From Iron Curtain to Golden Curtain

Abstract

The village of Kisszelmenc, a historically Magyar settlement at the edge of southwestern Ukraine, has been separated by an international border from its sister village of Nagyszelmenc, now in Slovakia, since just after World War II. A recent project to reconnect the two villages sought to support Magyar identity in the region through the reunification of village families. The opening of a border crossing project instead drove economic changes that resulted in the Ukrainianization and the Slovakization of Kisszelmenc. This article shows how the reconfiguration of economic relations stemming from changes in political institutions can generate unexpected shifts in the enactment of ethno-cultural identity on a given territory.