of that period were often moving their houses due to soil exhaustion. Cattle rasing led to the population of mountain regions. The inhabitants of Maramureş from that period, together with those of nearby regions, belonged to the so-called Criş culture. Later, around 2000 B.C., the migration of Indo-Europeans occured.
In anticity the region was populated by Thracian tribes, also know as Gets-Dacians. Cca 300 B.C.-400 B.C., the migration of Celts has brought to the Central Europe a more advanced technologically culture. Just near Maramureş, at Galish-Lovachka, near the nowadays town of Mukachevo, there was situated the second largest metallurgic center in Europe, where apart from silver coins, over a thousand metal tools have been found, such as scisors for cutting sheep wool, mows or swords, and the remains of jewel workshops. This migration had also negative efects: it gradually led to hostility between the Celts and the local Gets-Dacians. At the beginning of the 1st century B.C. the latter, under king Burebista, defeated military the Celts, forcing them to retreat to the territory of todays Germany. The Dacians during that period used to build their houses on higher banks of rivers, remains of which exist nowadays at Cetatea (near Ocna Slatina). The salt from this town was also very valuable at that time.
In 106 A.D., the Roman legions under the emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajanus defeated the Dacian kingdom. In 107, they established the Roman province Dacia Superior, with initial northern boundary along the river Someş, later to be moved further north. Maramureş became a region directly on the boundary with the Roman province. Roman coins were found throughout and near the region, such as those at Nankovo (1000 Roman silver coins), Brestovo (25 golden coins), Rusche Pole, Gaidoshi. The salt mine at Ocna Slatina, the metallurgic center at Zatiseanski (Djacovo, Vovchanske), as well as the largest potter district in Eastern Europe (on the river Mits) were all located in the region.
Although the Roman administration retreated in 275, the influence of Rome has not cezed, due to the now linguistically Roman and ethnically (traditions) Daco-Roman locals, who along with the empire became Christian in 325.
The Great Migration of peoples reached the region at the end of the 4th century, when Huns came to the Panonian planes, and in the middle of the 5th century, formed between the rivers Danube and Tisza a kigdom under the legendary Atilla. In 453, Atilla was defeated by a Roman-Visigoth aliance under the Roman general Aetius, and their kigdom desintegrated.
[edit] Early middle ages
Later, different tribes, such as Gepids, Vandals, Burgundians, Ostrogoths, Langobards, Slavs (twice) moved through the region. Of these, only the Slavs have left a deeper trace, due to their higher number. At the end of the 7th century the whole surrounding region was under the Avar kaganat. The population of Maramureş remained linguistically and ethnically Vlach, mostly Vlach shepperds, however little is known about who had political sway over it, if anybody.
The first groups of Slavs arrived nearby as early as the end of the 6th century, but they were not numerious. In the 8th century a more dense Slavic population followed. While a part of the Slavs-Croatians have soon migrated to the Balkan peninsula, those that remained, populated the Pannonian territories which start immediately to the west of Maramureş. In the 9th century, the region bordered Velika Horvatia to the west, and in 10th century a small Slav dukedom, sepatating it from much bigger and stronger kigdom of Great Moravia. To the south, the region bordered the Vlach voevodate of Gelu, which was defeated in 904 by Hungarians. During this period Slavs gradually converted to Christianity. In 880s, disciples of Kiril and Methodius, expeled from Great Moravia, settled in the region immediately to the west Maramureş, and founded monastries in unaccessible and beautiful mountain places.
In 896, the Hungarians arrived, under their leader Almosh, through the Hungarian (Veretski) pass (the valley of the river Latoritsa). In 903, under Arpad they conquered the fortricess of Ung and Var, cities only 100 km west of Maramureş. Maramureş, together with the surounding region is mentioned in chronics of the time as res nullis [no-man's land], or terra indagines [amotrization zone]. Gradually, from 11th to 13th centuries, the Kingdom of Hungary extended its borders into Transylvania up to the crests of the Carpathian mountains.
Being a forested and inaccessible region, Maramureş became part of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1303, much later than the surounding areas: most of Transylvania and present-day Slovakia from the first half of the 11th century, the ethnically Slav-Rusyn county of Uzh - from 1214, the counties of Ugocsa and Bereg (both half-Slav, half-Vlach at that time) - from 1262, respectively 1263.
In the Hungarian royal chronics, after being mentioned for the first time in 1199 as an “unexplored forest”, and then in 1299 as “royal forest”, Maramureş, at that point ethnically Vlach (Romanian), was designated a county in 1303, the last County were the Kingdom of Hungary reached the highest crests of the Carpathians. Moreover, it was only gradually converging with the Hungarian Kingdom in the 14th century, and was allowed to preserve its specific political organization – the Voevodate, comprising itself many smaller autonomous parts. The King (of Hungary) has long struggled to convince the Voevodes to accept the title of Count, with the implied dependency in political and financial matters, which meant to the locals loosing their independence – something they could not bear to hear.
The social organization of Maramureş during the middle ages was also very specific: the people in many mountain villages, where each family by definition had a considerable domain, were called nămeşi [nameshi], i.e. free peasants taking proud of their family. The term points to the belonging to a small clan, from the Romanian “neam” [bigger family]. This term has been preserved till nowadays, both in the areas that remained Romanian, and in those which later gradually became Slav.
Also, in the 12th century, king Gheiza II invited Saxons (Germans) from the Rhein regions to settle in.
Between 12th and 15th centuries, Maramureş and surounding areas were the sourse of an emigration. Mountain areas of present-day Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, and Czechia have been partly colonized by groups of Vlach (Romanian) highlanders from Maramureş and vicinity. They were gradually assimilated into the Slavic populations, but sometimes strongly influenced the local culture, making it more distinctive: as in southeastern corner of modern Poland, were "lex vallachorum" was in force as late as 16th century, or eastern Moravia, were there autonomy was decimated by Walenstein duging the Thirty Years War.
In March 1241, the Tataro-Mongols under the han Batu overwhelmed the mountain defences, and entered through the Veretski pass (separating the county of Bereg from Galicia) to plunder Transylvania and the Kingdom of Hungary. They have distroyed many towns and monastries, killing a great deal of people, estimated at up to 1/2 of the population. Among others they have distroyed the towns of Teceu and Ocna Slatina, as well as the surrounding these villages. In 1242, they have hastedly retreated, after learning that the Great Hun has died, in order to support the chances of their leader Batu to become the new Great Hun. (But he arrived too late.)
