Of the present-day nations living in the Carpathian Basin perhaps the coexistence of the Hungarians and certain predecessors of the Slovaks has the longest history. During this peaceful coexistence of long duration the contact zone of (i.e. the ethnic boundary between) Hungarians and Slovaks several times underwent considerable changes as a consequence of historical events (wars, epidemics). The present publication is aimed to outline the modifications of the ethnic spatial pattern on the current territory of the Slovak Republic for the past five hundred years and the situation at the end of the 20th century. For this purpose ethnic maps were compiled, table and diagrams constructed.

On the front page the ethnic structure of the population on the territory of the present-day Slovakia are shown according to the latest Czechoslovakian (1991), Slovakian (1940) and Hungarian (1941) censuses, and the changes in the ethnic pattern of the two largest cities (Bratislava-Pozsony, Košice-Kassa) between 1880 and 1998 using pie-charts and stripe diagrams. A most important map on the front page is considered that presenting ethnic data by the Czechoslovakian census held on March 3, 1991, on which spatial distribution of the various ethnic groups (sectors of pie-charts) and the actual administrative divisions can be followed. Having made use of the elongated west-east configuration of the present Slovakian state and the size of the map another map was compiled and placed below showing the ethnic and administrative patterns 50 years before. On the so called 'map of 1941' in the areas having returned to Hungary in 1938 data on the mother tongue obtained by the census of January 31, 1941 were used. Over the areas of the Slovakian Republic data about the population number reflect the results of the Slovakian census of December 15, 1940, as in the case of the ethnic structure of Bratislava-Pozsony. Owing to the lack of ethnic data of the population by settlements the ethnic composition of other towns and villages for 1940 was estimated using ethnic figures of the Czechoslovakian census of 1930.

Seven insert maps on the reverse are intended to show the lingual-ethnic spatial pattern on the territory of the present-day Slovakia referring to 1495, 1796 (estimations), census data of 1880, 1910, 1930, 1941 and 1991. Slovakian and Hungarian sources considered more or less reliable as to the ethnic and lingual origin of population are nevertheless very heterogeneous and ambiguous between 1495 and 1850. When estimating the probable ethnic structure (absolute or relative majority) of the population having lived in the inhabited areas of the studied region at the moment of the tax inventory of 1495 in the Kingdom of Hungary, mostly the direct "ethnicity-related" references, i.e. the linguistic analysis of the names of taxpayers or of the contemporary denomination of the given settlements (in most cases based on the investigations of B. Varsik, R. Marsina and I. Kniezsa) were most useful. The map referring to the end of the 18th century shows ethnic majorities of the settlements according to the information derived from "Lexicon locorum ... " (1773), A. Vályi (1796-99) and J.M. Korabinszky (1804). In 1880 and 1910 data on native tongue of the Hungarian censuses were used, while for 1930 and 1991 the information provided by the corresponding Czechoslovakian censuses formed the basis for map compilation. As far as the 'map of 1941' is concerned, the procedure was analogous to that of the map on the front page.

By the end of the Middle Ages, at the time of the taxation census of 1495, in the territory of the Upper Hungarian counties (1) there lived at least 413,500 people (2); of them probably 45% were Slavs (Slovaks, Ruthenians, Poles), 38% Hungarians and 17% Germans (3) (Table 1.). Of the counties investigated an absolute majority was formed by Germans in the counties of Pozsony-Bratislava and Szepes-Spiš, and by Hungarians in Gömör-Gemer, Abaúj-Abov, Torna-Turna and Zemplén-Zemplín. All of the ten most populous towns which had 1,500 - 4,500 people (e.g. Pozsony-Bratislava-Pressburg, Kassa-Košice-Kaschau, Nagyszombat-Trnava-Tyrnau, Eperjes-Prešov-Eperies, Bártfa-Bardejov-Bartfeld, Besztercebánya-Banská Bystrica-Neusohl, Selmecbánya-Banská Štiavnica-Schemnitz, Lőcse-Levoča-Leutschau) had a German majority. Apart from the above-mentioned towns the German ethnic region extended to the area situated south of the Little Carpathians, to the hinterland of Pozsony-Bratislava and to the Szepes-Spiš County.

In this period the northern "boundary" of the Hungarian ethnic area had stabilised along the line stretching between Somorja / Šamorín - Nagyszombat / Trnava - Galgóc / Hlohovec - Nyitra / Nitra - Léva / Levice - Losonc / Lučenec - imaszombat / Rimavská Sobota - Rozsnyó / Rožňava - Kassa / Košice - Nagymihály / Michalovce. The Slovaks and the Hungarians of Upper Hungary formed significant urban communities only due to their penetration into towns founded by Germans: e.g. Eperjes-Prešov, Kassa-Košice, Nyitra-Nitra, Galgóc-Hlohovec, Nagyszombat-Trnava, Pozsony-Bratislava (Map 1.).

