The Ukrainian Parliament adopted a resolution on September 3, 2026 formally recognizing and condemning the Soviet repressions carried out against the civilian population of Transcarpathia between 1944 and 1946. The decision specifically addresses the deportations of ethnic Hungarian civilians known as malenkiy robot. The Cultural Alliance of Hungarians in Sub-Carpathia (KMKSZ) welcomed the adoption of the resolution, describing it as an important outcome of decades of historical research, remembrance and advocacy.

Victims and their descendants can now gain monetary compensation for the crimes committed against them. The resolution also brings the country one step closer – in theory – to establishing an official national day of remembrance

Resolution No. 4969-IX, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada, recognizes the criminal nature of the repression inflicted on the civilian population of Transcarpathia by Soviet authorities between 1944 and 1946. According to the document, civilians were deprived of their liberty, detained under inhumane conditions, subjected to torture and, in some cases, killed without due process. The Ukrainian Parliament also condemned the actions of the Soviet military administration at the time, as well as the subsequent forced Sovietization of the region.

The resolution notes that the repressions affected not only the Hungarian and German communities, but also other ethnic and social groups in Transcarpathia. According to the document, those subjected to persecution included former representatives of Carpatho-Ukraine, members of Ukrainian civic organizations, members of the Greek Catholic clergy and faithful, as well as Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, Roma and members of other national minorities. The resolution states that unlawful mass deportations, forced labor, arbitrary detention, and persecution on ethnic and religious grounds bear the characteristics of crimes against humanity under contemporary international law.

The document specifically recognizes the mass repression of Hungarian civilians, known as malenkiy robot, as a crime committed by the communist totalitarian regime. At the same time, the adopted resolution does not formally classify these events as genocide, which would entail a longer examination process according to the authorities and is not a priority due to the ongoing war. Recognition of the deportations as genocide had been a key demand in earlier political initiatives advanced by representatives of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia.

In a statement published on September 7, KMKSZ recalled that since its establishment, one of its key objectives has been to investigate the fate of the victims of the Stalinist terror in Transcarpathia and to secure their political rehabilitation. According to the organization, over the past three decades several Hungarian members of the Ukrainian Parliament from Transcarpathia have sought official state recognition of the 1944 mass deportation of Hungarian and German men as political repression, a crime against humanity or genocide.

The full KMKSZ statement is available here: https://kmksz.com.ua/2026/09/07/declaration/

KMKSZ’s record on seeking justice for the victims

According to the organization’s account, during his term as a member of parliament between 1994 and 1998, Mihály Tóth initiated amendments to Ukraine’s 1991 law on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression. His aim was to ensure that Hungarian and German civilians deported under Military Order No. 0036 were recognized not merely as forced laborers, but as victims of political persecution. Miklós Kovács continued to pursue the issues of legal rehabilitation and compensation during his parliamentary term from 1998 to 2002. In subsequent years, István Gajdos and László Brenzovics also submitted parliamentary initiatives calling for official recognition of the deportations and for the victims to be commemorated at state level.

Similar measures had already been taken at the regional level. In 2004, at the initiative of KMKSZ, the Transcarpathian Regional Council condemned the ethnically-motivated deportations carried out under the Stalinist dictatorship and recognized malenkiy robot as political repression at the regional level.In 2014, at the initiative of the regional council’s Hungarian group, a resolution was adopted designating the third Sunday of November as a regional day of remembrance for Hungarian and German victims of the deportations while calling on the Ukrainian Parliament and the President to grant the events official recognition at the national level.

Research into the history of the deportations and efforts to preserve the memory of the victims have continued over the past decades. According to KMKSZ, memorials have been erected in Hungarian-populated settlements across Transcarpathia, while commemorative marches were previously organized every five years from the city of Mukachevo/Munkacs to Svaliava/ Szolyva, where a memorial park stands on the site of the former transit camp. KMKSZ initiated the establishment of the memorial site in 1989, and it was officially inaugurated in 1994.

KMKSZ described the September 3 parliamentary decision as a historic breakthrough and as long-overdue moral recognition for the victims and their families. The parliamentary resolution itself uses more narrowly defined legal language: it formally recognizes and condemns the Soviet repression carried out in Transcarpathia between 1944 and 1946 and specifically identifies the malenkiy robot imposed on the Hungarian civilian population as a crime committed by the communist totalitarian regime. 

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