[edit] 1241-1526
In 1245, the Hungarian king Bela IV invited grapes-growers and wine-makers from Italy and Germany to settle in the places distroyed by Tatars.
In 13th century the nearby counties of Ung, Bereg and Ugocsa have then been ceded for a while to the Halic-Volyn Principality, but returned to Hungary in 1308, under the new dinasty, the Anjou. The three counts P.Petk of Ung, B.Kopas of Bereg and I.Moish of Ugocsa, opposed to the return to Hungary and to turning the local population to the Catholic Church, plotted to install Iuri, the son of Prince Lev Danilovich fo Halic, and grand-son of Bela IV, as king of Hungary. But the king Carol Robert of Anjou, with the help of the counts Drughezzi from Italy, prevailed.
Anjou's military and diplomatic tenacity was soon to be tested by Maramures, as well. In the middle of the 14th century, Maramures, still partly preserving the institution of Voevodate, was an important catalyst in uniting the lands to the east of the Carpathian mountains and forming the Moldavian Principality. It lent a big number of its warriors to the new state, to its push against the Tatars, and half of the bloodline of Moldavia’s first and most famous dynasty, the Musatins. The Voevode of Maramures, Bogdan of Cuhea, has succeded on two occasions (1342 and 1349) to eliminate entirely the royal authority from the Voevodate, only to find his efforts in vain due to the diplimatic policy of the King (of Hungary) Louis of Anjou (Louis the Great) towards smaller local (Romanian) nobility (which was Hungarianazed in the follwoing centuries). In 1349, documents mention a certain Ioan, son of Iuga, voevod of Romanians from Maramures, and Nicolae, son of Petru, addressing to the king Ludovic of Anjou regarding the rights of certain Giula, son of Darius over the villages of Giulesti and Nires. (Diplome Maramuresene, Maramures, Sziget, 1900, p. 28).
His failure in Maramures prompted Bogdan to organize a mass exodus of his viteji (smallest nobility, somewhat equivalent to knights) from many of his villages (leaving in many parts of Maramures only the peasants), to Moldavia, in 1359, driving away from there Balc and Drag, the grand-sons of the legendary voevod Dragos, who were loyal vasals of the king of Hungary, as captains of the eastmost military mark (oraganizing defence against Tatars). When reconciliation with Bogdan failed, and the latter was able to gather sufficient strength in Moldavia to gain independence both from Hungary and from Poland, Louis has appointed to Balc and Drag the lands that Bogdan has held in Maramures, and made them Voevods, but this time vassals of the King. They held only somewhat larger rights than counts. When this was documented in 1365, the historic Kingdom of Hungary has definitively esablished its border along the crests of the Carpathians, a line preserved till the end of World War I, although in meantime empires and countries would change names and sovereigns.
For over 30 years Balc and Drag have succesfully developed Maramures, opening it economically and culturally to the outside world. They were sole seniors of over 30 villages, most of them in the northern half of Maramures, of the towns of Hust and Sighet, and of the famous salt mine of Slatina (Solotvina/Ocna Slatina nowadays; the mine was explored since pre-Roman times), while for the rest of the Voevodate/County (both names are used throughout 14th century) smaller lords were their vassals, or namesi (free peasants, also capable of becoming warriors if needed) system was employed. Over decades and centuries, due mainly to wise diplomacy from the part of the Hungarian kings, Maramures has accepted its part as a county in the Kingdom of historic Hungary, the local nobility had accepted the Hungarian language and has intermarried with the Hungarian nobility (of which some part was also of Romanian descent, from other regions of Transylvania).
In 1215 two monks, Romulus and Ghenadius, who left the Monastry of Râmeţ (“Lettle Rome”) from Alba district in south Transylvania founded the Monastry of the Saint Archangel Michael of Peri, which grew during the next centuries. The most outspoken realization of Balc and Drag was obtaining in 1391 from the orthodox Patriarch of Constantinopolis Antonius IV the transformation of this Monastry into a Partiarchal Stavropighia, with jourisdication over 8 counties: Maramures, Ugocea/Ugocsa, Bereg, Unguras/Ung, Arva, Ciceu, Salaj and Bihorian Almas. Different sourses mention two different people as the first bishop - Simon the Moldavian by ones, and ehumen Pahonius, a relative of the voevods, by others.
This was the oldest Romanian bishopric (apart from the bishoprics of Tomis and Durustorum from Roman times). The monastry was the cultural and religious siege of the northern half of Transylvania for over 300 years. Its monks produced the oldest known texts in the Romanian language (three different documents, apparently all written in 1391), as well as chronicles that served as sources for later works of the 17th and 18th century “Romanian renaiscence”. In the 17th century the monastry was an important typographic center. Unfortunately, it was burned down by Hungarian Protestants in 1703, who moved in the region during an armed revolt against the new rulers – Austiran Hubsburgs.
The village of Peri (nowdays named Grushevo) is situated on the right bank of the river Tissa, in Northern Maramures, between Apsa de Jos (Dibrovo) to the east, Teresva (also spelled Taras in older sourses) to the west, Stramtura to the north, all three in Ukraine, and Sapanta in Romania to the south, on the opposite side of the river. Ethnically nowadays Apsa de Jos and Stramtura are Romanian (basically 100%), Teresva is Ukrainian (over 90%), and Peri is mixed. 1326 has the oldest document mentioning Sighet (Emlekkonyv, Maramarossziget, 1892, p. 73), in 1334 papal lists mention Benedict, paroh of Sighet.(Documente privind Istoria Romaniei, vol. III, sec. XIII, Ed. Academiei, 1955, p. 248), and in 1346 benedict is mentioned as "rector eclesie Zygeth" (Mihalyi de Apsa, diplome Maramuresene, Maramures – Sziget, 1900, p. 23). In 1329 King Carol Robert gave the satus of "royal guests" to 4 towns of Maramures: Visc, Hust, Teceu, and Campulung. On 19 February 1352 King Louis I extended these urban privelegies to Sighet (V. Belay, Maramoros megye tarsadalma es nemzetisegei, Budapest, 1943, p. 25).In 1385, the city of Sighet is mentioned as county siege, where documents are emitted (I. Mihalyi, Diplome, ... p. 85), and in 1397 a document of the Dragos family mentions „villa noastra libera ... Zyget" (I. Mihalyi, Diplome, p. 114). The towns of Hust and Teceu also gain in importance. Masons, tailors, bakers, carpenters, barbers, potter, smiths, goldsmiths, and cartwrighters are mentioned. In 1472, a diploma of Matei Corvin reaffirms the urban privelegies of Sighet.(Mihalyi, Diplome, p. 516).