At that time the Slovak ethnic area extended mainly to the inter-mountain basins, river valleys and the southern foreland of the Western Carpathians. The mountain regions of Árva-Orava and North Trencsén-Trenčín, the High and Low Tatras and the Gemer-Spiš Ore Mountains were uninhabited dense woodland. Along the northeastern borderland, on the northern periphery of Zemplén-Zemplín and Sáros-Šariš counties and in the marginal areas of Szepes-Spiš and Gömör-Gemer counties a gradually expanding ethnic area of Ruthenians was being formed.

The victory of the Ottoman Turks at Mohács (1526) not only marked the fall of the medieval Hungarian Kingdom, but initiated a profound transformation in the ethnic patterns over the southern and central areas of the country. Military operations and destruction had soon reached the historic Upper Hungarian territories now belonging to Slovakia (1529, 1543). Even prior to this, a massive flight of Hungarians and Croats had started. Refugees from Croatian-Slavonian territories occupied by the Turks inhabited nearly 20 villages, primarily around Pozsony-Bratislava and Nagyszombat-Trnava (4), from where the German population had perished or escaped between 1529 and 1553, owing to the destruction and intimidation by the Ottoman and Hapsburg (Spanish) troops. These depopulated German villages became repopulated not only by Croats but by Slovaks (in the vicinity of Nagyszombat-Trnava, Bazin-Pezinok, Modor-Modra) and Hungarians (e.g. in Ivánka, Cseklész-Bernolákovo, Éberhard-Malinovo, Szenc-Senec). Owing to Hungarians fleeing northwards and a Hungarian majority prevailing within the hinterland of towns in the second half of the 16th century, there was an intensifying „Magyarization” of towns with a German character such as Kassa-Košice, Eperjes-Prešov, Szepsi-Moldava n.B. and Rozsnyó-Rožňava. On the other hand, in Hungarian towns situated within the Hungarian-Slovak ethnic contact zone, which was particularly prone to the destruction caused by military operations, the proportion of Hungarians dropped considerably during the 16th and 17th centuries owing to a massive resettlement of Slovaks from the surroundings: Léva-Levice 72% (1554), Losonc-Lučenec 63% (1596), Rimaszombat-Rimavská Sobota 82% (1596), Tőketerebes-Trebišov 69% Gálszécs-Sečovce 83% (1601) Hungarian (5).

In the 16th and 17th centuries i.e. during military campaigns especially affecting southern areas of the present-day Slovakia at that time were inhabited by Hungarians, colonisation of high intensity took place in the more protected northern mountain regions. Slavs pursuing a pastoral lifestyle settled here who had a so-called "Vlah right". The number of these settlements reached 200 by the end of the 17th century (6). The colonisation of Goral-Polish, Slovak population with "Vlah rights" was especially important in the counties of Árva-Orava, Trencsén-Trenčín, Liptó-Liptov and Szepes-Spiš (7, 8). Starting in the 16th century the Slovak ethnic area expanded, not only with the colonisation by "Vlah" shepherds, but also with the formation of many scattered settlements in the mountains (Trencsén-Trenčín, Nyitra-Nitra, Zólyom-Zvolen and Nógrád-Novohrad counties (9).

In the second half of the 17th century, after the surrender of the Érsekújvár-Nové Zámky fortress (1663), most of the Hungarian ethnic area north of the Danube captured by the Ottoman-Turks became a terrain for military operations until 1685. In spite of a massive exodus, and the carrying off and killing of the Hungarian population, by the 1664 Turkish tax census of the Újvár (Nové Zámky) eyalet (10), most of the tax-payers living in the heavily depopulated area between the Danube and the mountains were Hungarians, roughly up to the Galgóc / Hlohovec - Appony / Oponice - Lédec / Ladice - Léva / Levice - Palást / ­Plaštovce line. Despite wars and epidemics, the Hungarian ethnic block maintained its previously solid extension of the 15th and 16th centuries in the eastern part of Upper Hungary. Moreover, on the basis of the analysis of surnames, of the 676 registered burgers (1650) living in Kassa-Košice, which had had a German ethnic majority until the mid-16th century, 72.5% may have been Hungarian (11). Starting with the second half of the 17th century, the Turkish campaigns, incursions and wars of independence led by Hungarian princes I. Thököly (1682-1685) and F. Rákóczi II. (1703-1711) were a serious blow to Hungarian ethnic blocks almost everywhere in Upper Hungary (12).

