Uzhgorod National University Law Faculty - Universities and Colleges on Waymarking.com

The Law Faculty of the Uzhgorod National University

As the Hapsburg Austrian Empire began to flourish in the 18th century, a burgeoning bureaucracy became necessary to manage the empire. Austria suffered from a high illiteracy rate that made it difficult to find educated bureaucrats. Empress Maria Teresa began to reform the educational system starting in 1775. She required all children, boys and girls, from the age of six to twelve, to attend school. This caused much dissent in a mostly agrarian society, but Maria Teresa met this opposition with force and arrested anyone who opposed these reforms. Although most education was religious in substance, Maria Teresa also allowed secular subjects such as law to be taught in the schools. The reforms ultimately did not succeed since the illiteracy rate in Austria was around fifty percent well into the 19th century1.

As a result of these reforms, this building was built in 1794 as a teachers’ seminary run by the Greek-Catholic Church to prepare teachers for these new schools throughout the empire. The first director was Dmytro Popovich who had led a school for singing teachers in 17932.

Ivan Churhovych, who had been the director of Uzhgorod’s gymnasium (high school) since 1825, was simultaneously appointed the director of the teachers’ seminary in 1839, a post he would hold for the next 22 years2. Churhovych was a Rusyn nationalist and thus only appointed teachers who were ethnically Rusyn. He also introduced moral and disciplinary reforms3. It was during his tenure that the teachers’ seminary earned legal accredited status2.

The 2-year curriculum was extended to 3-years in 1872. The school was renowned for its difficult and strict educational standards. Students throughout Hungary, including those from the prestigious Maria Povcha Seminary, were sent here to take their final exams.

In 1894 Avgustyn Voloshyn became a teacher, and then the director during some of the most fruitful years of the seminary (1912-1938) 2. The Austrian Hapsburgs were dethroned as a result of World War II and Voloshyn was instrumental as a local politician in having all of Transcarpathia incorporated into the newly formed Czechoslovakia in 1919. On March 15, 1939, as Adolf Hitler was demolishing Czechoslovakia, Voloshyn was appointed President of hastily formed Carpatho-Ukraine which only lasted a few hours4. Hitler immediately gave approval to his Hungarian allies to take Transcarpathia and the next day Voloshyn had fled to Romania and then settled in Prague during the remainder of the war. All of Transcarpathia was back in the hands of Hungary by March 185. When the Soviet Union liberated Prague in May 1945, Voloshyn was arrested by the NKVD and would spend his last 14 months in Butyrka Prison in Moscow4.

The Soviets, having annexed all of Transcarpathia into Soviet Ukraine in November 1944, wrested control of the school from the Greek Catholic Church and turned it into a state-run pedagogical school2. On October 18, 1945, the Soviets founded the Uzhgorod National University6 and the former Teachers’ Seminary was given to the university. At first it housed the Military Training Faculty but over the years it has also chaired the Foreign Language, General Engineering, and currently the Law Faculties2.

1Maria Teresa, Wikipedia, January 2012.
2Uzhhorod Guide-Book, Dva Kolori, Uzhgorod, 2001.
3”Ioann Churhovych, Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture, Paul R. Magosci and Ivan Ivanovich Pop, Uzhgorod, 1992.
4Avgustyn Voloshyn, Wikipedia, January 2012.
5Carpatho-Ukraine, Wikipedia, January 2012.
6Uzhhorod National University, Wikipedia, January 2012.

Name: Uzhgorod National University Law Faculty Location/Address: Pidhirna Street 46 Uzhgorod, Ukraine 88000 Phone Number: +380 (3122) 3-42-02 Web Site: [Web Link] Type of School: Graduate School (part of larger university) School Affiliation: Public -- National Date Founded: October 18, 1945 Location of GPS Coordinates: Main Entrance Enrollment: Not listed Nicknames/Mascots: Not listed School Colors: Not listed School Motto: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   06/22/2012 puczmeloun visited it