Many villages of the region are dates from the same period: Slatina (1360), Apsa de Jos (1387), Apsa de Mijloc (1406), Biserica Alba (1373). At the and of the 15th century, there were 128 towns and villages in Maramures (comaparatively to 205 in nearby Ung, 122 in Bereg and 76 in Ugocsa). The popolation of Maramures at 1500 is etimated by historians at 30,000 to 60,000. Many villages are metioned in 15th century as namesi villages, i.e inhabitted by free peasants: Lipcia, Iza, Dolha, Dragova, Bedevlea, Vâşcova, Vilihivţi, Criceva, Ciumaleva, Uglea, Colodne, Vonigova. (Unele din aceste sate s-ar putea sa fie din Ugocea sau Bereg, trebuie verificat) Vâşcova is even mentioned as a town sometimes.
In 1514, the uprising of the cross-curuţ peasants under Derdi Doji took Hust, but did not go futher into Maramures.
[edit] 1526-1690
In 1526, at the Battle of Mohach, Hungary was defeated by the Ottomans, and the king Lajos II, the last of Anjou, died in battle. Most of the Panonian planes were subsequently occupied by Turks, western and northern historic Kingdom of Hungary, passed to the Austrian Habsburgs, while Transylvania, including Maramureş, became an autonomuous principality, vassal to the Ottomans from 1541. Atempts to take ovr it were made by Petru Rareş of Moldavia in 1527-1538, by Mihai Viteazul of Wallachia in 1600-1601, but most notably by the Austian Habsburgs for the whole duration of the autonomuous principality, and until they got it.
In 1551, Sighet's rights to hold fairs were re-affirmed[1]. Also, in 1551, the first ever strike in the Kingdom of Hungary took place, when the miners of Ocna Slatina left their workplace and created a make-shift tant camp at Nodi Banii (Baia Mare), demanding improvement of their work conditions and annulement of death penalty.
In the 16th century, Lutheran and Reformed Calvinist movements took hold in Transylvania, especially among Hungarian nobility. In 1556, the Catholic Church in Sighet, together with the majoiry of believers, was taken over by the protestants, who also opened a confessional school there.
In 1544, a Romanian Orthodox monk from Moldavia (name?), with the help of Transylvanian Saxons, printed the first Romanian language text, coincidenty entitled "the Lutheran Catehism". During 1550s and 1560s, a whole series of such propagandistic printings appeared. On November 30, 1566, the Protestant-dominated Sibiu Diet decided to "extirpate the idiolatry, especially from among the Romanian peasants". With the reigns of the Zapolai princes in 1526-1571 over different parts of the desintegrating Kigdom of Hungary, the protestant nobility of Transylvania and the catholic Austria were in continuous competition and often clashed, with the latter slowly gaining the upper hand.
The pro-independist policy of the Hungarian Transylvanian nobility provoked an Ottoman invasion in 1566, and the principality was plundered, but its remote north location saved Maramureş, and it was spared. The region was similarly protected from the devastations during and in the aftermath of the 1604-1606 and 1678-1685 Hungarian anti-Habsburg uprisings. 16th and 17th centuries also saw the rise of haiduc movements - self-organized small detachments that attacked the rich, and distributed the bounty amoung the poor.
From the 16th century, with the consent of the Hungarian nobility, and later with that of the Habsburgs, the mountain regions separating Panonia from Galicia were subject to the so-called Galician colonization: Lemki settled in the Ung, Zempeln, and Saros counties, Boiki - in Bereg, and Ung, while Hutsuls - in northeastern Maramureş. 15th to 18th centuries also saw the gradual migration of Ruthenians from Bereg to the northwest of Maramureş, mostly by intermarying with local Vlachs.
In 1611, emperor Leopold of Austira allowed Sighet to have its own coat-of-arms: aurochs' head.
In the 17th century, the Romanian Orthodox Church of Transylvania was moved by the Diet under the jurisdiction of the Reformed (Calvin) Church. A Calvin superintendent was named on April 9, 1639 to oversee the conversion of Romanians from Orthodoxy to Calvinism. Many leaders of the Romanian Church, which opposed these moves, such as the mitropolitans Dosoftei, Ghenadie II, Ilie Iorest, Sava Brâncovici, the latter two later canonised by the Romanian Orthodox Church, were persecuted, emprisoned or sometimes killed by the TRansylvanian governments of princes, such as Gabriel Bethlen, or Georgy Rakoczi.
In 1641 Ruthenian Orthodox Bishop of Munkach in Bereg switched to catholicism. On April 24, 1646, 63 Ruthenian Orhtodox clerics from nearby Ung, Bereg and Ugocsa counties, have proclaimed the Uzhhorod Union with the catholicism, founding the Ruthenian Greek-Catholic Church. In 1689, pope Alexander VIII officially recongnized this union. This led to open conflict with Bathory princes, who were Reformed Protestants. In 1689-1706, the catholic Bishop of Munkach was a Greek Iosif Camillis, who managed to take over some Orthodox parishes in northern Transylvania, and obtained authority among others over some parts Maramureş, especially over mostly Ruthenian villages. In total, 140 Ruthenian and Romanian parishes were under the authority of the Bishopric of Munkach. Later, in 1853, the Romanian ones separeted and formed a separate Bishopric of Gherla.
The Romanian bishops of Maramureş, together with the monks of the Maramureş hermitages ("schituri"), trying to preserve the Orthodoxy, started a movement ot emphsaze to the priests and the population that the language, traditions, and religious they hold link them with neighboring Moldavia. To counterweigh the catholic proselitism, the Romanian clergy of Maramureş elected Iosif Stoica from Criciova, a widowed priest who became a monk, their Bishop. He was rased to the rank in 1690 by the metropolitan Dosoftei of Moldavia. An antimis (religious text), dated by Iosif Stoica in 1692, and preserved to this day, is signed "din mila lui Dumnezeu, Episcop Ortodox al Maramureşului, exarh al Stavropighiei Patriarhale Constantinopolitane, locţiitor al Mitropoliei din Bâlgrad din Ardeal", the title of the Bishopric of Peri. Stoica is known to have extensively traveled throughout the region, including often to Khust. The Hungarian historian Nicolae Bethlen, former chancelor of Transylvania during that period, has noted that Iosif Stoica has produced a letter against the union with the Roman Church, based on arguments from the Scriptures and the writings of the Churth fathers. Bethlen noted his surprise that a rural Romanian was able to produce "a letter of such teological strength".
