A History of Central Eastern Europe

The Compromise of 1867 established the DUAL-MONARCHY OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY in which
the Lajta (Leitha) River played a huge role, informally at least. TRANSLEITHANIA, or the land
“beyond” the river, from Vienna’s viewpoint – contained everything east of the river, the
MAGYAR KIRÁLYSÁG (KINGDOM OF HUNGARY). Well…. Except the part that was separated by the
Morava River: Austrian-MORAVIA and Hungarian-SLOVAKIA. The KINGDOM was more than just
itself – within the KINGDOM was the free port city of RIJEKA (FIUME) on the Adriatic and the
internally self-governed HORVÁT-SZLAVÓNIA KIRÁLYSÁG (KINGDOM OF CROATIA- SLAVONIA). The
Magyars had autonomous internal control within the dual-monarchy while CROATIA and
SLAVONIA had internal control within the Hungarian kingdom. West of the Leitha River was
CISZLAJTÁNIA (Cisleithania), sort of – lands of the former AUSTRIAN EMPIRE that were not part of
TRANSLEITHANIA constituted CISZLAJTÁNIA, sort of – there was the strange “AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN
CONDOMINIUM” made up of the PROVINCE OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA lying south of CROATIA
AND SLAVONIA that was occupied by both CIS and TRANS in 1878 and annexed in 1908.
CISZLAJTÁNIA included the BUKOVINA (UKRAINE) and the KINGDOM OF GALACIA (POLAND) the were
to the north and east of the KINGDOM OF HUNGARY as well as DALMATIA on the Adriatic coast
south of CROATIA AND SLAVONIA. A possibly more accurate description of the border would have
been the Hungarian “1,000 year boundary” delineated in 1,000 C.E. upon formation of the
MAGYAR KIRÁLYSÁG. 1919 was the end of the AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN DUAL MONARCHY;
CZECHOSLOVAKIA lasted until 1969 with a 9-year period, from 1938 to 1947, when HUNGARY and
GERMANY vied for authority of the FIRST SLOVAK REPUBLIC. 1969 saw the formation of a
federation of two socialist republics, one CZECH and the other SLOVAK which lasted until the fall
of Communism in 1990. The federation continued as before minus the “Socialist” part of the
names. The SLOVAK REPUBLIC as it is today came into existence on New Year’s Day 1993.
The Kingdom was divided into administrative districts called megye; each district is
roughly equal to a county and some were based on earlier geopolitical units or represented the
holdings a particularly large land-holding family. When the kingdom ceased to exist after the
First World War and several independent countries were carved out of the old kingdom, several
counties were split between new neighbors. When JOZSEF SCHMID lived in Hungary, he was a
resident of Zemplén megye which covered a good deal of land in the northeast part of the
kingdom. While the area he called home is still a part of the Hungarian Republic, the majority of
Zemplén megye ended up in the Slovak Republic.
Zemplén Meyge
ZEMPLÉN MEGYE
The megye or county adopted the name of the region’s largest
fortification: Zemplínsky hrad (Castle) which served as the area’ s
capital of sorts. The city of ZEMPLÉN (Slovak: ZEMPLIN) served as the
capital until the mid-
18 th century. The
word vármegye is often found appearing
as a synonym of megye but seems to be
specifically applicable to the actual
buildings used in the administration of the
megye, i.e. the county administration
buildings. The broad, Coat-of-Arms
flat expanse of the area with many
brooks and streams crossing the area is
well-suited for viticulture and the region is
known for its Tokai wines. In 1748
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