Following the failure of the war of independence led by Prince F. Rákóczi II., the territory of the Hungarian Kingdom lay in ruins. There were efforts to restore a balance between the relatively overpopulated northern and western peripheries and the depopulated, destroyed but from the agricultural viewpoint very fertile, central and southern regions. This resulted a massive southward migration of Hungarians and Slovaks. To the southern areas where Hungarians had died or emigrated Slovaks and some Ruthenians migrated in increasing numbers. At the tax censuses taken place in 1715 and 1720 (13) 69,704 tax-paying households were registered on the territory of present-day Slovakia, and 61,084 such households were recorded in the counties of Upper Hungary. Although I. Acsády (1896) and his colleagues were often mistaken in their estimations regarding the ethnic affiliation of the tax-payers (14), in the case of Upper Hungary their calculations seem to have been quite reliable: 67.6% Slavs, 22.9% Hungarians, 9.5% Germans and others (Table 1.). The Slovak-Hungarian ethnic boundary had stabilised in the first half of the 18th century along the line of towns with a Hungarian ethnic majority: Pozsonypüspöki / Podunajské Biskupice - Szenc / Senec - Szered / Sered - Nyitra / Nitra - Léva / ­Levice - Losonc / Lučenec - Rimaszombat / Rimavská Sobota - Rozsnyó / Rožňava - Jászó / Jasov - Nagyida / Vel'ká Ida - Zemplén / Zemplin - Nagykapos / Vel'ké Kapušany (15). In an unpopulated area between Érsekújvár / Nové Zámky - Nyitra / Nitra - Léva / Levice, a large Slovakian ethnic pocket had formed by the second half of the 17th century (16). In the neighbourhood of this area, mainly in the environs of Verebély / Vráble - Léva / Levice - Nagysalló / Tekovské Lužany, due to the mixture of Hungarians and Slovaks (mixed marriages, everyday communication) the local population became bilingual and of double cultural awareness.

At about the time of the first population census in Hungary (1784-1787) the ethnic pattern in the present-day territory of Slovakia ­based upon contemporary sources (17) - can be outlined as follows. Compared with the first half of the 18th century the position of the Hungarian-Slovak ethnic border had not much changed, apart from the dissolution and Slovakization of the Hungarian ethnic blocks at Eperjes-Prešov (Map 2.). Comparing the data of M. Bél, the Lexicon .., J.M. Korabinszky and A. Vályi it can be stated that the Slovakization of Hungarian villages (18) along the Hungarian-Slovak ethnic contact zone and the appearance of additional pockets of Slovaks (19) and Ruthenians (20) were ethnic processes worth mentioning during the 18th century. The Ruthenians progressively penetrating from Polish and Ukrainian areas beyond the Carpathians since the 13th century, had created an ethnic area of considerable size by the 18th century. This was primarily in the Eastern Beskids, Lőcse-Levoča Mountains and Pieniny Mountains. According to a census conducted in 1773 the number of small villages with a Ruthenian majority dotted about in present-day Eastern Slovakia had reached 303 (21). By the same time (second half of the 18th century) Ruthenians of Vlah rights who lived in the present Central Slovakian area, e.g. in North Gömör-Gemer, had Slovakized; this process was accelerated by the conversion of Ruthenians from Orthodox to Greek Catholic (Uniate) religious affiliation (22) (Union of Ungvár-Užhorod, 1646). As a result of a Slovak expansion dating back to the medieval period, many areas with a German ethnic majority in the early 18th century had turned into those with a Slovak majority e.g. in towns (Bazin-Pezinok, Modor-Modra, Szentgyörgy-Sväty Júr and Újbánya-Nová Baňa), and in the Central Szepes-Spiš region (Hernád-Hornád valley). According to the data of E. Fényes (1842) (23) the total population of the counties in Upper Hungary exceeded 2.4 million, with the following ethnic distribution: 59.5% Slovaks, 22.0% Hungarians, 8.3% Ruthenians, 6.7% Germans and 3.5% Jews (Table 1.). Ethnic proportions did not show any fundamental change as compared to the end of the 18th century with the exception of a sizeable influx of Jews from Galicia.

According to the Austrian census of 1850 (24) the proportion of Slovaks of Upper Hungary had grown from 59.5% to 61.9% between 1840 and 1850 at the expense of Ruthenians (in Zemplén-Zemplín and Sáros-Šariš), of Germans (in Szepes-Spiš) and of Hungarians (in Abaúj-Abov, Gömör-Gemer, Hont and Nyitra-Nitra). The Slovakization of Greek Catholic Ruthenians had accelerated between 1840 and 1880; their number had dropped from 203 thousand to 80 thousand, i.e. their ratio from 8.3% down to 3.3%. The German ethnic area had remained basically unchanged with an exception that in most of their medieval towns they had become a minority by 1880. There lived a sizeable population of German native speakers (5-24 %) in the Slovakian and Ruthenian territories of present-day West and East Slovakia, for Jews having migrated from Bohemia, Moravia or Galicia were predominantly German native speakers.