After serving as bishop for 15 years, Iosif Stoica was accused in 1705 by Francisc Darvay, the vice-count of Maramureş, and challenged to sign a 20-point program, imposing strong restrictions to Orthodoxy and to the Romanian character of the faith. When Iosif Stoica refused to sign, he was arrested and improsoned in Khust, allegidly with the support of Iosif Camillis, who wanted to name vicar of Sighet a catholic, Gheorghe Ghenadie Bizanezi. The priests and believers of Maramureş prottested in vain, demanding the release of their Bishop. Then they elected a new Bishop, Iov Ţârca from Gâmbuţ, who after a few years of persecutions and accusations fled to Moldavia, being condemned to death for his activities in defending the church. After being released in 1711, Iosif Stoica continued to exercise his Bishop functions without the knowledge of the authorities. He tried to re-obtain his Bishopric officially, but died in the same year. For his piety and activities in defeanding the traditional Romanian faith, he was remembered by the belivers from Maramureş along the saints, and later, in 1992, the Romanian Orthodox Church canonized him. This saint's day is April 24.
The next bishop, Ştefan Serafim Petrovan, was a person easy to be swong, and was ready to turn to catholicism, but was prevented in this by the calvinst Hungarian nobility. Romanian Orthodox sourses have it, that the attempt to convert the Maramureş Romanians to catholicism were met with a dignifying and solemn protests against being united without thier will, and against introdution of inovations contradicting their old law and belief.[2]
In the 17th century, Maramureş became reknowned for the so-called "girl fairs" ("târguri de fete"), were in additions to classical fairs, people were gathering to meet and marry. Due to extensive cutting of woods, in 1631, the cutting of fir trees for cork to transport the salt was limitted. In the same time nuts, apples, mulberry, corn, and clover become an industry. Maramureş county became also renouned for wood and iron works - Visk, Criva, Bushtino (Buştina), Velikyy Bichkiv (Bocicoiu Mare), furnaces and casting - Kosivska Poliana, Butfalva, timber - Yasinea (Frasini), Velikyy Bichkiv (Bocicoiu Mare), Ust-Chorna (Gura Ciornei), shoe factories - Khust. Cliff cavities were used to heat mineral water, creating the first spas. The towns of Visk, Tiachiv (Teceu), Khust and others remained owned by the county government, unlike the surounding regions where many towns and cities became private-property, or central state-property.
[edit] 1690-1918
The last push of the Ottomans in Central Europe proved desastruous to them. In 1683, the Austirians and the Poles defeated the Ottomans at the gates of Vienna. In 1686 they conquiered Buda, and in 1690 took over Transylvania, abolishing the principality. In 1699, in the Treaty of Karlovitz, the Ottomans officialy renounced to Transylvania in favour of Austria. In Transylvania, catholic and protestant efforts to convert the population clashed in open. At the same time, Transylvanian nobility was completely Magyarized by 16th century, when it adopted calvinism. After granting authonomy to catholic Szeckely, and newly Lutheran Saxons, the nobility formed the union of the three nations, a statue aimed at concentrating all the power in the principality in the hands of the so-called three nations: Hungarian, Szeckely, and Saxon. Romanians, representing the vast majority of the population, were left with no representation, exept the clergy. Understanding that the religious presure from all sided will not cease, a part of Romanian Orthodox clergy was preparing to make a compromise with the side that would prove more flexible to the needs of Romanians.
Linguistical and cultural affinities, and the much bigger flexibility shown by the Catholic Church paid off. In 1692, Orthodox Bishop Teofil Seremi was established mitropolitan at Alba Iulia, under the Calvin dependency. After discutions and negociations through the Jesuit Ladislau Baranyi. Teofil Seremi convoked a sinod, and on 21 March 1697, the sinod decided to unite the Church with Rome, under the conditions of the Florence Concil, and similarly to the unions of Brest and Muncach of the Ruthenians. The idea was that the Romanian clergy would receive the same rights and imunities as the latin one, while preserving the traditional establishments and mass. On 4 April 1697, the emperial chancelor Franz Ulrich Kinsky, presented at Vienna to the governor of Transylvania Georgy Bánffy the request of the Romanians, and the empritial approval. Nevertheless, initially the church was left under calvin control as it was, and Teofil Seremi died in July 1697, suspectedly by enpoisonment.
The ambiguity of the situation is emphasized by the fact that the next mitropolitan of Transylvania, Atanasie Anghel, went to receive the ordination of his position to the Orthodox Mitropolitan in Bucharest, where prince Constantin Brancoveanu of Wallachia has arranged for an intruction to be given to him by Dositei, the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. However, as soon as the catholic started to matrialize their promises, the union gained strength. In response to the 2 July 1698 confirmation of the 1697 privilegies by the cardinal Kollonich of Esztergom, Atanasie Anghel summoned a new synod, which on 7 October 1698 has passed the Manifest of Union, signed by 38 high representatives of the Romanian clergy of Transylvania. In 1700 Brancoveanu presented the Romanian Orthodox Mitropolitan of Alba Iulia with a substancial financial contribution, retracted the next year, after a new synod in 1700 validated the union, and in 1701 Anghel traveled to Vienna and declared the the Mitropolitanate of Transylvania is no longer subordinated to Bucharest. Dositei, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Teodosie, the Metropolitan in Bucharest, presented Anghel with a formal anatema. In 1700 the Maramures county congregation decided that the parohal school at Sighet must be supported by public money.
In 1703 a Hungarian uprising against Austria and agaist catholicism, under Ferenc Rakoczi, took place, at which participated also some Romanians, Ruthenians, and Slovaks. On 7 June 1703 the "curutii" won a partially decisive battle against Austrians at Dolha, but were subsequently defeated, alhtough definitively only in 1711. Unfortunately, during this uprising, the Hungarian Protestants plundered and destroyed in 1703 the famous Monastery of Peri.
