Czech Hungarians are a relatively new minority, descended from the original Hungarian ethnic minority living in Slovakia.
According to the most recent 2021 census, there are 9,625 Hungarians in the Czech Republic. Their situation in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia has always been distinct. The Hungarian language, a Uralic language, remains a defining feature of the minority. Hungarian can also be heard in border areas resettled after the Second World War by Hungarians from southern Slovakia, including the former districts of Karlovy Vary, Tachov, Sokolov, Aš, Hranice, and Cheb.
A pivotal shift in the status of Hungarians throughout Czechoslovakia occurred in 1945. Under the Košice Government Programme and Presidential Constitutional Decree No. 33/1945, all Hungarians in Czechoslovakia were stripped of their citizenship and civil rights. Subsequent decrees confiscated their property and imposed forced labour, largely to be carried out in the Czech borderlands.
Between 1945 and 1948, a total of 44,129 Hungarians were relocated to the Czech lands. According to secret instructions from the Communist Party settlement commission, they were highly dispersed during the settlement. The official term at the time was “dispersion of untrustworthy population”. Hungarians were sent to districts and municipalities individually or, at best, as families.
After 1949, Hungarians regained Czechoslovak citizenship and could return to Slovakia, though many chose to remain, aware that they had lost all their property in Slovakia, and took up the Czech offer to remain in the borderlands as settlers.
From 1949, Hungarians were allowed to join the organisation Csemadok, but under the watchful eye of the communist authorities. In cities with significant Hungarian populations (Karlovy Vary, Chodov, Loket, Oloví, Ostrava) Csemadok associations maintained Hungarian language knowledge through courses and reading rooms etc. Most of these associations gradually ceased to exist and were only revived in the early 1970s under cultural agreements.
It was only in February 1990 that the Union of Hungarians Living in the Czech Lands could be established. It defined itself as a civic national association, organising education and cultural activities for its members, promoting the Hungarian language, and supporting natural links to Hungarian culture.