People’s Council of Transcarpathian Ukraine (Народна рада Закарпатської України; Narodna rada Zakarpatskoi Ukrainy). A representative body in Transcarpathia that assumed certain state functions in the transition period between Czechoslovak and Soviet rule. The group was formed in Mukachevo on 26 November 1944 as the co-ordinating body for the ‘people’s committees’ (at the okruha and municipal levels) in the region and was conceived of and controlled by the Communist Party and the Soviet occupational forces. The council, consisting of 17 members, appropriated legislative and executive power in Transcarpathian Ukraine from the outgoing Czechoslovak government. It also introduced the first Sovietization measures in the region and spearheaded the campaign to unite Transcarpathia with the Ukrainian SSR. The council was based in Uzhhorod and headed by a local Communist, Ivan Turianytsia. After the creation of Transcarpathia oblast within the Ukrainian SSR the council continued functioning before being replaced by oblast administrative organizations.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]