After the union, Anghel's dificulties did not decrease. On the contrary, the Calvin intendent was replaced by a Jesuit teolog, mostly Gabriel Hevenessi, whose agresivity and absence of diplomacy in the day-to-day life were surpassed only by his zeal to censure the books printed at Alba Iulia. The support from Wallachia was now completely cut, and due to the Hungarian revolt, the support from Vienna was very small. In 1707, Rakoczy occupied Alba Iulia, and Anghel had to retreat with the imperial troops to Sibiu. In Alba Iulia, the Bishop of Maramures Iov Tarca, the former counter-candidate of Atanasie Anghel for the mitropolitan siege, re-established the Romanian Orthodox Mitropolinate of Transylvania, with himself as mitropolitan, but was forced to flee to Maramures, when the city passed again in Austrian hands.
In 1711, Atanasie Anghel, frustrated by the absence of imerial support, voids again the union with Rome, but is re-convinced by the Jesuits, when the latter finally manage to obtain support from the emperor. Although Anghel died in 1713, only on 23 december 1715 the emperor approved the thrid candidacy for a new Bishop, that of Ioan Giurgiu Patachi. Simultaneously, due to major reconstruction in Alba Iulia, resulting in the demolition of many old buildings, the Siege of the Mitropolitanate was moved to Fagaras. After aproval by the papal decree "Indulgentum esse" (1716) and papal "bula" Rationi Congruit (1721), Patachi is festively installed in his position, at the "St. Nicolas" Cathedral in Fagaras on 17 August 1723.
In 1717, the Tatars invaded Maramures, and plundered the wealth of Sighet, much of which was hidden in the reformed church. After bringing much desaster, the Tatars were annihilated in a battle at Borsa.
The adversaries of the Greek-Catholic Church inside the imperial territory were the protestant nobility of Transylvania, but also the Serbian Orthodox Mitropolitane of Karlowitz, whose emissary to Transylvania, the Romanian monk Visarion Sarai, succeded in spontaneously gathering so much support among the locals, that it terrified the Austrian authorities, which after arresting him, sent him to the fearful Kufstein prison in Tirol, where his trace was lost. The person, that played the instrumental role in establishing the national right of Romanians in Transylavania, and fundamented the union with Rome was the Romanian Greek-Catholic Bishop of Blaj Incentiu Micu-Klein. Schooled by the Jesuits in Cluj, trained in theology in Trnava, and later a Basilian Monk, he was appointed in 1729 by Emperor Charles VI Bishop of Alba Iulia and Fagaras, as well as Imperial Councillor, awarded the title of Maron, and given a seat in the transylvanian Diet. In 1737, he moved the bishopric seat from Făgăraş to Blaj, and laid the foundations to the local cathedral in 1741. As a member of the Diet, Inocenţiu Micu began to press the Habsburg Monarchy to fulfill the agreement that conversion to Greek Catholicism would bring with it Roman Catholic-like privilegies, and an end to serfdom. First pressing for rights for clergy and converts, he soon began to petition for freedom for all Romanians. Micu petitioned the Habsburg court for over forty years to this end. His perseverence ultimately made both the Empress Theresia and Transylvania's Diet declare themselves offended - the Diet itself opposed the liberation of the work force or the awarding of political rights to Romanians, considered by the Diet as "moth for the cloth". Exiled in 1744, and asked to give up his bishopric in 1751, Micu died in Rome in 1768.
A visit by the catholic bishop Manuil Olszavski of Muncach, as official envoy of emperess Maria Theresia, throughout Transylvania revealed that the union was only in name, and that the locals do not want to receive uniate priests, but demand that Klein be brought back. Fearing the situation could get much worse, Maria Theresia, gave on 13 July 1759 an edict of tollerance towards the orthodox believers, and forbade the uniate clergy to persecute them. Two petitions were sent In March 1791 and March 1792 by the leaders of the ethnic Romanians of Transylvania to the Emperor Leopold II, demanding equal political rights with the other ethnicities of Transylvania and a share of the Transylvanian Diet proportional to their population (two thirds). Partially modelled on the revolutionary France Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the documents, called Supplex Libellus Valachorum Transsilvaniae, latin for Petition of the Vlachs of Transylvania, was drafted by the most important representatives of Romanians of Transylvania, which were, for the most part, clerics of the Romanians Greek Catholic Chirch. Rejectced, except for the point referring to the free practicing of the Orthodox faith, despite the quasi-total support by the population, the document became the ralying point of the Romanians of Transylvania until after WWI, helping in focussing their demands.
In 18th century, the region is known for expost of salt, fur, vine, wooden craft, while importing "treasure items" (?; lucruri de pret), carpets (from Turkey and the Balkans), fabric, crystal, china (from Czechia, Germany, Italy), and iron craft (from Holand, Poland). Buştina, V.Bâcichiv, Vâşcova, Teceu (Teacevo), Hust, Rahau (Rahiv), Ocna Slatina, Taras (Teresva), Iasinea, Dolha (Dovge), Borsa, Sighet are the region's towns that emerge. Hust was hosting 10 annual fairs.
The 19th century brought an economic growth to Maramures, although the first factories appeared two centuries earlier. Electricity, post, and telephone slowly reached the region at the end of the century.
Clearly, the 19th century must be expanded, maybe into a separate subsection.
During 1870-1913, there was an important migration to USA. From Maramures, Ugocea, Bereg and Ung, there were 180,000 legal, and up to 400,000 illegal emmigrants to USA. A smaller number of people emmigrated to Uruguay, Canada, Argentina, Australia.
In 1900, Ioam Mihalyi de Apsa printed at Sighet the first volume of the history of the county of Maramures, "Maramures Diplomas of XIV – XV centuries".
With the begining of the WWI, Russian troups invaded Iasinea and Rahiv in northeastern Maramures in September 1914, but were repealed, then at the end of October 1914, while pushing towrds Ujoc, they invaded also the northest-most villages of Maramures, around Studene, and were again repealed. Later millitary action never took place in Maramures.
[edit] November 1918 - March 1919
At the end of the World War I, when the Austria-Hungary broke down, the nations inhabiting it elected regional assemblies to determine their fate. As a result Maramures county was divided into North and South.
When Austro-Hungary dissimilated and its constituent parts have elected national assemblies to decide the future political configurations.
