Daily life of the population of soviet Transcarpatia in the documents of the USA central intelligence agency (second half of the 1940s - early 1950s)

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate the peculiarities of the US intelligence's vision of the processes of sovietization in Transcarpathia and their impact on the daily life of the region's residents, based on the declassified CIA materials. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, scientificity, and objectivity that are fundamental for historians. It was also necessary to apply historical and systemic, historical and comparative methods of historical science, which allowed, first of all, to trace the specifics of the formation of images of the history of Transcarpathia in the assessment of CIA specialists in the context of the initial stage of the “Cold War”. The scientific novelty of the study consists in an effort to carry out a balanced and comprehensive analysis of the vision of the US intelligence on various aspects of the daily life of Soviet Transcarpathia population (processes of collectivization, a daily life of the population of the region's towns, activities of the authorities, etc.). The authors elucidated the content and a factual validity of these processes, showed their orientation and the main objects and lines of analysis. The set of documents analysed in the article is informative enough to fulfill the research objectives. The Conclusion. Despite the fact that the USSR was a strategic adversary of the USA during the Cold War, the information of the CIA specialists regarding the life of the population of Transcarpathia as a part of it is not one-sided in the framework of a possible “two-colour” analysis (“black and white”). In a number of relevant documents, sympathy for the population of the region is palpable, rather difficult conditions of its economic, political and cultural life in the first post-war years, a strict management style of the state and party leadership of Transcarpathia, a significant role of power structures, etc. have been emphasized. It is also important to recognize the Ukrainianness of the population of Transcarpathia, despite the presence of “mental” and “cultural” barriers among local residents and visitors, including those from the eastern regions of Ukraine.