Summarizing the ethnic processes which took place between 1796 and 1880, they could be characterized primarily by Slovak ethnic expansion, having already started in the second half of the 17th century (25). In the course of this 166 Ruthenian, 63 Hungarian, 14 German, 12 Polish (Goral) and 2 Croatian settlements had turned into those of Slovakian ethnic majority by 1880. Along the Hungarian-Slovak ethnic boundary 62 Hungarian settlements (39) changed to a Slovak majority, 14 Slovakian villages gained a Hungarian majority (mainly in Gemer County), which resulted in a further southward expansion of the ethnic border, especially in Nyitra-Nitra, Abaúj-Abov and Zemplén-Zemplín counties.

As a result of the ethnic processes outlined above, which was extremely favourable for the Slovaks, and following the Austro-­Hungarian Compromise (1867), capitalist industrial development and demographic transition started in Upper Hungary. Great numbers of non­-Hungarian citizens in the Hungarian state which was celebrating its millennium, threw their lot with the Hungarians. This was especially true of those living in towns (including Jews, Germans and Slovaks) in the atmosphere of Hungarian economic prosperity. A similar voluntary process of re-Magyarization which curbed Slovakization, could be observed within the Hungarian-Slovak bilingual population of uncertain ethnic identity who were Catholic and living in the counties of Nyitra-Nitra, Bars-Tekov, Hont, Abaúj-Abov and Zemplén-Zemplín.

At the moment of the 1880 Hungarian census on the combined territory of the studied counties of Upper Hungary (and in present­-day area of Slovakia) (26) distribution of the 2.4 million population by native language was the following: Slovaks 61,5% (61,1%), Hungarians 24,5% (22,2%), Germans 9,8% (9,3%), Ruthenians 3,3% (3,2%) (Table 1.). At that time the Hungarian-Slovak ethnic boundary was stretching along the Pozsony / Bratislava - Galánta - Érsekújvár / Nové Zámky - Nyitra / Nitra - Léva / Levice - Losonc / Lučenec - Rozsnyó / Rožňava - Jászó / Jasov - Sátoraljaújhely - Ungvár / Užhorod line (Map 3.). Favourable for the Hungarians and Ruthenians ethnic processes slowing down and stopping the previous Slovakisation were explained by the Slovakian and Hungarian experts in a completely opposite way. It was (or today is) called from the Slovakian side (27) as „violent Magyarization”, statistical manipulation, from the Hungarian side (28) mostly as voluntary Magyarization based on natural lingual assimilation.

During the period between 1880 and 1910 90 villages out of 137, reversing their former Slovakization, returned to the original ethnic majority: of them 62 were Ruthenian, 25 Hungarian, two Polish and one German. As a consequence of German, Jewish and Slovak assimilants declaring themselves to be Hungarians, the number of Hungarians in the territory of present-day Slovakia grew by 335,000 (+61.8%) between 1880-1910 (Table 1.). The increase in the number of persons declaring themselves to be Hungarian — for the above-mentioned reasons — was especially spectacular in Pozsony-Bratislava and Kassa-Košice. At that time the most populous Hungarian communities were those of Kassa-Košice (33,350), Pozsony-Bratislava (31,705), Komárom-Komárno (17,294) and Érsekújvár-Nové Zámky (14,838), while the largest Slovakian communities lived in Pozsony-Bratislava (11,673) and Rózsahegy-Ružomberok (8,340), and the home of the biggest German community was Pozsony-Bratislava (32,790). In the neighbourhood of the Hungarian-Slovakian ethnic border 54 settlements turned into those with a Hungarian ethnic majority and in 11 settlements Slovaks prevailed, i.e. in 25 cases there was some re-Magyarization (29), while in 5 cases there was re-Slovakization (30), when previous ethnic data are taken into account (Map 4.).

At the end of World War I, following the proclamation of Czechoslovakia (October 28, 1918) the Czech army supported by the Entente powers occupied almost the entire area of Upper Hungary, i.e. a territory of 61,592 km2. This was to be annexed to Czechoslovakia with a population of 3.5 million, 48.1% of whom were Slovakian, 30.3% Hungarian, 12.3% Ruthenian and 7.5% German (1910). After excluding the option of a plebiscite which would have provided an opportunity for the local population to express their opinion about the future affiliation with a state of their choice, the Entente powers detached in their dictate of the Trianon Peace Treaty (June 4, 1920) the Slovak ethnic area together with the Ruthenian, northern Hungarian settlement area and the German (Saxon) blocks of Upper Hungary to Czechoslovakia.