The National Council of the Romanians of (inner) Transylavania, Crisana, Banat and Maramures, composed of 1228 elected members, has decided on 1 December 1918 in Alba Iulia upon their union with Romania.
On 15 December 1918, in Medias, the Council of the Transylvanian Saxons and Danubian Swabians (ethnic Germans that moved to live in Transylvania in the 12th-13th, respectively in the 18th centuries) decided to support the Romanians, mainly because of their adversity to the prospect of living in a Hungarian state, which was due to the Magyarization (Hungarization) policy practiced in the Transleitanian part of Austria-Hungary after 1870 untill WWI. This brought in favour of union with Romania 74% of the population of the territories in question.
The Hungarians, represented by the Transleitanian Government in Budapest, have been categorically opposed to the union with Romania.
After tough negotiations at the Conference of the Treaty of Versailles, the Romanian delegation obtained that the Antante powers that won the war accept the decision of the Romanians of (the wider) Transylvania (i.e including Crisana, Banat and Maramures).
The Romanian Army moved in during the spring-summer 1919, to a wide welcome of the local population, and to the deception of many of the politicians at the Conference of Versailles, trying to prevent the emergence of a regional power in Eastern Europe.
Four independent field Commissions, one each from Britain, France, USA and Italy, submitted proposals for the border of Romania in Transylvania. The consolidated proposal suggested that the west-most one row of Counties (parts of Crisana) to be retained by Hungary, and one County in the south-west (part of Banat) to be attributed to Yugoslavia. This would effectively half the Hungarian, eliminate the Serb, and virtually not change the German future minorities in the territories that were to be retained by Romania, in turn leaving only about 100 000 Romanians in Hungary, and about 50 000 in Vojevodina (Yugoslavia).
In November and December 1918, various “Councils” were established in different cities of Carpathian Ruthenia, the region inhabited by Rusyns, spanning over most parts of the former Counties of Ung, Bereg, Ugocea and the northern part of Maramures, in order for inhabitants to decide which state they wished to join.
Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Berehovo and other cities voted to join the new Hungarian Republic.
Svaljava and Chust (21 January 1919) (!---I did not find the date for Svaljava---) voted to join, what they called, Ukraine-Russia.
A “Hutsul Republic” was declared in Jasinja on 8 January 1919.
Romanian villagies north of the river Tissa, situated around the town of Ocna Slatina, elected deputies to the Romanian Council that, as metioned above, on 1 December 1918 decided upon the union of Transylavania with Romania.
A vote was taken by the National Council of American Ruthenians, in which Czechoslovakia won as the most popular home for the region. This vote served as a basis point for Antante's proposals about the future fate of Carpathia Ruthenia, i.e. it was suggested to attribute it to Czechoslovakia.
Moreover, the Czechoslovak delegation at Versailles insisted on the inclusion of the northern half of Maramures together with Carpathian Ruthenia, since the 17 August 1916 Treaty (article 4) between Romania and the powers of the Antanta (Britain, France, Russia and Italy), which preluded the entrance of Romania in World War I, stipulated the right of Romania to claim at the end of the war the territory of Austro-Hungary inhabited by Romanians up to the river Tisa (Tissa). The Romanian delegation was opposed to this, because the river Tisa divided the Maramures County roughly into half, and since the Romanians from the right bank of Tisa also took part in the election of representatives to the Council of Alba Iulia. These MPs voiced concern during the Council upon the incorrect usage of the phrase “up to Tisa” by some speakers as a figure of speech, because de jure the Council was representing the population of the administrative units of Austria-Hungary.
[edit] March 1919 - April 1920
An ambiguous period ensued from March to May of 1919 as a “Diet” government for Carpathian Ruthenia formed with strong ties to Hungary’s Kun (communist) regime.
Throughout the summer of 1919, Czech troops began to take control over most of what is today Carpathian Ruthenia, with Romanian troops gaining control of its southern regions in late spring, in their push, at the request of the Versailles Conference, against the Communist Hungarian Republic.
In June 1919, independently from the ongoing events in Versailles, the Romanian and Czechoslovak armies have agreed on a demarcation line, that roughly left Ung and most of the Bereg County under Czechoslovak control, while Maramures, Ugocsa and part of the Bereg County - under Romanian control, until the final decisions at Versailles would be taken.
On 2 July 1919, the Prime-Minister of Romania, I C Bratianu, withdrew from the Versailles Conference, due to the fact that the Antanta powers wanted to stick to the letter of the 1916 treaty with respect to Maramures. This created an inhibited tension between the Romanian Delegation and the Supreme Council at Versailles.
On 3 August 1919, the Antanta powers have decided to accept the Czechoslovak suggestion. Bratianu has refused to sign the treaty in that form. The Romanians wanted to preserve the June demarcation line as the official border.
Moreover, in Transylvania the public opinion started to show its anxiousness about keeping this historic County in one. One of the most outspoken voices was that of the Prefect of Maramures, who has preserved the administration over the entire County. Moreover, Maramures and Ugocsa have elected members to the new Romanian parliament in 1919, with a wide participation in the vote among both Romanians and Ruthenians. The elected MPs were of both ethnic groups. They have engaged in a series of attempts to wake the political class and the public opinion to what they called the cause of the over-Tisa lands.
The Saint-Germain agreement bewteen Antanta and Chechoslovakia, of 10 September 1919, provided for the incorporation of the majority of Carpathian Ruthenia into Slovakia as an autonomous unit of the Slovak portion of the Czechoslovak state.
In mean time, in Romania, on 12 September 1919 the Bratianu Government resigned and a Government lead by Vaitoianu was formed. A member of that Government, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, a famous Transylvanian politician in the former Austri-Hungary, put forward a documented “proposition about the boundary of Maramures, to include all Romanian villages”, suggesting “a line that would start west of Teceu (Tjacev), and would continue to the north along mountain crests to the Galician border, leaving in Romania the subdistricts Sighet, Tisa, Taras and half of Teceu”.
On 30 September 1919 Vaiatoianu Government was replaced by a Government lead by Vaida himself. Vaida appointed to the Romanian Delegation in Versailles as an expert in the question of Maramures one of the new MPs from that County Dr G Iuga. The later presented many documents in support of the argument about the obvious Romanian rights over Maramures. he gave as an example the fact that the oldest Romanian Bishopric was established in the village of Peri in 1391, on the northern side of the river, and has been for over 300 years the main center of Romanian culture in the northern half of Transylvania.
