‘Hungary Calling’ – Land Grabs And Storm Clouds – March 21, 1939

– English News From Radio Budapest, Hungary – March 21, 1939 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection. –

As the storm clouds rapidly gathered in Europe, the situation in the East was quickly developing into a hotspot.

The question of Hungary and its occupation of Subcarpathia, on the heels of a declaration of Independence as Carpatho-Ukraine on March 15th and the swift takeover by Hungary, much to the annoyance of the Czechs, Russians, Poles and Germans. Hungary had claimed the area as rightfully theirs since the 1800s. But from the beginning of the 20th century had been administered by the Czechs. The question of autonomy had been raised for the 20 years since the end of World War 1.

After independence was finally declared, Hungary made its move, but the takeover was not without violence. Czech forces attempted to quash the occupation and, under the influence of Berlin, sent troops to end the occupation. But the Hungarian forces prevailed and Carpatho-Ukraine officially became part of Hungary and achieved the level of autonomy which wasn’t promised by either the Czechs or the Russians. It stayed that way until Hungary was occupied by Germany in 1944 and then absorbed by the Soviets after the war, declaring all of the area part of the Soviet Ukraine.

On March 21st 1939, Radio Hungary Radio broadcast a news report via its English Service, describing the takeover and justification for absorbing Carpatho-Ukraine into the Hungarian fold.

Here is that newscast from Radio Hungary – it’s difficult to hear in places, as it’s a shortwave broadcast and the signal goes in and out. But it’s an important event, and part of a little-known series of incidents leading up to the outbreak of War in Europe.

Since you know by now that we no longer run ads on Past Daily which annoyed all of you, we have come to rely on subscribers to help keep us up and running. Frankly, it’s an expensive affair to keep a site like Past Daily putting out history and culture every day, several times a day – user costs and storage for the 10,000 + posts we have, and growing every day, are skyrocketing. It’s not cheap so we need your help and your subscription to Past Daily would mean the world to us. And it’s rather cheap to join. $5.00 a month – that’s all – one cup of semi-okay coffee and you get access to the archive, all the stories and the audio. What’s more, you get e-mailed every time we put something up so you can head straight over and download what you’d like to hear and take with you. All you have to do is click on the red box below, join Patreon and pat yourself on the back for helping make a difference. It’s not much, but it means a lot in the grand scheme of things. So take a second or two and check us out. You’ll be glad and we’ll be thrilled.