From the very beginning of its existence Czechoslovak state administration put a strong emphasis upon reducing the number of Hungarians in the annexed territories labelling them as enemies, and on the ethnic homogeneization and stabilization („Czechoslovakization”) of their towns and border zones. Between 1918 and 1924 following the change in the state authorities, 106,841 ethnic Hungarians (administrative and military personnel, landowners, etc.) were expelled or fled from Czechoslovakia to the new Hungarian state territory (number of emigrants from Slovakia was ca 88,000) (31). At the same time, approximately 70,000 Czechs moved to the territory of Slovakia between 1918 and 1921. Many Hungarians who stayed in Slovakia (1921: 13,414, 1930: 20,349 persons) (32) were not granted Czechoslovakian citizenship, and in this way they were considered to be foreign citizens or displaced persons. Apart from some spectacular enforced Slovakization in education and culture, the social temptation, political pressure, statistical manipulation and serious abuses of the authorities greatly contributed to a drastic drop in the number of those recorded as Hungarians (33). Between the censuses of 1910 and 1930 the number of Hungarians on the territory of present-day Slovakia dropped from 881,000 to 585,000, that is from 30.2% to 17.6% (Table 1.). At the same time as part of the Czech nationalist land reform, 69 colonies (with 14,000 Czech and Slovak inhabitants) were established in the Hungarian ethnic area between 1919-1929.

Apart from breaking up the Hungarian rural ethnic block along the state border, claimed to pose a danger of irredentism, another trend was the (actual or statistic) Slovakization of traditionally Hungarian towns which flanked the ethnic border. Staff in public administration were changed (Hungarians for "Czechoslovaks") by dismissing or expelling people in 1919. Hungarian Israelites were grouped into a separate category of ethnic Jews. Assimilation aimed at economic considerations (statistical Slovakization) and in some cases changing of effective force of garrisons into foreign ones (e.g. those composed of Sudethan Germans) together with their registration in censuses, led to a situation whereby in the towns along the Hungarian-Slovak ethnic boundary "Czechoslovaks" gained a majority (34) or an equilibrium (35) was reached (Map 5.).

As a result of accelerated assimilation the proportion of Germans and Ruthenians also decreased significantly. During this period Germans lost their majority in 10 settlements, including their traditional centres such as Bratislava-Pressburg, Kremnica-Kremnitz, Poprad and Kežmarok-Käsmarkt. Ruthenians were forced into a minority position in 44 villages owing to the dissolution of their ethnic blocks during this period. As a result of Slovakization, which accelerated during the 18th and 19th centuries and was curbed after 1867, but recurred as a process following 1918, supported and enforced by the Czech(oslovak) state, the number of Slovaks exceeded 2.2 million, or over 68% in 1930. At the same time, with the appearance of Czechs especially as civil servants and soldiers, their number rose to over 120,000.

Based on the first Vienna Award (Vienna, Palais Belvedere, November 2, 1938), and under German and Italian pressure, Czechoslovakia returned 11.927 km2 of land from Slovakia and Transcarpathia (Ruthenia - Podkarpatska Rus) to Hungary with its population of 1,041,401 (December 15, 1938), of whom 84.4% declared themselves to be Hungarian native speakers, while 11.9% were Slovaks (36). In the areas of present-day Slovakia returned to Hungary on November 2, 1938, 857,529 people were registered at the 1941 census. 85% (728,904 persons) declared themselves to be Hungarian native speakers, and 13.2% (113,619 persons) were Slovakian native speakers. Of the population of this „South-Slovakia of Belvedere” 91.4% could speak Hungarian, 25% Slovakian, and 16.4% of them spoke both languages. The Hungarian-Slovakian state border basically ran along the ethnic boundary, and some Slovakian ethnic pockets were in the environs of Kassa-Košice, north of Sátoraljaújhely and in the area between Érsekújvár-Nové Zámky and Verebély-Vráble (Map 6., front page map). Within the almost homogeneous northern Hungarian ethnic area there were not only some older Slovakian ethnic pockets (e.g. Kuraľany, Dulovce), but some new Slovakian colonies established between the two world wars in Nógrád-Novohrad and Gömör-Gemer counties (37). The „independent” Slovak Republic declared on March 14, 1939 had a territory of 37,352.9 km2 (38). Of the 2,655,053 inhabitants 86.2% were Slovaks, 5% Germans, 2.9 % Jews, 2.4% Ruthenians, 1.8% Hungarians, and 1.4% Gypsies (39). On the territory of the Slovak Republic the number of ethnic Czechs dropped from 161,000 to 3,024 (40) between 1930 and 1940 as a result of being expelled by the Hlinka Guard and on the orders of the minister of the interior (1939) (41). The period between 1939 and 1945 was disastrous for Jews living in the area of present-day Slovakia, owing to discrimination against them and their extermination in the death camps. Between 1930 and 1950 the Holocaust reduced their number from 135,975 to 7,476 (42). The above-outlined ethnic spatial structure of the „South-Slovakia of Belvedere” remained virtually unchanged until the coming of the military front (October 29, 1944 - April 04, 1945.). At the same time, 120,000 out of the 140,000 Germans in Slovakia were evacuated or fled between December 1944 and April 1945 (43). In the areas along the southern border Germans remained only in Bratislava-Pressburg (44) (approx. 9,000) and in Medzev-Metzenseifen (Lower Spiš-Zips, 1,6001,800) until the appearance of the Soviet Army and the Czechoslovakian authorities.