On 1 December 1919 the Romanian Parliament has formed a new Vaida Government, as a result of the parliamentary elections in Romania. Because Vaida was himself a former Austro-Hungarian politician, the relations between the Czech and the Romanian Delegations in Verseilles have sweetened, and the Conference in general acquired a more favorable view towards Romania.
On 16 December 1919, in a speech to the Romanian Parliament, Vaida said that he is hopeful in finding a solution "to save the entire Maramures". In fact, after negotiations, the Czech Delegation started accepting the Romanian point of view. On 15 March 1920 the chief of the Czech Delegation to Versailles, Osusky, informed Vaida that the Maramures border "is to be settled in short time".
The agreement reached by the two Delegations (Romanian and Czech) was leaving the entire Maramures, except the Dolha (Dolge) sub-district to Romania. The Czechs wanted in return a military alliance. The agreement was to be signed in London, where the whole conference has moved.
But yet another government was formed in Bucharest, this time not lead by a Transylvanian. In fact, the agricultural reform envisioned by Vaida-Voevod deeply upset and threatened the wealthiest land owners and commerciants from the pre-1918 Romania, who let aside their infighting to concentrate on the threat posed by Vaida. Of the 16 million inhabitants of Romania in 1920, only 7 million lived in the pre-1918 territories, and this threatened greatly the pre-1918 political class, that in many aspects was more feodal and anti-democratic than the politicians that formerly lived in Austro-Hungary or in the Russian Empire. The coalition conservative forces (Averescu, Bratianu, etc) deposited Vaida.
At the end of March 1920 a new Romanian government was formed under General Averescu, whose unqualified command of the troups in 1916 led to many lives being lost and to the initial military defeats.
Using the opportunity, the Czechoslovak delegation has changed its tone, and refused to sign the documents, motivating that the new Romanian government does not have the same legitimacy to sign the agreement as the previous one.
On 1 April 1920 the Czech representative in Bucharest confirmed the Czechoslovak government’s request that the Romanian troops leave the territory up to the Tisa line, informing the Romanian government that it "agrees to negotiate a rectification of the boundary following propositions from a mixed Czech-Romanian border Commission to be formed".
On 18 April 1920 the Romanian Government of General Averescu announced to the Czechs that it will evacuate the Army to the requested line.
This reply, implemented at the end of July 1920, has created in the diplomatic circles the impression that Romanians renounce the territory of Maramures north of the river Tisa (Tissa). From the point of view of Romanians, with a single unjustified hasteness to withdraw the troups, the Maramures cause have been given a deadly blow, a blow against the natural geographic configuration and vital economic interests of the region, without any consent and against the cathegorical will of the affected population.
On 4 June 1920 Romania signed the Trianon treaty, and the international community has recognized the border in northern Transylavania as it is now.
The mixed Czech-Romanian commission was never formed.
[edit] 1920-1938
After the Treaty of Trianon was concluded in 1920, Northern Maramures bacame part of Subcarpathian Rus’ region of Slovakia, one of the component states of Czechoslovakia.
In 1920 there were 60 newspapers edited in the Subcarpathian Rus’, none of which in Romanian. In fact 22 were in Hungarian, 10 – in Russian, 9 – in Rusyn, 5 – in Hebrew, 4 – in Czech, 4 – in Ukrainian, and 6 – mixed.
[edit] 1938-1944
Prior, and during World War II, Hungary, led by Miklós Horthy, allied itself with Hitler’s Germany in the hope of re-obtaining some of the territories it had lost under the Treaty of Trianon. On 1 October 1938, under the first Vienna award, which was a result of the Munich agreement, Czechoslovakia was forced by Germany and Italy to cede Sudetenland (the mostly Germanophone parts of Czechia) to the Third Reich.
On 6 and 8 October 1938, Slovakia and Subcarpathian-Ruthenia respectively gained autonomy. Then, Germany and Italy arbitrated the 2 November the Vienna Protocol, allocating a strip of territory from south Slovakia (approximately 1/3 of Slovakia) and from Subcarpathian-Ruthenia to Hungary. The Hungarians’ reestablishment of control over these territories was not an entirely peaceful process. Invited by Germany and Italy, Poland invaded and annexed the Teschen area (in Moravia). Invited by Germany and Italy, Romania refused to invade and annex the compactly Romanian part of Northern Maramures. The remaining Slovak territory became officially autonomous and had the right to its own parliament and government, with Monsignor Jozef Tiso chosen as its leader. However, it did not become fully independent from Czechoslovakia until an ultimatum given by Hitler prompted a vote for “independence” (as a puppet state for Hitler) on 14 March 1939.
The next day, 15 March 1939, Germany annexed the remainder of Czechoslovakia as the "Reichsprotektorat" Bohemia & Moravia. Subcarpathian-Ruthenia declared its independence in Khust on 15 March 1939, under President Augustin Voloshin, and was immediately (16 March) invaded and annexed by Hungary. On 23 March Hungary invaded and occupied from the Subcarpathian-Ruthenia some further parts of eastern Slovakia, but later returned those lands to Slovakia.
The Subcarpathian-Ruthenian land allocated to Hungary as part of the Vienna Protocol (2 November 1938) award included the region’s largest cities: Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Berehovo, and Chop. Chust, in the East, the west-most city of Northern Maramures, remained part of Subcarpathia-Ruthenia, and the seat of its government moved there. The Chust government actively continued to voice complaints over the fate of the western Subcarpathian-Ruthenian territories, and vocally asserted the region’s case for its own government and the protection of its former lands. The Chust declarations increasingly included a possible attachment to an independent Ukraine. With the Slovak vote for independence from Czechoslovakia on 14 March 1939, on the next day the Ruthenian Diet, led by Premier Augustin Voloshin, declared independence for Subcarpathian-Ruthenian, under the name “Carpatho-Ukraine.” Within 24 hours, Hungarian troops, with the assent of Hitler, had invaded Chust, liquidated the government, and annexed the remainder of Subcarpathian-Ruthenian to Hungary.
