The Fate of Western Hungary 1918-1921 - Corvinus Library ...

oundary was to be the millennial Hungarian-Austrian border on the West (the
Eastern Alps), while its eastern edge would have run between Győr and
Nagykanizsa and the western tip of Lake Balaton. The zone was to be under the
joint control of Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs-Croats-Slovenes. It
would have swallowed all of Moson, Sopron, Vas and Zala Counties (16,663
km 2 ), with their seven towns (Kismarton, Ruszt, Szombathely, Kőszeg,
Zalaegerszeg, Nagykanizsa and Sopron) and 1,466 settlements. According to
the 1910 census, the population of the four counties was 1,171,000 million
people: 662,000 Hungarians (53.1%), 280,000 Germans (23.9%), and 190,000
Slavs (11.6% Croats and 4.7% Slovenes, a total of 16.3% Slavs). 97 The corridor
would also consist of the western half of Győr County (approx. 800 km 2 , the
city of Győr and 45 settlements, with a population of 90,000, of which 88,000
were Hungarian, one thousand German and one thousand Slovak) and about
80% of Veszprém County (approx. 3,200 km 2 , the cities of Veszprém and Pápa
and 150 settlements, with a population of 191,000, of which 167,000 were
Hungarian and 24,000 German).
The 1915 map of the Slav corridor that the later president of
Czechoslovakia, Masaryk, envisioned ran from Pozsony along the Danube to
the city of Győr, then in a straight line to the district center of Alsólendva,
turning northwest along the Mura River, then North along the Hungarian-
Austrian border to Pozsony. According to another Czech map drawn up during
the war, the Slav corridor was significantly enlarged to the East: starting from
the confluence of the Mura and Drava Rivers to Nagykanizsa, East to the
southern tip of Lake Balaton, following its northern shore to its eastern end.
From there, taking a western bend from Pápa to Győr, to continue along the left
bank of the Danube taking two-thirds of the purely Hungarian populated island
of Csallóköz (Žitný ostrov) and, after an easterly curve, ending at the town of
Révkomárom (Komárno). According to a Serb plan, also drawn during the war,
the territory to be annexed to Serbia was to consist of all of Baranya County, as
well as lands South of the line of Barcs – Nagykanizsa - Szentgotthárd. The
corridor’s eastern boundary was to be the line of Pozsony–Győr–Nagykanizsa–
Szentgotthárd, while the western boundary was the existing Hungarian-
Austrian border. 98
The openly stated goals of the Slav corridor were the following: a direct
access to the Adriatic for Czechoslovakia; to allow the three successor states of
the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (Czechoslovakia, Romania and South-Slav
Kingdom) to get Hungary in a vise; to separate the German people from Central
Europe and the East; and to seize Pozsony, as the capital of the ‘ancient Slovak
empire,’(!?) and build it into a large Danube port and capital of Slovakia.
According to the plan of Beneš and Masaryk, in the four counties and two
partial counties of the Slav corridor, with a total population of 1,413,000, the
97 Magyarország Közigazgatási Atlasza 1914 [Hungarian public
administration atlas 1914]. pp. 70, 73-74, 77, 114, 145, 167.
98 Ibid.
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