After the change of power in 1945, within the framework of the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak state, a carefully planned and prepared ethnic cleansing totally deprived Germans and Hungarians of their civil rights and removed their economic foundations. They were made scapegoats for the disintegration of the state and for the war (45). Declaring the expulsion of all Germans and Hungarians as their essential aim, the Czechoslovakian authorities expelled 31,780 Hungarians from „South-Slovakia of Belvedere” (46).

At the Potsdam Conference, on August 2, 1945, the request of the Czechoslovakian government for an unilateral deportation of Hungarians from the country was refused (mainly thanks to the USA). Parallel with Czechoslovakian diplomatic efforts, within the framework of the land reform of 1945 (47) and under the direction of the Slovakian Office of Settlement a massive colonisation of Slovaks started in the „southern zone of settlement” (the areas returned to Hungary 1938 and occupied by Czechoslovakia second time 1945), with the support of the police. An agreement on population exchange (based on parity) between Czechoslovakia and Hungary was signed under pressure from the Allied Control Commission on February 27, 1946. According to this agreement the same number of Hungarians living in Slovakia could be forcefully deported as those Hungarian citizens living in Hungary who, declaring themselves to be Slovak, were tempted to resettle in Czechoslovakia by various social and economic promises. In an anti-Hungarian, chauvinist atmosphere created by a planned and sophisticated manipulation, the Czechoslovakian authorities deported 43,546 Hungarians (5,422 of them were less than six years of age) in inhuman circumstances from 393 settlements in Slovakia to Czech-Moravian parts of the country (48) between October 19, 1946. and February 26, 1947. This dispersion still was under way when the Allied States signed the peace treaty with Hungary (Paris, February 10, 1947.), restoring the state borders of January 1, 1938 though they ceded a further three villages (Oroszvár-Rusovce, Dunacsún-Čunovo, Horvátjárfalu-Járovce) from Hungary to Czechoslovakia. The population exchange was a slow process which lasted from April12, 1947 to June 12, 1948 and from September 1 to December 20, 1948 (49). With this population transfer 68,407 Hungarians were forced to abandon Slovakia for Trianon-Hungary and about 6,000 left „of their own free will”. 73,273 people declaring themselves to be Slovak, although usually without any such identity and hardly speaking the language (50), but simply eager to expropriate property that had formerly belonged to Hungarians, were resettled from Hungary to the South of Greater Slovakia (51). According to our investigations, 236,000 Slovaks moved in the borderland districts between 1945 and 1950, who had previously lived in the country or abroad (52). Within the Hungarian ethnic area the main target of Slovak colonisation (and of the expulsion of Hungarians) were towns situated along the ethnic border, the main roads, railways and in the most fertile rural regions.

The ethnic structure and ethnic statistics of the population of South Slovakia were heavily influenced not only by the migrations already mentioned, but by another form of ethnic expansion, so-called „re-Slovakization” (53). More than half of the Hungarians frightened and deprived of their rights (381,995 up to January 1 1948), especially those living in towns, in ethnically-mixed villages or who were scattered, applied to call themselves Slovaks. This meant being granted citizenship and staying in their homeland. Only 282,594 of these applications were accepted (54), obviously due to a lack of command of the language and due to "racial deficiencies".

Following these events, the ethnic composition of the „South Slovakia of Belvedere” underwent a profound change between the censuses of 1941 and 1950. The number and ratio of Hungarian native speakers (729,000 and 85% in 1941) is estimated to have fallen to 451,000 (55) by 1950. Together with the Hungarians who suddenly „turned into Slovaks” and 142,000 colonists, the number of Slovaks rose here to 370,000, that is from 13.3% to 43.2% (1941-1950). The organizers of ethnic cleansing managed to turn towns located along the ethnic boundary with a Hungarian majority until 1945 into settlements of Slovak majority. There was a dramatic southward movement of the Hungarian-Slovak ethnic boundary in rural areas in the vicinity of Levice-Léva, Košice-Kassa and Trebišov-Tőketerebes, where the greatest Hungarian ethnic loss could be observed.

