First Vienna Award - Nullification

Nullification

While World War II was still in progress, the Allies had declared the Vienna Award null and void, because it was a direct result of the equally void Munich Agreement and was a violation of international law and of the September 30, 1938, agreement between Germany and Great Britain, requiring consultations with Britain and France before such an award. (This is dubious, as the latter parties showed no interest). This was confirmed in the peace treaty with Hungary (Treaty of Paris) signed February 10, 1947, whose Article 1 (4a) stated that "The decisions of the Vienna Award of November 2, 1938, are declared null and void". The Treaty went on to declare that the frontier between Hungary and Czechoslovakia was to be fixed along the former frontier between Hungary and Czechoslovakia as it existed on January 1, 1938 (except for three villages south of Bratislava, which were given to Czechoslovakia). The Soviet Union, seeking a border with Hungary, had "received" Subcarpathian Ruthenia from Czechoslovakia in June 1945. Neither the Vienna Act nor the nullification solved the problem of mixed ethnicities in southern Slovakia. Like so many nationality questions, the problem retreated into the twilight during the communist years as part of the Pax Sovietica; like all Eastern Bloc countries, Czechoslovakia and Hungary officially considered themselves "socialist brother countries", and the respective governing authorities did not encourage differing political opinions on the matter. The post-communist nationalist landscape has, however, seen the matter re-emerge.