Reemigrácie bývalých československých optantov a ich potomkov z Ukrajiny na Slovensko v 90. rokoch 20. storočia
Remigration of former Czechoslovak optants and their descendants from Ukraine to Slovakia in the 90’s of the 20th century

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims to resettlement of Slovak people – so-called territorial Slovaks, also called „Chernobyls“ – from Ukraine to Slovakia in the 90’s of the 20th century. Authors characterize this process as the second phase of remigration of former optants (those resettled from Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union in 1947), members of families and their descendants. This phase is related to a mass remigration from the 60’s of the 20th century. The core of the research is assumption of remigration, course of preparation and realization of moving and final results of resettlement in 1993–1998. Methodological basis of the research consists of principles of objectivism and historicism. These principles enable impartial and objective approach to analysis of researched problems, critical evaluation of sources (through analytical, progressive and comparative method, direct and indirect method) and summarization of knowledge as a result of analysis of reality and depiction of phenomena in the course and context of historical situation. Research of the problems comes to results that the starting point of the second phase of remigration of former Czechoslovak optants from the area of Ukrainian Volhynia to Slovakia in the 90’s of the last century was the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and disintegration of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 90’s of the 20th century. Czechoslovakia had also reacted to the appeal of Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation to mitigate the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster among many states in the world. Besides providing humanitarian aid, the Government of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic has shown the willingness to relocate Czech and Slovak people from the affected area to the territory of the republic. The next step was a negotiation process with the Soviet authorities (later Ukrainian and Belarusian), a complex legislative process and preparation for resettlement (to ensure housing, employment, social security, language courses, retraining, etc.). At the first place, during 1991–1993, the resettlement of persons of Czech origin from Ukraine and Belarus to the territory of the Czech Republic (around 1800 persons – 600 families) was carried out. At that time Slovak authorities were still preparing the necessary legislation to relocate the concerned people to Slovakia and to collect information on the residence of former optants in Ukraine. The resettlement itself of 1221 people from Volyn and Rivne Oblast of Ukraine to Slovakia was carried out in 1993–1998 in 19 turns in total.

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