As the shocking events of the period 1945-48 faded, an increasing number of formerly scared and „re-Slovakized” Hungarians reassumed their Hungarian ethnicity in the census statistics. In 1970, there was already a record of 552,006 people claiming Hungarian ethnicity and 600,249 declaring Hungarian as their mother tongue (Table 1.). In the past decades, the migration of the Hungarians was increasingly determined by living conditions and the growing disparity between labour supply and demand. The migration mostly into an ethnic environment with Slovakian majority increased the frequency of the ethnically mixed marriages and in this way the extent of natural assimilation. In spite of this Slovakization particularly affecting young Hungarian cohorts, Hungarians living in Slovakia have been able to retain their growth, although to a lessening rate, due to a natural increase exceeding the process of assimilation (56).

Due to a high natural increase in the population of Gypsy (Roma) origin, their number has risen dynamically for the past fifty years or so (1947: 84,438, 1966: 165,000, 1989: 253,943, 1996: c. 300,000) (57). According to a survey conducted during the 1980 census 78.7% of Gypsies declared themselves to be Slovak (slovacike roma), while 20% of them considered themselves to be Hungarian (ungarike roma) (58). A demographic boom among the Gypsies between 1945-1991 was registered by state not through their self-declaration but a survey by police (1947), records by national councils (e.g. in 1966, 1968, 1984, 1989) and qualifications by census interviewers on the basis of so called objective criteria (skin colour, anthropological character).

Ruthenians living on the territory of the present-day Slovakia numbered nearly one hundred thousand in the first half of the 20th century. Similar to the Hungarians, they halved between 1945-1950; their number had reduced to 48.231 by 1950 and 35.435 by 1961. The causes of these dramatic changes were the expatriation of the Ruthenians to Transcarpathia ceded to the Soviet Union (Ukraine) on June 29, 1945; immigration to Czech Lands for economic reasons, seeking for employment; dissolution of the Greek Catholic church (1950) considered a main support of Ruthenian self-awareness and a conversion of part of the believers to Roman Catholic faith to avoid the Orthodox church and the accompanying it rapid Slovakisation and, generally, an easy natural assimilation due to the similarity of Ruthenian and Slovak languages.

On March 3, 1991, at the moment of the last Czechoslovakian census, resident population of the present-day Slovak Republic amounted to 5,274,335. Based on ethnicity (mother tongue) 85.7% (84.3%) of them declared themselves Slovak, 10.7% (11.5%) Hungarian, 1.4% (1.5%) Roma (Gypsy), 1.1% (1.1%) Czech /and Moravian, Silesian/, 0.6% (1.1%) Ruthenian /and Ukrainian/ (Table 1.).

The state-forming nation, Slovaks numbered 4,519,328 by ethnicity and 4,445,303 by native language. For 54 present-day districts of Slovakia the ratio of the Slovaks exceeded 90% and (because of the well-known anti-Hungarian configuration of the administrative divisions introduced in 1996) only in two of them (those of Dunajská Streda-Dunaszerdahely and Komárno-Komárom) they remained in minority behind the Hungarians. Areas with a maximum homogeneity of the Slovak population are found in the northwestern mountainous part of the country, in the basins along the upper and middle stretches of Váh, Nitra and Hron rivers (Map 7., front page map). Beside the capital Bratislava-Pozsony (401,848) and Košice-Kassa (212,659), the largest Slovakian communities were in Nitra-Nyitra (86,257), Prešov-Eperjes (83,057), Banská Bystrica-Besztercebánya (81,770) and Žilina-Zsolna (81,255).

More than two thirds of the population declaring themselves of Hungarian ethnicity (567,296) or native speakers (608,221) lived in the overwhelmingly lowland area in the western part of the country, forming an absolute majority of the population in two districts (Dunajská Streda-Dunaszerdahely: 87.2% and Komárno-Komárom: 72.2%). In 529 towns or villages share of Hungarians surpassed 10 %, in 438 settlements it was more than 50%, and in 76 of them it exceeded 90%. 36.3% of the Hungarians lived in middle-size and large villages (with 1,000-5,000 population), 22.8% of them dwelled in small and tiny villages (less than 1,000 population), while 16.7% were residents of small towns (between 10 and 30 thousand inhabitants) (Map 7., front page map). The most populous Hungarian communities were those of Komárno-Komárom (23,745), Bratislava-Pozsony (20,312), Dunajská Streda-Dunaszerdahely (19,347), Nové Zámky-Érsekújvár (13,350) and Košice-Kassa (10,760). As a result of deportations after 1945 and of the socialist urbanisation the Hungarian ethnic majority survived only in 13 towns; of them the ratio of ethnic Hungarians exceeded 80% in Veľký Meder-Nagymegyer, Dunajská Streda-Dunaszerdahely, Kolárovo-Gúta and Kráľovský Chlmec-Királyhelmec.

