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Abstract
This article deals with ethnic development in Kosice in the period immediately following the Second World War and the factors that most significantly influenced this development. These primarily consisted of the eviction of Hungarian citizens, who had come to the area after the First Vienna Arbitration Award; the exchange of inhabitants between Czechoslovakia and Hungary; and the state-organised change of ethnic identity known as re-Slovakisation.
Key Words: Kosice, re-Slovakisation, population exchange, ethnic changes after the Second World War.
Slowa kluczowe: Koszyce, wtôma 'slowakizacja', wymiana ludnosci, zmiany etniczne po II wojnie swiatowej.
For Kosice, liberation by the Soviet Army meant not only liberation from the Nazi regime, but also the return to Czechoslovakia from Hungary, to which the city belonged since the Vienna Arbitration Award of 2 November 1938.
The ethnic character of Kosice was a matter of numerous disputes. For a longtime, Kosice was a multi-ethnic city, with Germans, Slovaks and Hungarians playing significant roles. In the 20th century, in accordance with the prevailing tendency of establishing national states, ethnicity was of key importance. The inhabitants of Kosice, being largely bilingual, adapted to this when declaring their ethnic affiliation, reflecting the relevant changes of borders and the affiliation of the city to different states.2
In spite of the fact that the majority of population claimed they were "Slovak" at the end of the 19 th century, in 1910 Hungarians comprised 75.43% of the inhab- itants of Kosice. In 1910,33,500 people ofthe total population of 44,211 declared themselves to be of Hungarian nationality. After the borders changed, in the 1920 census, 21.2% of the 52,598 inhabitants claimed they were of Hungarian ethnicity and 59.7% claimed they were Czechoslovaks. However, in the 1930 census, 16.4% of the 70,117 inhabitants of Kosice were of Hungarian affiliation and 60.2% were of the Czechoslovak nationality. It can be argued that the total increment of the population during this period took place, maintaining approximately the same number of Hungarians during the entire decade,. However, this seemingly demographic change was not brought about by natural migration. In 1938, along with the surrounding Slovak villages, the entire Kosice area was awarded to Hungary after the Vienna Arbitration Award. The way in which southern part of Slovakia was annexed to Hungary...