The article is an attempt at a synthetic view of Transcarpathia, seen through the prism of several types of distinctiveness, partly overlapping, in relation to the rest of Ukraine. In particular, we focus on the geographic-administrative distinctiveness, after all it is a region located ‘behind the mountains’, a factor which is significant also for contemporary ‘Polish-Transcarpathian’ relations; the historical or even civilisational distinctiveness, which sees Transcarpathia as a land that for centuries used to be connected with political entities other than Ukraine; and the socio-political-cultural distinctiveness, constituted by the local ethnic diversity, which translates into political preferences as well as a sense of separateness from Kyiv. All the circumstances indicated in the article allow us to speak of Transcarpathia as a borderland not only in the state-administrative, but also the socio-cultural sense.