For the first time during the past 50 years Romas (Gypsies) living in Slovakia had the option to declare ethnicity or native tongue of their own (under no pressure) in 1991. 75,802 and 77,269 persons made the best of this opportunity, roughly 30% of the 253,943 people of Gypsy origin qualified by local national councils in 1989. An overwhelming majority of Romas in Slovakia live east of the Poprad-Lučenec / Losonc line, primarily on the territory of the historical counties of Gemer-Gömör, Spiš-Szepes, Šariš-Sáros and Abov-Abaúj. Their largest community is found in Košice-Kassa (4,282) but each of the following settlements accommodates more than one thousand Roma residents: Pavlovce n.U., Trebišov, Levoča, Kecerovce, Jarovnice, Prešov, Poprad, Markušovce and Bystrany (front page map). Based on the estimations of 1989 it might be supposed that most of the Romas live in the following districts: Košice-Kassa and its vicinity (ca 30,000), Spišská Nová Ves-Igló, Poprad and Rimavská Sobota-Rimaszombat (ca 20,000 each) (59).

Due to the fact that 98% of the Czechs (the politically dominant ethnic group between the world wars) were expelled in 1939 and as a consequence of their return of a smaller extent after 1945 (60) only 59.326 inhabitants declared themselves ethnic Czech, Moravian or Silesian and 56,487 Czech native speakers in 1991. Most of them settled in Slovakia in the framework of socialist industrialisation in a scattered manner throughout the cities and industrial regions. They were recorded in greatest number in Bratislava, Košice and in the northwestern districts situated relatively close to the Czech Republic (e.g. in Trenčín-Trencsén, Senica-Szenice, Žilina-Zsolna, Povážska Bystrica-Vágbeszterce (61).

Of the descendants of Ruthenians numbering nearly one hundred thousand and having Greek Catholic religious affiliation at the turn of the 20th century, owing to the above outlined political, cultural and demographic circumstances and a highly accelerated Slovakization only 30,478 persons declared themselves ethnic Ruthenians (17,197) and Ukrainians (13,281) together. More than half of the Ruthenian and Ukrainian native speakers (30,000), however, declared Slovak ethnicity. Most of the people declaring themselves Ruthenians and Ukrainians lived in the very core of their settlement territory, in Medzilaborce-Mezőlaborc near to the Polish border (2,485), and Humenné-Homonna (2,262), Prešov-Eperjes (2,060) and Svidník-Vízköz (1,904) (front page map). Of the 280 settlements with Ruthenian majority at the 1910 census only 12 retained Ruthenian-Ukrainian dominance, whereas in 56 of them their ratio came to 25.0-49.9%.

As a result of the escape and deportations of ca 85% of Germans formerly living in Slovakia, during the past decades only a couple of thousands persons (ca one third of the estimated 17-18 thousand) dared to adhere to their identity. Those declaring themselves ethnic German were 5,414, German native speakers - 7,738, in 1991. The most populous German community was that of Bratislava-Pressburg (until1919 being a town with German majority) accounting for 0.3% i.e. 1,266 persons, Medzev-Metzenseifen (668) and Mníšek n.H.-Einsiedel a.d.G. (162) in Lower Spiš-Zips. According to the Association of Carpathian Germans most of the Germans in countryside live in Medzev-Metzenseifen (1,700) and Chmeľnica-Hopgarten (800) in the Spiš-Zips (front page map). The latter is the only settlement in Slovakia almost exclusively inhabited by Germans.

During the period between the 1991 census and December 31, 1997 permanent population of Slovakia rose to 5,387,650 (62). Based on vital statistics the absolute number (and ratio) of the main ethnic groups were estimated by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic as follows: Slovaks 4,614,547 (85.6%), Hungarians 568,291 (10.5%), Romas (Gypsies) 87,779 (1.6%), Czechs, Moravians, Silesians 59,005 (1.1%), Ruthenians, Ukrainians 32,496 (0.6%). Over the time period in concern the number of the Hungarians increased by 0.2%, that of the Slovaks — by 2.1%, of the Romas (Gypsies) — by 15.8%. At the end of 1997 the number of persons qualified as Romas exceeded 300,000, thus approximating 5.6% of the total population of the country.