[edit] 1944-1991
At the end on 1944, the fitghing touched Northern Maramures. On 18 October 194,4 Russian troups occupied the vilages of Biserica Alba, Apsa de Mijloc and Ocna Slatina, and on 19 October - Apsa de Jos. On 23 October, they have created so-called "people committees" in these villages, and on 26 November 1944, in Mukachevo a "Congress of people commettees" was held to adopt a "Manifest of Union of Transcarpathia with the Soviet Ukraine". Someone I.M.Lemaninet represented Apsa de Jos at this Congress, although a person with this name has never been known before or after in the village. However, the official union of Subcarpathian-Ruthenian / Trans-Carpathia with USSR was formalized in Moscow on 29 June 1945. After that the Soviet Army has organized the “election” of "presidents of people commetees": N.I.Guzo in Apsa de Mijloc, V.T.Popsa in Biserica Alba, Gh.Guban in Slatina, and M.M.Filip in Apsa de Jos.
One of the first acts of the Soviet administration was to change the historic names of the villages – Apsa de Jos became Dibrova, Apsa de Mijloc – Srednee Vodianoe, Ocna Slatina – Solotvino, Biserica Alba – Bila Tserkva. The names of the smaller villages were also changed. The collectivisation has brought a lot of resistance from the local population. After the creation in the village of Apsa de Jos, the biggest village of the Trans-Carpathian region, of the first kolkhoz in the Tiacevo raion/district, the locals have killed Ivan Chernichko, the president of the kolkhoz. As a result, 21 men were sentanced to a total of 427 years of inprisonment. In Apsa de Mijloc the locals killed 4 Soviet officials and were “rewarded” with a high deportation rate to Siberia. Eventually two kolkhoz were created in Apsa de Jos in 1949, united in 1952, and in 1959 the kolkhoz of the village of Stramtura was united with the former, which was named “The friendship of peoples”.
Although the Soviets opened the first university in Uzhhorod, built the first hidro-electric plant (on the Tereblea and Rica rivers), partially electrified the railroad, and even held the World Children Olympic Games in Uzhhorod in 1990, severe dameged has been produced during this period to the cultural and ecological heritage of the whole region of Trans-Carpathia, including Northern Maramures.
[edit] 1991-present
At the fall of USSR, in 1991, Ukraine became independent, with Trans-Carpathia as an administrative region (oblast).
[edit] Appendix
[edit] Northern Maramures Participation in the Romanian National Council that adopted the 1 December 1918 union
On 26 May 1918, the Romanian National Council in the Northern Maramures was formed under Dr. Vasile Chindris as president, and Prof. Ion Biltiu-Dancus as secretary, with Lt. Florentin Biltiu-Dancus as chief if the National Guards.
In the autumn of 1918, elections were held throughout Transylavania for the Romanian National Council (Great Asembly) of Transylvania to be held in Alba Iulia, which was to consist of 600 deputies elected 5 each from the Austro-Hungarian electoral districts, and 628 as representatives of different social organizations (clergy, teachers, officers and solders, etc). On 27 November 1918, in Slatina, the representatives of the towns and villages of the Sighet electoral district held their session. These included from the right bank of the river Tissa: 20 representatives from Apsa de Jos (and surrounding villages), 20 – from Apsa de Mijloc (and surrounding villages), 10 – from Slatina and 10 – from Biserica Alba. The session elected Dr. Titu Doros as chairman, and Ion Biltiu-Dancus as secretary.
Since the villages to the north of Tissa were appointed 2 places in the Alba Iulia Council (which was to begin on 1 December 1918), after the votes were counted, the two people elected were 1) Dan Mihai from Apsa de Mijloc and 2) Filip Ilie from Apsa de Jos. Also three other delegates were to represent Northern Maramures at the Council as representatives of different social organizations: 1) N. Nedeliu – priest from Biserica Alba, as representant of county clergy, 2) Florentin Biltiu-Dancus from Slatina, as representative of the Romanian National Guards of the county, and 3) Ioan Silliu-Dancus from Slatina, reprezenting «Reuniunea invatatorilor romani din comitatul Maramures» (“The union of the Romanian teachers of the Maramures County”).
The following is a reproducion of the original document in Romanian:
1918, 14/27 noiembrie, Sat-Slatina (cercul electoral Sighet)
Proces-verbal luat in adunarea electorala a cercului electoral Sighet din comitatul Maramuras, tinuta in Sat-Slatina, la 27 Novembrie 1918
Prezident Dr. Titu Doros, Notar Ion Biltiu Dancus.
Prezidentul da cetire ordinului venit de la Consiliul Central National Roman, prin care se ordona alegerea urgenta alor 5 delegati in Marea Adunare Nationala Romana, care va fi convocata in scurt timp. Constata ca publicarea alegerei de azi s-a vestit de cu vreme in toate comunele din cerc. Saluta pe alegatorii prezenti si ii provoaca sa numeasca 2 barbati de incredere.
Se numesc de atari prin comunele apartinatoare cercului d-nii Dionisie Veres, Ion Simion din Apsa de Jos, George Stet, Ioan Marina din Apsa de Mijloc, Iuliu Rednic, Vasalie Mich din Iapa, Petru Cozar, Vasile Pop din Seraseu, Constantin Pavel si Petru Bota din s. Slatina, Augustin Darabanth si George Simon din Biserica Alba. Prezidentul deschide votarea, care decurgand in ordine, pe baza scrutinului facut de biroul adunarii se constata ca unanimitatea voturilor au intrunit dnii: 1. Dr. Vasilie Kindris din Sighetul Marmatiei, 2. Ilie Filip, din Apsa de Jos, 3. Dr. George Birlea din Sighetul Marmatiei, 4. Vasalie Mich, din Iapa, 5. Mihail Dan din Apsa de Mijloc. Ca urmare, prezidiul declara pe dnii: Dr.Vasile Kindris, Ilie Filip, Dr. George Birlea, Vasalie Mich, Mihail Dan, alesi din partea romanilor din acest cerc cu vot universal ca delegati ai cercului electoral indreptatiti si indatorati a lua parte cu vot decisiv in Marea Adunare Nationala Romana, care se va convoca din partea Consiliului Central National Roman inca in decursul acestui an si la adunarile, cari eventual le va convoca in decursul anului urmator.
Prezidiul dispune ca in urma acestei enuntari, prezidialii alesi deputati sa fie prevazuti cu credentionale, iar o parte a acestui proces verbal sa se trimita imediat Consiliului Central National Roman.
Spre stire,
Despre ce luandu-se acest proces verbal in 2 parii, dintre care unul se va pastra la Consiliul National Roman din fruntea comitatului, actul de alegere se incheie la orele 11.
